“You know,” Chris said, “there aren’t too many people who could do this.” After catching his breath, he added, “And I don’t mean people our age. I mean people, period.”

We were on day three of a four-day, 50-mile backpack trip on a particularly rugged region of the  rugged Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina. Specifically, we were about a third of the way up a climb that would see us gain close to a thousand vertical feet in less than a mile. It was not the first such climb we had encountered. In fact, much of this trip had been something of a roller coaster, with long, slow, steep climbs followed by long, slow, steep descents (I said something of a roller coaster). My quads and calves ached on the former, my knees on the latter. Yet here we were, me at 55, Chris David at 67, plugging along at a good clip, averaging about 2.5 miles per hour.
Chris’s proclamation wasn’t old guy braggadocio or uninformed speculation. He’s been backpacking since the early 1960s, thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1983, and has been leading hikes for the Sierra Club for more than a decade. He’s hiked with beginners, he’s hiked with people who are on the trail as much as he is. He knows backpackers.
“I’d say about 1 percent,” he said, throwing a statistic into the mix. “No, make that one tenth of 1 percent.”
I won’t deny I found some satisfaction in Chris’s assessment, but I was mainly just glad that I could do this. That I could hike all day with 35 pounds on my back, that I could experience the winter-clear 360-degree view from atop 5,342-foot Wayah Bald, that I could stand beneath London Bald and stare down a treed bobcat not 10 feet away, that I could survive the wild gorge trying to contain Ledbetter Creek and stand atop Cheoah Bald, enshrouded in a cold rain trying to turn to snow wondering what the view might be like. That I, an absent-minded guy who is just as likely to find his car keys in the fridge as in the key bowl, would be able to remember nearly every step of this trip two weeks hence.
That reminded me of the one other thing I’m good at remembering, the thing that made it possible for me to be here in the first place:
The importance of setting the right goals.

Setting the right goals
Set a goal and the rest will follow. Advice that may seem obvious on this, the first day of the new year when so many of us are intent on erasing our bad habits and charting a new course. Goals are the carrots we employ to help us achieve an end to a means. Unfortunately, many of us won’t make it to February with our goal for the year intact.
Why?
We may set goals, but often we don’t set the right goals, the goals that we’re truly motivated to achieve.
Take Chris. Chris is a long-time runner, with 68 marathons under his belt since his first, the Marine Corps, in 1986. But it’s not the races that continue motivating him to run 50 miles a week. It’s the opportunity to do trips such as this, or his recent 63-mile backpack trip through the Smokies, or the 155-mile solo trip he did in the Nantahalas a couple years back. Or that make him think about another thru-hike on the AT. Backpacking in the wild is his true motivation.
My mountain biking buddy Peter Hollis is likewise driven by what for him is the right goal. Most people either lie about their age or demure when the topic is broached. Peter is likely to bring up his age, apropos of nothing, in the first sentence or two of an encounter.
At the start of the Huck-A-Buck cross-country mountain bike race at Lake Crabtree this summer, Peter lamented the fact that they didn’t announce our ages at the start (at 59, he was the oldest contestant — and proud of it). When I ran into him at Umstead a few days ago, the second thing he said (after updating me on trail conditions), was, “Well, as of January 1 my race age for this year is 60.” Peter claims he races to stay in shape, not to win. But he’s quick to add that he wants to be the fastest 60-year-old on the trail, and if he can whip some 40- and 30-year-olds in the process (which he does), so much the better. Being able to ride a gray streak is his true motivation, his real goal. If he wins the race, and he often does, so much the better.

The right goal for you
Setting the right goal may require a little introspection.
Take the No. 1 health-related goal that so many people will set today: to lose weight. Is it really the weight that’s important? Is it strictly a numbers game, to see the scale record 10 fewer pounds by the end of January, 10 fewer still by Leap Day?
Or is weight loss a secondary benefit of your true goal? Is your true goal to fit into a size 4 dress  by prom? To abandon your 1920s-fashionable tank suit for a bikini come summer? To shave three minutes off your 5K time? Focus on your true goal and secondary benefits, such as weight loss, will follow.
Knowing your true goal will also make it easier to come up with an effective strategy for reaching said goal.
During my junior year in college (my second junior year), I had managed to balloon up over 200 pounds going into winter break. For Christmas, Santa brought me a lime green polyester Addidas running suit. The running boom of the ‘70s was just kicking in and I decided then and there that I would be able to run 5 miles by the end of the semester. Starting that afternoon and continuing for the next four months I put one foot in front of the other faster and more often than I had the day before.
Darned if the semester didn’t come to an end and I was running 5 miles. And darned if I hadn’t lost 45 pounds in the process. Walking across the quad one day in April, a former suitemate whom I hadn’t seen in a while stopped me, eyes agog, and asked, “What the hell happened to you?”
I hesitated, both to let my friend twist over what he could only be thinking — that I was deathly ill, because in our acquaintance I had never once demonstrated anything resembling discipline or restraint — but also to ponder the question: What the hell had happened to me?
I thought back to my rotund self sitting next to the Christmas tree contemplating the lime green polyester Addidas running suit which had inspired my true goal.
“I want to be a runner.”

* * *

Need help?

You’ve set your goals — now, how to make them reality? Sometimes all you need to help you achieve a goal is a little help, a little direction. Someone to help you set a challenging goal, someone to help you form a plan to get there, someone who sticks with you until your goal is in the books. What you need is an Adventure Coach.

Adventure Coach?

Read about this new service from GetGoingNC, here.

The post This year, don’t just set a goal, set the right goal appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

It’s an all-too-familiar lament this time of year: I meant to get out more, be more adventurous. I don’t know what happened …
You look back on the camping weekend that instead turned into a garage-cleaning weekend, the paddle trip that wasn’t because the water wasn’t just right. The hike that, as the day neared, you didn’t feel you were in shape for.
And now, the year drawing to a close, you find yourself melancholy with regret. You felt this way at the end of last year, now that you think about it. And perhaps the year before that as well.
To be clear, no one gets out enough. Asked, “Getting out much?” I doubt anyone has ever replied, “Sure. More than enough, actually.”
There’s not getting out enough and there’s not getting out anywhere near enough. Followed by a heavy sigh.
The good news?
Now is the time to make sure the pattern doesn’t continue, that you don’t feel this same way again next year.
Start by putting your woe-is-meness to good use. How many nights would you have been content — no, happy — to have spent in a tent this past year? Write it down: that’s your 2016 goal. Same with your number of days on the trail. Was it half as many as you’d hoped? Write down your ideal number. Maybe you wanted to try backpacking in 2015 — but didn’t. Add that to the list. Likewise, your number of days on the water, or whatever your adventure of choice.
Making a list of adventure goals is a good first step. In fact, it’s the key step because these are the goals you want to reach, unlike those health goals from New Year’s resolutions past: to drop three sizes by bikini season, to evict refined sugar from your diet, to see your toes again.

Adventure goals: enjoy the journey

Adventure goals are as worthy for the journey as for the end result. (Who gets as excited about six months of cottage cheese and grapefruit as they do about being able to slip back into their high school parachute pants?)
You’ve set your goals, you’re excited. Here’s where the problem typically arises, when you ask yourself, How do I make it happen?
What you need is direction to help you figure out these key questions:

• What’s realistic? You say you want to spend 50 nights next year in a tent, but is that feasible? What about your other obligations, your family, for instance? Do you have enough time off from work to get 50 nights in? You can quickly derail a goal by setting it, realizing it’s not possible, then abandoning it altogether. Better to set realistic, but still ambitious, expectations.
• Where do I want to go? Let’s say one of your goals is to take a week-long backpack trip. First obvious question: where do you want to go? Do you want to go alone? Would you like to go with locals familiar with the area? What season is best? And what specific gear will you need for where you’re going?
• I want to experience the “best.” Maybe you want to hike the best trails in the state. So, er, what are the best trails? And by “best” do you mean trails with the best views? The best waterfalls? The best old growth forest? It can take a little investigating to find your personal best.
• How do I prepare? Here’s a popular goal: Climbing a fourteener — that is, a peak that tops out at 14,000 feet or above (there are 54 in Colorado, prime country for achieving this goal). Where can I find trails around here that will prepare me for the elevation gains I’ll face? What about the altitude issue — how do I prepare for that? And what’s a good fourteener to start with?

Adventure Coaching: what it’s about

For some folks, the thrill of the adventure includes wrestling with these questions and issues on their own. Odds are, though, if you continually find yourself at year’s end lamenting the trails not traveled, the adventures not taken, you are not one of these people. Odds are you could benefit from GetGoingNC Adventure Coaching. With GetGoingNC Adventure Coaching, you get:

• Initial consultation. After filling out a questionnaire identifying your goals (general or specific), we’ll meet to discuss them in detail. From that initial consultation comes an IPA (Initial Plan of Action).
• IPA. Your IPA outlines various options and what will be required of you to fulfill each option. This is not a detailed plan of attack; rather, an overview of what would be required, to give you a better sense of the task.
• Plan of Action. We’ll go over the IPA and come up with your final Plan of Action, which will include a detailed plan of attack. Together, we’ll devise a plan that’s realistic and meets your adventure goals. The Plan will include your chosen goal, logistics for achieving that goal, and a training plan for meeting that goal. A key element of your plan will be an in-depth look at the gear you’ll need, how to plan and execute a safe trip, and resources you can use to achieve your goal. The goal is to have a Plan of Action in place within two weeks of signing up for GetGoingNC Adventure Coaching.
• Monthly phone check-in. Once a month, we’ll touch base by phone to see how your goal is coming along, making adjustments, if necessary.
• Open email access. Feel free to check in with questions via email as need be. If an answer is better handled over the phone, we’ll make that happen.
• One goal or more. Your Plan of Action needn’t be limited to one goal. If you want to learn to backpack and climb 10 of North Carolina’s 40 6,000-foot peaks, we’ll devise a plan that addresses both goals.
• Journal. You’ll receive a journal to help you keep tabs on your progress.
• Twenty percent discount on any Get! programs, including GetBackpacking! and GetHiking! The Southeast’s Classic Hikes, and others that may develop during 2016.
• Cost: $175. That covers a year of coaching.

Why me?

That is, why trust me, Joe Miller, to help you avoid feeling like you do now at the end of 2016? Because I love seeing people get out of the outdoors what I get out of the outdoors. I experience this regularly through our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! programs — and I want to experience it more in 2016. As for credentials, you’ll find those here.

Sign up below and avoid the adventure blues at the end of 2016. You’ll receive your 2016 Adventure Questionnaire within 24 hours of signing up.

Questions? Contact Joe Miller at joe@getgoingnc.com or call 919.791.6155.

The post Avoid the adventure blues in 2016: get an Adventure Coach appeared first on GetGoing NC!.