Tripyramids

There are three Tripyramids, North, Middle and South, but only North and Middle count as 4000 footers, South is a sub-peak of Middle because it's not enough loss and gain from North. When I saw it when I was hiking, I was like "WFT? Who makes these rules? That's a *&^%ing mountain!" But then it turned out not to be so bad. I have to remind myself next year that it's not necessary to start spring hiking with an 11 mile, three peak hike. It was brutal!

The hike is a little unique in that it's 2.5 miles up an old logging road to start and end. So, 5 miles of the hike are on a well graded road. I think that's what tricked me into thinking it would be a good idea. After the access road, you hike up a trail that's pretty uphill, but not bad. Then, BOOM, it's like you're rock climbing! The real uphill (and later downhill) are rockslides. The North one in particular, is super slabby and a little sketchy in some places. And, relentless. I think it was about a half mile, and it took me like an hour. For the most part it was actually kind of fun, it was like climbing, but more exhausting, and no ropes. I got to the top of the rock slide and I was pooped. I sat and ate a bag of pistachios that I had left in my bag from last year.

Apparently you are never alone at the top of a rock slide, either. There was a guy who climbs too, a woman with a really loud and squeaky voice, and a mom and son. The view was really nice, but I had started a little late, left home at 8, started hiking at 10:20, and didn't want to be out past dark. Plus the squeaky woman was annoying.

The first peak, North Tripyramid, had pretty much no view, but I was super exciting to get to the top and go down hill for a little bit! Going down and up from North to Middle was tough. Middle was a long way up! And I was super hungry. I though about sitting down and eating right there, but I was glad I waited in the end, the view was limited from Middle, but pretty awesome still. A couple came by with a really nice dog that wanted to eat my cheese sandwich (dogs do like cheese sandwiches). There was no way that dog was getting any! I made provolone on a challah roll, and it was warm enough outside that the cheese was a little melty. It was so good!  Another hiker came along as well and was showing me this crazy route that he was doing. Although, he wasn't doing the slides, so who's the crazy one?  He came up the other side of the mountain from the Kanc.

I did the last Tripyramid, and it was pretty cool to be able to see the other two mountains, and know that I had done them.  At the top of the South slide there was a really nice view, so I sat and had a power bar and admired for about 20 min. The slide down was also hard, though not as hard as up. There was a lot of loose skree, which I don't love, so it was slow going, with a lot of butt scooting. I was thinking that my butt was my 5th limb for part of the way. I was pretty psyched to get down. I was also happy to get down because I had stupidly not packed enough water, and I needed to filter more.

After filtering the rest was just a stroll down to the parking lot (well, a 3.5 or so mile stroll). I did step on something funky and rolled my ankle, but I think it's OK. This couple was behind me and catching up, and I turned and saw them, but they didn't say anything, or pass me, which sketched me out. But later they passed me, and they were cool. I couldn't stop singing "The Bear and The Maiden Fair" from GoT for the last mile or so because it was getting dark, and I get nervous about bears as dusk comes; but that may not be the best song.... I thought I saw the parking lot, but it was just a big intersection, which was really sad. But then the intersection was about 5 minutes more walking!

I got in my car, took off my smelly shoes, and left. On the way to the highway I stopped for ice cream. They only had three flavors, so I got maple walnut. It had ice crystals in it, like when it's melted and refrozen. And I ate it all anyhow. Then I stopped at the rest area and was like the last customer before it closed! I got a burger and sweet potato fries and shoveled that burger in my mouth like a pig!

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and I'm not leaving my couch.

Minor Bike Ride Fail

I found a really nice bike ride on ridewithgps dot com, it's called the South Shore Coastal Ride. It's a 38.4 miles long loop and goes from Wompatuck State park to Scituate, Cohassat and Hull. A big chunk of the ride is along the coast and it's really pretty!  I went to the Old Scituate Light House which was so nice, and the weather was just perfect. Then I went way down Hull, which is a peninsula, and was super close to a light house, when I apparently ran over one of those giant construction staples and flattened my back tire completely and totally. I think I was about 27.7 miles into my 38.4 mile ride. Once I had gotten to the end of Hull, looked at the lighthouse, I was going to go back, stop in town for something to eat, and then the route was pretty much back to my car.

Fortunately I had my phone with plenty of charge and there were enough bars. I tried to get an uber, but I guess no one wants to go there. So, I actually took a taxi! It wound up being a town car, and my bike fit in the back which was great, because otherwise it would have taken a while to go pick it up. I was going to get something to eat at this totally sketchy Harley Bar near where the puncture happened, but they were cash only. Wow.

I did have the chance to buy lemonade from a lemonade stand, sit by the ocean, look at the big houses, see some really nice scenery. I passed goats and some wild turkeys. I definitely recommend that ride to anyone reading this (maybe it's a little far for you, Kit, but anyone in the Boston area). Just bring a tire change. Next thing to buy on my list.

I froze my membership for crossfit for a couple weeks because I didn't want to go today and that would only be once again this week. Then, next week I'm getting a polyp removed on Thursday and I think I'm not supposed to lift heavy stuff after that. And then I have my conference in Philly Thurs-Sun.  Gonna try to get out for a hike tomorrow, it's supposed to be a perfect day!

32 Box Jumps!

I realized that I still have a few vacation days left, and not that much time to take them. Next month will be crazy with letters, so I decided that I should take some time off this month. So, I'm taking a 5 day Memorial Day weekend! Starting today, yay!  Today is my day to get stuff done. It's rainy and gross out, which is helpful for a getting stuff done day. I had a phone meeting with my professor from my class that was meant to be about my Theoretical Framework for my research question (it wasn't really because she had never heard of the theorist, but it actually still was helpful). I have a doctor's appointment a little later, and I'm meeting a friend for drinks, which isn't "getting things done," but it's not sitting on the couch. I also want to work on my stupid paper for class. And, of course, I needed to get in Crossfit as I hadn't been all week.

I got up the same time I always do, with the intent to go to the 9 am class. Then was like "I'm not going to the 9 am class. There will be a ton of traffic, I will barely have time to drink coffee, and I don't like to work out in the morning." But then I went!  I'm so psyched with myself for going, the high might last for the entire day :)

For strength we did deadlifts, 4 sets of 5. 5 deadlifts is a lot, I lifted 125 pounds, which was pretty heavy for me. Coach said we should share a barbell so there would be less cleanup, but when this other woman and I were talking about it, it turned out she was going to lift like 200 pounds. Sharing would have been more work.

WOD: 4 rounds
12 front squats (I did 2 rounds at 55 and 2 at 45)
14 toes to bar (I did 2 rounds of 14 knees to chest and 2 rounds of 7 knees to chest)
16 box jumps (I did 8 jumps and 8 steps in each round)
my time: 13 minutes, 17 sec

I was pretty excited with my box jump performance! I was in the gym with the foam boxes, so I could jump. Once I got going I noted that I was doing them pretty well, and could get up there pretty easily - that is to say, with a lot of effort, but without trouble getting to the right hight.

I'm planning to go hiking on Saturday, so the goal is for crossfit again tomorrow evening. That makes going this morning a good thing as well, it will be about 30 hours between the two, time for my body to recover.

43.37 miles!

My goal today was to see if I could do the full 40 miles, the equivalent of the longest ride during my trip. I finally broke down and got a bike rack form my car so that I could start my ride outside of the city, and I found a pretty nice sounding route that started in Lexington Center, went through Concord, Sudbury, Lincoln, and then back to Lexington. The route was only 30 miles, so I started 5 miles further out on the bike path to make it a full 40. At least, this was my intent. I wrote everything down and then for some reason put the sheet of paper on my bed instead of in my purse or some other logical place. I put my purse in the trunk of my car, the bike on the rack, and then was like "where are the directions?" I couldn't find them anywhere, so I figured they were in my car. So, yeah, I didn't have the directions. I had looked at them right before going, and I kind of knew the area, and fortunately I had my phone with g-maps. But I did make a few wrong turns, hence the extra 3.37 miles.

I will start by saying that it was so much more fun riding my bike outside the city and off the bike path. The bike path is nice because there aren't cars, but man is it crowded! Riding on the street there were some cars, but everyone was remarkably considerate. I guess because we weren't in the city. And, they were streets that you can't park on so I didn't need to worry about getting hit by a car door. All in all, it was a pretty great ride!

A few highlights - a little before the half way mark, a little before mile 19 (which probably should have been a little before mile 18, but I took a wrong turn) I stopped at the ice cream place in Concord and got a black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream. It was delicious.  A little later there were two girls with an ice tea stand, which of course I also stopped at and got some tea. That was less delicious, and a lot of it spilled on my hand, but I just can't ride past kids selling beverages.  For some reason I forgot there were horses and cows in Concord. I felt bad ass for riding to a place with horses and cows. The animals were less impressed.

The description of the tour says to practice going down hills, and I had a chance to go down a few really fun ones. They were kind of brutal to go up, but the down was totally worth it. You really don't forget how to ride a bike!

I went over a bridge on the Sudbury River that looked like the perfect place to put in my inflatable stand up paddle board. It was on Sherman's Bridge Road, which is a place that wasn't on my original route. I was a little lost out there and super happy I had my phone.

Bikers are really cool in the suburbs. Everyone nods or smiles at fellow bikers. Even the folks who have on much more spandex than I do (I was wearing my bike padding, lulu shorts, and a t-shirt from Target that says "Ravenclaw" (though to be honest I think I'm much more Huffelpuff, which is so boring).

My legs are feeling tired, but not bad. I was a slacker on crossfit again last week - my excuse is the weather - I was going to go Thurs, but it was 97. Nope. Friday I got to work from home, and I saw with traffic it would take me an hour. I just couldn't deal. Yesterday I went climbing (got up a 5.10, 5.10-, and 5.9. The 5.9 was the only one that was clean, but the 5.10- wasn't bad.) And I walked to Davis and did yoga. And I went for a 50 min bike ride last week. So, some slacking, but not too bad.

Push press and push jerk

I'm feeling good about myself today because I went to crossfit and it's only Monday! One done. I went to the doctor this morning to have my travel appointment for my trip to Africa. I got prescriptions for malaria meds, antibiotics just in case, and lorazepam for the airplane. I started counting the number of flights I had to do and the lengths, and how I can't have a computer on the way back from Istanbul, and the nurse practitioner who saw me gave me extras :)  I think maybe she thought I should take one right then and there.  They didn't have any yellow fever shots, though, so I couldn't get one. She said I don't really need one, which is what my research says too. I don't want one, but of course now I will worry that they won't let me in. Sigh. I may send my passport in for a visa so I only have to worry about one thing at a time.

I was running late today but I still really wanted to do the beginner class, so I missed a little of the warm up. We did some jumping rope.  Then we did 5 sets of 3 push presses and 5 sets of 3 push jerks. I actually was a little confused about the whole thing, so I did 6 sets of push presses. For the push presses I started at 55 pounds, and then added another 5 for the last 3 rounds, so I did 60 pounds for 9 lifts. Then I did 75 for push jerks! I was pretty excited with myself. The amazing thing was that I could have lifted more, it was bringing it down that was hard. I wound up doing 5 rounds at 75, or 15 push jerks at 75 pounds. I was trying to see if that's a record, but it's been a while since I've done them.

After we did rope jumping and deadlifts.
WOD:
200 jumps
20 deadlifts (I lifted 75 pounds)
160 jumps
18 deadlifts
120 jumps
16 deadlifts
80 jumps
14 deadlifts
40 jumps
12 deadlifts
my time 11 min 52 sec

Coach said it should take less than 10 minutes and if it took more you were doing something wrong. Hum.

Yesterday I went for lunch with mom, sister, a friend of my moms and all their peeps. There were like 8 of us. We went to this fancy restaurant on the ocean with a "classy buffet" as my nephew called it, with lobster tails, oysters, shrimp, and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't waste my stomach space on. It was so good! Whenever I do things with my mom I always think "so this is how the other half lives.."

It's supposed to get to like 90 on Thursday! And this weekend finally looks nice for hiking and biking!

Row row row...

It's been a rather slow exercise week for me, though I did go for an hour bike ride during the week. I thought about blogging about it, but then decided I couldn't blog every time I got on the bike. Plus I forgot. I rode my bike from here thru Davis to Alewife, then up the Mystic River on the dirt path to the edge of Medford (for non-Bostonians, that's pronounced Me-Fah) and home. The bike path gets so crowded, it can be a little hard to get a good work out because you are always slowing down, and the streets are just cray. This path was nice. I'm thinking about getting a bike rack so I can get out of the city to ride a little better.

I only went to Crossfit once this week, which was lame. I was feeling a little headachy, though. And I had a really annoying assignment due for my class. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Today I had to go. The WOD was intense, but things I can do. We started with a 1000 meter row, which took me a little over 5 min in the warm up.

WOD:
1000 meter row
20 back squats (I did 65 pounds)
20 ring rows
rest 2 minutes
1000 meter row
20 front squats (I did 50 pounds)
20 ring rows
rest 2 minutes
1000 meter row
20 overhead squats (I did 35 pounds)
20 ring rows
my time: 31 min 35 sec

I did each of the rowing intervals in under 5 minutes. I think I actually had a little bit of a rowing breakthrough. I  was pulling better from start to finish in one swift tug, which is more efficient. And harder. I could only do it for 250 meters at a stretch. But it's a start.

Pence and family decided to skip graduation, which was just as well probably. Christiane Amanpour was amazing! She talked about what is fake news, and what isn't, and how important the press is for a democratic society. And, she told the gals not to take a job for less than the guys! It was really inspiring.

Diane/Annie

Two benchmark WODs today, plus a weird Romanian Deadlift thing, and a warm-up WOD.  Apparently that's their new thing, lots of WODs in one day. So, for the warm up we did 3 rounds of 30 sec on, 10 sec off of jumping rope, planks where you tap your shoulder, and good mornings. Then, the Romanian Deadlifts, which is a dead lift where you don't put the barbell down between sets. Romanians tough. I lifted 65 pounds. I'm not tough. 4 rounds of 5, with planking in the middle though, it's not bad.

Diane - 21-15-9
Deadlifts (I lifted 95 pounds)
Push ups (Diane calls for hand stand pushups. I did band assisted pushups)
my time: 5 min 50 sec

Annie - 50-40-30-20-10
Double unders (I did singles x2)
sit ups
my time 10 min 10 sec.

For Annie I did all the sets, except the set of 40 unbroken with the jumprope, which I was pretty happy about. My stomach is going to be killing me tomorrow after all that sitting up and planking.

So, I found out that this year Mike Pence's daughter is graduating from Northeastern, so he will be there. Not feeling the same excitement as when LL Cool J's daughter graduated. Interestingly, Christine Amanpour from CNN will be speaking. And, all the students got flags from their country, I'm not sure if it's to bring to graduation (one of my students today said her parents were from Cambodia and Nepal, and they didn't have flags from either. Lame.)  Graduation is tomorrow.  Saturday I'm going to try for a hike or bike!

55 pounds for power snatch

It's only Monday, and I've done one crossfit! Today's WOD(s) looked pretty good on paper, and they were there as well. Tough, but everything was something that I could do, with modifications of course. So, I was happy to go!  There were three separate activities, which seems to be a new thing that they're doing.

Warm up: 8 min AMRAP
12 calorie row
30 double unders (I tried to do a few doubles, but mostly just did singles)
10 Russian Kettle bell swings
I did 3 rounds plus 6 calories on the rower

EMOM10 2-Power Snatches
I got up to 55 pounds. I was pretty happy with that, I think snatches are hard.

WOD: EMOM 20 minutes
ODD - 10 calorie row
EVEN 1 - 15 kettlebell swings (I used the smallest one)
EVEN 2 - 50 jumps with the jump rope

The 50 jumps was sort of my hybrid amount. The regular was 30 double unders. I rowed a total of 100 calories during the WOD, which is a lot!  After, I was tired.

Yesterday was our end of year party for accepted students. I planned the entire thing, and it was awesome! It actually wasn't that much work to put together, I go for a pretty low maintenance bash, with open bar (beer and wine only). Everyone seemed to have a good time, I even heard a few saying something about how it was so nice.  All the food was eaten, people were talking and laughing, no one was standing around looking lost. Yay!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to buy my tix to Africa!