A day late + a few days late

I've been a bad blogger once again.  But, last weekend, on Saturday I did go for my favorite walk in the Fells, to the overlook rock.  It's finally spring, and it was so nice to go for a walk in just jeans and a sweat shirt! I did spend some time with my dark thoughts, but I guess I have to get them out. I think they're dying down a little. On the bright side, I decided that since I will no longer be killing myself over work, it will be fine to join the Canoe and Kayak place again - especially because they've opened a new location on the Mystic River that I can practically walk to!  So, I decided that's my tax refund, the canoe and kayak for the summer + the conference I went to.  I can't wait to get back out on the river!

I also went to crossfit on Monday. I had a pretty crappy day (again) and was feeling a little blue. It didn't help that when I got there it was a huge class, and we were doing back squats, so I had to share a platform with tiny people who were lifting way more then me. And my quads are still killing me!  I did squat 83 pounds 20 times, which I feel is pretty hard core.

For the WOD, I wasn't feeling it. There was running and I was a little tempted to just run to my car, get in, and drive off. But I didn't. So I gave myself credit for what I did.

WOD: 2 rounds
400 meter run
15 overhead squats (I lifted 35 pounds)
I don't remember my time, but I do remember it was killer!

Rope Climbing (not)

Once again I didn't climb the stupid rope.  I did however go to crossfit twice this week, which is what I wanted to do. So, check.  It was a lot of rowing, and deadlifts. Plus rope climbing, which I eventually just skipped, because I felt like it.

We started with push press, 5 sets of 2. I got up to 75 pounds, which I was happy with!

WOD: Dork AMRAP 20.14
33 calorie row
15 deadlifts (I lifted 95 pounds)
5 rope climbs (wiffed it)
I rowed like 4 times and lifted 3.

Work has just been all around yucky.  I'm not applying for the director position after all - after I emailed my current boss earlier this week he put me on the hiring committee. And then emailed back to say "oops, my bad." That's just mean. They aren't going to offer me the job, no matter how hard I try to prove myself.  As I tell my students, sometimes when you are hitting your head against a wall, it's just good sense to stop.

Marathon Day

Marathon Monday today, but it rained and was miserable out all day.  I watched a little of it, but tried to work on my resume and cover letter. I can't believe I'm hear again.  Letter is just started, needs lots of work.

I did want to get to crossfit today - tomorrow I'm going climbing, Wed to pub quiz, Thursday there's a workshop on salary negotiation that I really want to go to, so that leaves the weekend. For the last two weeks I've only gone once, which is lame. So, I had to go.  Which was rough, because there were a lot of burpees.

WOD: 4 rounds:
4 squat clean and jerks (I lifted 55 pounds)
10 pull ups (I used bands)
13 burpee lateral jumps
after 4 rounds are complete row 1000 meters
my time 24 minutes 20 sec

It was supposed to be a 800 meter run, but it was so nasty outside, I'm not sure anyone went out to run.

All those damn burpees were killer, I really thought I might puke at the end of the 4th round. It took me 6 minutes to row because I was so nauseous.  I was going to cut down the burpees, but then I was all, if you're going to hike the AT one day, you can't be taking it easy.  So, there's that.

I emailed my boss today and told him that I was applying for the director position and that I "appreciate your support and guidance through the hiring process."  That was the second time today that I almost vomited. But, as a friend of mine pointed out, that's what I would say to him if I was the director.  Now, I just have to write the damn letter.  Yuck.

Networking

This weekend I'm going to a conference that I paid for myself and I'm going to try to network!  I hope it doesn't totally suck. But, I have to do some job searching, and I have to do it now.

Crossfit today was a lot of rowing, which of course I like. But, we rowed 3000 meters, which is pretty far!  1600 is a mile, so almost 2 miles. We also did ring dips, which I can't do, but I learned that if I have a band holding the rings together, I can jump up and hold myself up on the rings. Small steps.

WOD: 5 rounds
500 meter row
5 pull ups (I used bands)
10 push ups (I used bands)
20 sit ups
my time 25 minutes, 38 seconds

I'm working on the IRB paperwork for my dissertation. I hope this year of crazy hard work pays off with something good. I think it will.

Skateboard!

Forgot to blog on Thursday, now it's Saturday. Lame. I only went to crossfit once this week. I was still sore from the hike on Monday, was very busy feeling sorry for myself Tuesday, Wednesday was full of burpees and I really didn't want to, and Friday I went hippy dancing (more on that later). So, only once this week - I was going to go on Friday, but decided that hippy dancing was an allowed alternative.

Thursday started with push presses, 5 rounds of 2. I got up to 75 pounds, which I did 8 times. That's heavy!

WOD:
40 calorie ski erg
30 thrusters (I lifted 35 pounds)
40 calorie row
30 kettle bell swings
my time around 15 min 20 sec

I just got off the phone with my dissertation advisor, and I'm going to start working on my IRB paperwork!  Yay!  She approved my lit review, and made some recommendations for edits on the rest of it, but I could work on the edits as I wait for the IRB approval.  Hopefully I will submit it in a couple of weeks. That's my goal.

I bought a skateboard because, well, not really sure why, but I did.  I took it outside for the first time today and totally wiped out. Ouch!  I'm icing my knees now. Why do I do this??

Tecumseh with Butt Sled

I haven't been doing a lot of fun things, mostly just working and trying to impress the new boss (which it turns out I was successful with, he emailed me with my performance eval and said that I am smart and motivated and when presented with a challenge can be counted upon to deliver!) and working on my dissertation (which just needs one more section to be two chapters, it's now 37 pages! Gonna work on it tomorrow, hopefully make it 42 ish.)  Anyhow, I decided I needed a day to do something fun, and hiking Tecumseh fit the bill. I'd hiked it before with the Egg Salad Sandwich People, but now since I'm solo hiking all the 4,000 footers, I needed to do it again alone for it to count. Plus, it's a pretty easy one, and I haven't been hiking in a while, so I thought that would be good. And, I read that you could butt slide down it!

One of the benefits of it being just a 5 mile hike was that I could leave later - I got up at 8, spent a while deciding if I would hike it or not, decided I would, putzed around, and left around 10.  I didn't have a lot of lunch food. I packed tea, cashews, and my favorite kind of protein bar, but I had to stop on the way up - also needed gas. I got an egg salad sandwich, in honor of the Egg Salad Sandwich People, and because it looked good.  The hike starts from Waterville Valley Ski resort, which was great because I could use a real bathroom before I headed up.  When I finally started it was about 1:00. Late, but I figured it would be OK due to the short easy hike, and it was.

The start of the hike was really gentle and nice, uphill but not too uphill.  There was still snow on the ground, and I was really glad I had my microspikes. There's a lookout at the ski trail at at about the one mile mark, I stopped and watched the skiers and had some tea. Then, the hard part... The next mile was the uphill bit. Pretty relentless.  I was kind of hungry and kept thinking I would stop, and then just went a little further. I got to the ridgeline between the ski mountain and the top peak after an hour, and finally ate my cashews and drank more tea. Then the push to the summit. I got to the top around 3:00, put on my layers because it was windy, and snarfed down the sandwich.  I took a few pictures, but I have to say the view is a little limited. It's nice when you're up there, but I don't think it photographs well, or at least not on my phone with sun glare:

Then the fun part!  I detached the sled from my backpack and headed down.  I realized, though, that I didn't know what to expect at the top, since there are two ways to go up, and I was going down a way I didn't go up, so I walked down, and was glad I did! It was really steep and bumpy.  I finally got to the fork where I'd had my cashews and did some sledding.  It was pretty fun, but also really scary! The sled can really move, and with the snow totally packed down, sharp turns, and lots of trees, I was kind of nervous about  going too fast. So, I did a lot of bailing when I started to feel out of control. I think my butt will be killing me tomorrow!  I think Pierce was better for sledding, or following Greta was better. One of the two. After a while my butt was so numb and wet, and I wasn't really going fast, so I walked down a lot of it. When I got to the ski trail look out I thought about taking the ski trail down, but somehow that seemed like cheating (no, butt sledding didn't, my hike/my rules). So, I went down the rest of the trail. I was really glad I did because when it got less steep it was way more fun.

I got back to my car a around 4:15. So 2 hours up, 20 minutes at the top, less than an hour down.  

I really love early spring hiking. It's so quiet out, the sun is bright again, the snow makes it easy to hike because you don't have to worry about all the rocks. There aren't too many people out. It's a zen way to spend the day!  If only it didn't take 4.5 hours driving for 3 hours 15 minutes on the mountain.  Still, a good way to spend the day.