Training Tuesday: Just Jump

Week of July 1-July 7, 2013:

No weigh-in this week.  From random spot checks, I'm sitting in the same spot I've been in for 6 months, no reason to bore you by repeating it.   

Major changes from last weeks workouts:
The July 4th holiday derailed my week a tiny bit, I had no strength training on Thursday and no dam stairs session either.  I did a bonus hill repeat on Wednesday because of my birthday.  I added a lb to my Sunday pack.  I increased Tuesday's hike by 30 minutes and actually checked the weight on that pack.  I increased Sunday's hike by 1 hour and 20 minutes.  (a bit off plan due to a wrong turn).  I intend to do a write up on that park/hike soon.  Suffice it to say, it's a good thing I packed my compass! (and toilet paper)

Fun stuff from last week:  I actually had company for several of my mid-week workouts this week, which was awesome.  As y'all know, my birthday was on Wednesday and two friends joined me for the Dam hill.  My friend Sarah and her cute kid pack joined me for my Tuesday hike.  The squirrels were showing off for Avery, which thrilled her to no end.

Mommy, hiking is more fun when you can hold hands with your bestie!

Here is what the week looked like day-by-day:

Monday: 6 mile recovery run, avg pace 9:32

Tuesday: 1 hour strength training; 92 minute hike with 40 lb pack

Wednesday: Dam intervals.  (Ran 5.35 miles total)

Thursday: 6 mile crappy run, 9:05 avg pace

Friday:  Rest day

Saturday: 9.34 mile run, avg pace 9:25

Sunday:  5:20 hike at Great Seal State Park, 46 lb pack, 2142 feet elevation gain

Some pictures from this week's workouts

Mommy, stop posing and check out that squirrel, it's laughing at us!

More birthday shenanigans

It was a very wet hike.  Did I mention it's been raining forever in Ohio?

Major changes for next week

Mentally, I got tired this past week.  With the increasing length of my Sunday hike the day after my long run, I have decided an extra rest day is in order.  I am moving Monday's recovery runs to Tuesday, and taking Monday off.  Last week my diet was pretty terrible, so I will refocus in that area this week.  Looks like I will have company for Tuesday's hike again!  YAY!  I also have a 5K this Saturday.  I haven't decided whether I'm racing it yet, thoughts?

I'm still deciding on my fall half marathon.  Two of the ones I'm considering are the Quad Cities Half Marathon and the Boulder Half Marathon.  Both are September 22nd.  If anyone has another one that weekend they would like to recommend, please do!

Mentally, I'm cursing this whole plan to climb a mountain lately.  It could also be PMS, who knows.

How was your week last week????

Anyone else looking for a good race to sign up for? What qualities do you look for in your future races?

I think I need to take Avery's approach to workouts...anyone else want to join me?

Birthday Fun

So, I am a little late at posting about my birthday shenanigans.  I had busy birthday, followed by a busy Independence day, followed by a day dealing with my sick kitty.  Nonetheless, my birthday was pretty fun, to me, so I figured it deserved a mention on the blog.

We need to talk about what "fun" means Mommy.

Somehow, I convinced two of my friends to get up early and meet me at the Alum Creek Dam by 6:30 am on my birthday morning.  They both even showed up in running clothes.  They must really love me!  We started with a 1.5 mile warm-up at an easy-for-me pace.

Sarah may just love me a little too much.  :)

Then we jogged to the bottom of the stairs to begin the repeats.  Yes, that's right, I convinced two crazy friends to join me for my Wednesday Dam Hill Repeats.  We bargained on how many they would do with me.  We settled on 5x.  I was still going to do the full load of 10x, but decided I wanted them to still like me when this was done.

They loved it.  No matter what they say.

Of course, somehow they both did more than 5x.  Sarah did it 8x and Lynne did it 6x.  I did 11x, a bonus time as my "pinch to grow an inch" birthday repeat.  Then, I convinced Sarah to run 2.5 miles of cooldown.  I think Lynne did 1.5 miles before saying enough torture already!

See, all smiles!

Judging by the post-workout comments (and the talk of tight calves this morning), I'd say that I successfully pushed both of them a little out of their comfort zone and they are both stronger because of it.  LOL!  I may have actually even convinced them to come out and try it again.

But, I digress.  The best part was that even though I dragged them out of bed early for some crazy hill repeats, they showed up with cupcakes, candles, presents and hand sanitizer (to make eating said cupcakes a little less bad).  I love these people.

What every Birthday gal needs, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes, presents and hand sanitizer

They even brought candles!

Sarah even put up with my sweaty hugs with minimal complaints!

After my post-hill cupcake, I went home where my husband was waiting to drive with me to the car repair place to drop off my car.  I know, super exciting birthday, right?  Sometimes being an adult sucks.  My husband was grumpy because for SOME INSANE REASON he thought I was going to do FEWER repeats for my birthday.   I mean, seriously, does the man even KNOW me?

For some silly reason, his ire, after the emotional high of the birthday fun run with friends, made me cry on the way to to the car dealership.  I think he sensed that he screwed up because when I got in the car to drop him off at work, he asked how my run went.  My response, "it was one of my best birthdays ever until you made me cry."  Such a lucky man, he never has to guess with me!  HA!

Speaking of crying - Avery was NOT pleased when the fun car ride with Daddy ended with dropping Daddy off without her.  She full-fledged sobbed about it.  Wonder where she got that from?  I made an emergency stop at a playground to cheer her up.

Daddy, who?

 And then, we went to Tim Horton's so that Mommy could have a second breakfast...and Avery could have her we-left-the-park-and-drove-a-long-time donut bribe.  Mom of the year!

Mmmm.  Donut.

 Then we went to Marshalls and Avery got presents.  I'm not really sure how that works honestly.  For MY birthday, Avery got presents.  She definitely seemed to love this new puzzle/toy.

I'm too busy to look at you right now Mommy.

The rest of the day was fairly normal except I had to pick up Mark from work a bit early so that we could pick up my now-repaired car from the car place before they closed for the holiday.  On the way there he kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday dinner.  Since I'd eaten the extra birthday cupcake from this morning just before Avery woke up from her nap, food was the furthest thing from my mind.  He kept suggesting Red Lobster, but I knew I would pay for that during Thursdays run....

Long, boring story short, he convinced me to go for the lobster.  Avery was hilarious at dinner and wanted to high 5 everyone in our immediate vicinity.  I had lobster and coconut shrimp and dessert.  And, yes, Thursday's run was all kinds of awful.  Worth it? Probably.

For Independence day, I made more unhealthy food, and got my birthday cake from Mark a day late...but no candles.  This is the first week were I truly feel my diet had negatively impacted my workouts.  Birthday excuses are now over, time to shape up!  :)

So sad about the candle situation.

So, anyone else up for hill repeats?  They are lots of fun, honest!

Last thing, I need your advice!  Mark gave me permission to sign up for a half marathon as a trial race pre-Detroit as my birthday present.  I'm eye-balling the September 22nd weekend as the ideal timing.  Some of my initial race thoughts are all sold out already (I know, I waited a long time to do this).  Any suggestions for a good half marathon that weekend?  I am not opposed to travel.

Clear Creek Hike

One of the places for good hills in central Ohio that had been mentioned to me by several people (including random strangers) was Clear Creek Metro Park.  It has about 12 miles of trails labeled from easy to moderate to difficult.  Most of the trails are not loops, with some exceptions.

The trail map, for those interested.  Source

I wanted to focus on the difficult trails, but this was a brand new park for me, I was solo and it was about 1.5 hours just to drive there.  I needed a 4 hour training hike.  My friend Richard had a route he did in about 3 hours.  I followed his route and tacked on the Lake Trail loop and a bit of the Creekside Meadows trail at the end because I "wanted to see something pretty even if the trail is easy."

After the first big uphills, sweat is already flowing!

My route started with the Cemetery Ridge Trail.  The backside of the park map describes this route as moderate to difficult and says "Climbs about 700 feet through a woodland and connects to the Chestnut and Fern trails at the end.

I think it says that I'm mountain training that I got all excited about the "steep rugged terrain" signs.

What it should have said:  Climbs a tough 700 hundred feet all in the first 700 feet of the trail, then meanders along a service road looking thing along a pipeline that is mind-numbingly boring until connecting with the Chestnut and Fern trails at the end.  On the way in to the park, I thought I was lost as I kept seeing the following sights...

Such pretty yellow scenery!

Did I make a wrong turn?

Ummmmm....

All of those pictures were actually taken on the way back to the finish (i.e. after 3 hours of hiking and after my audio book ran out and when I was looking for anything to make the hike more interesting).

I have to admit, the scenic pipeline trail feature as part of "Ohio's largest Nature Preserve" was rather disappointing.  However, from a training standpoint, that hellacious first climb was probably worth every step. There was also a section thrown a mown meadow where the entire trail was at a diagonal step.  Unfortunately, you do have to do that on the mountain, so that was probably good training, even though it hurt on the way back after hiking for 3 hours with a 45 lb pack.

At the end of the Cemetery Ridge trail, I switched onto the Chestnut trail.  The park map calls this trail difficult, saying that it connects the western and eastern parts of the park trails with sandstone views and gently rolling hills.  I would say this was pretty accurate.  The part in the woods was rather pretty too.

Yay - more steep rugged signs!

At the end of the Chestnut trail, I added on the Lake Loop trail, mostly because the sign made me happy from a training perspective.  This was the first time I saw other people on the trails too!  I was going down a steep incline while they were coming up, and all I could think about was how tough that UP was going to be.

Woohoo!  more steep, and a lake to boot!

I took my first break at the lake at the end of the loop.  It was a rather pretty spot for it.  I stopped for 10 minutes, drank 16 oz of Gatorade, 8-16 oz of water, ate 6 squares of Cadbury milk chocolate with almonds chocolate bar and 6 gummy apple rings.  In hindsight, not enough calories, probably.  I also had to switch to music because my audio book ran out.

Very nice rest stop view.

After my break, I climbed away from the lake on these crazy uneven stairs - excellent training for Rainier - but really tough on my quads.  Imagine doing bench step-ups with a 45 lb pack.

This is good for me, right?

I then back-tracked the way I'd come.  Chestnut to Cemetery Ridge.  The 700 feet downhill at the end was a leg liquifier.  It did make me feel a LOT better about how I went up that on the way out though.  The pipeline section was mentally debilitating, not going to lie.  Music is not enough distraction for a pipeline walk.  My husband and I played with the map and think we have a way for me to get in the tough hill without walking the pipeline if I go back to this park.

By the time I was almost done with the pipeline section, but not yet starting the excruciating downhill, I knew I would be short of the 4 hours when I got back. Instead of coming back up that long downhill (which I considered), I decided to add on the section along the creek so that I could see something pretty after the long pipeline section.  I tacked on a portion of the Creekside Meadows Trail.  It is described as easy and flat.  It was, but I got to see the pretty creek and it was only 15 minutes anyway.

Definitely better than pipeline stakes.

When I got back to my car, I was still 3 minutes short of 4 hours, and I decided I didn't care.  In the end, I hiked 10.3 miles in 3:57:03 with a 45 lb pack.  (Of course, that weight included water, so it was probably around 42 lbs by the end).

I made use of the port-o-potty, and spurned the idea of my post hike protein bars.  I decided I deserved fast food drive-through on the way home.  Best McDonald's french fries ever.

Based on calories burned estimations, I burned somewhere around 2,700 calories during this hike.  Perhaps this explains why I couldn't stop eating all day on Monday.

Will I go back to this park?  Maybe to try the route Mark and I planned out.  I actually have a few other parks in that area that I have flagged for my longer training hikes though and may not need to return to Clear Creek again.  I think I'd like to stick with trying something new each Sunday if possible  We'll see.  I definitely need to find another audiobook before this Sunday's hike.  Any suggestions???  I need something not super cerebral so that if I miss a sentence here or there while navigating something tough, it doesn't matter.

Training Tuesday: Ecuador Summit!

Week of June 24-June 30, 2013:

Current Weight: 154.4 (Up the 0.8 lbs)

Total Lost to date (since September 2011): 66.4 lbs

I'm not going to stress about weight right now.  I may even stop reporting weight for a few weeks to stop focusing so much on it.  This weigh-in was after a day of non-stop eating that was a direct result of my Saturday-Sunday workout combination.  It is necessary to replace those lost calories, and my scale is going to fluctuate.  I need to stop stressing already!  Besides, I've decided it's all muscle anyway.  HA.

Major changes from last weeks workouts:  Added 2.5 lbs to my pack this week in the form of a full nalgene water bottle (to allow me to either drink it or dump it out towards the end of the longer hikes as necessary).  I also increased the long hike by one hour.  No Thursday stair session with Avery this week as I was beginning to feel run down.  This was the 2nd week in Mark's two week trip to Ecuador.  Mad respect for all the single moms with young kids out there.  I told Mark if he did not survive the climb, I was following him into whatever afterlife he went to and dragging him back.  Luckily, I was not required to follow through on that promise.

Ecuador???  Did I just say Ecuador?  Updates are in order.  The entire RMI team had to turn around at around 18,300' on Cayambe because the winds were too severe and conditions were too dangerous above 18,000'.  They got hit with storms on Cotopaxi as well, but never so severe that they couldn't summit.  My Dad and my husband both reached the summit at 19,348 feet.  It was a brutal climb and the weather conditions were punishing.  They actually had to take a different route down.  My husband confessed to having a panic attack once they were finally out of the crevasse field they climbed through.  I have asked him if he will do a write up for my blog, and he has agreed.  A sneak preview of pictures...

Mark and my Dad on the summit of Cotopaxi

One of the crevasses they had to climb through on the descent

Fun stuff from last week:  Mark came home on Saturday afternoon after two weeks in Ecuador!  I found a new babysitter when my neighbor helped me repair my mailbox after some punks tore it out.  More on that story later.

You will need a crowbar to separate us again Daddy.

Here is what the week looked like day-by-day:

Monday: 5 mile recovery stroller run, avg pace 9:59

Tuesday: 1 hour strength training; 60 minute hike with 34 lb pack

Wednesday: Dam intervals.  (Ran 5 miles total)

Thursday: 1 hour strength training; 6 mile recovery run, 9:23 avg pace

Friday:  Rest day

Saturday: 10.1 mile run, avg pace 9:30

Sunday:  ~ 4 hour hike at Clear Creek Metro Park, 45 lb pack

Some pictures from this week:

More chips Mommy!
(And by chips, she means chipmunks)

I really need to change my definition of fun.

This stupid trail just keeps going up!

I took quite a few pictures on my long hike with the intent of doing a write-up on hiking in Clear Creek Park, I will work on that in the next few days!

My birthday is tomorrow.  How will I celebrate???  By dragging my running wife to do the dam intervals with me.  Muwahaha!  Sucker!  :)

I turn 35 tomorrow, which doesn't really normally bother me.  Heck, half the time I tell people the wrong age when asked how old I am because I just don't pay attention to that anymore.  For some reason, the last couple of days, it's gotten to me.  Not because I'm old.  Because my sister was always 5 years younger than me.  She should be turning 30 this year instead of dying so young.  I can't really explain why this has gotten to me recently, it just has.  I hope I'll pull myself out of the funk soon and catch up on some blogging and other fun stuff.

Sometimes, missing someone is hard.

Again, no races for me as I focus on this whole mountain climbing thing.  I really hope my climb is easier than my husband's was!  (And it should be).  My friend Richard didn't get to summit Rainier this weekend because weather stopped them around 12,700'.  He says he still had fun though.  My friend Amanda completed her first 50 mile race this weekend.  Anyone else race or climb this weekend?

Training Tuesday: Heat will not break me!

Week of June 17-June 23, 2013:

Current Weight: 153.6 (Up the 1.2 lbs I was down last week)

Total Lost to date (since September 2011): 67.2 lbs

Still yo-yoing, but the range of the yo-yo is in smaller numbers by a couple pounds, so whatever.  :)

Major changes from last weeks workouts:  Re-packed my long hike pack so that it better balanced and cushioned.  What a difference that makes - the 43 lbs load didn't feel so awful.   I increased my short stair session with an Avery pack on Thursday by 5 minutes.  Switched up the location of my Sunday long hike, drove down South for some tougher terrain.  Wound up doing only 2.5 hours instead of 3, but worked harder for those 2.5.  My Monday recovery run was with the jogging stroller and Avery.  Oh what a difference pushing 40 lbs can make!

Fun stuff from last week:  I'm not sure if this is really fun, but I shaved off an average of 4 seconds per repeat on my hill intervals from the previous week, and that made me very happy.  My friend Richard joined me for my Sunday hike and we wound up having quite an adventure.  Met Team Superman at High Banks park for a picnic after my Tuesday hike.  This group will be running a 5K together supporting Dash for Donation.  Our fearless leader is the beneficiary of organ donation, and we call him superman. 

Up, up and away!!!

Here is what the week looked like day-by-day:

Monday: 5 mile recovery stroller run, avg pace 10:07

Tuesday: 1 hour strength training; 60 minute hike with 34 lb pack

Wednesday: Dam intervals.  (Ran 5 miles total)

Thursday: 1 hour strength training; 6 mile tempo-ish run, avg pace 8:45, 16 min Dam steps with 33 lb pack

Friday:  Glorious rest day

Saturday: 12.28 mile run, avg pace 9:28

Sunday:  ~2.5 hour hike at Tar Hollow State Park, 43 lb pack, 86*F

Some highlights in pictures

We saw lots of bunnies on the run people!  BUNNIES!

We saw squirrels, I called them kitties.

The water is even cooler when I'm not serving as pack weight.

Bullets of things to improve from last year's Humble Pie Post

• Lose 10 lbs.  0/10 done.
• Train with a heavier pack (Up to 50 lbs).  I am building up to this.  However, my heaviest pack last time was 37 lbs.  This weekend I trained with 43 lbs.
• Start pack training earlier. Done.  
• Longer sessions without a break.  Work to 2 hours consistently. Done.  More breaks in this weeks long hike due to the heat and getting lost.
• No Rest Step.  Done, although I came close to breaking on Sunday.
• Interval training. Even better this week.  Trainer says one more week at these intervals before making it harder.
• Asthma evaluation.  Done.  Upgraded my inhaler.  
• Tougher, more specific strength training.  In process.  Squats were with 45 lbs this week.

For those curious about Mark's climb in Ecuador, word is that they did not summit Cayambe and had to turn back at 18,300".  That is all that I know at the moment.  They still have an attempt on Cotopaxi on the schedule as far as I know.

This week will be more of the same.  I will be increasing my Sunday hike by one hour, while simultaneously increasing my pack weight by 2.5 lbs.  I will also be increasing my Dam Stair pack time by an additional 5 minutes.

No races for me on the schedule for a few weeks.  Anyone else racing that I can live vicariously through?

Another wake-up call

Sundays are my long hike days in my current training plan.  As of late, childcare logistics has required me to stick close to home and utilize High Banks Metro Park for these hikes.  I've been rocking it out.  18 min/mile is fast when you are hiking and wearing a heavy pack!

Today, I got another wake-up call.  :)

My friend Richard is climbing Rainier next weekend.  We ran 12.3 miles together on Saturday morning and went to breakfast afterwards.  We talked about how we hadn't managed to hike together yet, and suddenly Sunday came up.  He was planning to drive South to Clear Creek Park to get in some great hills for his last pre-Rainier hike.  My friend Deb who was at breakfast with us, heroically volunteered to be at my house at 6:30 am this morning to watch Avery so that Richard and I could go together, and try to get down there prior to the full 90 degree heat hit.

Wait.  What???

I drove, because I live farther North than Richard does, so he was arguably more on my way.  I brought my Hikes Near Columbus book with me to show him this hike I'd found down south that claimed to have 4200 feet of elevation gain (this is unheard of in central Ohio).  His immediate comment was "let's do it."

Wait. Say what????  

I kept demurring and indicating we could stick with the Clear Creek plan because this was his last hike pre-Rainier, and he insisted on trying the new spot.  So, after a brief stop for coffee and donuts, we drove to Tar Hollow State Park to look for the Logan Trail.

A view from our parking spot
Richard thinks this was the big hill we went up.

We were so excited to get going, that we saw a sign saying Logan trail and the requisite "red blazes" described in my hiking book and took off.  Straight uphill to start - alright!  Then it got dicey.  This trail dumped out by a pond with a slide and someone blasting music from a nearby lodge looking thing.  As we approached the lodge, two people came running out to block our progress.  We explained where we wanted to be, and they said that we were on private campgrounds.  We were both confused, because we were still on state park grounds, but okay.  They told us it happened a lot and promptly told us where to turn differently (practically at the trailhead).  Um, if it happens a lot, perhaps better trail signs are in order???  No, just me?

Maybe something like this?

We went back to the beginning.  On the way back, I took the hiking book back from Richard and read the directions.  Based on those, we hadn't even started from the correct side of the parking lot.  So, we went all the way back and tried to follow these directions.  Richard saw the Hempstead Trail sign (which was MENTIONED in the directions) and we took off.  Eager to get on the right track.  (We'd already been hiking for over a mile at this point).  As we crossed a bridge, I got uneasy, the directions said don't follow the downstream path that crosses the stream.  I read this aloud to Richard, but I think he misheard me.  About 0.6 miles down THIS path, I insisted this wasn't right.  It was pretty level and just too easy.  Plus, we hadn't passed the park road as listed in the trail instructions.

We stopped and looked at the park map we'd gotten from the park office.  It had all the elevation circles on it and was VERY HARD TO READ.  It did have descriptions and mileage for each trail.  Hempstead trail said 2.5 miles, family friendly.  Oops!  Not where we wanted to be.  Re-read the directions, it sad veer left at the Hempstead trail sign, not to get on the Hempstead trail.

Back to the start.  AGAIN.

If only Avery had been with us - "Go THAT way Mommy"

This time, I looked for exactly what the book described.  The actual trailhead was partially concealed by overgrowth and the front of the trail.  Words cannot truly describe it.  I really, really regret not taking a proper picture.  I promise to take one when I go back next time.

This trail started straight up.  We climbed OVER and UNDER trees.  It is rather hard to go UNDER a tree with a 43 lb pack on your back, just saying.  We went up for about a mile.  Parts of it were as steep as the Dam hill.  It was a BEAST.  I was huffing and puffing and trying not to die.  Part way up, Richard said we were taking a break when we reached the top of the hill.  I readily agreed.  We'd already hiked well over an hour with our added detours.

After our break, we proceeded downhill for even longer.  Footing was treacherous, and I'm wussy, so Richard had to hold back here.  We both kept lamenting that we weren't wearing PANTS instead of shorts because the brambles were CRAZY.  Single person trail is being generous in describing this trail.  Then Richard made the comment, "this is gaiter territory," referencing the gaiters we'll use on the mountain.  Wait.  I had those in my pack!  We promptly stopped and Richard I insisted I put them on.  They made a tremendous difference, but I still have scratches on my legs from before Richard thought of them.

Ouch!

After we went down this tremendous downhill and back up again, we paused to consult our map.  Based on what we could tell, we'd only finished one leg of the 6 leg trail, and we were already about 2 hours in to our 3 hour planned hike.  After some discussion, we decided to turn around, head back to the car and call it a day.  I may have been whimpering internally about this decision because that meant going up that crazy long downhill we'd just come down.  It. Was. A. Beast.  I thought I was dying.  Richard was killing it, and kept calling backwards to make sure I was okay.  He also called back that we were taking another break at the top of it.  I didn't argue.

After our break, we still had to climb over and under trees again, and this time, I made Richard take a picture of me for the blog.  I know, I totally failed as a blogger today from a pictures perspective.  In my defense, this hike was harder than normal.

Action shot!  Observe the Gaiters in use.

Both of our shirts were so sweat soaked when we finished that we could wring them out.  Ew.  Luckily, we'd both brought a fresh shirt.  I was so grossed out that I didn't even bother trying to do it on the sly, I flashed my hot pink sports bra at the campers who were staring at us as we took off our packs, and changed.  I even said to Richard, "sorry, you get to be flashed."  I know, I'm classy that way.

To add to my classiness?  I'd noticed that my car was low on gas on the way there and assumed we'd get it on the way back.  Things got dicey as the car said "approximately 13 miles to empty," and Google maps said the nearest gas station was 14 miles away.  I like to add a little excitement to my hikes.  At the same time, I was almost positive we'd passed a closer gas station. We turned off the air conditioning and the radio and prayed we wouldn't have to walk a mile to get gas.  LOL.  Luckily, I'd remembered correctly and we found a gas station with "8 miles to empty".  Also, luckily, Richard was perfectly willing to laugh about it.  He even bought me a Gatorade while I was filling up the tank.

It was a good day.  I learned a valuable lesson about how High Banks really does or doesn't prepare me for Rainier, and will definitely be driving South for the remainder of my long Sunday hikes.

Have you ever been lost on a workout??

Have you ever flashed innocent bystanders because of a workout?

Training Update: Cadbury is delicious

Week of June 10-June 16, 2013:

Current Weight: 152.4 (Down 1.2 lbs since last week)

Total Lost to date (since September 2011): 68.4 lbs

Major changes from last weeks workouts:  Back on schedule this week with no fitness testing and no vomit episodes to interrupt.  I added 5 lbs to my Sunday pack, I need to repack it to cushion the weights better for this week.  I added a short stair session with an Avery pack on Thursday for 10 minutes at the Alum Creek Dam stairs.  When added to my other Thursday workouts, this felt tougher than expected.

Stair session?  Pfft.  I added REAL climbing.

Fun stuff from last week:  Does it count as fun that my Wednesday intervals at the Dam were a lot better this time around???  (I actually ran all 10x!)  I set up the bike trailer so that I can take Avery on bike rides for fun.  Tried it out on Wednesday and she liked it enough that she didn't even really want to play at the park we stopped at.  My trainer has moved to his own facility and we're still figuring out how that will work with Avery for my strength training sessions.  She has decided that means she gets to workout too.  On Tuesday, she copied my Bosu push-ups.  On Thursday, she copied this...

You want me to do what now???

Here is what the week looked like day-by-day:

Monday: 6 mile run without HR monitor, 9:22 min/mile avg.

Tuesday: 1 hour strength training, 60 minute hike with 36 lb pack

Wednesday: Dam intervals.  (Ran 5 miles total), 6.5 mile bike ride with trailer

Thursday: 1 hour strength training, 6 mile tempo run (3 miles @ 8:30, 8:54 avg)

Friday:  Glorious rest day

Saturday: 14 mile run, 9:22 min/mile avg

Sunday:  3 hr hike at High Banks, ~44 lb pack, boots, 1 break, 1 stop to adjust pack

My post-hike indulgence.  I did decide to remove the wrapper first.

Bullets of things to improve from last year's Humble Pie Post

• Lose 10 lbs.  1.2/10 done.
• Train with a heavier pack (Up to 50 lbs).  I am building up to this.  However, my heaviest pack last time was 37 lbs.  This weekend I trained with 44 lbs.  It. Was. Tough.
• Start pack training earlier. Done.  
• Longer sessions without a break.  Work to 2 hours consistently.  Done.  This past weekend during my 3 hour hike, I took one break at the 1:45 mark.  I also stopped briefly at 45 minutes to re-work the weight in the pack so that it wasn't digging into my lower back.  In line with my goals, I took no nutrition or hydration at that 45 minute stop.
• No Rest Step.  Done.
• Interval training. Much better this week.  I will do one more week at these intervals before increasing it.
• Asthma evaluation.  Done.  Upgraded my inhaler.  
• Tougher, more specific strength training.  In process.  We had to lighten a bit on Tuesday because of my recovery from the vomit bug.

I am considering several places to hike that are a bit more of a drive for me than High Banks that have even more elevation changes.  I won't be able to go to these location really until June 30th.  But, they are on the menu to try out!

During my Wednesday intervals at the Dam, I met a lady there doing workouts with a pack.  Turns out - she was training for Rainier.  Her climb was over the weekend, I hope it went fantastic!

How was everyone else's week this past week???  Anyone race?  I know my friend Sarah completed a half iron man.  (How awesome is that???)  Anyone else?