Have fun iDad. Sounds like a great outing.
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<p>We’ll find out. I don’t really know if hiking mountains in the snow will be my cup of tea or not. If I get there and the snow is six feet deep, I can always bail and do Rattlesnake Mountain on snow shoes – 1 mile up, 1 mile back – the trail starts directly across the road from Mt. Morgan that I’m planning to hike.</p>
<p>I just need to get out and try it. Then, I can better calibrate future outings. Logically, hiking in the snow should be a lot harder, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s easier because the rocks are buried.</p>
<p>In any case, it’s supposed to be sunny and 40 degrees, but windy. So the weather is good.</p>
<p>Can’t wait to hear about it!</p>
<p>I feel like crap. My nose looks like Rudolph and is raw and dripping. I despise being sick. I’m going to try a SMALL dose of NyQuil tonight. I love bed!</p>
Sweet dreams MOWC! 
<p>Hope you feel better soon MOWC. No fun being sick.</p>
<p>Running after dinner is stupid. To honor MOfWC’s today’s heroic deed, I ran 1.2 miles. It is a sin not to run every day when there is a treadmill readily available, so I decided to run at least that much on my non-running days. </p>
<p>idad, have fun tomorrow, but please be careful and come back in one piece. :)</p>
<p>MOfWC, hope you get better soon! I just heard that Boston declared flu emergency. [Boston</a> declares health emergency amid U.S. flu outbreak - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-declares-public-health-emergency-flu-outbreak-171322861--finance.html]Boston”>http://news.yahoo.com/boston-mayor-declares-public-health-emergency-flu-outbreak-171322861--finance.html) Please stay healthy, dear CCers!</p>
<p>The Boston news is pretty amazing. I read that there were 70 confirmed cases last year for the whole season. We’re still early into the season and have had 700 cases. Quite a few of those cases required hospitalization.</p>
<p>My son works in Boston and he’s taking precautions to avoid getting it - vitamins. I suggested that he get more sleep.</p>
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<p>Hah. If anything, I’ll wimp out and turn around early. Rarin’ to go. Gonna start out in a long sleeve tech shirt and my new EMS Power Fleece hoody. I like it because the hoody gives me a quick hat on/hat off option and lets me unzip if I get too hot. Pack is full of alternative and/or extra layers. It’s already upper 30s in Concord, so it should be downright balmy, even in the mountains.</p>
<p>Enjoy your hike, iDad! Look forward to the report.</p>
<p>Thanks, BB (and NM and iDad)! I don’t feel quite as awful today, but I took a small dose of some kind of daytime cold medicine so I do feel a little drugged. Managed 1.5 miles this morning- 55 degrees and very damp but it didn’t rain on me. My throat burns from the coughing. The streak continues! WildChild is just now getting his flu shot (today). Colds and flu are very bad for him because he has asthma and tends to go into breathing distress.</p>
<p>One of my co-workers is wearing a mask around the office. I don’t think that I’ve seen this in the office before.</p>
<p>MOWC, I’m not sure that sounds like the flu if you don’t have a fever. Could be a rotten cold, which I seem to have myself – deep cough, runny nose, general yucks. But no fever and not so bad that I can’t get out of bed at all – which my physician friend tells me would be the real deal flu in the news.</p>
<p>Mine is definitely not the flu. It’s just a cold. About 95% of my colds turn into bronchitis, and this one will not, so that’s all good.</p>
<p>2 1/2 layover in Houston. So I’m spending the time doing stretching, strength and planks. Didn’t get much notice from other passengers until I started doing idad’s famous single leg squats. Gotta keep going and resist the Houston News candy rack staring at me</p>
<p>You go ohiopublic! 
When I was doing pushups and planks on the beach near our hotel in HI, on the first day some people looked at me as if I was insane, but on the second day people stopped staring at me. “Oh, it is that crazy plank lady…” </p>
<p>Snowing like crazy in my neck of the woods. I’m glad that I did a lot of stuff yesterday! My new Brooks shoes in lovely Husky colors (I just have to replace the shoelaces with the gold ones) should arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed. I hope the snow does not mess up the delivery.</p>
<p>Somewhat worried about idad… I hope to hear great hike stories later today! :)</p>
<p>It’s really nice in NH today. 44 degrees here, maybe a few degrees lower in Concord. I’m sure that he’s playing it safe. You do that at this age.</p>
Did my weights today, back to my usual routine. I’m going to try a run tomorrow, hope nothing breaks.
<p>The lousy thing with colds is that they take longer to go away than flu . . .</p>
<p>Walk/ran with neighborhood herd this am. It was tough but did it. So dreading swimming lesson tomorrow. That’s the thing that really exhausts me most.</p>
<p>No need to worry. I stopped at Eastern Mountain Sports in Concord on the way back.</p>
<p>Hiking was fantastic. 40 degrees, sunny, but very windy. My suspicions proved to be true: other than dealing with the weather, hiking is easier in the snow than it is in the summer. All the rocks are covered and there’s a nice reasonably well packed path about 2 feet wide. Very easy to find the way: just follow the path. It’s still 2.2 miles up a steep hill, but the actual walking is like a dirt path, rather than placing each step on and around the rocks. I had the snow shoes strapped to my pack, but never even thought about putting them on. Just hiking boots with the [url=<a href=“http://www.kahtoola.com/images/product_landing_microspikes_new.jpg]MicroSpikes[/url”>http://www.kahtoola.com/images/product_landing_microspikes_new.jpg]MicroSpikes[/url</a>] for traction. Made it to the top (2.2 miles, 1500 feet of elevation gain) in under 2 hours and did the full 4.4 mile round trip, including a stop for coffee and almonds, in 3 hours 28 minutes. The only downside is that the rest break can’t be at the summit when the wind is howling. So I enjoyed the view, took a few photos, and headed down a bit to get out of the wind for my rest stop.</p>
![http://www.kahtoola.com/images/product_landing_microspikes_new.jpg]MicroSpikes[/url](http://www.kahtoola.com/images/product_landing_microspikes_new.jpg%5DMicroSpikes%5B/url){kind=link}
<p>All in all, my first shot at winter mountain climbing was easier than I expected. I don’t think I’d want to do a route with a lot of steep rock climbing, but a lot of the hikes I’ve done would be fine in the winter. I can think of several hikes I’ve done on particularly rough, rocky trails that would be MUCH easier in the winter.</p>
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<p>Thanks, BB. 
Details, hm, not a lot that was very unusual about my exercise routine. A highlight for me was, of course, getting to run with my daughter while she was here in December. I also ran on consecutive days a few times over the course of the month and no parts decided to stage a protest afterward, so I was pretty pleased about that. I’m <em>starting</em> to get the hang of the treadmill and do like it pretty well for intervals, but for a long run I prefer ground that doesn’t move.</p>
<p>I set a running mileage goal for 2013. It’s in the very reasonable range, and I’d actually like to exceed it by a good amount. So far I’m 1/26 of the way there. </p>
<p>May do a race in February or March or both. There’s one in particular that holds appeal, but I haven’t committed yet.</p>
<p>I’ve been very satisfied with the performance of my cold weather running attire (finally been making use of the hat) and recently added an additional wardrobe piece – a high neck, long sleeve, half zip.</p>
<p>Newton people: I was clicking away online earlier and saw Running Warehouse is liquidating some of their shoes right now.</p>