Weekly Log: 4.4.16 - 4.10.16

Monday - 0 miles

8:33 of planks (Elbow - 4:37 / Straight left arm - 1:09 / Straight right arm - 1:20 / Straight arm - 1:27)

Added another 30 seconds to my plank PR.  Whoa!  A good way to start the week.  It was snowing in the AM but clear skies at lunch allowed me to go to lunch yoga.  It began to snow again when I left the studio and it continued the rest of the day making for a shitass commute home.

Tuesday - East Providence, RI - 2.3 miles

8:33 of planks (Elbow - 3:29 / Straight left arm - 1:02 / Straight right arm - 1:20 / Straight arm - 1:17 / Ebow - 1:25)

Oof.  Planks were a lot tougher than yesterday.  Guess that PR wore me out.  There was a good amount of snow up in Providence so I brought the microspikes and went over to the 10 Mile River bikepath at lunch.  The spikes proved to be overkill and the snow just clumped up in 'em.  I pocked them after a mile and did another couple miles of walking on the path and in the woods.

Wednesday - East Providence, RI - 2.8 miles

Went for a cold and windy walk along the East Bay bike path.  Sure doesn't feel like spring!

Thursday - 0 miles

8:33 of planks (Elbow - 3:11 / Straight left arm - 1:05 / Straight right arm - 1:23 / Straight arm - 1:53 / Ebow - 1:01)

Friday - 0 miles

6:00 of planks (Elbow - 2:.31 / Straight left arm - 1:01 / Straight right arm - 1:17 / Straight arm - 1:11 / Elbow - 1:01)

Saturday - Charlestown, RI - 1.9 miles

I took the dog out for a walk in Carter Preserve.  He was a spazz out there at first but he calmed down and we enjoyed the stroll in the woods.

Sunday - 0 miles

Weekly Mileage: 7.5 miles
Year to Date: 162.1 miles

And with this six weeks of no running has come to an end.  The leg feels okay so next week I'll begin to work some running into my walks, though I'll still be mostly walking to begin things.

South Carter and Mt Hight - March 20, 2016

This was the second hike of a weekend trip to the White Mountains.  The first hike was a fun trip to the Hancocks with my friend Rob.  This one would be a solo affair.  I had originally considered attempting Mt Isolation however upon reflecting it seemed like too much.  It would have been 14 miles round trip and I had a five hour drive home afterwards.  Plus there was word of a snow storm hitting RI at some point in the evening so I didn't want to linger too long in NH.    After pouring over the map the night before at my hostel, I opted for a shorter hike.  I decided to head up the 19 Mile Brook trail and summit South Carter.  Based on how long it would take, I could also head over to Mt. Hight as well before coming back down.

I got an early start and was on the trail by 7 AM.  At first it was mostly dirt and I barebooted.  There were plenty of icy patches but most were easily avoided.  At 3/4 mile I decided to put on the microspikes for a tricky ledge section but I left 'em on - should've removed them as there was plenty of dirt over the next mile.  By the time I turned onto the Carter Dome Trail at mile 2 it was mostly ice/snow and the spikes stayed on.  There was a tricky water crossing on this trail and one tough ice dam to climb over but otherwise the trail was easy going.

Nice bridge set up to cross the 19 Mile Brook

Frozen beauty on the water

Mt Hight featured the only real steep/snow of the day

The trail leads up to Zeta Pass and after a short break I made the quick trip to South Carter.  There are no views on South Carter.  It's totally forested but it's another 4k checked off.  I arrived back at Zeta Pass with plenty of time left so it was an easy decision to head up to Mt. Hight.  The trail up to Hight was much less traveled and the snow was much deeper.  The trail itself was steep and between the grade and the snow it was slow going.  It was only about a 1/3 mile of this climb and then the trail opened up to the bare summit of Mt. Hight.

Northern presidentials in the background

Enough snow on the summit to still feel like winter

Mount Washington

Hard to tell but the brook was a great mix of churning water and ice

Incredible 360 views on Hight and I hung out a while and ate lunch.  Then it was a quick trip back down to Zeta Pass.  The last four miles were an easy grade and I finally saw other people for the first time.  I probably passed about 30 people heading up on the way down.  Towards the bottom I encountered some folks a good mile into the trail who were clearly not expecting so much ice.  Sorry folks, still too early!  This was a fun hike and I covered the ten miles in just over five hours which I was happy with.  The drive home wasn't too bad and the snow never really showed up that evening.

This was NH 4k #33 for me.

Weekly Log: 3.2.8.16 - 4.3.16

I'm feeling pretty good about where I am fitness wise.  My stress fracture is healing nicely and while I'm not going crazy with the exercise I am keeping busy enough to not feel like a lump.  A couple more weeks of not running and then I'll be able to pick it up again, however sporadically.

Monday - 0 miles

8:07 of planks (Elbow - 4:04 / Straight left arm - 1:05 / Straight right arm - 1:23 / Straight arm - 1:35)

BOOM!  New plank PR of 4:04!  It's such a mental thing.  We've bumped up to 8 minutes of straight planking this week and I have a feeling it's gonna be tough.  At lunchtime, a good Yoga session to start the week off right.

Tuesday - East Providence, RI - 2.6 miles

8:07 of planks (Elbow - 3:05 / Straight left arm - 1:02 / Straight right arm - 1:29 / Straight arm - 1:52)

Ooh, it's tough to get to 8 minutes of planking in just my four standard moves.  I was hurting by the end of the straight arm but I got it done.  At lunchtime it was very windy and surprisingly chilly outside.  The walk did me good though.

Wednesday - East Providence, RI - 2.7 miles

190 push-ups (standard/military/wide) 30/30/40/35/25/30

Feeling crappy this morning with a sore throat so I abandoned the planking and went with push-ups at the office.  Felt pretty good even though it's been a while.  Then I went out to the East Bay bike path for a nice walk.

Thursday - Seekonk, MA - 2.2 miles

8:05 of planks (Elbow - 3:21 / Straight left arm - 1:22 / Straight right arm - 1:34 / Straight arm - 1:48)

More planking torture.  I had to stretch the time on the side arms to give myself a chance at doing it in four moves.  It's going to be rough when the time keeps going up.  At lunch I went for a crazy windy hike in Caratunk.  It was a beautiful day but the wind was definitely intense at times.  Plenty of downed trees on the trails.

Friday - 0 miles

8:03 of planks (Elbow - 2:50 / Straight left arm - 1:23 / Straight right arm - 1:29 / Straight arm - 1:39)

Finished off the work week with another round of lunch yoga.

Saturday - 0 miles

Sunday - Exeter, RI - 7 miles

Crazy weather with fat snow flakes in the morning followed by sun followed by more snow and then more sun.  I went for a long two hour hike in Arcadia in midday.  There was enough snow to be lovely but it was colder than I anticipated.  Luckily I brought some cold weather gear which made the hike enjoyable.

Weekly Mileage: 14.7 miles
Year to Date: 154.6 miles