Bootcamp

I am doing a bootcamp class with my boxing trainer the second week in August and I am really excited about it! I have the gloves I posted here, but mine are pink :)

The Bootcamp will be from 5-7am, I am taking that week off from work to focus on that, plus just have a little time off. I may do the afternoon classes as well, as long as I feel up to it (2-a-days!!). We will see.

My trainer is Sammie "Sosa" Milhouse (see picture from the Iron Clutch Fitness website). He is really good. He is a Golden Glove Champion in Georgia (he won another fight today as a matter of fact!!). He really cares about the people in his class, and I can't wait to spend 2 hours a day working out with him!!

Chickens Anyone?

I just got done reading "Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg" and it was really good. The author is Michael Perry. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two girls, and they have a small farm. The book is about how he gets started raising chickens and pigs. They have laying chickens and chickens that they raise to eat, and they eat the pigs as well.

The laying chickens sounded like they were so much fun! Plus they give you fresh eggs!

Someday, I want to have a flock of chickens. I want to raise them from babies and have them living in my backyard! Not where I currently live, of course...I don't think we are zoned for livestock (haha!!!), and as Emily said, "Mom, when would you have time for this flock of chickens, between work, school, working out, and keeping track of Alex?". She has a point.

But someday...it might be fun!

I Am Back

I have been reading other people's blogs about healthy eating and running, and it is really inspiring. I have been trying to eat "intuitively" myself, and I am getting some really good ideas from these other blogs about what to eat. It is all fresh and not processed food, and looks so yummy - they take pictures of their food, so I think I will try it all...the eating and the pictures, and oh yes, the running. I got a new digital camera, so this is something I can easily do now! It will spice up this blog a little.

I have not been exercising as I should. I am going through some personal stuff that has paralyzed me, and sometimes it feels like a herculean effort to get to the gym. I guess I have been averaging one time per week. Pretty lame. Then I read my Runner's World, or read these blogs, and feel so MUCH like I want to run a half marathon. I REALLY.WANT.TO. So, I need a plan.

I have made a copy of a half marathon training plan that is 17 weeks long. I also need to come up with a plan for continuous running for 30 minutes/3 miles. This is part of my problem with "spinning my wheels". I feel in my mind as if I am farther along than I really am, and get discouraged. So, I will start off slow and build from there. I also need to just get my head in the right place. And run even if I don't feel like it - those are actually the days I need and benefit from it most.

So, pushing through the crap of my past rushing back at me (and not the good things from my past) and healthy eating will do me good. And hopefully I can finally move on from what is weighing me down and rid myself of the toxin that is plaguing me.

I promise a more upbeat post next time. :)

So...

After I read that one new book on Mt. Everest, I went nuts and read everything I could get my hands on about Everest, all books I have read before.

So, I have read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, Climbing High by Lene Gammelgaard, and Left for Dead by Beck Weathers. All of these books were written by the people involved in the May 1996 climbing season disaster.

It was fun to read all of the books one after the other, because they all give a different view of what happened. And still, it is unclear what REALLY happened, especially to Scott Fisher and Rob Hall, leaders of two different climbing expeditions and two of the most experienced climbers of their time. Both of them died up there...the summit day was good for climbing but for some reason they did not adhere to their turn-around time, and late in the day the storm blew in, which was the reason so many people died. Why did they not turn everyone who had not yet summitted around at 1pm, according to the plan? Some folks were still up there at 4pm - way too late even if the weather had NOT turned. We'll never know why they made the decisions they made...

And two things: 1) Anatoli Boukreev was given the shaft by Jon Krakauer (Anatoli was a hero that day)
2) Anyone who goes up there expecting to be rescued if something goes wrong is crazy. Even seasoned mountain climbers are usually in no shape to launch a rescue above 8,000 meters. It is to each his own on Everest. People who DO get rescued are plain lucky.

Mount Everest

I have a fascination with Mount Everest. I can't imagine what it is really like there. I don't actually want to climb it, but I would love to hike to Base Camp, and look up at it.

I just got done reading a book about how the mountain is being polluted, and basic human decency has evaporated with people's desire to reach the top at any cost, including stealing other climbing groups' oxygen, food, and other supplies, and leaving helpless people for dead in the "death zone" and then lying about it to their family and the media.

I suppose I can understand a *little* why people may leave climbers up on the mountain to die...most people are not in the best shape on the way down the mountain due to lack of oxygen (even *with* bottled oxygen) and sheer exhaustion and the technical difficulties of actually carrying someone down...what may take 4 hours can turn into 12 hours in this situation, turning into an even bigger loss of life. The timing of making the summit is very tight. Climbers try to make the summit by 10am (after climbing for 12-14 hours from the highest camp), and cannot stay on the summit for long. Thirty minutes is considered a very long time. Then, it is time to head back down. At any moment, the weather may change, and if you get caught on the mountain above 8,000 meters at night, you are a goner.

Climbing Everest is a big business, and part of the problem is that many very inexperienced climbers now have the opportunity to summit by hiring a guide to take them to the top. But the guide may not be as experienced as you would like when they literally have your life in their hands! Consequently, you have guides who may not be prepared for anything that may happen on the mountain, and inexperienced climbers who cannot save themselves if necessary, and who have paid upwards of $65,000 to get there. Also, it appears that Sherpas have their own agendas as well, in one of the poorest regions of the world. It all combines to create an iffy environment.

This book was interesting...and sad. The focus of the book was on one man who was a seasoned climber, but hired a guide who had a less than stellar reputation for caring for his clients. This man picked up a virus in Kathmandu, and climbed anyway, and got sicker and sicker. His family told him to come down, but he ignored the advice because he REALLY wanted to summit. Where was his guide? Not helping him. It is not even clear if he summitted. His guide left him on the mountain right below the summit, and several other climbing groups passed by him, and all had differing stories of what happened. No one ever found his body.

Everest is SO intriguing, I can see how people get tunnel vision and want to summit at any cost. Me, I would not mind seeeing it from an airplane!!!

Bear Crawl, Crab Walk, and Other Musings

So last night at kickboxing I was able to do the bear crawl MUCH better than I usually do...we had to do two laps around the gym on our hands and feet (doing ab work at the end of each straightaway), and usually I end up crawling like a baby at the end of the first lap. Not last night!! I was able to do it pretty strong for the first lap, then slowed down for the second lap but it was much improved from when I first started. We don't do bear crawls at every workout, that is why I am just noticing this!

Crab walking is a totally different story. My arms are too short to do it. Yes, you heard me, my arms.are.too.short. I can't get my butt off the floor high enough to do this. I ended up doing bear crawls and yes, crawling like a baby for this part of the workout - I have rug burns on my knees to prove it. My sister is great at the crab walk. She has longer arms than me. But I will keep trying...it could also be a muscle-deficiency!! Ha Ha.

I have read some good books lately. One was called, "Always Looking Up" by Michael J. Fox. I just love him. I loved him in Family Ties, and all the Back to the Future movies. He has done alot of good for Parkinson's research, and is just a nice person.

I also read a novel called "Oxygen" by...I can't remember. It is about an anethesiologist who loses an 8 year old on the operating table and gets blamed for it. It was a really easy read, and very suspenseful! I could not wait to see how it ended.

I am currently reading an Ann Rule book, and a book titled "The Likeness". This book is by Tana French who also wrote "In The Woods", a book I talked about earlier. This book, her second, is sooooo good. I love this author!!! Another author I really like right now is Richard Russo. I am amazed at how these people can write these stories that have such depth and just make you want to read more and more. I really need to update my book list.

My next goal is to be able to do the plank pose shown below for 2 full minutes. Looks easy, but it is not!! We do this at the end of every workout for a minute (I don't even come close to that yet!!) and cute trainer comes around and presses on our back for 10 seconds to make it even harder.

Retracting An Earlier Nickname

So, I have been going to LA Boxing for almost three months now.

Remember Mr. MuscleTurd? The one who made me feel about this big - .? Well, he has turned out to be pretty cool, and I have gotten to know him a little bit.

First of all, dare I say he is very cute. (And he knows it) But, anyway, he jokes around with my sister and I and is actually very encouraging during class. And his cuteness helps, too.

So, I am recalling my not very nice name for him, since he is turning out to be nice after all.

And I try alot harder when he is looking me in the eye and telling me to keep going.

That is a good thing!