Rock Circuit Trail

After many unsuccessful tries I finally did the entire Rock Circuit trail in the Middlesex Fells. There's a trail that you can take that makes the loop about half the size, and I always wimp out and take that. But not today :)  The trail itself is only 3.7 miles, plus another .1 mile to get from the parking lot to the trail (I could park in a different lot, but why?) so I don't know why I never seem to do it all.

According to my fitbit it took me slightly less than three hours. I took a couple stops for eating - an apple and a power bar. I have some oldish bananas at home, so I think now I will make banana bread. I mean, I can't be just burning off more calories than I eat!

Tomorrow is the party that we have at work for accepted students. Biggest one yet, we have about 50 people who say they are coming! The first year there were only 8 students, that was really lame. I hope I ordered enough food...

Tabata

I woke up last night at 4 am with the worst headache. I thought it might be a migraine, but it didn't totally feel like one. So, I took my meds and a hot shower. Once I got in the shower I was pretty sure that it was a tension headache, probably from all the damn wall balls!

I still went to Crossfit today, because I really liked the WOD. Or, at least, I didn't hate it. We started doing double unders for max reps, so you got two turns to try to do as many double unders as you could. We paired up in groups, so we could count each other's jumps. I was like "I don't think I need anyone to count to one for me." Then I wound up doing two! Double my usual. I had to do a single in between them. Small steps.

We did back squats next. I wasn't that excited about them because I thought they wouldn't help my back when it was hurting. I got up to 95 pounds, though, and I probably could have done 100!

It was a complicated WOD:

Tabata row:

20 sec on, 10 sec off for 4 minutes

I did 4 calories each set

7 min AMRAP

7 thrusters

7 power snatches

I did 4 rounds of each minus one

Tabata Jump rope:

20 sec on, 10 sec off for 4 min

I got between 35 and 49 each round.

Yesterday was egg salad sandwich day! Only one more AMC class next week. I'll mist the sandwiches. My first hike with them is the first weekend in May - we're doing Welch-Dicky. That's one of my favs, so I'm pretty excited :)  But, I guess I will have to bring my own sandwich :(

Egg Salad Sandwiches

I was really lame last week and only did Crossfit once. My excuses are that my brother was here and we went climbing on Thursday, Wed I had my hiking thing (sandwiches were awesome!), Friday was Passover (Jews made it out of Egypt again, in case you missed your seder.) I was going to go on Saturday but it was this vile partner workout with 8 sled pushes. You had to run out to the sleds with a weight, push it 8 times, then run the long way back with your weight, with a partner. I couldn't get myself to do it!

Today's WOD was perfectly vile, but since I hadn't been for a week, I had to go.
WOD:
50 wallballs
50 hang cleans (I did 45 pounds)
50 wallballs
my time: 10 min 39 sec

Before we did the WOD, we did lifts -
1 power clean
1 squat clean
1 push jerk
1 split jerk
every other minute for 14 minutes
I got up to 70 pounds.

My nephew had a little too much Manischewitz at the seder and almost took out one of my eyes. It was pretty funny :)

More sandwiches tomorrow! I should seriously make egg salad from time to time. We're also going to learn about backpacking, which I really want to hear about.

Diane/Annie

Boston Marathon was awesome, as always! Above is a pic of the lead men on Heartbreak Hill. The guy on the right won. He does look a little more energetic, but maybe that's just the sec the picture was taken. It's definitely spring now, as evidenced by the mega sunburn that I got. I was wearing a t-shirt, and have a farmer's burn, along with a fried forehead. I look ridiculous.

Today's workout had handstand pushups, which of course I couldn't do. I did manage to do a handstand, with bands and a person to assist. Small steps I guess. Once I got up in the handstand, it actually wasn't terrifying.

WOD:
Diane 21-15-9
Deadlifts (I lifted 95 pounds!)
Handstand pushups (I did regular ones with a band)

Annie 50-40-30-20-10
Double unders (I did singles x2)
Sit-ups
Diane time = 5:50 Annie time = 10:20

That's 150 sit ups. My stomach is going to be killing me tomorrow.
Tomorrow is hiking lesson #3. I'm already looking forward to the sandwiches at the break!

Middlesex Fells

It was a beautiful spring day out today, a perfect day for a hike! I was thinking about heading up to NH, but decided that the Skyline Loop in the Fells would be fine. It's still icy up north, and I didn't feel like the drive. My awesome parking karma was in full force, I got a parking spot by the Sheepfold area, and headed out at noon. The last time I did the loop, I went counter clockwise, and found the hills at the end to be really tiring, so I decided to go clockwise this time, and get the big hills over with. (Turns out there are hills in both directions, so now I know.)

There were a ton of people out hiking, walking, taking their dog for a walk, etc! It made it hard to stop and pee, especially because the leaves aren't out yet. I did manage to pee in the woods twice without an audience, and to not pee on my boots:)  I got to wear my non-winter hiking boots again - they feel so light!

According to AMC Boston, the hike is 7.9 miles with 1600 feet of elevation gain. Mt Monadnock, on the Marlboro Trail, is 4.4 miles round trip, with 1800 feet of elevation gain. So, even though didn't seem like climbing a mountain, it kind of was. It took me 4 hrs and 20 min, but I did take a couple stops on the path, once to eat an apple and once to eat a power bar (and twice to pee). So, I think I was walking almost 2 mph! Which is faster than book time.

By the end, my feet were killing me. I stuck them in an ice bath when I got home, not sure if that made even the slightest bit of difference.

Boston Marathon tomorrow!

Roller Skating!

Today I went roller skating for the first time in more years than I would confess in a public forum. It was so fun! I have roller blades around here somewhere, I have to dig them out. I forgot how much I used to love to skate! The only down side was that it was CRAZY in the rink. Like driving at rush hour in Boston, but they let 3 year olds at the wheel, and I have no idea how the brakes work. After, we all needed a drink.

I started my day today with Crossfit. It had a lot of rowing, so of course I was happy. There were a few guys who asked if they could run instead, because they like it better! Who knew anyone felt that way?

WOD: 5 rounds
500 meter row
4 rope climbs (ha! I did 6 pull ups instead, that was the lowest scaled option)
50 double unders (I did 100 singles)
10 front squats (I lifted 45 pounds)
rest 2 minutes
My time: 21 min 47 sec

After crossfit I went to the garden and shoveled manure for 20 minutes. So, it was a day of working out! As we were about to get on the highway to go home, there was this ice cream shop, so of course we had to stop and get some. Then I ate a huge plate of Pad Thai and had a beer. So, no worries that all this exercise will cause me to lose weight or anything.

Burpee Pull Ups

Today I legit back squatted 95 pounds three times! And lamely did 100. I got part way down on 100, and then sort of got up - I felt like Gumby, which I'm pretty sure is bad form. I'll have to look, but I think that's a new record for me :)

WOD: 12 minutes
2 burpee pullups (that's just mean)(I did jumping pull-ups)
2 power snatches (I lifted 35 pounds)
4 burpee pullups
4 power snatches
6 burpee pullups
6 power snatches
etc
I got up to 12 pull-ups and 1 power snatch.

It was a big class so coach divided us into two groups, one started with burpees and the other one with power snatches. Now, the snatch is low on my list of favorites for lifting, but I was really hoping to be in that group first. But, I wasn't. Sigh. On the end of my round of 10, though, I actually felt like I was kind of pulling myself up some.

Tomorrow is my second class in the spring hiking program. First one was nice, there were good snacks at the half-way point :) They make you bring rain jacket and pants on every hike, which I think is excessive. But it was a good excuse to go shopping for rain pants.

Better....

I was last by far on todays WOD, but still it felt better than the previous two. So, that's at least a small victory. Today they had a fund raiser for the Little Warrior Fund, proceeds to go to research for childhood cancers. So, there was a DJ and I got a cool t-shirt (for donating). The WOD was one I didn't mind much, though it had running.

WOD: 12 min AMRAP
200 meter run
7 thrusters (I lifted 45 pounds)
20 double unders (I did 40 singles)
14 kettle bell swings (I used the smallest one)
3 rounds plus 200 meters running

rest 5 minutes

5 min AMRAP
Clean and Jerk
I lifted 50 pounds 22 times!

Though I was last at the running, I still did run a half mile. And the thrusters kind of killed me with the squat, so I think I was running an OK speed.

I recently realized that there's a Brew Pub in my neighborhood! That's crazy - I live on Winter Hill, which used to be a pretty rough neighborhood, not so much any more. But I didn't realize it was brew pub worthy. I'm checking it out tonight, before they realize they've opened it in the wrong place :)

Another Fail

Another really bad Crossfit day today. I think it's because I had it in my mind that my Dean friend would be there, since it's Tuesday, and he wasn't. And it was a totally sucky WOD, full of things I can't do (though no burpees).

WOD: 2 rounds
75 Double Unders (I did 150 singles)
15 pull ups
30 wall balls
75 Double Unders
15 toes to bar
30 kettlebell swings
My time 20 min 30 sec

Everyone else (including this woman who looks like she's about 8 months pregnant) did 25 pull ups and toes to bar and 50 wall balls and kettle bell swings. The thought of doing 100 wall balls just did me in, so I did level 1. That allowed me to finish first, and then skulk off home.  Hopefully next class will be a good one...

We had like 4 inches of snow yesterday, which was crazy because all winter we probably had like 8 inches! I had ordered seeds from this online company, and the web site said that they would send them "just as they should be planted." They came in the mail yesterday, which was just silly.

Tomorrow I have my first class with the AMC spring hiking program. I'm going to learn how to backpack without a meet-up :)

WOD Fail

It's raining out today, which I thought meant that the running WOD would automatically turn into a rowing WOD. It didn't exactly, a lot of the people ran! It was so nasty and drizzly out, and there was over a mile and a half of running. I couldn't do it, I rowed.

The WOD was this crazy thing, with defined minutes, lunges with weights, toes to bar, and pushups, plus the running (rowing). People who were faster got more rest time, I got very little. That's so wrong!  I couldn't do the lunges right, and in the end wound up doing squats. I kept forgetting how many push ups I was supposed to do (band assisted, of course) and everyone was done with their round before I even started my toes to bars.  I'm not even writing it down - I didn't really do everything or keep track.

On the upside, though, I did really row almost 2 miles (1.957 to be precise). That's an accomplishment.

I stopped at H Mart on the way home and got some very Asian, probably very fattening foods. And, a little bottle of Bourbon for the next backpacking trip, whenever it is. When I got home I found out that someone had gotten my credit card number and tried to use it at Bath and Body Works, so they cancelled my credit card. There's a new one in the mail that I should get on Monday or Tuesday. It's like the fates want me to stop shopping already!