<p>Are the yellow paint marks your trail guides?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t love climbing over those rocks, Idad, but I think I could handle it. The ladders, on the other hand, would have done me in. If it were wet–forget it. The cave wouldn’t have excited me either. Think I’ll cross that trail off my list. I want to go back in the fall and do Mt. Chocorua.</p>
181.5 miles for the month. Second highest this year after April’s 188 (long runs leading up to Pig Marathon). Gee- hate to end on an uneven number. I should go out after work and run a half mile! Uh-no. 7.6 this morning with our worst morning temps thus far- 78 and 88% humidity at 5:30am. Lovely. Took the handheld so felt a little better than last Tuesday. It was still tough. I don’t know how these longer Tuesday morning runs are happening, because I sure was doing some talking to myself about turning around at a mile! Done.
<p>The bunny is probably ready to drain a small lake after this month!</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>To provide some perspective - I’m up to 410 miles for the year. My goal is 500 but I’d guess that it shouldn’t be too hard to get to 600 miles as I work more on distance after the 5K.</p>
<p>BTW, for 181 miles/month = 45 miles per week which is a lot!</p>
<p>MOWC…Thanks to your suggestions D2 is taking her hand held water bottle on her long runs. She did 18 miles in the pouring rain on Saturday morning. She doesn’t mind the rain during this heat wave! Never seems winded or stiff except for the one hip. Has been icing and taking ibuprofen so that is helping. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Yay, NMinn. Glad your daughter is doing well with the long runs. The handheld really helps.</p>
<p>BCEagle- I run 41 mile weeks (give or take a fraction or so). July had 31 days, which helps. </p>
<p>I am 36 miles ahead of the bunny but he’s still running! It sounds like a good lead, but it really isn’t if you think about how easy it could be to miss a few days due to illness or injury. 38.5 mile weeks is what it takes to hit the 2000 miles for the year. I’m trying for a little cushion.</p>
<p>Bromfield:</p>
<p>The [url=<a href=“http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2726/4106134817_667e28f0d9_b.jpg]ladders[/url”>http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2726/4106134817_667e28f0d9_b.jpg]ladders[/url</a>] weren’t bad at all - at least going up. They are solid wood, bolted to the rocks, and with good secure hand holds all the way, so even if your foot slips, you could hang on. I much preferred them to climbing a ladder on the side of a house. Of course, I did NOT look down. The transistion over to the third ladder is a little big of challenge, but it’s done with a good secure hand grip. The thing I have to be careful of is that a backpack changes the center of gravity, so you have to be aware of that weight. Although, it’s nothing compared to the extra weight I used to lug around! I don’t mind rocks where I have a hand hold. I didn’t like these because a foot slip was going to be a problem.</p>
![http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2726/4106134817_667e28f0d9_b.jpg]ladders[/url](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2726/4106134817_667e28f0d9_b.jpg%5Dladders%5B/url){kind=link}
<p>Anyway, the middle aged couple I was talking to on the trail did the bypass. I should have taken their cue! My impression is that this is an easier hike than Chocorua. I thought the trail up from the parking lot to Morgan was great: steep bits alternating with some fairly level traverses to give the legs a little recovery. I might just do Morgan up and back next time, because the whole loop ended up being five hours (I’m probably the world’s slowest hiker), which is a pretty long outing.</p>
<p>I’m definitely getting a little more agile on these trails. I ordered trekking poles, which would have been a big help yesterday as wet and slippery as everything was. Next step is to address footwear. These North Face trail running shoes are just not solid enough for the roughness of the terrain on these trails. Basically, really rugged running shoes with hiking treads, they are perfect for state park trails, even rough ones, but the rocks are tearing them to pieces.</p>
<p>VeryHappy: </p>
<p>Yes, the yellow paint marks on trees and rocks show the trail. Ideally, you would like to always be able to see the next one up ahead. And, if you go for a while without seeing one, it’s a good idea to stop and evaluate the situation.</p>
<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>I don’t know how you do it! Standing ovation from me for your ability to go out and run day after day like that. I hear ya on “the first mile”. It’s like that for me on every workout I do. I think that’s why I like the A. Cosgrove warmups so much. Just follow the exercises on the list and by the end, I’m over that hump where everything is still creaky and I want to quit.</p>
<p>Definitley not an idad, hops_scout or Mike Boyle-approved workout today</p>
<p>Warm Up
2 rounds
250 m row
Samson stretches
pass throughs
25 ab mat sit ups
OH squats with PVC
Leg swings</p>
<p>Bunch of back squats, starting at 40% and going to 95%. Again, hard to do the formula when you don’t have a current max. Bar racks kind of shaky, self-absorbed instructor catering only to his favorites, leaving the clueless spotting the even more clueless. I can maintain form on this exercise, so I wasn’t risking injury, but the whole set up wasn’t pretty.</p>
<p>Then 10 OH squats with 65 lb. barbell, followed by 1 wall ball (14 lb.), 9 squats, 2 wall balls and so on until you reached 10 wall balls.</p>
<p>Here I was NOT comfortable with my form. Flexibility issues and fatigue made it hard for me to go low and hold the bar overhead correctly. I dropped down to just the 45 lb. bar, which still wasn’t easy.</p>
<p>You are an animal!</p>
<p>The only time I do overhead squats, I do them with just an empty 10 pound bar as more of a core challenge, posture kind of exercise, rather than a heavy lifting exercise. It is almost impossible for most people to maintain any kind of form with a loaded overhead squat. Even with a light bar or a broomstick, it’s a tiring exercise for me. I don’t think I could even do them with a 45 pound bar.</p>
<p>I read this every day for inspiration but haven’t posted yet. I’ve been trying to walk/run this summer but I have to admit probably more walking than running. Usually walk 3.5 miles on a trail, trying for 5x a week. </p>
<p>Anyways today I ran 14 minutes, walked 3, ran 5, walked 3, ran 5. Felt good too! </p>
<p>Small potatoes here but I’m pretty happy.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of OH Squats because a lot of people don’t have the shoulder mobility to do them correctly. I am definitely one of those people! 
</p>
<p>What are Samson Stretches?</p>
Deb922, sounds like it was a good workout. 
Are you by any chance wanting to do a 5K? Would C25K or Hal Higdon’s training program hold any appeal? I liked going through the C25K program (as measured in minutes) because it had the workouts all laid out, and when I had gone through the 9 weeks I felt I had accomplished something. Now I’m working on preparing for an upcoming 5K event. BC is the one who suggested Couch to 5K back when, and I think I got started that day, lol.
<ul>
<li>With C25K you’d probably start somewhere in the middle, I’m guessing, but with Hal Higdon it seems like you might want to go from the beginning because that gives a nice gradual way to get to 5K. Am I making sense? With C25K, I went through the program in 9 weeks, but I definitely still felt I need more time to be ready for a 5K. If you were to jump in, at say week 5 or week 6, there’s just a few weeks and you’re at the end of the C25K program.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m convinced that Jane is strong enough to benchpress ME!!!</p>
<p>Welcome, Deb922. Keep posting. We are all levels and all about different paths to health and fitness.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not small potatoes in my book! I’m only good for about 2 minutes of running and it took me over a year of walking to get to that point!</p>
<p>Your 93% HR in hiking is comparable to me running 8:30 miles.</p>
<p>I did the couch25k last year. Got up to 25 mins running and then got injured. Wasn’t timing myself this year because I didn’t have a good way to time myself. Today I set the stopwatch on my phone, not the best way to time myself but it worked. Going to work up to longer times running without walking. I think I need to break down and buy a sports watch. </p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement. I need it.</p>
<p>If you want to be on this thread, you will need to immediately purchase a Garmin GPS watch, some shorts and shirts (tech fabric only) from TJMaxx and a NuuMuu running dress! :)</p>
<p>Is that a requirement for guys too?</p>
<p>I got taken to lunch to a frozen yogurt joint - what a stupid way to eat lunch! I was starving an hour later, so todays snack was what I normally have for lunch in a smaller portion. Today is just a KB/burpee/plank day.</p>