<p>It’s a hallmark of hiking shorts and hiking pants: zipper pockets. Wish I had used one of them for my phone the day I lost it in a snow bank on Lonesome Lake!</p>
<p>Actually, these shorts only have the two zipper pockets. The front and back pockets are just normal open pockets. I’ve used the zipper pockets for a folded trail map or a camera.</p>
<p>I’ve solved the lost phone problem. I now put my phone and my wallet in a zipper pouch that is clipped to a key ring attachment inside of a compartment on my backpack. The zipper pouch can’t fall out. I’ve learned – clip anything you don’t want to lose (like a Garmin GPS) to a ring on the backpack.</p>
<p>I have some catching up to do! Took our trip our west to the AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL state of Oregon - wow what an experience!! </p>
<p>To counterbalance the copious and frequent eating opportunities we had, I was able to get in a treadmill run at one of the hotels, two runs on the beach at Cannon Beach (omg, one of my most memorable runs yet - could have run for miles!) and miles of walking all over the place. </p>
<p>Will take some time later to read up on everyone’s “doings” of the past few days a bit later!</p>
<p>I went back to the knee strap this morning. I have been wearing knee sleeves but they get a little cumbersome after a while and they’re more of a pain to put on and take off. But they are more comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and they provide more support. They also don’t dig into your skin as much. The two types of sleeves both dig in but in different places so it’s nice to have a little variation. I brought the sleeve with me in my running bag. I haven’t decided whether to run with the strap or the sleeve today.</p>
<p>Weight progress is always good and I do agree that food is a bigger factor than exercise. But every little bit helps.</p>
<p>I looked at my GPS Watch on my desk at home this morning and was tempted to bring it with me. I usually only bring my GPS Watch when I plan to run outside. It’s 74 degrees and sunny here so it would be nice. But the plans are for 2-3 miles on the treadmill today and I’ll probably stick to taking it easy for another week. I got asked for tennis this week and declined. I think that playing tennis would set me back two weeks.</p>
<p>I’m making progress on assisted pullups. I can do six of them with 95 pounds of assist. Pullups are an incredibly tough area for me to get better at quickly. Pushups, dips, situps, obliques, squats, running, curls - I can build those up steadily. Pullups are just plain slow for me but I just keep slogging away at it.</p>
<p>DadII- I almost posted this morning that I predicted the 5 pound party for you today, but I got caught in a meeting and never posted! Glad I was correct! Congratulations! I know it is nice to see some results.</p>
<p>My clean(er) eating is paying off. Weight is lowest it’s been in about 5 months- not dramatically lower, but post-run (perhaps tiny bit dehydrated but it was only a 3 mile run) nice number on the scale. Less to carry with me in the races. I haven’t been perfect by any means with the eating, but a LOT better.</p>
<p>Hi all! I’ve missed you. We’ve been through two graduations, a visit from my mother, one vacation and a series of mini-crises of the household variety. But, I have been keeping up with the working out, kind of. This week I’ve done the normal walking, a bit of swimming, and running on the treadmill (3 mile sessions). I have not been as diligent with the weights and core, but I’ll get back to it. June is here along with ferocious heat and humidity. Blah, my motivation feels non-existent way too often. I haven’t gone back to catch up with the news, but I can see on this page that Dad II and Mof WC are deserving of cheers for moving their weight down. Yay!</p>
<p>Welcome back, PlantMom! This week has had its challenges here, too, but hey, I got in a good treadmill run yesterday. Planning on an at home workout this evening. It’s been encouraging to see everyone else’s reports these past few days.</p>
<p>Welcome back to abasket and PlantMom. I had my good Bi Bim Bap without rice again for lunch (the Thursday special at my Korean restaurant) and it was awesome. I had half a Lara bar for a snack mid-afternoon. Dinner was some packaged chicken curry that H heated up with some veggies added in.</p>
<p>Had a break down and ate a large portion of grilled veg and chicken for a free lunch. Practically skipped dinner and just completed Insanity plus additional dumbbells and pushups. </p>
<p>One additional benefit of doing the insanity is the different angles of stretching. My heel is a lot better now, either from that or stronger core. </p>
<p>yippee. 5 pound party for DadII and congratulations on a 5 month low for MOWC!</p>
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<p>Another glorious day of hiking in the White Mountains for me. Climbed the Wentworth Trail to the summit of Mt. Israel on Squam Lake (On Golden Pond), a hike I’ve had on my list since Steve Smith [wrote about hiking it](<a href=“Mountain Wandering”>http://mountainwandering.blogspot.com/2012/12/mount-israel-12712-on-sunny-seasonably.html</a>)last December. The geezer Olympic hiking team group (actually, it appears that the Olympic speed hikers have left the group) is hiking it on Saturday. But, with 31 people signed up, all hiking in a line, that’s more like a march, than a peaceful day in the woods!</p>
<p>Only saw two groups today and both were chatty – a grandpa hiking with two grandsons and a trio of older women. Long discussions of hiking with both groups added an hour to my climb, but I wasn’t pressed for time.</p>
<p>Pretty nice little hike. 2.3 miles up, with 1800 feet of elevation gain. Nothing particularly steep, but it was steady up, starting at the parking lot. And, the views from the top were as spectacular as advertised, with big panoramas of some very wild territory.</p>
<p>My physical fitness for these hikes has improved dramatically. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still breathing heavy on the uphill climbs, but my max heart rate was just 79% today.</p>
<p>Temperature was just perfect, ranging from 63 degrees to 72 degrees.</p>
<p>New shorts were great. No blisters from the new booties.</p>
<p>It was 1:45 in the car each way for me. About 15 minutes farther than the Mt Morgan/Mt. Percival trail, which is right on the way, right on Squam Lake. I used Mt. Morgan as in interim point to force the GPS to take me how I wanted to go – as long as possible on I-93. This trailhead is in the middle of nowhere. Several miles of dirt roads to reach it. </p>
<p>Had my now standard KFC boneless chicken “brunch” in the car.</p>
<p>This hike was about the same distance and elevation gain as Monadnock, but nowhere near as steep or rocky. Monadnock has the relatively flat first bit and then packs the elevation gain into a very steep mile. This trail was more gradual, but consistently uphill, i guess.</p>
Planning on an at home workout this evening. It’s been encouraging to see everyone else’s reports these past few days.</p>