<p>“The first mile and the last half mile have some long flat sections, so the middle mile and a half is climbing at a rate of 1200 feet per mile. That’s a sustained 21 degree pitch.”</p>
<p>That is really steep!! Very deceiving. You deserve some seriously good junk food after that.</p>
<p>“Oh. And these kids. Sheesh. In one group of young guys, one dude was climbing with a weight vest from the gym!
And, a couple of teenage girls, hiking with their parents, were climbing up to the summit in flip flops”</p>
<p>Doesn’t that just seriously annoy you? When I hiked St Helens, for the last 1,000 foot majorly steep climb that I was really sucking wind at around 7,000 ft, my husband had to stop and fill up his backpack with heavy rocks (I can’t say what I really want to, as it would be deleted, plus you never know when he might join cc). And then I watched some jerk walk down in tennis shoes, no shirt, no backpack, no WATER!</p>
<p>Frenchwoman report day one…
I am not a very good Frenchwoman. When offered lovely home baked brownies, I delicately took a knife and furtively cut one in half and nibbled on it.
Then, after a glass of wine, tore off the second half of the remaining half.
Then, after another glass of wine, ate the last quarter and scraped crumbs off the plate.</p>
<p>So I did at least stretch out the brownie…but the dogs just weren’t getting any
In fairness, in the past, I might have eaten the whole tray by 1 a.m. </p>
<p>Today is a brand new day. I will practice nibbling until I get it right I will also hope to high heaven that the hikes and sea kayaking in store offset my shenanigans, but above all else, I will have fun because, hey, I know what to do to fix any slippages.</p>
<p>My host and gf who makes a practice of never commenting on people’s weight met us at the airport and said “oh my god you’re so small” and then said, but as you know I never comment on people’s weight I am hardly small, but I don’t think folks have historically thought of me as petite and when I’m down in weight it occurs to them that I am in terms of height and proportion actually a large-framed petite person.</p>
<p>Headed to the market this am, then a late lunch with a newlywed pal whose off to Greece for a year on sabbatical, then a pub crawl. Think I’d better go walk a few miles right now :)</p>
<p>Kmcmom13, whoo hoo to people noticing! Better than the 5 pound party! </p>
<p>It’s hard to deny yourself on vacation. I ate so much on ours! Just have to keep being active. My MIL claims that vacation weight comes off as soon as you get back to your normal routine. I don’t believe it but that is what she says.</p>
<p>30 min run this morning - thought of Deborah and figured she would be running be the r than me!! I got it done, but I think I’m a better evening runner. 53% to my RunKeeper goal for the month- slightly behind where I should be.</p>
<p>Happy to report a good run! I was really nervous since my legs are so tired from my retail days on the concrete and the difficulty of this Charlottesville course which killed me in June. I ran alone today with no music and didn’t look at my Garmin at all. I felt strong and never stopped to rest or walk. 9 beautiful, hilly miles. 2 cross country teams (high school) were out there training and one young man said “Good job” to the old lady (me) chugging up the hill! Weather makes a HUGE difference. It was 56-60 with cloud cover today. In June it was mid70s and we were really dehydrated. </p>
<p>IDad. I love your hikes. Beautiful and you are doing so well. You’ve really figured it out.</p>
<p>That’s a “win” in my book! Learning how to stretch a single tempting brownie out over an entire evening instead of inhaling three or four them is good thing!</p>
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<p>Tell the truth… You geezered the poor kid, didn’t you? :)</p>
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<p>Amen. it was delightfully cool for hiking this week. I was chilly in shorts and a t-shirt a few times. Day 1, I was sitting on a big expanse of rock on Bald Peak, enjoying my summit apple, when an ugly gray line of showers came rolling towards me across the valley. I scurried into [url=<a href=“http://marmot.com/products/essence_jacket”>http://marmot.com/products/essence_jacket</a>] my fancy-pants ultra light 6 ounce rainshell <a href=“thank-you%20TJ%20MAXX”>/url</a> and scurried down into the trees so I wouldn’t be a lightning rod as a drenching shower hit. Would have been miserable on a hot day, but cool enough that it wasn’t too bad.</p>
<p>For Eisenhower, with predicted 35 mph to 45 mph winds above treeline, I opted to leave the shorts in the tent and wear long pants with a short sleeve shirt. Turned out to be a good choice.</p>
<p>Polar Stretch fleece pants and jacket are PERFECT for lounging around a tent or brewing morning coffee on a 45 degree night!</p>
<p>I don’t know if I’ve figured it out, although I was certainly glad to have a little experience for Thursday’s hike. I’ve now done enough scrambling up and down steep rocky bits that I’ve got a good sense of how careful I need to be and how to do it without stumbling all over the place. There were some spots near the top of Eisenhower where I would have been uncomfortable with the height/footing ratio last year.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’ve stretched my limits about as far as I can right now. I don’t think I would try a longer/tougher hike than Eisenhower right now. It took me 4 hours 15 minutes to get to the top and 2 hours 50 minutes to get back down to the car. That climb was about all I had. I’ve learned to stop, take the pack off, sit down, and eat an apple every 2 hours on the way up on these long climbs. Also, how to really throttle it back to keep the quads from burning. I did a lot of the steep bit on Eisenhower with a quick three-count between each step. I was able to hold my heart rate down in the 70% to 75% of my max range for almost the entire climb, except I did hit a max of 85% on the steep rocky bits up near the summit.</p>
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<p>Yeah. It’s crazy how unprepared for an emergency some people are. I’m sure hiking would be a lot easier without a backpack, but I play by the rules and carry the stuff on all the “10 essentials” lists – first aid kit, flashlights, extra clothing in case you get soaked or stranded after dark, etc. For these long hikes, I load up a full 3 liters of water, which is about 6 pounds – and try to drink constantly on the way up. I haven’t weighed my backpack, but judging what it feels like to press it overhead, I figure it’s probably in the 25 to 30 pound range, fully loaded. I figure that getting used to hiking with that weight is just part of the deal. But, I certainly wouldn’t be adding any rocks to it!</p>
<p>This was my tenth race today and a new PR. 28:38. I shaved off a little over half a minute from my next closest time. Cool tee shirt and bib. Nice day, though a wee touch on the humid side. A lot of people in great shape out there and, man, some of those 10K folks crossing that finish line boom, boom, boom, just like that. Sheesh! So fast!</p>
<p>Deborah- that is excellent. You would beat me in a 5K! Great time drops and I’m glad you liked it.</p>
<p>I didn’t geezer them since we were going in opposite directions. Otherwise I woukd have out the hammer down! (Um, yeah…). These were fast kids.</p>
<p>Speaking of fast kids… My sister got to meet WildCild’s fast girlfriend (the former Duke runner and now triathlete) and said she is adorable. Can’t wait to meet her in Vegas in a few weeks at half Ironman world championships! WC and the gf are doing a local Shorter tri up in the Poconos tomorrow so are staying at my sister’s lake house with them.</p>
<p>I had an awesome campsite. Literally perched on the bank of rocking burbling mountain stream. Set back from the parking. Had to walk across a little bridge to get to the site. Here’s the [YouTube</a> version](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube). Photos taken just after 7 am with the morning sun filtering through the trees. Still in the 40s.</p>
<p>Camping is a pain in the butt if you think of it as just a place to stay. The mindset has to be that the camping – the setup, the teardown, getting organized, staying comfortable – is the fun… Way more of an “adventure” than staying in a motel room.</p>
<p>Hot showers at the end of the day REALLY help!</p>
<p>Plus, it’s fun to walk around and check out all the blue tarp campers!</p>
<p>Deborah, that’s fabulous! Breaking 30 would be a dream for me - probably a dream that won’t come true , but that’s ok!! I have a race the next two weekends - will see how things go.</p>
<p>It’s fun being able to do these, isn’t it Abasket? Big races? Little races? Have you gotten to see a preview of either of the race shirts or anything? Flat courses, hilly courses? I still haven’t ventured beyond flat races, lol.</p>
<p>Deborah, thanks for asking. Yup, still running. Ran 3.25 miles today, not in 28 minutes! You are fast! I haven’t done a race yet, I guess I’m being chicken. But I’m running at least every other day, mostly on the trails around here because it’s easier on my legs, slower too but that’s not bad at this point. I played golf last week 5 times and walked 4 of them. So that is what I’ve been doing on my off days. </p>
<p>The great thing about running is how much stronger I feel. Yesterday I had to go out of town and run a million errands. I used to be tired but I felt great last night. I can tell that my arms and legs fit in my clothes better and even if my stomach isn’t flat, it’s not so flabby lol! I am not dieting but we went to dinner the other night and I ordered onion rings and felt awful, physically terrible and remembered that I haven’t had any fried foods in a long time. So that’s good. </p>
<p>Talked to H today about buying a treadmill so I can keep this up when the weather gets bad. He’s all for staying fit so he thought it was a great idea.</p>
<p>Up on the scale, darn! But I kind of knew this was coming. I wasn’t as eye-on-the-ball as I could have been over this past week. A few “cheats” I can handle, but not too many. And I hadn’t been getting my 11,000 steps in every day. Oh well, live and learn. </p>
<p>Have been slowly buying some new clothes – two outfits both in size S, so that was a good feeling when I had gotten rid of a bunch of L’s. 30 min stationery bike, 35 min run, 1 hr weight training. Signed up to try a Deep Water Running class – has anyone done that?</p>
<p>I think I burnt myself out a bit on running since I was trying to re-do C25K at the 7 mph (8:34 mph) pace, so I’m going back just to doing longer, slower runs. Today was 35 min at a 4.5 mph pace - which I know is slow, but I think I want to focus on the endurance and stop beating myself up over (lack of) speed, especially with these four 5K’s I have planned for the fall.</p>
<p>Pizza, we are all bound to have weeks that are off either due to do much of one thing (like food, treats, etc) or not enough of another (like time to exercise!!). Just pick back up - you k ow the drill!!</p>
<p>Congrats on the shopping trip! Something new will feel and look great! What is Deep Water running??</p>
<p>As a newlywed runner myself , I think your plan - especially in prep for your 5ks - is SMART. When you are at the starting line (IMO) you need the confidence that you can finish - more important than the time you finish!</p>
<p>Deb922, I notice how much stronger my legs are etc. at odd times. For n stance when I first wake up in the morning in bed, I tighten up my legs and can just feel a much more “solid” leg. No more slouchy, pouchy feelings! Now, I plenty of room for continued improvement but it feels under my control now.</p>
<p>deb922 , do you think you want to try a 5k???</p>
<p>Glad to see all of the 5K discussion. I decided last year that “running” (used here to include jogging/walking intervals) is a great grown-up sport – doesn’t need a lot of equipment, can be done on any schedule, is mostly solitary but also has a social element.</p>
<p>I have done three 5Ks and need to get another one on the calendar. My D keeps asking me when I am going to do a half-marathon with her and I feel a little like a slacker but I have no great desire to adopt that as a goal right now. Although the half-marathon shirts are really cool.</p>
