ladymorella

Has anyone done any of the multi-day hikes to Machu Pichu? I hope to go there with a friend in about 10 months on the 4 day Inca Trail. I have hiked a bit with a day pack. I feel really nervous about my ability to hike it. The top elevation is 13,800 ft. The highest peak within an hour of me is 9,800 ft. I have hiked La Luz Trail in Albuquerque's Sandia Mountains which is 10,700 or so. A few weeks ago I went to Colorado to clear my head and hike. Inadvertently I think I ended up with a decent test hike. The trail was a climb of 4600ft over 6 miles to a peak at 12,300ft. I did it without issue. Felt great and felt confident about Peru. The next week I did a local trail at home 2300 ft climb over 2.5 miles to a peak elevation of 5,000-7,000 ft and it kicked my butt. It kicked my butt hard so now I am back to being nervous about Machu Pichu. So I'm wondering how to get good practice in before my trip. Colorado was a tougher trail in regard to elevation, but the trail was super smooth. Just a ramp up a mountain for 4,600ft. The one at home is more rough it's a bit more like climbing stairs at times and rocks to slip on. And actually is a higher grade at 16.5% vs Colorado's 14.3% grade. I plan to look more in depth at the trails near me to see if anything can match or get nearer to the grade of 18.8% that the Inca trail has. In the meantime I plan on continuing to hike with a focus on steep climbs. Any tips?

I tried it a few years ago, but I couldn't do a lot of the level one stuff. I wasn't sure how to modify so I didn't last long. How has it been going for you?

That is rough. I think it is time to sit down and talk with your girlfriend. Sleep helps a lot with mental health and stress. I was hoping in was a temporary one semester sort of thing. I had a schedule somewhat similar several years ago, but could nap on two days. It helped, but wasn't ideal. I later learned how much lack of sleep affected me. Looking back all the signs where there I just didn't associate it with the lack of sleep.

That is not a sustainable schedule. How long term is it? Do you have the ability to take naps? Keeping up like that will affect your health. Not necessarily in a predictable way. Sleep is a big part of how your body repairs itself. If you have the ability to take naps you might be able to get it to work. It's not ideal, it better than nothing. Otherwise you need to cut something out.

I decided to try to make my own sandwich bread. I picked out an oat bread recipe. I made it and it didn't look like the picture in the recipe. When I sliced it up it looked like melba toast. It didn't rise much at all. I thought maybe the temperature was too cold that day and I didn't give it enough time to rise so I tried again this time giving it more time to rise 50 min and near the oven coming up to temperature. It rose a little more, but still looked like melba toast. I know that baking is more of a science than most cooking. I can't have eggs so I substituted the eggs with Ener G Egg Replacer. Do you think that might be the issue? I checked the pan size to make sure the pan wasn't wider than the recipe called for. Anyone have a good gluten free egg free bread recipe?

I use to only be able to eat eggs if it was a small portion of the meal or buried. This Summer Squash Breakfast Bowl recipe is one that I love. If pork is the problem cause it's not kosher you could do ground turkey or something? However as qqemokitty said, you don't have to eat breakfast food for breakfast. I found soup and stew was the easiest way to transition out of the breakfast foods for some reason. I haven't gone paleo, but my coach has recommended a fairly low carb diet til I loose weight. I can't have wheat or eggs so regular breakfast foods is pretty much a no go for me. Depending on how you define paleo there are some things you can do with coconut flour and almond flour for muffins and pancakes. Some use eggs others use applesauce. If it has eggs the taste is buried.

I started foam rolling because my crossfit gym had it incorporated in the "warmup" or "cooldown" part of the class sometimes. I actually hated it at first, but at the time I was playing rugby as well and found after hard practices or games it seemed to loosen me up a lot. It gave immediate help loosening muscles that were cramped up or super tight. Also I noticed that I didn't need the chiropractor anymore. My gym now has a mobility class that is based off of Kelly Starett's methodology, which has the use of foam rollers, bands, and lacrosse balls I also bought his book. I found over time I actually have gained more flexibility and with a few minutes of work can be less stiff or not stiff at all after a hard workout. It improved my squats a lot. I usually work on my problem spots. Or I target the spots that are affected by a particular workout. Like calves after jumping or hamstrings after deadlifts. I try to do it after every workout. Sometimes I foam roll or use a lacrosse ball at home when I am particularly stiff. I was trying to do it 2-3 times a week at home until I let my friend borrow my foam roller. I have heard a few different explanations as to why it helps. That it increases blood flow and/or it breaks up fascia that causes knots and restrictions. All I know is that quite a few times I have spent weeks and weeks on trying stretches to help me get closer to being able to touch my toes, or improve my squat and I have never seen a difference until I did foam rolling and band work. But it doesn't usually feel good while you are foam rolling, only after. Foam rolling focuses on helping tender muscles and tender muscles want to be left alone to sulk in their pain. It does seem a little bit like a fad right now. The first foam roller I bought was a yoga minded green roller and was pretty much useless. So i went and bought the same roller my gym used. I don't think that highly of the yoga ones at all unless you are using it to work out. (Which to be fair is the goal of the yoga ones.)

Hiked 5.8 miles today. Same trail as last week just not as far and it went a lot better. It seemed easier than last week.

Yeah, that is a good idea. I think I will pull out my crappy wal-mart mountain bike and fix it up. It's hard to breathe leaning over my gut so I can't use the drops right now anyway. I hate cable maintenance though :-(

BTW there is all this superhero gear out there, but none of it xmen. Not even when the x-men movies were out. Why? :-(

In the winter I tend to wear woot shirts. One day I wore this one to the gym : and a lady who doesn't talk that much got all excited, said she liked my shirt and asked if I was a member of some bird society. I had to explain that no I wasn't and it was a reference to a movie. Never before had I been embarrassed of a good Monty Python reference. One of the girls at my gym has a Mars Attacks tank. It's like red shirt and the alien is in slightly darker red or something like that. Pretty understated, but I love it! I want one so bad, but she has one so I couldn't wear it at the gym if I ever found one. I love Mars Attacks and I love understated. This shirt was made for me!! Dorky is sometimes just wearing one sport's gear to another. I have worn Rugby shorts with spandex to crossfit a few times. I've also worn cycling socks to crossfit, but crossfit seems super into loud socks so it works out. As far as forgetting gear, I've done workouts barefoot a couple times cause I forgot shoes and my dress/work shoes wouldn't stay on my feet. (Banded pullups are not fun barefoot) I've also done mobility class in slacks.

The place I like in general is where I got it fit originally and while I don't think they did a bad job they didn't do a great job either. I only knew one person who was into cycling and I'm not sure where she use to go. Honestly since she did tri's she probably had friends to help with that or she knew it and did it all herself. My knee has been aggravated by both hiking and climbing up ladders as well. So to be fair, I'm not fully convinced it is the bike set up. I use to put a bit of miles on my bike with no problems. But I had a couple falls before giving up cycling for a few years. So I was thinking cleat or pedal issues.

I was into cycling a lot 10 years ago. I want to get back into it. In fact 5 months ago, in honor of a Triathlete friend of mine that lost her battle with cancer earlier this year, I decided I was going to try to train for a popular ride here in my city that happens every Nov. I started back and was so proud of myself for truly starting off slow this time instead of going too hard too fast as I tend to do with other things. But somehow after a 3 mile slow ride my left knee was hurting and it has been bothering me ever since. I don't know what happened. There was no trauma as I didn't fall or almost fall or anything. All I can think is maybe my cleat is misaligned or something. I would still like to get back into it, but I have to figure out how to get my knee better. And then see if there is something wrong with my cleat, pedal, or bike. :-(

Aww, that is too bad. Bet she loved it. My dog is 8 too. He just doesn't seem very fit lately. Need to give him more exercise.

Ouch, nusre the feet. Nice your dog gets top of the list right off the bat. ;-) My dog is lazy and only allowed on a small percentage of the trails around here. I want to take him though cause he loves getting out on the trail.

I am pretty sure I suffer from resting bitch face or something like that. I use to think I came off as more reserved, but one time a worker at a restaurant I frequent asked me what I did for a living. She mentioned that she had always wondered. When I told her, she was pretty shocked that I worked with computers and said that she always debated as to whether I was a cop or in the military. I found the exchange a bit surprising. So much so I put it in a facebook status and several people from my gym said they could see how someone would think that, which surprised me even more. I had reasoned that I had this weird tendency to go to this restaurant when I was extremely annoyed (which is true) and figured the worker had a skewed perception of me. Later I realized that I look everyone in the eye, am fairly quiet, but tend to walk with the shoulders of a person more sure of themselves than I am. Actually sometimes almost with the shoulders of a confrontational person. Sometimes I wonder if this is part of my problem with people. I don't really understand most small talk or the social lies. When trying, I do ok at making acquaintances, but don't do so good beyond that. I seem to get along with men better, but almost never romantically. I seriously have no idea how one becomes friends with someone unless the person is stuck in close proximity with you for a long time. Even at that it is over as soon as the two are no longer in close proximity to each other. Some of you mentioned getting better at social skills by studying body language. Where did you go for information? Life has been a real struggle lately and even the small social exchanges are so hard for me right now. I could really use a little more socialization, but I just don't have the energy right now. Lately people are so baffling to me.

Nice! Are you trail running?

Did a short hike today to try to loosen up my legs. 2.6 miles.

I did a 6.5 mile hike today. A tad hot still.

I feel your pain man. I tend to do better, ie loose weight and seem to get stronger, when I eat more food, but it has to be protein/fat for me. I have a job that makes it difficult to always plan my meals. I hate eating out, but I love getting out of the office at lunch. Nuts, fruit, and baby bell cheese do well at the desk without refrigeration. For me the fridge isn't an issue at all since we have a full fridge and only about three of us use it, however couldn't you do a lunch box cooler with a ice pack that you throw in a drawer? You could put one meal in the fridge and keep the rest in the cooler. It seems you need things you could eat a little at a time. That can be difficult. You might try focusing on food you can eat cold even if not exactly a snack like chicken and such. Some steak is even good cold. I use to do hummus and carrots or celery a lot, before I was trying to limit carbs. I don't know, I find eating things cold helps a lot when I am busy. I don't have to worry about taking the time to heat it up. Sorry maybe not that helpful. I do understand the plight though.

Sounds like a nice hike. Zoning out does have it's problems. It came be down right scary at times. Congrats on the tree jump!

I added a hike today. 5.76 miles. Wanted to go further, but it was steep and kicked my butt. :-/ Still a great day for hiking though.

I'd love to join in. I did 12 miles on Sat. I will add it to the sheet. It is just starting to be good weather for hiking here and I hope to put in a lot of miles over the next few months.

A while back I was really into cycling. I would kind of have similar issues sometimes when coming to train tracks or obstacles in the road. I think it was bicycling magazine that talked about how when dealing with obstacle if you focus on what you are trying to avoid you will just narrowly miss it most of the time. However if you focused on picking a path that misses the obstacle you will usually miss it by a lot. It helped me a lot and when I focused on picking a good path I stopped freezing up when coming to the obstacles. It kind of sounds like you hare having a similar issue since your son could help by telling you where to place your feet. Hiking poles or a hiking stick might help out too. I am am a desert rat and have seen snow about a dozen times and thus am not comfortable hiking in snow. I found a hiking stick helped me a lot particularly on descending when I had to hike in snow for a 4600ft climb/descend. Another idea if you are not already doing so is to take the same trail multiple times. Gain a good plan on how to descend the scary parts. Take your son and husband. Aim for less and less help from them. Til you can do it without help. Gaining the confidence on one trail then go to another. Over time you will gain confidence.

I added my name to the list. Also I started a personal version and added all walking and hiking YTD. Man I've done 164 miles! Crazy seeing those are only exercising miles. I don't focus on walking at all. Most of it is hiking with a pack up mountains. I don't carry as much as Sam does though. Man is he prepared!