The Importance of Strength Training for Runners- My Personal Test Results

If you think this will be just another post about someone telling you that you should do strength training, think again.

When I was in my 20’s I barely did any strength training (or stretching, cross-training, or pretty much anything else other than just running). When I ran my first half marathon, it wasn’t my legs that were the most sore after the race, although they were also sore. However, my arms and shoulders were so sore and tired I could barely lift them over my head for days after the race. That’s when I knew I needed to start some strength training.

I’ve been hitting the gym regularly for the past 20-something years. I feel like strength training has become even more important now that I’m in my 40’s. Depending on what source you believe, you can lose from 3-8% of your muscle mass per decade beginning in your 30’s. Obviously, that can quickly add up to a significant loss of muscle mass if you do nothing about it.

So many runners I’ve known over the years have told me they don’t do strength training because they feel like running is enough to maintain their muscles. The sad truth is, running by itself is not enough to stop muscle loss. In fact, when you’re in your 40’s it’s even more important to not only lift weights but to lift heavy weights. In order to stimulate muscle growth, you need to challenge and stimulate your muscles so they break down and repair bigger and stronger. If you can lift a certain weight with a specific body part more than 10 times easily, it’s not heavy enough. Try to aim for a weight you can lift 8-10 times at the most, and that’s a struggle.

Photo by Victor Freitas on Pexels.com

A good rule of thumb is to perform two or three sets of about 10 repetitions or less, and remember to make sure you have good form. When in doubt, ask a knowledgeable friend to show you or just watch yourself in a mirror. Try to fit strength training into your schedule once or twice a week. You also don’t need to spend hours at a time lifting weights and in fact shouldn’t spend that long on strength training if your primary interest is running. I can cover my full body in thirty minutes, sometimes a bit less than that depending on how busy the gym is and if I have to wait for a set of weights or a machine.

There are many, many opinions on what exercises are “best” for runners, but they’re just that- opinions. No one has undeniable proof that doing x, y, and z when it comes to strength training will help you improve as a runner. Exercises that tend to pop up more than others when you read articles about strength training for runners specifically are squats, lunges, and core-related exercises.

That’s not to say you should necessarily focus on these exercises or even do them at all, to be honest. Everyone is different in what their bodies can handle and for some people it would be too much strain on their legs to do lunges and squats two or three days a week on top of running, especially if you’re training for a long-distance event like a marathon and even more so if it’s your first. In fact, I would say if you’re training for your first marathon or looking to get a Boston-qualifying time, I wouldn’t recommend starting a strength training routine because it will likely be too much for your body. Save the weights for after your big goal race or even better in the months before you start training for your goal race.

My theory when it comes to strength training is try to mix things up. Like I mentioned earlier, I like to do exercises that work my full body by the time I’m done. One day you could do some row-type exercises for your lower and mid-back and chest fly exercises, some planks, and maybe some shoulder presses, bicep curls, and tricep extensions with some leg work like squats. The next time do some lat or upper back exercises, some chest presses, superman (for core), bridge pose, lunges, and push-ups.

Another important point is to make sure you run first before you do strength training if running is your priority. Ideally, it’s recommended to allow 2-3 hours between running and strength training, but I don’t think that’s feasible for most people so just do whatever you can. Make sure you’re not doing strength training on harder running days like speed workouts. I always go to the gym on days when I have an easy, shorter run. I’ll run easy for anywhere from 30-40 minutes depending on where I am in my half marathon training plan then drive to the gym, which may take 30 minutes. I also never start out with leg exercises right after I’ve run, but save them for later in my workout to allow them as much of a break as possible.

If all of this seems way too complicated to you and you don’t even know where to get started, I suggest joining a gym that offers one-on-one sessions with personal trainers if you can afford it or are able to given the current situation. You might be surprised at how affordable this can be, if you shop around. If that’s just not an option for you (especially now during the pandemic), there are some great resources online. Ones that offer videos are the best, so you can actually see the exercise being performed properly. Some of the ones I like are:

Runner’s Blueprint

Women’s Health

Outside

There are of course many others, but these offer a pretty nice array of exercises that you can easily do at home. You just need to pick up some free weights, kettle bells if possible, and resistance bands and you’re all set! If you’re truly a brand-new beginner to all of this, you can just use body weight to start and work your way up from there once the exercises feel easy to you. There are also apps for strength training but I’ve never used any of them nor do I know anyone who has, so I really can’t speak about those.

One of the biggest factors in strength training is actually doing it. Just like you set a schedule for running, put it in your calendar when you’ll be working out and you’ll be more likely to do it. You may find you actually look forward to your time doing strength training; I know I do!

Now to get to the part about my personal results. My gym was closed for six months due to the pandemic. While I have some weights, an exercise ball, and some resistance bands at home, I’ll be the first to admit I slacked off, especially as time wore on. You might think it would be the opposite and after months of not working out I would be craving more of it, but no; I did less. The one thing I didn’t slack off is core work, which I feel is huge for runners.

Finally after my gym re-opened, I was at first a bit hesitant about going back, but my fears were quickly put to ease when I saw how empty the gym was and how everyone was wearing masks and wiping down the equipment after use. Also the bathrooms were closed and there was hand sanitizer everywhere. Still, I didn’t want to over-do it and not be able to move so I was relatively conservative with the weights.

Do you want to know what I found out? The only part of me that was even a little sore was my chest. Even after not hitting the weights pretty hard like I used to for six months I was just slightly sore. That along with the fact that my running hadn’t suffered any while I wasn’t doing strength training changed my opinion a bit about the “importance” of strength training for runners. It doesn’t change my mind about the importance of strength training for everyone to help prevent muscle loss due to aging, however.

Looking back at my running stats those six months when I wasn’t going to the gym for strength training, my times weren’t any slower, even when the heat of summer hit. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised by my findings because I always firmly believed strength training was helping me be a faster, stronger runner. Now I question that. Not that I’m going to stop going to the gym now that it’s open again because again, the whole muscle loss thing.

And before you begin to lecture me, I realize this is a study of one and for a relatively short period. Also, I was starting with a firmly established base, as far as strength training goes, before my break from it. I have no doubt if I would have taken even longer, say a year, from strength training, I would have seen the effects not just in my running but in daily life as well.

What about you- do you regularly do strength training? Do you cycle strength training months with marathon or half marathon season(s)? Or do you hate strength training and avoid it at all costs? Did you stop going to the gym for strength training because of the pandemic and if so have you been back lately?

Happy running!

Donna

Hotels vs. Airbnb- How That’s Changed For Me Over the Years

I remember when I was in college and drove to a friend’s wedding out of state. My husband at the time and I made reservations at a Ramada Inn, and it was not a very nice Ramada Inn. The carpet was musty, the beds were uncomfortable, the bedspreads and decorations in the room looked like they hadn’t been changed in 20 years, and the rooms had paper-thin walls.

Since then, I’ve stayed at other cheap hotels a handful of times but at one point in my life I thought to myself, you’re too old to be staying in cheap hotels. You have a good job and you can afford to stay in better accommodations. When my daughter was born, I started to consider the safety of the hotels as well since most cheap hotels are in “bad” or unsafe neighborhoods. Not that I jumped from staying in 2 star hotels to only 5 star hotels, but there was a noticeable improvement in where I was willing to stay.

A Bed and Breakfast in San Diego that actually came up on an Airbnb search (so it’s not just the traditional places like homes and apartments).

As my daughter got older, my husband at the time and I began to see the benefits of staying in houses through Airbnb or other short-term rental properties. Instead of the three of us piling into a room with only two beds, a bathroom, and a mini-fridge and microwave if we were lucky, we could spread out and have multiple bedrooms, a full kitchen with everything we needed to whip up breakfast or any meal for that matter, a dining room, a family room or living room, usually a backyard, often more than one bathroom, free parking right in front of the house, and best of all it was quiet. So there were no slamming doors in the hallway, no ice machine noises, no kids running down the hallway at midnight, no adults coming in drunk and talking loudly on their way to their room, and on and on.

At first it was hard to break the hotel habit. Many houses rented out for short-term rental don’t have swimming pools and my daughter always loved to swim on vacation. We also missed not being able to walk down to the breakfast area of the hotel and pile on a plate full of breakfast foods, even if they were sometimes sub-par. My husband at the time also missed not having a workout room like many hotels have. But swimming pools, breakfast buffets, and workout rooms weren’t enough to keep us coming back to hotels, so we found ourselves staying at houses through Airbnb more and more.

Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, which I did not stay in, but enjoyed the beautiful beach all around it.

I’ve found houses on Airbnb are often in the range of hotel prices. Over the years the selection of houses offered on Airbnb has also skyrocketed. Just a few years ago there weren’t nearly as many properties on Airbnb as there are today. That being said, some cities have made it illegal to rent a property through Airbnb in recent years and others have begun to crack down on foreign investors, making provisions only if the rental property is a primary residence in the city  plus other limitations. I’m not going to get into the impact Airbnb has had on neighborhoods and home values but that’s been a controversial topic for many areas around the world.

Still, I don’t automatically book a stay through Airbnb without comparing hotels in the area. For my recent vacation to the mountains in Tennessee (Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park- Redux), my daughter and I stayed at a brand new hotel. There were a couple of factors involved here:  because of the pandemic and the drop in hotel stays on top of the fact that the hotel had literally just opened, the price per night was a bargain that I jumped on. There’s no way I could have stayed at an Airbnb house for the same price. I’m sure this time next year the hotel’s prices will be much more than what I paid because by then they will be an established hotel with reviews and (hopefully) by then if the pandemic still isn’t over, we (hopefully) will have moved on to our new “normal.”

My go-to site for checking out hotel prices is https://www.hotels.com/. When you stay 10 nights at a hotel, and it doesn’t have to be 10 consecutive nights at the same hotel, you get a free night worth the average of your last 10 hotel stays. There are also tiers depending on how many hotel stays you have in a year. When you reach silver status after 10 nights or more in a year, you’re eligible for special prices not available to the general public and special benefits like vouchers to use toward breakfast. If you book and stay 30 nights or more (which I’ve never done), you reach gold status, which looks like it comes with even more extras like room upgrades.

Alyeska Resort and Hotel in Alaska was one of the more expensive hotels I’ve stayed in, but it included a ride to the top of the mountain in a tram and was a nice one night splurge.

I’ve had silver status with hotels.com for the past several years and I’ve always felt like it’s been a good choice for me. For example, in 2017, I redeemed four free nights, which of course saved me hundreds of dollars. If I redeem just one free night per year, I feel like it’s worth booking through the site. There’s no fee and the prices are almost always identical to or less than other hotel booking sites. In the rare occurrence where hotels.com has been more than another site, it’s only been a minimal amount like a couple of dollars.

My bottom line is to always compare my options. I don’t go crazy and check ten different places for hotel prices and property prices. Besides Airbnb for short-term rentals, there’s VRBO, HomeAway, HometoGo, and Booking, just to mention a few. This is on top of sites like Expedia and Tripadvisor. You could easily spend hours if you checked all of these sites and got sucked down that rabbit hole. There’s often overlap between many of these websites anyway, although there are sometimes listings on one website you won’t find anywhere else. Almost always, I’ll check on Airbnb, hotels.com, and sometimes booking.com and leave it at that unless I’m having trouble finding what I want for the price in my budget, then I’ll look around more.

What about you? Do you stay more at hotels or homes/apartments through Airbnb? Has your choice of travel accommodations changed over the years or stayed the same?

Happy travels!

Donna

Thoughts on Walking an Entire Half Marathon (13.1 Miles)

I recently did something I never would have if not for the pandemic- I ran the entire distance of a half marathon (13.1 miles). If you follow my blog, you probably know I have a goal of running a half marathon in all 50 states and was on schedule to run my final three states (New Mexico, Minnesota, and Iowa) this year. Then COVID-19 changed all of that and I wasn’t able to run a single race this year.

While I did run a virtual 5k,I Ran My Fastest 5k, but Does It Even Count? I just wasn’t into virtual races. I was supposed to run the Albuquerque Half Marathon in New Mexico in April but it was postponed until November, then it was outright canceled, with runners told we could (hopefully) run it in April 2021. My training for the race had been going so well that when Nuun announced a virtual Team Nuun Half Marathon that would be free and include swag to the first 1500 people to sign up, and it was going to be held on the exact same day that my New Mexico race was supposed to be, I jumped on the bandwagon.

Then completely out of the blue I started getting pains in my hip when I ran. I worked on it by foam rolling, stretching, and yoga but I just couldn’t quite find the spot that was the problem. After scheduling a massage and finding even that didn’t completely take care of the problem, I decided to take a break from running and even long walks for a week. Still, the pain was there and had gotten to the point where my hip hurt no matter what I was doing.

With the impending Team Nuun Half Marathon quickly approaching, I tentatively tried to run again. I decided to try for 3-4 miles and see how it went but every single step I took from beginning to end was painful, too painful to run through. Even though I was bummed about not being able to be a part of the “race,” I knew there was no way I could run 13.1 miles in just 3 days. I should also mention that Team Nuun is a group of mostly runners but also cyclists, triathletes, and hikers from all over the United States, who all have a love for being active outdoors and a love for Nuun hydration products. We have a pretty active private Facebook page where we can post our recent adventures, share our ups and downs, and participate in challenges and giveaways.

The day before the Team Nuun Half Marathon I decided I would walk the entire 13.1 miles. I knew I could walk for an hour without it making my hip worse because I had recently done that, and while I know it’s a big leap from an hour to over three hours, I figured I could just turn around and cut the walk short if I needed to. Typically I clock around a fifteen-minute mile when I’m walking, so when I did the math, adding in a bit for hills, I calculated it would take me around 3 hours and 20 minutes.

In case you’re wondering, my average half marathon finish time is around 2 hours. I’ve run several races under 2 hours and several over 2 hours, with my slowest finish being 2 hours, 35 minutes when I was severely anemic. I wasn’t entirely sure what it would be like to be out walking that far for over 3 hours. Sure, I’ve hiked for several hours at a time, many times, but this would be different. Instead of climbing up and down mountains and stopping to take breaks for water, take pictures, and have a snack or even lunch along the way, I would not be stopping for anything.

The morning of the Team Nuun Half Marathon was gorgeous albeit a bit on the warm side even for walking. I decided to wear a short-sleeve shirt with shorts and long compression socks. In my running vest, I put the usual two bottles (one is 12 ounces, the other is 10 ounces) with Nuun Endurance and instead of my usual Honey Stinger chews I brought a Honey Stinger waffle. Normally a waffle would be too difficult for me to eat while running but since I’d be walking it seemed doable.

I realized to maintain a 15 minute pace requires mental energy to focus on keeping at the quick pace. When I would let my mind wander I noticed my pace slowed a bit, so I’d have to try to stay on top of my pace, otherwise I’d be walking closer to a 17-minute mile. I also noticed my surroundings more than when I run. Even though I walked the same greenway I’ve run on what seems like a million times, there were little things I had never noticed before.

Somewhere between miles 9 and 10 my feet began to hurt, then around mile 10 my glutes began talking to me, then finally around mile 11 my quads began to speak up. My hip was surprisingly quiet, though, so I figured all was good and I continued pushing the pace, while still walking. With all of this going on, I also learned that the Nuun I had brought, while enough for 2 hours, it was not nearly enough for over 3 hours. It didn’t help that it was a sunny day around the low 70’s. My Honey Stinger waffle was enough, though, and I didn’t feel hungry or like I needed to eat more.

Finally, after 3 hours and 18 minutes, I was back at my house, after having walked 13.11 miles, with an average pace of 15:08/mile. I submitted my time to Team Nuun, knowing full and well that I would definitely be at the very bottom of the results. Still, I wanted to submit my time because even though it was by far the slowest “half marathon” I’ve ever run walked, it was still 13.1 miles that I completed on my own two feet, without stopping.

Another part of the reason why I wanted to do this is, as I mentioned earlier, I still have three states left to run a half marathon in. Should something happen to me in the weeks or days leading up to the races, it would be good to know not only if I could walk a half marathon but what it would be like to walk a half marathon, should I have to. I learned some things along the way by doing this, and now I know yes I could do that again, but I would need to bring more Nuun Endurance. Fortunately I remembered to fully charge my Aftershokz headphones and Garmin watch the night before, and they both were still going strong by the time I finished. This was also good for me to know for the future.

Have you ever walked the entire distance of a half marathon or marathon? What was your experience like?

Happy running!

Donna

Hiking Around the World- Some of My Favorite Places to Hike

I think growing up in the mountains of West Virginia sparked my love of hiking. I’ve hiked through numerous state parks in West Virginia from the southern tip to the northern tip and up through the panhandle, beginning when I was a kid and going through my college years. Since then, I’ve hiked all over the United States and developed a true love for our country’s national parks. I’ve also been fortunate enough to hike in the eastern parts as well as western parts of the Canadian mountains, the Alps in Europe, and even some places where most people don’t immediately think of hiking like Greece and the Caribbean. If there are trails that can safely be hiked through, I’ll find them!

Here, I’ll break down some of my favorite places to hike by country, beginning with the United States.

United States

Utah

Utah has so many wonderful national and state parks and although I haven’t been to all of them, I’ve loved the ones I have been to, including Bryce Canyon National Park, and Zion National Park. A tip is to go during the off-season like winter when it’s not only less crowded but perhaps even more beautiful with the snow against the red rocks and hoodoos.

Bryce Canyon National Park in the winter was absolutely stunning with the snow falling on the red rocks

Colorado

There are also many national and state parks in Colorado. Some of my favorite places to hike in Colorado include Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park and Boulder. Even though many people head to Colorado during the winter to ski, hiking in Colorado during the summer months is also becoming more and more common. Try going in the fall when the Aspen trees are changing colors to their gorgeous golden glow.

Rocky Mountain National Park during the summer

Maine

Maine has some great places to hike, including my favorites Acadia National Park and Camden Hills State Park, plus almost 20 other state parks. https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm. Boston Logan Airport is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Acadia National Park if you drive it straight there, but there are so many fun places to stop along the way, I found that a better option for me. Some options of places to stop include Kennebunkport and the surrounding little towns, Portland (a foodie destination), Rockland and Camden, ultimately making your way to Mt. Desert, where Acadia National Park is.

Acadia National Park in Maine

Arizona

I’d be remiss to not mention Grand Canyon National Park. There are many options for hiking here including North Rim and South Rim day hikes plus extended hikes and rim-to-rim hikes. If you plan on hiking down into the canyon, it’s steep and gets extremely hot in the summer months so plan accordingly with plenty of water, snacks, sunscreen, and start early in the day so you have enough time to get back up the canyon. Actually, no matter what season, you should always do those things.

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

Montana

Glacier National Park is the most popular place for hiking in Montana but it’s by no means the only option. Other great options are in Flathead National Forest, Lewis and Clark National Forest, Bitterroot National Forest, Kootenai National Forest, Lolo National Forest, and Custer-Gallatin National Forest. https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm. If you have the time, you can also continue driving north from Glacier National Park to Banff National Park in Canada, combining the two places into one spectacular road trip. That’s what I did, and I thought the scenery just kept getting better the further north I went (and it was pretty great in Montana!). See my paragraph on Banff below under the section on Canada.

Gorgeous Glacier National Park in Montana

Hawaii

The northwestern coast of Kauai is absolutely filled with stunning places to hike including Waimea Canyon State Park, Puu Ka Pele Forest Preserve, Na Pali-Kona Forest Preserve, Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, and Nu’alolo Kai State Park. The Big Island has Waipi‘o Valley, Pu‘uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Here is my recent post on Kauai and information about hiking there.

Kauai is a hiker’s paradise!

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state that’s also filled with natural beauty and has many hiking options. Some of my favorite places to hike include Badlands National Park and Black Hills National Forest plus so much more that you can read here: Memorials, National and State Parks, and Wild West. The vast majority of hiking lies in the western part of the state so Rapid City is a good place to stay and you can do day-trips from here.

Badlands National Park in South Dakota is often said to resemble the surface of Mars because of the rock formations

Wyoming

Even though Wyoming is the least-populated state in the United States, it has some of the most wild beauty I’ve ever seen (perhaps that’s why there’s so much wild beauty, come to think of it). Of course there’s the ever-popular Yellowstone National Park with so many trail options you could never hike them all in a typical vacation plus there’s nearby Grand Teton National Park as well. I would devote as much time as possible in your itinerary for Yellowstone and choose one or two central areas you want to explore; don’t bother trying to see the entire park in a week because it’s just too enormous. Grand Teton National Park deserves at least a few days to really get out there and explore it, with five days being even better if you plan on spending time on the water. I highly recommend standup paddle boarding here, as it doesn’t get much better for scenery and SUP.

The iconic Oxbow Bend scenic area in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Countries Outside the United States

Austria

I was primarily in the Salzburg Region of Austria, not to be confused with the city of Salzburg, which is only a small portion of the region. Within the Salzburg Region, you can hike all of or part of the Pinzgauer Spaziergang route in the Zell am See-Kaprun region for great views of the area. The entire route takes most people 5-6 hours to hike. For something a little different and especially if you have kids, the Wild Animal Park Preserve in Kitzbuhel has around 200 animals with the Tyrolean Alps as your backdrop. St. Johann is the site of the beginning of the Eagle Walk, a 280 km trek broken into 24 stages. I also highly recommend hiking in Liechtensteinklamm, a gorge with waterfalls and a river.

Wild Animal Park Preserve in Kitzbuhel

Greece

Hiking may not be the first thing you think of when you think of Greece, but there are some fantastic options for hiking on the island of Crete. Lefka Ori, or the White Mountains has peaks over 6500 feet and is the most popular place to hike in Crete. There are also two gorges you can hike through, the popular Samariá Gorge and the much less frequented and more lush and forested Richtis Gorge. Although there are numerous organized tours through Samariá Gorge, you can easily hike it on your own. Just be prepared for a long day since it takes most people 5-7 hours to hike the entire trail. Richtis Gorge is close to the tiny village of Exo Mouliana (about a 15 minute drive from Sitia on eastern Crete). The trail goes through a canyon on an easy, well-marked path going past crumbling ruins, spectacular untouched forests, and several waterfalls before finishing at an often-deserted beach. See my post on Crete here: Planning to Visit Greece? Consider Going to Crete for Beautiful Beaches, Incredible Hiking, and Less Crowds.

Canyons like this are probably not what most people picture when they think of Greece

Canada

Banff National Park is in the Alberta Province of Canada, on the western side of the country with the Canadian Rockies running through it. This is a family-friendly park with options ranging from easy walks around a lake, ski lifts and gondolas if you want to skip the uphill (or downhill) trek, or strenuous and longer hikes. Healy Pass, Citadel Pass, and Harvey Pass are all long trails around 12-13 miles but they’re also some of the most scenic trails in the park. You can always hike a portion of the trails if you can’t or don’t want to devote an entire day to hiking each of them. Lake Minnewanka Lakeside Hike and Banff Bow River to Bow Falls to Banff Springs Hike are two family-friendly easy hikes with water views. Johnston Canyon and Ink Pots Hike is a popular trail that winds its way through the canyon, past two sets of waterfalls, before arriving at the Ink Pots, mineral springs that bubble up in a picturesque meadow. 

Banff National Park in Canada was even better than I expected!

New Zealand

I was only on the North Island of New Zealand, so I can only speak of my experience there, although I have no doubt there are also wonderful hiking trails on the South Island as well. The Tongariro Crossing in Tongariro National Park is the most popular day hike on the North Island and is around 12 miles long. I only hiked a portion of it since I didn’t have an entire day to devote to it. Along the way you can see famous landmarks such as Devil’s Staircase, the three Emerald Lakes, the Red Crater, Mount Tongariro, and Mount Ngauruhoe. Mount Maunganui Summit gives you big bang for your effort, with some amazing views of Tauranga and the beach below for a short but steep hike uphill. Cathedral Cove is one of the many picturesque spots on the island and an easy walk in the Coromandel Peninsula. Te Werahi Beach Track is at Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand where you get great views of Te Werahi Beach, ultimately reaching the Cape Reinga Lighthouse. Near the town of Rotorua you can stroll through towering California Redwoods in the Whakarewarewa Forest, known locally as ‘The Redwoods.’

View from top of Mt. Maunganui

Peru

Of course Peru has Machu Picchu, the ancient Incan citadel high in the Andes Mountains, and there are several options for reaching the ruins. I chose to take the Lares Trek with https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com/ and the journey along the way to Machu Picchu is an experience I will never forget. It truly exceeded my expectations (and I had pretty high expectations going into it). Besides this trek, I also hiked Rainbow Mountain and even did a day-trip on my own to the ruins on the outskirts of Cusco. One thing I learned about Peru is believe the hype. Machu Picchu is one of the most-visited places in the world for a reason.

Lares Trek to Machu Picchu with Alpaca Expeditions- Day One

Lares Trek to Machu Picchu- Day Two

Lares Trek to Machu Picchu- Day Three

Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in Peru

Cusco, Peru- Things to Do and Places to Eat Plus a Day-Trip to Famous Rainbow Mountain

Feeling like I’m on top of the world after this hike up Huayna Picchu in Machu Picchu

There are so many more places where I’ve been hiking and have been in awe of my surroundings but this is just the tip of the iceberg. What about you? What are some of your favorite places you’ve hiked?

Happy travels!

Donna