Plans for 2013

2013 it’s an amazing year for me, first of all the company I work for allowed me to take 3 month of unpaid leave this year. It is still a bit weird because my flight out of the country is in exactly 3 month from today, and I am still in a bit of denial about the whole thing.

My plans for this 3 months?
The first thing on the agenda will be, my trip from San Francisco to Yosemite. In mid August I will join a guided tour and together we will be doing the John Muir Trail. It’s a guided tour, they organize all the food and such and you carry your pack and the shared food and other items.

After that I have another 2 month on my hands and my rough idea is to get a rental car and drive up to Yellowstone and spend some weeks there. From there hop to other parks (Grand Teton, Arches, Capitol Reed, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley)  and at some point end up again in San Francisco, I like this city and I am sure I will spend some days there (if there is some money left on my bank account).
To some degree I do procrastinate a lot of planning, but with the experience I had with myself on previous road trips in the US, was that no matter what I plan, at the end something else happend altogether and all the planning was usually for nothing.

I will get the first month sorted out and the rental car and probably some destinations, but everything else will come as it comes.

My preparation for the John Muir Trail:

1.  In mid march I started seriously with jogging/running. I try to go 2-3 times a week for 30-40min. Right know I run about 5.6km but each time I encrease the distance. If you start out (like me) I can only recommend the Couch to 5k program / app. I have the tendency to do more then it’s good for me at the beginning, with this program it actually slowed me down and I didn’t really get frustrated.
   My general condition has already improved with I just noticed the other day when I hiked the Pfannenstiel. The first time it took me 3h 45min and 2 weeks ago I did the same hike in 3h. I can only recommend people to do something for their fitness, it dosen’t have to be much, like I said I do 30-40min 2-3 times and that for now is enough.
2. Twice a week I do weight training (just started a couple of weeks ago). There I focus on the leg muscles, back, shoulder and also on ankle stability.
   I can’t say much yet about weight training as it is to early, but whatever happens it will be beneficial. Especially as I am a person who works in front of a PC all the time.
3. I try to go on as many hikes as possible but it is not always possible. So my go to hike if everything fails is the Pfannenstiel. When the days get longer in the next few weeks I might squeeze it in during the week.
4. My other big preparation should have been a big chunk of the via alpina but as there was a lot more snow this past winter then usually I had to look for another hike. A few month ago I stumbled upon this link here. It is in german but they have nice visuals. I have a week of holidays in 2 weeks and I hope the weather is nice and I can finish this route all the way to Italy. I will write more about this trip and some of the history about this trail.

Time wise, Nr. 1 + 2 take about 1 hour of my evening and if I hike the Pfannenstiel I count with 3h walkin so a morning or afternoon. If I go on a different hike it will be the whole day. And lets not forget stretching. At least 5 days a week, specially leg and hip muscles.
The training plan for me at the moment like something like this:

Mon: running
Tue: Gym
Wed: running
Turs: Gym
Fri: running
Sat: Hiking (if not Sunday)
Son: Hiking (if not Saturday)

Below the map from Thusis to Tirano (Italy). Hiking path in green and in read the Train route. You can hop on a train in Chur and take the Bernina express to Tirano.