Thursday, June 4, 2010

As we checked in for the 9:00am train from Durango to Silverton we learned that someone put us on the 8:15am train by mistake. We had just watched that train pull out of the station. A woman informed us that the equivalent car on this train was full and tried to put us on the 1:45 train. Um, no. I told her the mistake was not our problem and we needed to be on that 9:00am train. So why doesn’t she upgrade us instead. They only had space in First Class, normally a $60 per person upgrade. She upgraded us for free! Our car was called the Silver Vista, named after its paint job plus the fact that it is the only open air car with a glass ceiling for better viewing of the cliffs. Our hostess, Ellie, waited on us hand and foot and gave us all kinds of information about the train and the sites along the way. What a great mistake!

The train ride was absolutely beautiful. We travelled by waterfalls, bridges, towering cliffs, and rushing rivers. I love hiking and mountain biking but there is something to be said for sitting in a train all day and just watching nature go by while someone waits on you. Ha ha ha. The people in our car were fun too. I could not help but giggle when the Australians were frantically snapping pictures of the prairie dogs near the station. We also chatted quite a bit with a very friendly couple sitting next to us and ate lunch with them at Handlebars in Silverton. When we returned to Durango we had a little Mexican food in town and then spent some time in the Jacuzzi before bed. What an incredible day!

Vacation Workout 4:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 reps
Burpees
Sit up / leg lifts
Time: 6:37
(This means you do 10 burpees, 10 sit ups, 9 burpees, 9 sit ups, and so on down to 1).

Our hostess Ellie told us that on our 8 hour round trip train ride there is just one guy that shovels the entire 5-6 tons of coal necessary for the trip. I will be thinking of this fact when I feel exhausted during our always less than 20 minute CrossFit workouts.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Sleeping in was really nice. My uncle gave us two nights in the time share of our choice as a wedding present (two years ago) so are finally using it in Pagosa Springs. We are in a large condo with a full kitchen, two person Jacuzzi tub, and another awesome view of the snow capped peaks. In town we found a nice looking little cafe called Victoria’s Parlor. I had half of an eggs Florentine and Todd had a Belgian waffle. Yum! Great food, great atmosphere, great service. What a relaxing morning.

After breakfast we took a beautiful drive followed by a 6 mile hike round trip. On the way we saw dozens of robins and a few woodpeckers. One of them let Todd walk up real close to get video. It is a little early for the wildflowers but the Spring runoff was unbelievable. The big payoff at the end was Fourmile Falls, a gorgeous double waterfall totaling a drop of nearly 300 feet. You cannot tell by this picture but we are still a long way from those falls. The tiny white sliver to the left of the falls is huge and very steep frozen snow bank. The highlight was probably climbed up that thing to sit behind the gushing falls. Not so much fun was falling on my butt twice on the way back down. Ouch!

In the evening we sat in the hot springs. They just built a new upper level for guests only. We snuck in and spent most of the time in 107 degree pool overlooking the river and the rest of the resort. Todd dipped into an 111 degree pool but that was too hot for me. I finally got up the nerve to dip quickly into a 110 one by the river before we were just too tired to stay awake anymore and headed back.

Vacation Workout 3:
10 rounds:
30 second handstand
30 seconds holding an overhead squat
No rest

Again I used a towel in place of a PVC pipe. The sit-ups from yesterday didn’t do much for me so today I added 4 x 25 of the kind where you do a sit-up and legs lift at the same time. Better but still need to find something harder.

Tuesday June 1, 2010

In the morning we waded through the waters of Medano Creek and hiked up High Dune, a 650 foot mountain of sand. From there we had an expansive view of all the dunes, the entire valley, and all the snow capped peaks surrounding us. The best part was running back down. The sand stops you so abruptly that no slope is too steep. One hour up. Half hour back. Todd did most of the downhill barefoot but the sand was way to hot for me and I wanted to protect my already weak toes. In the summer the sand can get up to 140 degrees!

After the dunes we took another very short hike to Zapata Falls. The Spring runoff is so high you can’t get up to where the falls are. Not on the trail anyway. In a bold move Todd decided we should wade upstream in the fresh snow-melt water our socks and shoes. Brrrr!!!!  It was worth it though. The waterfall was just gushing.

For our last adventure we stopped at Colorado Gators. It was really windy but we still enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. We held a baby alligator and they put its teeth marks on a “bravery certificate”. Aside from gators and snakes of every size they also had a wallaby, emus, goats, donkeys, and Todd’s favorite, this huge ostrich that hung out with us for awhile.

Our next stop is Pagosa Springs. We drove straight through Center, Colorado on our way to our their. My dad grew up in Center so I spent many childhood weekends there riding motorcycles up and down the ditches with him and my sister.

Vacation Workout 2:
10 rounds for time
10 push ups
10 situps
10 overhead squats  (Used a hotel towel as the bar/pvc pipe)
Time: 14:30  -  That is not really a good time. It is those pushups. By the last round I was doing them one at a time. Definitely needs work.

After the Bolder Boulder we headed for the Great Sand Dunes. Todd took us on a minor detour without telling me where we were going. I was not expecting what I saw on the side of that hill. A radically anti-government guy named Jim Bishop has been building a giant castle out of big rocks and wrought iron on his property since 1969… by himself. The top of the tallest tower stands 160 feet up! And yes you can go all the way up there on rough hand-built steps. It was really nerve wracking. He built a metal dragon head on the peaked roof that will be capable of spitting fire 30 feet! Unbelievable.

In the evening we watched the sunset over The Great Sand Dunes and the whole San Luis Valley from our lodge room porch. What a view!

Check this out: Jim Bishop’s Story
More info: Bishop Castle on Wikipedia

Vacation Workout 1: Bolder Boulder Sprints. Time: 53:17

This year I decided to run the Bolder Boulder 10k Race like a true CrossFitter. I started with a 30 second sprint. Every time I crossed under a Kilometer marker I sprinted all out for 30 seconds for a total of 10 sprints. I sprinted the last one up the Folsom hill and through the stadium. In between sprints the original plan was to slow way down and fully recover yet still maintain a pace that would at least put me under an hour. The CrossFitter in me wouldn’t let me slow down as much as I had planned. About halfway through I realized I was making pretty good time overall and picked it up a little. I don’t know my time yet but I will be surprised if I am more than a couple minutes over last year’s time of 52:05 when I ran 5 days a week for three months in preparation. I have only run once for 15 minutes since March!

Posted from iPhone. I am on the road!

UPDATE:
Last year’s time: 52:05
This year’s time: 53:17

Yesterday Front Range CrossFit generously hosted a workout for the Affiliate Cup Teams from Colorado going to California. The workout:

Four stations:
20 wall balls at a 10’ target (14# for girls, 20# for boys)
15 kipping pull ups
10 snatches (75# for girls, ??? for boys)
5 deadlift singles (165# for girls, ??? for boys) each rep followed by 2 jumps over a stick (20” for girls, 24” for boys)

2 men and 2 women form one team. Each person from the team starts at one station. When the clock starts everyone does a set at their station. After all four people finish at their station the team rotates. This continues until everyone on the team has done every station 3 times. My only sticking point was snatch. My technique is so lacking I ended up pressing most of them. A lift like that is a lot more work for you arms than it would be for your legs if they were done correctly. That is one thing I definitely need to work on between now and July.

It was such a relief when it was over. I was chatting with the owner of the gym, Skip, about what a great workout it had been when he cracked a smile and announced “We are going to do that again”.  I laughed and laughed. And then he said, “No, I’m serious”. After a ten minute break he had us go through a single rotation one more time as fast as we could. It was an incredible test of mental focus to think I was done with something so strenuous and then have to get up and  do it again. I failed this mental test miserably on the wall balls when my 1 set of 20 turned into 1 set of 10 and 2 sets of 5. I dropped the ball twice, both literally and figuratively. I feel motivated to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Nothing feels worse than going through all that hard work and knowing at the end that you could have done better.

Here is a great video of North Central Regionals:

It is official! I am on vacation until June 9th! We don’t actually leave until Monday but still, what a relief. Front Range CrossFit in Aurora has generously invited the Colorado Affiliate Cup Teams to their gym for a workout today. I cannot wait to find out what we will be doing. My last official CrossFit workout for the next 10 days (except for the ones I will be doing on my own, of course).

I have been taking breaks from the daily CrossFit workouts plenty lately. The more rest I get the more I seem to need. Last week it was my calf muscles. Today it is my shoulders. I figured out that I put over 5000 pounds above my head in 2 days. All I have to do is shrug and my trapezius muscles cramp up. Ouch! Today was going to be a fun one too. 3 rounds for time of 10 pull ups, 15 burpees, 20 box jumps, and 25 wall balls. 75 wall balls today? No way. I guess I will go run sprints instead. I imagine I will probably end up doing the box jumps too.

You know it is time for a vacation when the highlight of your day is working out. CrossFit makes it a little different since every workout you survive is a major accomplishment.

Take yesterday morning’s workout for example: 20 push jerks at 120# and 40 burpees for time. The most I have push jerked as a 1 rep max is 130. That means I had to do over 92% of my former 1 rep max 20 times. About halfway through I started failing and dumping the bar behind me. I had to forget about the clock and concentrate on just surviving one rep at a time. Getting through that was a major accomplishment for me so of course it is ONE highlight of the day.

But the ONLY one? Sad. We tried to set aside Wednesday nights as a date night. Last night we ate dinner at Qdoba and spent the better part of the evening at Home Depot. And yes I also went to Bed Bath and Beyond.

It always seems like the week before a vacation is the most stressful time of all. There are so many things going on between now and Monday I can barely keep track. I have a ton of work to do and yesterday was a repeat of a few days from last week when I spent all day on one problem and couldn’t figure it out. Today is a new day and I have new ideas that I hope help. In the meantime, I just need to stop stressing out. All the craziness now will just make the actual vacation that much nicer anyway.