Movement as Trail Provisions

The Body Wasn't There Yet

Almost two years ago, I was walking three to five miles a day through the neighborhood, when I wasn’t in a full flare. Cardio felt like it was coming back. Legs under me. Confidence building. I started thinking about hiking again. Testing that capacity.

Decades on motorcycles. Plenty of time on surf and snow. Momentum is usually your friend. When you’re about to crash, there are two options: let it go or try to ride it out.

This hill was me trying to ride it out.

I zigged when I should have zagged, lost my footing, and went end over end for twenty-five-ish yards down a steep section. Spring 2024. Grade 2 knee tendon tear in the soleus chain. Then three and a half miles back to the car on it. Because there was no other way out.

And like a dumbass, I still hiked 2,400 miles that year anyway. Kept pushing before I was ready. Kept re-injuring. Kept paying for it. Don’t do what I did.

Friends said stubborn. I said determined. A mentor once told me:

“Once people start act’n stupid, at some point, they got no choice but to continue on that path.”

You Can't Skip the Boring Work

Ninety percent recovered now, after setbacks that cost trail time and added pain. The last ten percent is slow and nonlinear.

Post-injury I started with block walks. Ten minutes. No app, no tracker, no heart rate monitor. One metric: tired or wrecked?

Tired means you worked. Wrecked means you crossed the threshold and you will pay tomorrow.

For anyone managing autoimmunity alongside injury, wrecked is not just soreness. It can trigger flares, disrupt sleep, and drag the whole system down.

Months later came neighborhood loops. Eventually trail re-entry. Short, flat routes with nothing that carried consequence.

The progression was not linear, but the direction held.

The Chain

The body loads from the ground up.

Forefoot → ankles → calves → knees → hips → glutes

Daily life runs on this chain. Trail movement does too. So does not becoming a fall risk at sixty, seventy, or eighty.

This is not performance work. It is control you can feel again. The boring, daily, unsexy work that makes everything else possible.

There's also core involvement but that's for another post.

The Loop

Stay below the crash threshold → sleep improves → capacity grows → the chain gets stronger → the trail becomes possible again.

Movement debt accumulates the same way sleep debt does. Quietly. Then one day it shows up as something harder to fix.

Fall risk becomes inevitable without the base.

Capacity insurance. Nothing more, nothing less.

Resource Links

Note: most of these people move in ways I cannot. That is not the point. I watched everything they made and took what applied to where I actually was — which, for a long time, meant a ten-minute walk. Scale everything down until it fits your body today. The principles transfer even when the movements don't.

→ Movement by David — functional chain work, gentle daily mobility
→ Strength Side — real-world strength and movement patterns
→ Squat University — knee and foot mechanics, alignment
→ Knees Over Toes Guy — full chain loading, long-term flexibility
→ Bob & Brad — pain management, accessible PT/rehab

Access matters, all of them have free and searchable content on Youtube.

Movement is the provision. The trail comes after.

← Back to Trail Provisions

Peer reflection, not medical advice. Your body is yours — what works for me may not work for you.