Second regatta

This year I was a little smarter about the regatta, having all that experience and such. Coach asked folks to be there at 6:30, but I was only in one race scheduled for 2:10, so I was like "nope, not a chance" and instead did my usual Saturday morning parkour, coffee, farmers market routine. Then, because things aren't always on time I went at about 1 ish. Much better strategy and one I will keep if I do the race again, which I probably will.

This year I was only in one race in the women's eight. It was actually the last race of the regatta, so some of the folks in the boat had already rowed. One thing that was nice this year was that it wasn't a million degrees out, it's pretty cool and the sun is blocked by some smoke from fires in Canada, and the a bunch of storm clouds came in. So, much cooler than last year. 

The race before us was an eight and we hopped into their boat - I knew about half the rowers again. This year I rowed port and was in the 4 seat, which isn't my usual spot but was fine. We rowed out to the start and were really well set - it was so nice! I was thinking it would be great if we all rowed together all the time. This year our start strategy was 3/4 row, 1/2 row, 1/2 row, 3/4 row and then a power five. Which I kind of got. The two seat I think caught a crab because I was hitting something and didn't understand what, and when I looked her oar was all in my space. And then I figured she would get it on the next stroke, but she didn't, which I assume means that she was recovering. Anyhow, she wasn't rowing for a while, but eventually picked up again. When we crossed the finish our stroke seat was completely exhausted and couldn't row any more - not sure if it was the same woman as last year, but way to put it all out there. Also, maybe be a little more careful with that?

The whole row I couldn't see any other boats, apparently we caught up to one of the other ones a little once the two seat started rowing, but we were third. Of three. So, we were last. But still in pineapple contention, we won a can of pineapple, which I didn't stick around for because it was starting to rain and I kind of didn't feel like it. It was a nice experience and I got a free tshirt, so I think I would do it again, but not ready for regular race days.

Two days of coxing

They are having a huge learn to row program this month, with hundreds of new rowers, and so they asked for volunteers to cox. Coach marketed it as a good way to improve your coxing skills, so I signed up to do it twice - this week and in two weeks. I don't know if it was coincidence or planned, but then I also was assigned to cox for regular rowing on Monday. Which actually worked well for me because my legs were killing me from the hike, and I didn't know if I could row. Might as well get the coxing over with.

So, Monday was my first day to cox an 8, and sadly it was really really windy. It was so stressful, because trying to steer is stressful on its own, and then trying to tell everyone what to do is stressful, but doing those two things while the boat is being blown around is so much harder. But, we didn't hit anything, no one fell into the river or lost a finger, so I call that a success. 

Since it was my first time coxing, everyone was trying to be helpful, which was nice of them, but actually also added to the stress. The stroke seat was the woman who talks to herself a lot, and so there was a lot going on with that. When we pulled away from the dock she was like "have 2 seat row" which I didn't think was right, but I did it anyhow, and in fact it wasn't right - it was mean to be bow rowing. Anyhow, coach had to guide us through the bridges and around the biggest bend in the river. And in a couple other places. And stroke kept giving advice on what to do, that wasn't alway right. Finally after she told me to have ports pull harder when in fact starboards needed to I was like "the backseat driving isn't helping," which wasn't very diplomatic of me, but whatever, it wasn't helping.

We did make it all the way up and back on the river, mostly just rowing at a steady state for the entire time, and when we were moving and I could be offering smaller corrections that I saw (and really, I only saw a few of them) it was actually pretty nice! We made it back, and coach guided us into the dock and everyone gave me a round of applause, which felt awesome. :)

At first I thought today might be cancelled because it was windy again, and with the high winds and beginners it would be hard to row. So, it was hard to row, but it wasn't cancelled. There are two guys who are really really good rowers who organized the big learn to row program, and they were also coaching. Poor guys, there they were, elite rowers, with a boat full of people who had no idea of what they were doing. I mean, some of the rowers were holding their oars upside down! We were the last boat out, and we rowed across the water and then got stuck almost hitting the dock and shore and rocks for a while. Fortunately the woman in stroke seat had rowed in high school and had some idea of what she was doing. Because she had to keep rowing us away from shore - I mean at one point I was really nervous we were going to be blown into a dock. 

The moments that we were actually out there and I could explain things to people, like how to set the boat, or how to push your handle down to keep it from getting caught in the water were kind of fun. But the wind and the fact that half the rowers had no idea what they were doing was so stressful. And then the coach kept being like "I'll call this." And so I wouldn't say anything, but then he would be like "are you going to tell them to row." I was so confused! Anyhow, we made it back to shore again, no one caught a finger (which apparently happened on Saturday - it might have been broken) and the stroke seat knew to hold onto the boat so it didn't float away. Taking the boat out of the water and walking it up proved to be stressful as well, because usually folks know what they are doing and just need some guidance, but these guys didn't know - soon one of the more experienced rowers came over and guided them on how to put it away. And we all survived! After, I came home and ate ice cream. I'm coxing for this group again in two weeks - I hope it won't be so windy.

Mt. Jefferson via Caps Ridge

It's been a while since I was up on the rock pile - I forgot how hard those hikes are! Caps Ridge is the highest trailhead in the white mountains - the out and back is only five miles, but that's so deceptive! It's 2700 feet of elevation gain, almost 2000 of those feet in the last mile and a half, which is intense. I did the hike yesterday and today I'm totally wiped.

I got a nice early start - I woke up at 5:30, was out the door by 5:50 and at the trailhead at around 9. It's actually only a 2 1/2 hour drive up there (for some reason I always think of it as longer) but I had to stop a couple times - first at the rest stop and then at the base of Washington at the start of the cog. Anyhow, I started hiking at 9:15, which was pretty good! The first .9 mile of the trail was really enjoyable - it went though a nice pine forest and was uphill, but not killer. I was feeling good and really enjoyed it. There's a viewpoint at .9 mile and I stopped to look at what was to come, including the three "caps" which are scrambly rock faces. I actually chose the hike for the caps - it's on the terrifying 25, though, spoiler alert, I didn't find them at all terrifying. After the viewpoint things started to get real.

The forest quickly gave way to the little shrubs that are only ankle high, and you could start to see the view. Even from the lower point on the trail it was amazing, and every time that I stopped to catch my breath I turned around to admire behind me, and then looked over to Washington where I could see the road up to the top. Every now and then I could hear the cog railway - apparently someone hurt his ankle and was rescued and brought down on the cog while I was hiking. Anyhow, out of the treeline the trail looked like this for some of the way:

Which is just kind of silly and not really a trail. It didn't take long to get to the first of the caps, which I thought was the most scrambly - I actually put my hiking poles away so I could use hands and feet to get up. The rock was pretty rough so there were plenty of footholds and I didn't find the climbing part hard, in fact I quite enjoyed it.

But it was just relentless! I think it was maybe my slowest hike ever. And, instead of playing the "50 steps game" where I take 50 steps and then rest, I played the "Let's not have a heart attack on the mountain" game, where I tried to keep my heartbeat below 155. 

Although it wasn't that hot out I still somehow was sweating buckets and wound up feeling pretty dehydrated even though I was drinking water the whole way. I started feeling a little nauseous, which didn't help the situation. Even though I brought some electrolytes that I drank at the top my mouth was still dry. In retrospect I think that I should have brought more salt, probably in potato chip form - the salt that I brought was mixed nuts, but from whole foods, so of course they were lightly salted.

Anyhow, once you complete the caps you still have a ways to go to get to the top. It was a lot of rock scrambling, which I enjoyed but again was exhausting. As you go up there is a false summit, which would have made me want to cry if I had any water left for tears. Anyhow, I finally got to the top and just sat for a few minutes catching my breath and enjoying the view. It's stunning up there, and so incredible to look down at the valley. From the top of the peak you can see lake of the clouds hut - there was a big group that was headed there. I sat up top for about 45 minutes, enjoying the breeze and eating a little of the sandwich I brought (a really amazing egg bread with cheese and avocado).

I knew that the hike down was going to be no easier because of all the rocks and scrambles, so reluctantly I eventually got up and headed down the mountain, again thinking about the ephemeral nature of hiking. I really enjoyed the rock hopping up top, using my parkour skills and trusting my feet. There were a few times I needed to scootch, especially once I got to the caps again. I started feeling really tired around the caps, and that was slow going, with a lot of using my butt as a 5th limb (I wore my hiking tights that I had torn a hole in before, and tore the seam wide open so my underware was showing most of the way down, which was pretty awesome. Every time someone came along I tried to turn so my butt was to the trees, but I couldn't really prevent people who were passing me from getting a view.)

I was so happy when I got back to the viewpoint rock, and from there the hike was a bit faster, though my legs were exhausted so I couldn't move super fast. For most of the way down I was dreaming of potato chips and a gatorade, and I decided to go to the cog station to get them because it was Sunday evening and I thought some of the stores might be closed. I tied my puff around my waist and headed inside, only to find out the cafeteria was closed - so tragic! Fortunately there was a little store downstairs where I bought an energy drink, chips and one of those disgusting uncrustable pb&j's that tasted so amazing. I changed, cleaned up a little and then drove on home - I got home around 8, took a shower, foam rolled, and went to bed.

Holt Trail

We finally got a break in the heat - though it's still warm out it's not 100, so I headed off to Mt. Cardigan to do the Holt trail again. A friend and I have been talking about hiking Huntington's Ravine up Mt Washington, so I thought this would be a good prep hike. It was a lot of fun, but also pretty exhausting.

I meant to get up early and get out early and beat traffic and blah blah blah, which totally didn't happen. I left around 9:30, drove up without stopping and got there a little before 11:30, used the bathroom and headed out. The first mile or so of the trail is very chill, it starts on a dirt road and then goes up a pretty easy path. You go over this bridge and then things start getting real. Soon you come to the first crack of the slabby parts - the spot where the guy climbed over me 6 years ago - and the fun begins. I feel like this crack is the second hardest of the slabby bits. It's not that hard, but there was one place where I had to think about where to put my feet. Still, I enjoyed it and was excited to head up the rest of the slab.

This time I remembered that the relentless uphill continues after the first slab. It's not just slab connected by trail, it's slab connected by slab. Most of them are pretty fun, like this one below has some good spots to grab and put your feet.

This one, though is the last one by the top, and it's the spot that I struggled on the first time and accidentally bypassed the second time. This time I tried it a different way, going up towards the left, but then over to the right to the little flake and then traversing to the left over the bit of rock that gave me trouble the first time. Well, I made it successfully, there were no casualties, and no injuries, but there were definitely a few moments up by the top where I decided to not look down and not think about what would happen if I slipped. It was definitely a no-fall zone. Fortunately I didn't fall - I got to the side safely and let out a big sigh. 

I feel like it was still pretty hot out there, even though the heat wave is over. By the time I got to the top of the mountain I was feeling pretty pooped. During the last bit I had to take a lot of breaks to breathe and rest. I was so glad to see the tower at the top. I made myself do the last little bit of uphill and then sat in the shade of the tower for a bit eating. Unfortunately, although I had only seen one person that day (a woman who decided to go down Holt for whatever reason) of course there were a million people up top, including a noisy family with a pretty young kid singing pink pony club. As soon as I was feeling cooler I moved over to another section of rock and ate a bagel with peanut butter and some of my home made raspberry jam. It was delicious!

I had planned to go over to firescrew and down from there, but I was feeling hot and tired, and decided I was better off going down a faster way on clark trail, which is what I did. I actually really liked that trail - it started with some slabby parts, then went into the woods on some nice trails, and the joined up with Holt before all the craziness begins, so I didn't have to down climb any of it. I got back to my car and I was so hot and gross, I figured that if I went into the lodge and cleaned up I would be sweaty again in seconds because my car was so hot, so I just headed out. It's always a little tricky there because no GPS, but I'm getting the hang of it and only made one small wrong turn. I stopped at a gas station and got gaiter-aid and some super salty chips, and chowed down in the car on the drive home. I was so hungry!

Given that it was the end of the long weekend I was worried about traffic, but actually it wasn't that bad. It took about 2 hours to get home. I took a shower, ate some watermelon and ice cream (that's a healthy dinner, right?) and have been on the couch since. So glad I didn't do the hike during the heat wave - it was kind of slow going, but fine. All trails still thinks I went 5 miles, but it was less because I took a different route down. It was a little slower than the last time I did it due to the heat, but I'm OK with that. 

Established an outdoor exercise temp range

We are in the middle of a heat wave - I mean, even hotter than NOLA today! Yesterday when I went rowing it was 98 with a feels like of 104, today it was 99 with a feels like of 107, which is just a silly temperature for going outside to exercise. So, my range for outdoor exercise is 11 degrees/feels like -4 to 99 degrees/feels like 107. 

After my trip to NOLA I came back and was feeling kind of cruddy, I slept a lot on Sunday and just couldn't get myself to do anything, and then wound up with a migraine that went until Tuesday - fortunately not a killer one, but uncomfortable and tiring. So, I had to miss Monday rowing. Yesterday I was questioning my judgement in planning to go rowing, but I had missed a week and didn't want to miss more. And it turned out to be just fine - we went up river to where we were in the shade and there was a breeze. I was still soaked with sweat when we finished, but I felt fine at least. Tired, but fine.

Today there was a lot of discussion about rowing, and if we should in the heat. Coach sent out a poll and asked if we wanted to practice - he said it would be a really technical practice. I thought that would be really good for me, and also I had been inside all day and just wanted to get out and move, so I said yes. We wound up with 16 of us, plus 2 coxes and 2 coaches. Today's workout was really hard. Everyone was hot and cranky. We got stuck with the coach who is usually cranky anyhow, and so she was extra cranky. And it was clear that the cox isn't a fan, because coach was saying to do one thing and the cox was saying to do something else and they were just arguing back and forth and it was really stressful. And then the woman who was behind me was talking to herself really loud, and I couldn't decide if she meant for me or for her - it turned out sometimes both. 

There were also all these boaters out and so we had to go close to shore, and then the rudder got covered in seaweed and the cox couldn't use it to steer, so she asked me to stop rowing. But then the coach came over and was like "why isn't she rowing??" It was a thing. Also, we didn't do all the technical drills. We rowed almost 5.5 K, which is less than we usually do, but not nothing. I think 107 may be my limit - if it gets hotter I may not go. Although now that I'm back on my couch I'm glad I went.

After I went to my garden and gave everything a good watering. This plant showed up and it turns out it's camomile, and so I've been cutting the flowers for tea. The amazing thing is that the more you cut, the more they grow.  I think my raspberry run is over, but so many berries this year! I will be eating jam until spring :)

Conference but in a fun place

In 2020 our annual conference was supposed to be in New Orleans, but of course then COVID happened and it was cancelled. This year we finally got our NOLA conference - it was my first trip there and for the most part I really enjoyed it. I went with one of my coworkers, who got there first, and was like "it's a feels-like of 104" which is pretty insane. It was like that most of the time there. I'd known it was going to be hot, but it was HOT. Which limited how much I got out of the hotel. I was pretty psyched when I got my hotel room because I had a view of the Mississippi river right at Algiers Point, which is the deepest part of the entire river. It's also super tricky to navigate, and there are no pleasure boats on it, just working boats or big tour boats.

Anyhow, conferencing was fine. I learned some good stuff. But the food! It was soooo good. I ate my mandatory crayfish, bread pudding and beignets. All delicious. My coworker asked the uber driver for restaurant recommendations, and so we went to this place that was a little outside the city called Katies, where the special was a massive plate of crayfish for $20, which I got. It was not at all graceful to eat them, but so delicious. After we went to this jazz club called the Spotted Cat (because where else would a cat lady go?) and the music was so good. It was really fun just being in a jazz bar in NOLA. The band was selling tshirts because it's kind of a gig economy, so to help them out I got one :)

The next day my coworker went home and I walked to the original Cafe Dumont for my mandatory beignets, which were delicious. The cafe was outside, covered and with fans, but still so hot. I tried to walk around a little, but it was a feels like of 99, which was impossible for me. So I went back to my hotel room and watched the boats on the river for like 3 hours. I now know a lot more about boating in NOLA because I googled a lot of stuff while I was sitting there. Anyhow, it's nice to be home on my couch again, but glad that I had the chance to go! (Oh, and my upstairs neighbor looked in on the cats and Tigger didn't throw up once! Or she cleaned it up.)

Rainy row and raspberries

I pride myself on being weatherproof, and today was a good test of that. As I headed out to rowing the sky opened up and it rained. When I got to rowing, everyone was inside the garage there, and each person who came in was running and totally soaked. We stood around for a while, not sure if we were going to get out there, but after about 15 minutes coach said that it actually wasn't really windy, just raining. And we row in the rain. So, out we went. We were all immediately soaked and a little chilled, so there was no warm up, it was just 45 minutes of rowing back and forth in the area by the dock. We are finally set and not down to starboard, which is awesome. I'm still in the 2 seat, which I'm just fine with. There were a million blue herons, and at the end of the row there was this amazing rainbow. After I came home and took a shower, and it was so nice to be warm and dry when I was done.

My raspberries have gone crazy! I was at the garden over the weekend and they were starting to ripen. When I went back a couple of days ago there were so many that I had to go to star market and get a container to put them in - I got a 9 cup tupperware and filled it more than half way. And then I went back today with a different container and filled that. I bet I have about 10 cups of raspberries. It's so much - I think I'm going to have to make jam.