Training Log Archive: Sandy

To Sandy's house.

Meadow loop with Sandy. Good to catch up.

It will be a while before I catch up with everything else.

Last full day of vacation (sitting in airports doesn't count as vacation). Hiked up the French Valley - the middle part of the "W". This is one way; I stopped the watch when we stopped for lunch but we still had to get back to the boat to get back to the hotel so a total of ~12 miles. We stopped a lot to take pictures on the way up but we were actually hustling quite a bit on the way back - Dennis and Jack went on almost the same hike but theirs went further up the valley in the same time. We wanted to get back before them to spare ourselves the ignominy of being "lapped" so we asked Jose, our guide for the hike, if we could not stop and book it a bit on the way back. Since they had added this hike especially for the other 4 of us in our group (me, Judy, Donna and Mike) and so it was only us, he was happy to oblige.

After we all got back, me, Judy, Jack and Dennis all went down to the spa and jumped off a small dock and into the lake which was barely above freezing what with glaciers and all. Spent all of 10 seconds in the water - the time it took me to surface after jumping in and swimming to the ladder and climbing out. Talk about an ice bath!

We had a beautiful day once again and only a little wind towards the end of the day. Great finish to a wonderful vacation.

A leisurely stroll between two lakes where a good bit of wildlife supposedly hangs out. We only saw guanacos though and several birds; nothing too exotic. The area was much more desert like than most of the other hikes though so different kinds of plants and scenery.

We followed up the morning hike with a barbecue at a "quincho", a place where the gauchos cook and serve food. Delicious food and tons of it. Followed by another horseback ride, this time to the east of park with good views of the towers. By hanging back at the end of the line and making my horse wait for a bit and then catch up I was able to do a little more than just walk along, so that was fun. One of the guides and one of the gauchos - each at different times - even commented that I looked comfortable on a horse and like I sort of knew what I was doing. It's been 50 years but I guess those riding lessons I took as a kid stuck with me a bit.

C • Nice 1

First part of ~8 mile hike. I forgot to start my watch until part way through. We stopped for lunch about half way. This was just to the SE of the hotel so rolling hills (steppe?) with great views of lagoons and the mountains in the distance.

The hike after lunch to the end. There was a crazy windy hill top that we stopped at near the end - fantastic views, but you couldn't stand still long enough to get a good picture. I mean that literally - if I just stood still the wind would blow me around. To stay still you had to work really hard at pushing yourself into the wind. Crazy.

The hike ended with a really steep long downhill. At least it wasn't boulders - just fine gravel so a side-step motion that you can use to get down a snowy ski slope worked well. It felt like a dance: slide, together, slide, together,... Hard work though.

A very small portion of our hike to the Grey Glacier. This is the first part of the "W' hike although in the backwards direction. We took the hotel boat across Lake Pehoe to start, then hiked along the side of the Grey Lake to the glacier. My watch didn't charge properly and then I forgot to start it, so it only got a small portion. I think the whole hike was supposed to be about 8 miles. We kept up a pretty brisk pace - we had to be on a certain beach at a certain time since we had seats booked on a public boat. The boat was a catamaran so just plowed into the beach to let us get on. It then did a little sight-seeing loop in front of the glacier. It was a cool glacier but after seeing all the ones in Tierra del Fuego it wasn't anything special. This was the first glacier Dennis had ever seen though so that was nice. Just as we got on the boat it started to rain. Surprisingly, this was the only rain during this part of the trip.

the trip to South America started by flying to Ushaia, Argentina. I've lost all the hiking tracks up until the 23rd but here's a bit of a record of what we did.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xaGJkfgAwi49EJT8...

Meadow loop with Sandy. My Garmin seems to have died. More specifically I can't get it to turn on or charge. :(

Update: I vaguely remembered something about pushing multiple buttons simultaneously to reset the watch and the second combination I tried worked! Still not sure it's charging properly though.

Event: QOC Seneca Creek Smokey Glen
 

Not so great outing when it actually counted for something. Just no focus really - so sloppy especially near the end when I just wouldn't follow my compass. But still fun and I was moving well enough not to get cold.

Brown - Splits

Went down to DC for the weekend and in exchange for some modest help with the event I was able to go out on a course on Saturday at the Area 5 JROTC Championships. I really enjoyed the course - the woods were wide open for the most part and relatively flat if you went around all the big gullies and reentrants and I was able to run a good bit of it even in the woods. I still managed to make a big mistake at 3 and then a poor route choice leaving 3 (the 1 mi mark). But I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Valerie!

elliptical

SJU class

A nice hike with Sandy around the Wissahickon.

Elliptical

SJU class. Really good class today - got a good workout.

We were doing circuits today and one was pushups on a bosu ball. I did 15 each time and we did 3 circuits, so 45 total. Another place where things have improved without my really noticing.

Start of a run with Sandy but then we decided to do intervals so I stopped my watch and started it over in run/walk mode.

The run 2min/ walk 1min interval section of the outing. We pretty much had to run every hill and although tempted, we didn't wimp out.

Even adding on the beginning part, this is faster than anything recent. Yay for improvement! I've been trying to do some running roughly once a week - nothing major, just enough so I don't feel like such a slug when I orienteer. Seems like it's paying off.

Strength stuff in my basement.

C • Zowie . . . 2