Mt. Kearsarge North

I went with my friend Karen up to North Conway for a couple days (which actually turned out to be just over one day because there's a storm coming, and we wanted to get back before driving got awful). We hiked Mt. Kearsarge North, which is not a 4000 footer at all, so I made the mistake of thinking it would be easy. WRONG! Although it's only a 3000 something footer, the trail gains 2600 feet, is 3.1 miles, and with loosely packed snow on it is hard.  That's longer and more elevation gain than some 4000 footers. For the last hour of the hike we kept thinking we were almost at the top, but then there was more trail. Brutal.

On the bright side, it was a perfect bluebird day! The sky was so blue and there wasn't a single cloud. It was warm enough to hike in my winter athleta tights, ninja hoodie, and a t-shirt. But there was still snow on the ground. It was just gorgeous out!  Since it was a Thursday, there weren't a lot of people out hiking. We were alone at the top. There's a fire tower at the top, and it's a really nice one. It's one you can go inside, with windows on all four sides and this view of Mt. Washington and the Prezi traverse (which I reminded myself I hiked) and all around the valley. So nice. Karen made some kind of vegan balls that were brown and delicious. So we ate and relaxed for a while. It took 2 1/2 hours to get to the top and about 2 hours to get down.

Today my calves are killing me!

First Bike Ride

I did my first training ride today. I hope this wasn't a bad idea. I went 12.66 miles in an hour and a half. I note that now I have another thing that I'm the slowest at - a number of other bikers passed me. Though, I have a sort of hybrid bike and they mostly had road bikes. I went on the bike path from my place to Trader Joes in Arlington. Once it's nicer out, there are definite possibilities for places to stop and have a snack :)  I just went straight through today though.

The longest biking day is 40 miles, which is longer than 12.66. But, I have time to work up to that. I got some new bike shorts to help my girl parts, but I think my butt is still going to feel it tomorrow. Ouch! I don't feel that tired. Will see how things progress.

Staycation

I'm on staycation this week, which is pretty awesome! I've been very productive - I did my taxes, signed up for the bike riding tour of Tanzania, got my bike serviced and ready for some spring/summer riding, sent my passport out to be renewed, went to yoga and climbing and tomorrow I'm getting a haircut! I'm feeling very accomplished :)

It was tough to haul myself to crossfit today from home. I knew I would have to sit in traffic and it was so cozy at home on my couch. But, tomorrow it's supposed to be nice out and I want to go for my first "long bike ride." And then I'm going to NH Thursday and Friday (please don't try and rob the place, there's really nothing of value to take). Which left today and Sat. And, today's WOD was not bad.

We started with back squats. I was able to get 5 sets of 2 at 100 pounds! I was kind of psyched with myself on that one.

WOD:
30 kettlebell swings (I used the second smallest)
21 thrusters (I lifted 35 pounds)
30 kettlebell swings (I switched to the smallest)
15 thrusters
30 kettlebell swings
9 thrusters
my time 9 min 45 sec

My arms were killing me! 35 pounds shouldn't be that much for thrusters, but I was dying.

It was so fun riding my bike to Davis Square to bring it to the bike shop, and then riding it home. I forgot how much I like biking. It's not so much fun in the city, but now the bike path is less than a mile away from where I live, and it's about 17 miles long, so I can ride without being in too much contact with the crazy Boston drivers. I'm also thinking I'll take it to the Middlesex Fells for some light trail riding, since there aren't really a lot of paved roads in Tanzania.

(Stationary) Biking!

I was going to go to Crossfit yesterday, but there was a lot of squatting involved, and my squat muscles are still sore from Tuesday. When I looked at today's WOD I was glad. It's endurance day, with a return to running. But since I'm planning my bike trip and I hate running and am slow at it I decided to bike. And, since I hate the assault bike in the main gym, I went to the 10:30 class in the small gym with the nice spin bikes. It was good motivation.

WOD:
3 mile bike (everyone else ran a mile)
30 power cleans (I lifted 35 pounds)
2 mile bike
20 calorie row
1 mile bike
30 toes to bar
my time: 27 minutes 50 seconds
Biking time for 6 miles: 16 minutes 40 seconds

The biking felt good. Boring and like my legs will need some training on it, but good!  I'm kind of psyched because the trip is now 10% off. That means I could get a single supplemental for free if I want. I'm trying to decide if I should pay for it, or risk that I will be the only single female and will just get my own room/tent.

Now that I'm on staycation, I have to look for a bike training plan. And get my bike tuned up!

Lots 'o squats

Today was brutal with the squatting, but I was pretty excited because I got up to 95 pounds on front squats!  I think that may be a new record for me, though I would need to check. I was thinking about trying 100, but I was kind of wobbly on 95 so I decided to be happy with what I had done well.

WOD: 10 rounds 15 minute cap
5 clean and jerk (I lifted 35 pounds)
10 wall balls
I did all but the last set of wall balls.

I really dislike wall balls, though not as much as burpees. I did 90 in the WOD plus I did 8 in the warm up, which is a lot of wall balls!!

I'm pretty sure that for my trip to Africa I'm going to go on a bike trip across Tanzania (it's 175 miles of biking in total). It includes the option to hike an active volcano, an option for a hot air balloon ride and safari days. A lot of the trip is camping, but I think it's kind of glamping. I mean, I don't have to carry anything, and I bet they set up the tent so we don't break them. There's also a tour of a coffee plantation, a maasai village, some of the lakes, the Ngorongoro Crater, sleeping in an African Igloo... I hope this isn't a vacation that sounds good from the couch in Somerville, but not so much from Africa....

Of course, this now means a new activity, biking. I grew up biking around the neighborhood and have always been really comfortable riding a bike. But, now that I live in the city it's not as much fun to ride. Drivers are crazy here! I have a bike, it needs a tune up. I'm on vacation next week, and so getting my bike tuned up and getting out training are on the agenda. The longest biking days are 70 km ish (43 miles). I got a lot of work ahead!  I started today at crossfit, I biked for 4 and a half minutes on the stationary bike. It was fine but boring. I stopped when class started.

Post Blizzard WOD

The blizzard was OK, not monumental. I got one day of couch time. Good, but I was kinda hoping for two. It warmed up at the end of the storm so it was more like rain, and the snow was so heavy! I was really glad all I had to do was uncover my car and the area around it. Even with just that, my back was tired. I was going to go to crossfit yesterday, but my back wasn't into it. I thought I might regret it because yesterday was not a bad WOD, but then today was just fine!

We started with back squats in sets of 5. I did one set at 65 pounds and then four at 85 pounds. On the first one I kept thinking "I can lift way more than this!" But by the last one I was like "no I can't." 5 is a lot!

WOD:
1000 meter row
100 jump ropes
50 sit ups
25 toes to bar (I did knees to chest)
50 sit ups
100 jump ropes
1000 meter row
my time 20 min 28 sec

I think tomorrow I'm going to feel like someone punched me in the stomach.

Blizzard!

We're expecting a blizzard tomorrow! It will be our first really big storm this year, though I guess we did have one other blizzard already. Work is already closed, which I'm pretty excited about. The storm is going to go all day tomorrow, and I don't have any appointments on Wednesday, so I may get two days at home!  I will have to do work, but whatever, it will be on the couch in my jammies with the cats.

I really didn't want to go to crossfit today because it was full of bar facing burpees, but given that I may be snowed in for the next two days, I decided I had to. Everyone else had the same idea, the place was packed! Which meant that there wasn't enough room to be jumping over bars, so it was just burpees. Which still sucked.

We started with deadlifts, 5 sets of 3.  I didn't want to hurt myself since I'm just getting back into things, so I kept it light. I started with 105 pounds for the first round. Then I did 125 for the next two. For the last two I did 130. Not bad, but less than I have done.

WOD: 3 rounds
8 burpees
8 power snatches (I lifted 45 pounds)
8 burpees
16 kettlebell swings
my time 12 min 12 sec

The first round I used the second smallest kettle bell, and it nearly killed me. For the second and third rounds I used the smallest kettle bell. On the second round I also accidentally skipped the burpees between the power snatches and kettle bell swings, and so then I had to do 16 in a row. Brutal.

Flu

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I went to crossfit! I don't know why long weekends often go badly for me, but President's Day weekend started out with a migraine on Sat night. Monday I was still feeling woozy, though I did go climbing. I went to work on Tuesday, but it was obvious to me by that point that it wasn't still the migraine. I went home at noon that day and was sick for a whole week!  I'm pretty sure it was the flu, even though I had my flu shot. I had a fever (and I never get a fever), my whole body hurt, head ache, stuffy nose, sore throat. Poor me. After being sick for a week, it took me another week to feel like normal again. And then last week I was just lazy :)  Today I had to get back to crossfit.

It actually felt really good to be working out again. Much as I think I like sitting on the couch eating and binge watching, we started doing jumping jacks and my body was happy about it!  The WOD was a confusing one, basically if you finished three rounds of pull ups and squat snatches in 4 minutes then you got to do 3 more rounds. I did two rounds and then was seeing spots out of my left eye and decided that was enough.

WOD: Prior to 8 min complete:
3 rounds of
6 chest to bar pull ups
6 squat snatches (I lifted 35 pounds)
3 rounds of
7 chest to bar pull ups
5 squat snatches

There was more after that, but it took me 8 minutes and about 10 seconds to do the 6 rounds and, as I mentioned, I was seeing spots.

In other news, I'm planning a vacation!  I'm planning a trip to Africa. I want to go to Tanzania on safari. I found one today that's a bike tour and safari, it mixes biking and riding around looking at the animals. I'm a little nervous that I would have a hard time keeping up, and kind of psyched about the idea because it's a little different. There's also a tour of a coffee plantation. I think given the combo of activities, I might be able to get my brother and his girlfriend to come - coffee, biking and travel are some of their favorite activities. You can do an optional balloon ride over the Serengeti which is very expensive but might be my birthday present to myself (since I'm gonna be old this July). Most of the nights are camping, with a couple sleeping in an African igloo! And, unlike the Inca Trail, there's a sag car if you can't bike :)  I haven't really biked in years, I did 3 miles on the stationary bike to think about it.

I hope this isn't one of those ideas that seems good until you are doing it.