Mt. Tecumseh

Some days I think I'm just a very grumpy person. I mean, the Egg Salad Sandwich People planned the hike, and they did all the work, and all I had to do was show up.

But, we were supposed to get there at 11:30 and we didn't start hiking until 12:20. And then we had to stop and introduce ourselves for like the 5th time, which was killing me. To make up for it, we ran up the mountain at a killer pace for a while, then we slowed down, then stopped A LOT!  A few times I was kind of ready to scream we waited for so long. And then jogged, because someone pointed out that we were kind of going fast running (so we only jogged).  And, it was 85 degrees and humid, and there were black flies.  I think we rested at the top for 45 minutes, and there were so many black flies, and almost no view. On the way down I was lagging a little behind, trying to be one with nature, and this leader guy felt sorry for me and decided to walk with me and talk about nothing and keep me company.

I have the beginner backpack next weekend, and I think that's gotta be it. I just can't hike with them. There are too many in every group, and people do a 5 mile day hike with a full backpack. And it brings out the grump in me, instead of hiking making me a more zen person, like it's supposed to. I think I just need to be a solo hiker.

Tecumseh was a nice hike, besides the heat, bugs and my grumpiness. It was pretty slow and gradual for the first part, and then a lot of up hill with rocks. There were a lot of rock stairs, which made everything easier.

They were good egg salad sandwiches, though.

It's summer!

I was trying really hard to improve my form today, we were doing squat clean and jerks. Coach told me that the barbell should pretty much slide up your body. And boom, I got the damn think stuck on the girls. Part of me was embarrassed, and part of me was like "see! it's not so easy!"

We did a killer warm up today. Run to the 400 Meter line, two foot jump to the 300 meter, lunges to the 200 meter, knees up jog to the 100 meter, and then jog back. That's a lot of bunny jumping.

Then there was a partner workout, not my fav thing. The workout was squat clean and jerks, in 3 min rounds, taking turns. First 12 then 10 then 8 then 6 then 4, so each partner does half. We started at 35 pounds and worked up to 60. Everyone else did like twice that. My partner hadn't done crossfit for like a year, so she was OK with doing it with me.

WOD: 10 min AMRAP
1 hang power clean (I lifted 55 pounds)
1 burpee lateral jump (yuck)
2 hang power cleans
2 burpee lateral jumps
3 hang power cleans ... etc
I did 8 rounds, plus 5 additional lifts.

This weekend I'm hiking Tecumseh, which I'm looking forward too. Even more exciting, I got a ride with one of the other peeps, so I don't have to drive all the way there.

I'm thinking about doing a hut-to-hut hike in August.

It was 85 out today!

Isabel

Porchfest was a BLAST! I went with two friends and we started walking around and listening to a song or two at each porch for like 5 or 6 porches. As we were walking more and more people were out, until we felt like we were in the college Freshman Pack. It was nuts, like half the city was out I think!!  And everyone had opened beer in public. Like, that's so wild and crazy :)  We were thinking of going to a bar for a drink, but then we were like, let's just go to a liquor store and get a six pack, everyone's doing it. Two of us didn't have ID's, so we snuck outside and had our friend buy for us. More college flashbacks. Then we sat on a curb listening to music, people watching and drinking our beer.

Every porch was different - one would have heavy metal and the next would be blue grass, there was a lot folk, one Jesus group, some cover bands, horn bands, everything!  The last one we stopped at was in Davis Square, it was a horn band, and there were these two little girls dancing. So fun.

Today I was thinking crossfit didn't look that hard, but HA! Of course it was - it was a two WOD workout.

WOD 1: Benchmark Isabel
30 Power snatches
I lifted 35 pounds
Time: 4:40

I think snatches are the hardest lift, I still struggle to do them right.

WOD 2: Four rounds
300 m run
40 double unders (I did singles)
Time: 10:23

I gotta get a jump rope and try to work on these jumps. I have improved, but I really want to get  better. Today I was like "I'm going to pretend I'm Hercules Mulligan" when he does the big jump thing in Hamilton, and it really helped. I bet I could do them better if I practiced...

Tabata This

I actually did Tabata This yesterday, but forgot to blog again! I think I may have done this one before, though I could be wrong..?  We started out the workout with all these evil planks and such, all good for the core but not things I'm good at. Tabata is 20 sec on, 10 sec off for 8 rounds. Mr. Tabata must be Asian, 8 is lucky there! I'm glad it's not 20 that's a lucky number because Tabata's would be way harder.

WOD: All Tabata

Row - I did 4 calories each round

rest one minute

Squat - I did 10 squats each round

rest one minute

Pull ups - These were bad, I did 9 then 8 then 7 ... you get the point

rest one minute

Push ups - I did 8 for a few rounds, then went down to 7 then 6. 

rest one minute

Sit ups - I was glad to end on a not-so-bad note, I did 10 each round

Tomorrow is Porchfest! It's like Music Halloween. You walk from house to house an people play music for you. It's so fun!  I love living in the city on days like that.

medicine ball run

For some reason I looked at todays WOD and thought it would be OK. IDK why, it was torture. First we did front squats in sets of 3 (5 sets). I got up to 80 pounds, which I did for two sets, but pretty shaky. I think 75 pounds was my real high.

WOD: 3 rounds
30 calorie row
300 meter run with a medicine ball
20 wall balls
10 shoulders to overhead (I lifted 45 pounds)
my time: 23 min 30 sec

Running with a medicine ball is like 500x harder than just running. I tried pretending that I was a marine, carrying a wounded comrade out of a battle zone. But I'm pretty sure we would both have been killed.

I wacked my nose again with the barbell in warm up. So hard that my eyes watered. I have a bruise there now.

I started Weight Watchers again. IDK why I think it will work this time, but it has worked sometimes, and I can't stand how fat I am! Not that that stops me from eating like a pig. >sigh<

Cardigan Pente Peak

Peak bagging weekend with the Egg Salad Sandwich people. I went to Cardigan Lodge for the weekend and did a big hike on Saturday. The place was really nice, bunk beds, cute main area, a pond nearby and a BEAR!  That's a bear that liked to visit and turn logs over to look for food, then run off into the woods :)  Apparently it was a yearling, so it was pretty small, but still like 250 pounds. Cute! (Full disclosure, I didn't take the bear picture, but I was there.)

Anyhow, we had 4 choices for hiking, which meant that the group moved at a faster pace than for the Welch Dickey loop. At first I was a little scared, we kind of went from one extreme to another in terms of speed, but then we slowed down to about my speed. There were a ton of black flies out, which wasn't a lot of fun at all.  Once we got up to the first mountain, Gilmore (AKA Orange), we were out of bug zone. After Gilmore, we did Rim Rock, South Face, Cardigan and Firescrew. Cardigan was the highest, about 3156, and totally bug free. It's not above the treeline, but there was a fire there some years ago, so it has a rocky face. We ate lunch up there.

On Firescrew someone loudly pointed out that I had a rip in the butt of my pants. Awesome. Fortunately I was wearing some of my good underware. There was a helicopter coming in doing what we though was a rescue, but then it turned out to be just rescue training.

The hike was originally supposed to be 12 miles, then it was downgraded to 10+, but in fact it was actually about 8.5. It felt great until the end with the downhill, then my feet started killing me!

Running!

Today's workout at Crossfit had a fair amount of running in it, so I guess I'm back to doing a little running blogging! But just a little, because it was only a mile and a half in total, broken up into four blocks. It was a really long and difficulty WOD:

run 800 meters (I ran a 9 minute mile!)

3 rounds:
9 ring dips (I used a band and did most of them poorly)
6 squat cleans (I lifted 45 pounds)
9 box jumps (I did steps)

run 400 meters (not sure how fast I ran)

3 rounds:
9 ring dips (I used a band and did most of them poorly)
6 squat cleans (I lifted 45 pounds)
9 box jumps (I did steps)

run 800 meters (I ran a 10 minute mile)
my time: 26 min 37 seconds

When I finished I kind of wanted to throw up. My whole face was bright red and one of the other members actually asked me if I was OK. So, I guess I pushed myself, even if I was almost last :/

Sunday was the first Mother's Day with my mom here. It was nice to see her, and she treated me, my sister and her family to a nice lunch (I'm not totally sure that's how it's supposed to work, but that's how it went.) I ate so much I had to walk around her building a couple times, and burp.

Things are starting to come up in the garden! It's so nice :) I planted potatoes this year, and they seem to be growing well. I've been picking the rhubarb. And the mescaline that I planted will be ready to be picked soon. Some of the radishes are looking good, and I think the pumpkin seed that I planted is coming up. I love spring!

Welch-Dickey in the Spring

Welch Dickey in the spring was not as much fun as Welch Dickey in the fall. :(  Largely this was due to weather, it was pretty wet out, not raining on the hike, but the granite was wet, and super slippery. Since it's an exposed, slabby hike, it was way harder and less fun. Also, the Egg Salad Sandwich people were hiking slowly! I mean, really slow. I actually wound up leading the hike for  some of it! I don't get why, with 27 hikers and 6 leaders they didn't break us up into groups. Finally, we met at 8 am, and it's a two hour drive to get there. So I had to get up at 5:20!

Well, other than that, it is an amazing hike, one I recommend for anyone. But not in the rain!

Graduation Day workout

Today was graduation! John Kerry spoke, he was awesome! One of the students asked what Kerry would talk about and I was like "probably his life, how he got where he is, something to inspire you all... Probably nothing too political."Ha! I was so wrong. He talked about the openness of our borders in the digital age, and how we should work to connect with others, not keep them out. He talked about global warming. And, he talked about global poverty, and how important it is to help others who live in poverty, no matter where they live. I was looking at the audience, it was very interesting. Some people were leaning forward and totally engaged, some were sitting with their arms crossed, and some were texting.

Anyhow, security was tight, so I had to be there at 6:30 in the morning. So, I woke up at 5:30 am. Then, there were no seats, so I was standing on a cement floor for about 6 hours. I came home and took a nap! I wasn't totally into the idea of crossfit today, but I'm going hiking tomorrow, so no choice. Plus, the WOD was OK.

First, we did Squat Snatches, which is something I've never done before. I can't say I enjoyed them, but I did get up to 50 pounds.

WOD: 21-15-9
Overhead Squats (I lifted 35 pounds)
Row for calories x 2
my time 13:52

Tomorrow I'm hiking Welch-Dickey with the egg salad people. Sadly, they aren't bringing lunch :( I'm psyched about the hike, but we have to be there at 8 am and it's a couple hours away, so it will be another crazy early day.

That Damn Rope Again!

We had rope climbs today - 6 of them. I did none. Even the coach was frustrated I think. IDK, cliffs good, ropes bad. Todays WOD was a weird one:

EMOM24:
odd - 12 calorie row
even 2-12 one rope climb
even 13-24 40 Dub Unders (I did singles)

It was HARD! It took me almost the entire minute to row 12 calories, so I didn't get a lot of rest on that part. I got a little rest during the rope climb part, since I couldn't get up the damn thing. I got very little rest also during the jump rope part. So, the last 12 minutes were pretty straight cardio. I was seeing spots out of my left eye again. Why do I do this to myself??

My work party on Sunday was good! Everyone was all happy to be there, and relaxed. They ate, they got a little tipsy, they signed up to be mentors in the future. People were talking and looking like they were having fun the entire time. One of the girls was like "can you believe I'm here?" Of course, with my lack of facial recognition, I had no idea who was who, it was just a minefield of people who I should know but didn't. Thank heaven for booze :)

Tomorrow is the last egg salad sandwich day. Sad.