<p>Might try cycling with the Cascade Bicycle club. My friend just loves it, and it would be great to look forward to. Thought about kayaking too, but we have one tippy, scary kayak, and a cumbersome one full of spiders. My husband was going to build me a wooden one, Pygmy kayak, that is stable and fast, but who knows when that will happen.</p>
<p>We all have to get out there before the rain starts up!</p>
<p>3.8 miles with 20 min of running, then planks and other stuff.</p>
<p>1/2 hr rolling hills run.</p>
<p>Well the week off experiment didn’t last. Had to climb back into the saddle today with 45 minutes of AlterG. Addicted.</p>
<p>Hike #3 in the books. Mt. Willard. Legs are shot, but it lived up to it’s billing as one of the most spectacular summit views in the White Mountains. Glad I had the good sense to pencil in a nice short hike for the third day. 3 mile round trip with about 950 feet of elevation gain. That was concentrated over about a 1 mile stretch, so it was actually a pretty steady climb.</p>
<p>Stayed awake for the drive home. Showered off the sweat the DEET. Now it’s time for a massive dinner salad with granny smith apples, parmeggiano cheese, and salami. More later.</p>
<p>I had a blast. Camping was fun. Dinners were good. And three days of hiking was quite a workout. Definitely a recovery day tomorrow.</p>
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<p>CJane: I couldn’t comment because it was just too hard to type on the tablet, but your hike in the Cascades looks fabulous! </p>
<p>The IT bands at the side of my hips is where I feel it hiking downhill, too. I guess I should thank my lucky stars. Most geezers complain of knee pain.</p>
<p>Keep me on the wagon, guys! Had 2 crazy days at work where I couldn’t exercise, and wound up eating two large brownies and going to Chipotle for lunch. Sigh. I’d been eating so clean – and now it’s triggered immense sweet cravings. I am staying strong, but it’s making me realize how much of a stress eater I am and how much I relied on sugar to pick my energy up. Hopefully 2 clean-eating days will “detox” me. But feeling so sluggish!</p>
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<p>Hah. All I did was drive to restaurants! I picked a campground that is in the hills about 5 minutes from N. Woodstock & Lincoln, NH. Not a culinary oasis, but it’s enough of a year round skiiing and leaf peeping area that there are plenty of restaurants.</p>
<p>Actually, I could cook at the campsite. I have a two burner propane stove, so something like sauteed salmon would be easy to do. Except that I was dog tired by the time I made it back from hiking. I used the stove to make coffee (and the cooler to keep my half n’ half cold!)</p>
<p>You’ve got this down, iDad. Hiking has become second nature, pardon the pun. And camping now, too. Your work has paid off.</p>
<p>Glad you had a great time, iDad. What a neat thing to do.</p>
<p>Ohiopublic- LOL. Welcome to my world.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- Chipotle is actually one of the places I can eat OK. IF (big if there) I do a bowl and stay away from rice, sour cream and cheese. It’s a paleo compliant meal except I do the black beans. And no chips (another big maybe for me). Hang in there. Everyone has slips- BIG slips. You will get back on track.</p>
<p>181.3 miles for July. Got caught in the rain tonight. No big deal except I was worried about my earphones, but I think they are fine.</p>
<p>PG, those things happen. No one is perfect. While “dieting”, I have had beer, restaurant meals and desserts (shared, for the most part), milkshakes made from gelato, you get the drift. It happens, whether as the result of stress or just wanting to eat it. We’re human. That’s an improvement over my prior life of stress eating which included regular visits to fast food drive thrus, a dozen donuts over the course of the day, and an entire Sara Lee coffee cake. So, I have to say I view your stress eating as amateur hour. 
Pick it back up tomorrow. You’ll feel better then. </p>
<p>And sorry to ask…but what is so bad about Chipolte? I’ve never eaten at one but it has a reputation among my daughter and her peers as good, healthy, inexpensive Mexican food. Of course, we’re also fans of the 1600 calorie Cheesecake Factory guacamlole. </p>
<p>iDad, glad you’ve returned from your hiking adventures. Sounds like a great trip. I like the idea of restaurant food instead of dragging everything along with you (from the woman who’d be in charge of the planning and packing).</p>
<p>Exercise today: 3 miles on the treadmill. Too humid for running outside. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.</p>
<p>MOWC, your 180+miles boggles my mind! I was thrilled with my July goal achieved of about 25% of that! </p>
<p>Love Chipotle, but try to make it a rare treat. When I go I do a 1/2 bowl, 1/2 salad - so some rice , but more lettuce. Light on the chicken, Black beans , the hottest salsa , corn, more lettuce and I can’t go without the cheese and sour cream. Make two meals out of it by eating only 1/2 at a time. I’m sure it’s not stellar, but it IS delicious and other choices could be much worse. Though I love it, I pass on the salsa, guac and chips if I’m indulging in the bowl/salad.</p>
<p>Chiming in on the Chipotle ordering. This is how I do it:
double the meat – any kind
double the guac
double the spicy salsa
regular portion veggies, sour cream and cheese.
No beans, no rice, no tortilla.</p>
<p>I like a Chipotle burrito (or half a burrito, shared) with black beans and chicken. Tried the chips once, and I don’t know if it was just that batch or the norm, but they were too salty for me.</p>
<p>That sounds very good, CJane. I may have to try that. Does Chipotle have a drive thru? One of my New Year’s resolutions was to not eat at restaurants that had a drive thru. A dumb rule, but fast food was a trigger for me to binge so a avoidance is key.</p>
<p>Our Chipotles are NOT drive through - win!!! :)</p>
<p>"That’s an improvement over my prior life of stress eating which included regular visits to fast food drive thrus, a dozen donuts over the course of the day, and an entire Sara Lee coffee cake. So, I have to say I view your stress eating as amateur hour. "</p>
<p>I love it, though I assure you I can stress-eat like a trained pro! But I stuck to dance class tonight, and now I feel better able to say ok, tomorrow is a new day. Thanks for the encouragement!</p>
<p>I think it wasn’t so much the Chipotle but the portion control. I could have half and it would have been filling, but I ate the whole thing on auto pilot, know what I mean?</p>
<p>Here’s a [url=<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube]YouTube[/url</a>] of my hike up Crawford Path to the summit of Mt. Pierce yesterday. Pierce is one of several summits along a very exposed ridge above treeline, with Mt. Washington being the tallest – and visible in the distance on most of the summit vista photos here. Click high res and full screen for high quality photos…</p>
<p>This hike was right at my limit. It’s just stepping from one rock to the next for 3.2 miles and 2400 feet of elevation gain. And, downhill is no bargain – again stepping from rock to rock to rock.</p>
<p>I actually passed somebody on the way down. A couple of geezers who had started late, turned around, and were making slow progress.</p>
<p>So I went in to workout at 10:30 this morning… closest person in age to me was probably about 40 years older than me </p>
<p>I did some clean and jerks this morning and one of the older ladies made the comment that she was watching me in the mirror and thought I was going to pass out when I took that weight over my head.</p>
<p>Busy day, but a rest day from the gym. I am definitely feeling yesterday’s side lunges. </p>
<p>Son and I stopped for Chipotles takeout. I had a chicken and spicy black bean burrito bowl. I ate about 3/4 and it was enough. tasty but salty.</p>