A steamy hike in the metroparks...

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

As the date for Tour Ohio approaches, I’m becoming more concerned about my lack of time hiking.  With that in mind and my butt still smarting from yesterday’s ride, I took Dakota to the park with a camera that had a battery for a long hike.

It was quite hot and extremely muggy; conditions I tolerate much better than Dakota.  She sweats by panting where as I use every pore in my body…to excess.  After twenty minutes or so I noticed she was dragging.  I figured she could handle it though and marched on.  My goal was a 2.5 hour hike.

I kept a 4 mph pace for the first 90 minutes, but when she started dropping even further behind, elected to slow it down.  This seemed to please her and once we went off-trail and she had squirrels to chase, she seemed 100% again.  We were pushing up against darkness as we approached our final leg, which took us out on River Road and past the marsh for a half-mile.  I was concerned about cars seeing us and had to get well off on the grassy shoulder at their approach.  Dakota prefers to walk in the road when she’s tired I learned, so I needed to constantly remind her to get up near the trees.  When we reached the car, she didn’t seem to have the energy to jump back into the front seat.  She managed though, and lay exhausted against the seat on the ride home.

I figured out that I need more hiking and Dakota will have to stay home for the long ones.  I really enjoy having her along, but summer conditions are tough on dogs.  My feet were sore and I had a hot spot…the start of a blister…on the pad just under my big toe.  Not good.  I’d been hiking in my running shoes to determine if they’d be a good fit for the Tour Ohio hike and had my answer.  I’d need to go with different socks, as well.  Still so much planning to do and time is running low quickly.

Hike duration:  Two hours and 20 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  85 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  700.