Swam a mile again!

I decided to try getting up just an hour early to go swimming today, and it worked really well! I got up at 7, fed the cats and made coffee and oatmeal, and drank a little of the coffee. I had a 7:30 reservation at the pool and decided to drive because it was 45 degrees out. I got in the water at about 7:25 and swam until 7:59 with only a couple pauses when I looked at my watch or swallowed a little water. According to my fitbit, I swam 1804 yards, 66 lengths at a 2'13" per 100 yard pace. I got my heart rate up for 69 minutes and burned 256 calories.

Today I had to share a lane. I started with this guy who definitely swam faster than me, even when doing the breast stroke. That's OK, it keeps me humble. When he left this woman came into my lane, and we swam about the same speed, which was OK. 

I worked on my breathing, and not turning my head so much when I breathe. To do that I practiced looking straight down. I also practiced extending my arms as far as possible. I emailed the Y to see if I can take some swim lessons, which I think would help with my technique. 

Swam a mile!

Today for the first time I actually swam over a mile at one time! I'm pretty excited about it - it's definitely not something that I would have ever expected that I could do. I went to the Y at my lunch time - it was so nice out that I decided to walk there which took about 10 minutes. Google said that it would take 4 minutes to drive - definitely worth walking when it isn't too cold to walk back with wet hair, and I can spare the 12 minutes.

I reserved two half hour blocks because I really wanted to try to get to a mile - they allow 6 people in the pool at a time, so you only have to share your lane with one other person. But, today I got my own lane, which was exciting. The weird thing is that I have been the fastest swimmer every time that I've been there - not that I am swimming fast at all. Anyhow, I swam for about 40 minutes and my fitbit says I did 1950 meters! 

I went swimming twice last week, one time I even went in the morning before work! It was actually not bad, something that I think is worth doing on home days. It takes about an hour to go swimming for about half hour if I walk. If I leave here at 7:30, that's pretty doable to get home for 8:30 work start.

The lifeguard at the Y is a very cranky man who doesn't make eye contact and spends his time reading a book. One day that I was there I didn't realize that it was time to close the pool, and when I looked up he was blowing his whistle so hard that I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. I was like "what?" and he just blew his whistle more until I figured out that he needed me to get out of the pool.

I still went to the lake after work today, I did a little swim and then paddled around in my kayak. The juvenile bald eagle was hanging out by the dock eating and looking at the world. So cool!

YMCA

Today I joined the YMCA. I've been thinking that I should join so that I can continue swimming over the winter because I don't want to lose all that I've learned over the summer. I looked at a bunch of places with pools, but there's no comparison with the Y because #1 it's only a half mile away and #2 it's like 1/4 the cost of the other places with pools. I went for my first swim today and was reminded of why it's so cheap.

The current building was built in 1904, and it really looks like it! The pool is in the basement and there's a lion head fountain at the end of one of the lanes - no water coming out of it. The place is a labyrinth - you need a map to figure out how to get around it. Seriously, there's a map on the lady's locker door. I used it to find the aerobic room (and it was still tricky). There's an indoor track also - you only have to run 29 laps (without falling into the basketball court below - the thing is pretty slanty) to run a mile :)

Anyhow, it is actually pretty clean in the locker rooms, and the pool is also clean looking and 20 yards - so not much shorter than a typical pool. The last time that I went swimming in the pool at this Y, I could do about 2 laps without stopping. Today I swam for a half hour with only a few short stops! It was awesome! I felt so accomplished. I didn't count how many laps I did, but according to my fitbit I swam almost a mile. It was a little easier than in the lake, because every time I turned I could push off the wall.

As I was getting into the pool I was reminded of the last time I was there, when the lifeguard walked back and forth, following me as I swam - like I was in imminent danger of drowning. Today, I was all "that won't happen now!" and I got all overconfident. Which, whenever I do that, fate has a way of reminding me that I'm not all that. I got water up my nose getting into the pool and couldn't stop coughing. Some guy offered me water from his bottle and I actually drank some. He'd obviously been drinking from it - hope he's healthy.

Anyhow, the swimming part went well, I practiced my technique. I think I may need a few lessons to do better, which happily they offer. Anyhow, even though I smelled like chlorine after, I'm glad that I joined. I think it will be a good way to get some aerobic exercise this winter. 

Oru Kayak!

I've really been missing kayaking and paddleboarding for the last couple of years. The place that I used to belong to was on a reservation system during COVID, which TBH was a bit of a pain, so I didn't join. I've been seeing a lot of Oru kayaks at the lake, and they look so easy to fold and unfold, and small enough to fit in my little city apartment. I finally decided to go for it when they were on sale, and I bought a Oru Lake +. It arrived today, and I am really happy with the purchase! 

When it came I did a practice unfold and fold in the living room; which was definitely scary for the cats. Which, I was OK with, because I don't want them scratching it. Even the first time it was so easy to fold and unfold, and I assume it will get easier with practice. I then decided to take it to the Mystic River for a little outing, and it was super fun! 

I will say it's not the sleekest, fastest kayak. But, I'm not the sleekest/fastest person, so it was fine. It set up quickly, was super easy to get in the water, and you can actually fit a lot in with you since it's so open! I went up river for about a half hour and then came back - it was super fun. I even like the paddle (which, I feel like is so touch and go for many of these boats. 

After I got it out of the water, I had to figure out how to dry it and where to store it - that was the trickiest part. It came in a nice big cardboard box, and for now I have the box in my closet with the kayak in it so that the cats can't get at it. I think I could store it in the trunk of my car if I didn't have so much crap in it, but I would hate for it to get stolen... After I put it in the closet I filled a bag for donation - it's big enough that I felt like I needed to get rid of a lot to balance it out!

I'm really excited to take it to some areas that I haven't been kayaking before and to stretches of the rivers/lakes that aren't highly traveled!

Pickled at my first real pickleball game

Today was my first day actually playing pickleball in the correct pickleball format. I joined a pickup group that I found on this international pickelball scheduling website. It was fun! And, I have much to learn. My partner and I did win the first game that I played, and that was pretty much it. A few games my partner and I got no points. Boo. 

I had a few times that I missed the ball completely, but mostly I was able to hit it, just not always over the net. I had a few really good shots, and was part of a few good volleys, but also I missed a lot. The other players were nice - they were pretty much all women (only two guys out of 12), but they were unconcerned that I was bad, and a few were very nice. I'm signed up to join the same group again next week. When I looked at my fitbit report it seems like it was good exercise - I got my heart rate up for a decent amount of time, took over 5000 steps and burned over 400 calories! 

Pickleball

I heard on NPR that the geriatric set is all doing pickleball now, so I thought I would go try it out. I went to a beginner mixer in South Boston, just a couple blocks from where I used to to crossfit, and I have to say that I liked it! I haven't played a racket sport since college (when I got trounced by one of my suite mates at racketball every week), but I do have good hand-eye coordination, so I thought it might be fun. And it was! I wound up partnered with this kind of nerdy guy, but we won the first set and then no further ones. It turns out that I can hit the ball, but I have no control of direction.

Today I went and bought myself a racket and a bunch of balls, and I'm considering going outside to practice (except that it's like 90 out). My racket has a dragon on it - so GOT. The guy who taught the class told us about this scheduler thing, and I signed up to play a game on Thursday. My first official game.  

Mt. Monroe and Lake of the Clouds

I had a plan that I would hike Caps Ridge up Jefferson and then Mt. Clay and maybe Washington, and then stay at Lake of the Clouds, and hike down Ammonoosuc, take the Boundary Trail and do a 1.4 mile road walk to get to my car. Which is a hike that I would still like to do. Because that's not what happened. For starters, I completely overslept and woke up at a little after nine! It's a 2.5 hour drive to get up there, so I wasn't feeling optimistic about having the time to get to bread at 6 at the hut. So, as I drove up I planned and I thought I would try Ammo up, stake out my space at the hut, and then think about a summit, which is what I did.

The last time I was on the Ammonoosuc trail it was August and raining and freezing cold, and I had turned around at the falls. This time it was wet and much warmer, and I had a much better hike. Even though the Ammo trail is the easiest way to hike up Washington, it's not that easy. The first mile or so is delightful, with a gradual incline, a flowing stream, and stairs at any hard part. You get to this pretty pool with a waterfall and a few rocks, where I stopped and at a cheese sandwich on challah, and then it gets real. The rest of the trail is very up hill. At first, there's a long and unrelenting stair case that sucks the wind right out of you. Then it's a bit more fun at least, because there's some nice slab and fun little climbing bits. I got to the spot where I had stopped the last time, and thought how pretty it was, how nice for a sandwich (except that there were a bunch of noisy kids there), and kept going. It took me over an hour per mile, but finally I got to the hut, and was so glad to see it! 

I was assigned to room 1 and I staked it out to find the best place to sleep. Each bed had three bunks, the first two of which were too small to sit up in. The top bunk, though, was taller in two of the beds. I tried them out and decided on one where I could actually stand up! I put my stuff there, and headed out to decide what to do next. Washington was in the clouds, and I wasn't really feeling the 3 mile hike to hang out with a ton of people, so I did Monroe instead - it's only a mile and 500 feet of elevation gain. And, I was so glad I did! I actually had the top to myself for a while. It was not too cold out (though I did need my puff) and I watched the clouds roll through. It was pretty awesome - I sat there for about a half hour and admired the area. Then I decided that rather than going down the way I came up, I would do a loop and walk a little on Crawford Path. I thought it would be short, but of course it went up another little mountain - which I thought about skipping by walking through the grass, but of course I didn't go off trail, since the vegetation is so fragile up there. In the end, I was glad I went around, because the Crawford path is so nice! I went back to the hut and stuck my feet in the lower lake at first, but it was so crowded with screaming kids, that I decided to try the upper lake, which was much nicer. The upper lake you can wade into easier - fewer rock falls in it. So I stood in it up to my thighs, and enjoyed the view of Washington. I thought about going for a swim, but I only had one sports bra and didn't want it to be wet for the rest of the day.

The food at the hut was a huge disappointment - they had over spiced caned mushroom soup, the bread was a little burned, and there was a not very good dessert. Fortunately there was veg lasagne that wasn't too bad. I sat next to a through hiker, who said he hiked about 14 miles per day, but only 8 in the White Mountains. And again I was reminded that it is doable; it just requires persistence. After dinner I watched the sunset, and went to bed early and read a book.

In the morning, there was no coffee!! I was awake for a full hour before I got coffee, which made me really cranky. Breakfast was even worse than dinner - burned oatmeal with no brown sugar, dry eggs, and burned pancakes. When the coffee finally came it was watery and disgusting. I promised myself that I could buy some coffee when I got down the mountain. The food is usually so good at the huts, I don't know what happened.

Anyhow, I had packed my backpack before breakfast and as soon as I was done I headed out. The weather report was pretty bad, including possibly severe thunderstorms, hail and possible tornados! I did not want to be up in the mountains in that weather for sure. Also, I didn't really want to be driving in that weather. The hike down was nice - there was a bit of butt sliding and such, but the slabby parts of the hike were actually pretty sticky, even though they were wet, and the stone stairs are well made. I got down in less than 3 hours. As soon as I got down, I went to the cog railway station and got a cup of coffee, which was delicious! I got home around 1, and the storm arrived around 3 - I was so glad to be cozy on my couch. A good few days hike, and really nice to be up in the presidentials, but also a reminder that lake of the clouds isn't my fave hut.