Leap Day

I spent this morning at a Leap Day for Women parkour class. It was a three hour workshop for only women. A bunch of the geriatric folks were there, but also some young'uns, so it was great to see a wide range of skills. We had some fun exercises including trying to do things quietly and making a short, three part routine. There was someone taking pictures that were going on instagram I think, will have to look and see if there are any of me. Even though I am totally new at this, and there were women flying around, everyone was friendly and accepting. Two thumbs up.

I did wind up skiing again at Nashoba Valley. They have this ski pass called The Gambler which you can buy on the Sunday at the end of school vacation week, and it's good until the place closes. It wasn't too expensive - $99, so I got it. Turns out I lost! I had one good day of skiing on the Sunday, and then the weather warmed up and it was like 65. Then it rained. I decided to try to go on Friday. I went down the hill twice, hated it, packed it up and went home. The trail was basically ice, with grainy pellets on it. No fun. It was really hard to get an edge, and I could feel my IT band objecting. I think the ski season may be done. Well, if it become spring-like outside, then I guess I'm OK with that.

I finally went back to climbing on Thursday! It was my first real climbing since my surgery. My foot is definitely not 100%, because it hurt! I can't place all of my weight on that joint yet, that's for sure. It feels a little like I will never be able to, but that's probably not true. I did two 5.7's, two 5.8's and two 5.9's. I've been climbing with a new group - a meet-up, and fortunately the other climbers were really patient. It wasn't super fun, but it was nice to be back in the gym :)

Next week is Super Tuesday and I still can't decide who to vote for. I love all the candidates, but it turns out that for this election I'm a one-issue voter. Who will beat the current guy? Really, I feel like the primaries is where I vote, so I've been stressing about it.

Parkour Day 3

When my brother and I were kids we used to play this game called "keep off the floor," where the sole objective was, you got it, to keep off the floor (we were original in our games, but not so much in naming them - or maybe everyone played keep off the floor?)  Anyhow, parkour reminds me of it, except without my mom yelling "you kids are driving me crazy, go play outside!" (Speaking of moms, both of the instructor's moms were in class today, it was cute).

The thing where you go up the stairs on hands and feet are called "kongs," and it turns out that there is a lot of shoulder lift in them.  I tried to jump my feet to the same step as my hands, but it was scary. Maybe I can try on something softer, like my bed?  There's no reason it has to be stairs. Then we did some obstacle course stuff, and there were a few things that required jumping and grabbing things. I didn't kill myself, though I did hurt my toe that I had surgery on, I iced it when I got home, but it still feels sore.

New Skis!

I tried out the new skis today, and was quite pleased with them! Good purchase, and I only have to use them 6 times to make the purchase pay for itself. Of course, I guess there's the thing about how many more times I may ski, since I don't have to rent. I may have to factor that in....  I love the skis the most! I feel like they have better edges than the ones I was renting, though maybe I was imagining that. I think the boots are a little too big, but they worked fine. If I love skiing after next season I can consider different ones if I need them - I'll probably know then what's more important. And, these were less than $50.

I went to nashoba valley, which is a small little mountain, but less than 45 minutes drive.  The trails that you take up are blue squares, which messed with my head a little; the greens are the kiddie area. When you are so small you have to do whatever you can to have a black diamond. I did go down all the blues - at first quite gingerly, and then with more and more confidence. I think I'm starting to feel a little more confidence with a little speed, and to feel a bit better with turning (counter clockwise at least).  It helped that the mountain was pretty quiet today, there weren't may crowds and not much waiting at the lifts. I definitely want to go at least once more this year, maybe more :)

Parkour day 2

I did my second parkour class, and loved it again. One of the things that's great about a new activity is that you improve so fast each time you do it. :)  I did way better in class two than in class one. I was able to balance on a metal bar for about 5 Mississippi's (I wonder who came up with that?), I climbed over a short wall, and I went through monkey bars. At the end of class, they were talking about a women's workshop that they are having on Feb 29 - Leap Class on Leap Day! The other two women in the class are going, and they were like "we can strategize next week." Parkour people may be my people - we'll see.

I did wind up getting skis at play it again sports. Super psyched about it, especially the skis that I got. They look practically new, and they're a reasonable brand for beginners. They are also the perfect size. I'm not totally sure on the boots, but they were only $45, so if I hate them, I can always get a new pair after a season or two (if I'm still skiing.) The whole set up was less than $200, including tune-up and waxing, with my inflatable paddle board money. Nice.  I'm hoping to go skiing on Monday, it's president's day.

Skiing again

I worked on a Sunday, and so I was able to take yesterday, a Wednesday, off to go skiing!  I was excited to go during the week, when there would be fewer people on the slopes. I overslept (which I was really annoyed with myself for) and so I didn't get there until 11, and wasn't skiing until 11:30, but then I decided I had to let it go and enjoy myself.

I'm getting better at keeping my skis parallel a little bit of the time at least. I accidentally went down a little bit of a blue square, and things got pretty pizza wedge quite fast, so there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Initially I thought about staying after 4, when my ticket expired, but at 4 I was done. My thighs were killing me. I was thinking that I should buy skis, because then I could ski for a shorter time, since it wouldn't be so expensive. I was going to go to a ski shop, but then I remembered the inflatable stand up paddle board that I have, that I've used like 4 times, and I decided would try going to Play it Again Sports to trade it in and get skis. We'll see if I can get something as good as rentals for not too much money.

Geriatric Parkour

I tried geriatric (50+) parkour and I've found my next new thing! It was so fun. I was a little worried that they would have us jumping off bannisters or something, but it was quite tame. We started with some warm up that ended with the coolest stair exercises - you put your hands on the stairs and jumped your feet up to the step below your hands. The first time I tried I was like "no way" and had my hands two below, but on the second round I went for it, and I did it! It was so fun, and I felt so accomplished! You sort of look like a monkey, we can all aspire.

In addition, we learned that you want to balance on the ball of your foot, and that you bend your knees a lot. We jumped on the sides of tires and metal bars, and tried to stay there. Then we ran around and jumped on things. None of the jumping was more than a foot or so off the ground, but still  there was a balance element.

I convinced a friend of mine to go with me, but I'm not sure she will go back. Anyhow, the people there were super friendly and I think they could be a nice community. Win!

Fells Walk

I had all these ambitions about hiking today, but in the end I just wound up going for an hour walk in the fells. For a change I went to the sheepfold, and there was actually space. It wasn't that nice out. I walked to the bear hill tower and back, going on some side paths, and it turned out to be exactly one hour according to my fitbit.

My foot is much better, and I can wear any shoes, but I still can't climb, which is depressing. I've been reading this blog that says that 11-12 weeks is the magic time when people feel like they can do everything - I'm at a little over 8 weeks now. I hope it's going to get better. I'm planning to go skiing on Wednesday to make up for the missed climbing. In fact, today I went to a used sporting goods store to look at skis. It was seriously overwhelming, though, and I don't think they even had a lot. I may try to buy them at the end of the season at a ski shop. If I didn't have to shell out $40 for skis every time I went skiing, I would go more.

Tomorrow I'm signed up for a meet up to go to chinatown for dim sum and new year festivals. I haven't had real dim sum for way too long!