Mt. Waterman is one of our favorite place to snowshoe in L.A. Next weekend, the GM told us, the ski lifts should be fully operational. That will mean that we can buy a ticket to the top, rather than hike up the fire road. Mind you, the fire road is a perfectly good hike, particularly on snowshoes, but I’m looking forward to being at the top with energy to explore up there. I guess now I’ll have to pay more attention to the skiers, though, to make sure I’m not in their way. That wasn’t really an issue when the lift didn’t work.
Category: Health and Fitness
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Nesting
I’ve been doing a lot of cooking over the past week, in spite of (because of?) being sick. I made homemade chicken soup, although I used boxed vegetable stock, and I made slow-cooker BBQ pork, although it also relied on a store-bought ingredient–the BBQ sauce. (Big fan of KC Masterpiece, BTW)
Last night was our usual grilled salmon–marinated briefly in Worcestershire sauce and topped with Old Bay or the generic equivalent–cheesy mashed potato casserole, and broccoli.
Tonight will be a bit of a cop-out, because although I want to cook, I’m still getting over this sinus infection and couldn’t think of anything I specifically wanted to make after getting home from work. Therefore we will be having spaghetti, with our usual array of jarred sauces.
I’d like to use the slow-cooker more during the week, but mine runs hot, which would result in burned dinner by the time we got home. People have suggested leaving it on a timer, but I keep hearing horror stories about houses burning down because of slow-cookers. And why would it be good to leave the food sitting out for several hours before the timer kicks on? I guess it would be less bad this time of year than in the summer, but it doesn’t seem like a great plan.
Oh well. At least there’s spaghetti and jarred sauce.
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Sick Day
You know what’s good for lunch on a sick day? Buy a can of Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato Soup. Make it with milk instead of water, and add dashes of the following: cayenne pepper, black pepper, dried basil. Cook. Mmm-mmm-good.
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Failing to Meet My Goals
I was going to lose 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Instead? Up two.
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Belated Triathlon News
The training paid off! I still have a bad knee, which limits my running, and I’m still afraid of biking down hill, which limits my cycling. But I rocked the swim, if I do say so myself. I expected to cover the 1/4-mile distance in about 20 minutes, and came out of the water in just under 13. The entire experience was fantastic, and I decided to follow it up with a relay at the Catalina Triathlon.
This race featured a 1/2-mile swim, which made up my portion of the event. I was so excited at not having to prepare for the bike and run that I completely forgot to prepare for the swim. I was late to the transition area, and as I was laying out my towel, I realized that I couldn’t find my official swim cap (color: yellow) or my ear plugs. Fortunately my husband was able to provide extra ear plugs, and I did have my regular swim cap (color: blue). Naturally, in between the discovery and the solution, there was freaking out and shrieking.
So I made my way over to the start, where I waited for my wave (relays go last). I couldn’t see anything, because I had torn a contact and therefore decided that it would be better not to wear them. In retrospect, that might have been half right.
Soon it was time for my wave to begin. I gave myself a quick pep talk (I am a strong swimmer! I am going to swim very fast!) and ran into the water. Within 50 yards, I was shocked to realize that (a) I was already dead last, and (b) I felt like I was going to drown. What kept me going at first was the realization that I was part of a team, and that I couldn’t let my friends down because the swim was too hard. After that, what kept me going was the people on surfboards. The support crew was absolutely fantastic, providing moral support and directions to the buoys. After I rounded the second one, I could see the shore, and somehow things got easier. One woman paddled the entire way in with me, cheering me on the whole way.
At this point, I was clearly the last person out of the water. Apparently the race photographer didn’t see me, and left to take pictures somewhere else. (Harumph! I was only 40 seconds behind the person who finished immediately ahead of me!)
However, in spite of being incredibly slow compared to the other racers, I improved on my previous pace. This time I finished in just under 22 minutes, which means that my pace was faster over the longer distance.
So on a personal level, my training paid off. On a team level, it’s a good thing that I was on a team with people who were faster on the bike and in the run in comparison to other racers–my friends and their speed are the reason that the team didn’t come in last, even though I did!
That’s it for this year. I don’t know what next year will hold.
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And Now We Return to Our Previously Scheduled Program
Saturday: walked 2 miles
Sunday: swam 700 meters (600 freestyle, 100 breaststroke)
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Gym
So on a speedy lunchtime trip to the gym (nearly all of my trips to the gym are speedy and at lunch, but this one was extra speedy), I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, including two 1-minute running intervals (6.1 mph and 6.0 mph, respectively), a variety of free weights and weight machines, and 13 minutes including cooldown on the bike.
Go, me!
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Putting it Together
100m breaststroke + 700m freestyle = 800m
And I did them in 100s! (Well, not the breaststroke lap. Still gasping at midpoint on that.)
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Check Me Out! I’m Jason Bourne!
Is what I said on Saturday. No, I have not become a highly trained assassin. Nor am I suffering from amnesia. But my new wetsuit is so buoyant that I, who can only float in the Dead Sea, was able to lie on top of the waves (which were so gentle that, really, they were energetic ripples).
Oh, also we did an ocean swim. I did better than last week, which is nice, but I need to swim more and bob less. Also, I learned that it’s hard to do the breaststroke in a 6mm wetsuit.
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800 Meters
Yes, indeed. That’s how far I swam last night. 750 freestyle, 50 breaststroke. Not bad–particularly since I thought I’d be doing astonishingly well if I made it to 500 meters.
Tomorrow, the ocean!