Mountaineering
Me at the mountain.
Week 12: Climb for Clean Air – Progress
This week plan:
Mon: Rest Day
Tues: Strength Training
Wed: Long Cardio
Thurs: Strength Training
Friday: Long Cardio
Saturday: Camp Muir Hike
Sunday: Rest
I’m still recovering from the fluid in my lung and the cold, so I’m still taking it somewhat easy this week. It’s very frustrating but there’s nothing more I can do. It’s a progress from last week though. I’m worried and nervous that this will affect my climb but I know that I’m giving it my best. I’m emotionally tired and exhausted from being sick and the stress from me worrying that I won’t be able to make it — start to get to me. I even wondered if this all worth it, but quickly dismiss that thought.
How it actually went down:
Monday:
Rest. Recovering from the day before hike
Tuesday:
Strength training day. I worked out with Weston and he’s really taking it easy on me. We did a great workout though and I honestly can’t remember all the routines here. I know we focused a lot on hips/quad and a little bit of shoulder/chest
Wednesday:
I ran 4 miles around my neighborhood. It wasn’t great since I had to slow down a few times and let my breathing stabilize but I did it in less than an hour
Thursday:
Strength training with Weston again. We worked more on upper body this time and I had to tell you that afterward, I felt all kind of muscle sore on my shoulder. That is a sign that I need to work on that area more. I’m afraid to even think what next week look like!
Friday:
I am feeling crummy again, so I decided to take a rest day
Saturday:
- Me taking my ‘SQL Skills’ to the mountain. This is at 8,000ft
Muir Hike. My third attempt to go to Camp Muir. I started really good and pace myself really well. We arrived almost at the bottom of avalanche chute less than an hour, but as I climbed the chute, I felt a sharp pain on my chest. I struggled so much climbed that hill that when I got to the top of the hill, I sat down and barely even able to breathe. I was so down and discouraged and I started to cry. If I can’t even make it to the top of the chute, I will definitely not able to do my climb. John was comforted me and talked me into it and I started to gain my focus again. We started to walk again and I slow down my pace. We walked to somewhere around 8,000 ft and watched a huge avalanche on the other side of the mountain and even recorded it on video. You can watch them here. An hour after, we decided to turn around since it was getting late. It wasn’t my best hike but I actually did better than last week. I went further in shorter time, so in overall – I am progressing to the better. We shall see.
Sunday:
Taking another rest day after the long hike
Fundraising:
I break $9,000!! Who-hoo! Keep it coming, you guys are so awesome!!
Week 11: Climb for Clean Air – The Worst
Plan for this week:
Monday: Interval Training
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: REST
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Long Cardio
Sunday: Camp Muir Hike!
This is by far the worst week of training I had since I started this journey. Even though I ended up the week with a great training hike to Camp Muir, I felt like I really let things slide. This week – I did NOT make my training as priority and choose to have other things happen in my life take priority over it. Did I feel bad, absolutely. Did I dwell on it? Absolutely not. I moved on. I’m going to focus on the upcoming week and make my training priority again. I’m inside the 5-weeks window to my climb. Am I ready? I am. Very.
Monday – Saturday:
I did NO work out at all. No excuses here. As I mentioned above, I did not make it as priority. I choose to tend to other things and make that priority while trying to take it easy on my lung. Did I regret it? No. Did I wish things differently? Absolutely, but doing should’ve, could’ve and would’ve will not change a thing. The only thing I can do is to promise myself is use the upcoming week to train even harder.
Sunday:
It’s Father’s day weekend, and we are up early and head out to the mountain again. I’m a wee bit nervous since I didn’t really do anything in the past few days. My brother-in-law, Aaron, joined us for the hike. We started around 10am. It was slightly rainy and cold. I had my layer on and feel pretty decent. I started walking and within 10 minutes I was overheated. I only had my base layer and vest, plus my soft shell and I could barely breath. We stopped for gear checked, clothing adjustment and keep on walking. I made it to the bottom of the avalanche chute without any problem. We took our first break there and climb on the chute. I know I did a waaaaay better than a week before since I didn’t even feel that I was struggling when I get to the top of the chute. Please note, avalanche chute is like a 80% angle snow wall. It’s soooooo steep!
Our next stop is Pebble Creek (7,000ft) and we had lunch there. I started to feel tight on my chest again but decided to keep on walking. About 8,500ft – I barely can breathe. My chest felt really tight and I knew that if I pushed it, I will make more damage on my lung so we turn around. We got down fairly quick since we slide on most of the hill. It was rainy and almost white out when we walked down. I wasn’t as winded. Overall, it was a good hike. I got 8 hours of hike, altitude adjustment and great company
Fundraising:
Keep on coming people! I think I’m going to break $9,000 limit this week!
Week 10: Climb for Clean Air – Deal With Sickness
Plan for this week:
Monday: Interval Training
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: REST DAY
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Long Hike – Camp Muir!
Sunday: Interval Training
This week is really rough. Both of my girls were sick and I caught whatever they have and pretty much shut this week down. I have a hard time to do anything with less than 6 hours sleep, let alone less than 4 hours. With both of my girls sick, I slept roughly 2-4 hours every night. I can handle the physical stress, but the emotional stress due to sick child was bringing me down slowly. Thursday came around, I was as sick as my children. Luckily I bounced back quite fast and able to join the training hike on Saturday. I felt a bit down because I didn’t do what I was planning to do but ended up to make peace with it because life happen and you have to make the best out of it.
Monday:
I was starting to feel under the weather on Monday. I woke up at 5am, with the whole intention to leave the house at 5:30 to go to the gym but I really can’t make my body move. This is not just mentally, but physically. I was exhausted and feeling really blah. I ended up staying home and get a few more needed sleep.
Tuesday:
I literally feel like I was dragging my feet to go see Weston, my trainer. I did it tho and worked out with him, even though I feel like I was going to faint multiple times during it. We focused on my lower body exercise and I can’t actually remember what were the routines, but one thing I do remember – we did a hard work out. Overall, it was a great work out.
Wednesday:
My youngest daughter was sick the day before and warrant an ER trip at 3am, which totally shut my Wed morning work out. I did managed to run at my neighborhood for an hour, about 4 miles in the afternoon for my long cardio work out. I noticed how much I struggle during that run due to lack of sleep and just not feeling too hot in general.
Thursday:
My oldest daughter caught whatever her sister had, and it basically identical day with Wed. I had very little sleep and it started to catch up on me. My energy level dip down to zero and I did not do anything at all other than sleeping
Friday:
Lot of going on today. I’m still recovering, and even though both of my girls are healthy again today – I’m still feeling really crummy. I have to catch up with work as well, since I practically off in the last couple days. My plan to sneak the work out in the late afternoon/early evening just went nowhere. I ended up getting my gear ready for Saturday training hike.
Saturday:
Me Walking at Muir Snowfield
This is a highlight of my week. We left the house around 6am and head to Ashford. This was the first group training hike I did with the rest of the climbers on this event. We met at Paradise parking lot at 9am and started to walk roughly around 10am. I struggled to breathe almost right away. I knew it going in since the high altitude (Paradise is 5,800ft), and the fact that I just recovered from the virus that I just had, plus the 40lbs backpack would make my lung work twice as much. I was the end of the line of team, and just walked slow and steady. After 20 minutes, I finally able to stabilize my breathing and walk somewhat normal. Unfortunately, I was waaaay behind from the rest of the team but kudos to the volunteer guide that walk patiently behind me and kept encouraging me to keep on going. We met with the rest of the group at the first stop, and it looked like they were there about 10 mins before me. Not so bad, I thought. I sat down for 5 mins and we were already told to get ready. I was right with the team afterwards until we were on top of Avalanche Chute, then the really steep climb on the Chute started to get me and I was behind again. We stopped for lunch a little bit past Pebble Creek (7,000ft) and I felt my chest starting to hurt, more than usual.
Me at 8,000ft - Mt. Rainier
I kept walking though, slow and steady and really focus on my breathing, did a pressure breathing and rest step pretty much all the way. We climbed another 1,000 feet and I felt headache starting to developed, early sign of altitude sickness. I was frustrated since we only at 8,000ft but I knew that my lung finally told me to stop. My stubborn head probably can keep going but since I’m going with the group, we had to turn around at certain time so with a heavy heart I looked at my husband and told him that I need to turn around. It turned out to be a good decision, since an hour after we walked down, I felt some gurgling when I breathe, which indicated that I had developed some fluid in my lung. We were safely return at the parking lot about a couple hours later and head home.
Sunday:
I decided to rest. After a long hike and fluid in my lung, I can’t see any other way for me to do anything.
Fundraising:
I am waaaay past my goal but generous people out there still contribute to my climb. I’m so thankful to everybody’s support and will give my best (and more).
Week 9: Climb for Clean Air – Discipline during Vacation
Plan:
Monday: Interval Training
Tuesday: Strength Training
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: REST Day!
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Long Cardio
Sunday: Strength Training
This is the third week that I don’t have a complete work out within a week. I’m freaking out, right now – especially after I realize that I’m 6 weeks away from my climb. I had this week all plan and I started to do really good, but I miss 2 work out days again this week! Not happy with myself. Again, I am not putting my training as a priority so I have nobody to blame but myself.
Yes, I was on vacation this week. I was on this awesome vacation and technical training on board Norwegian Pearl called SQL Cruise. It was a busy week, full with awesome material for the training and absolutely gorgeous view. Temptation to do absolutely nothing other than attend my sessions are very high, but I manage to follow my plan. Sorta. I have to thank my husband, John, for being there for me and supporting me. Without him, I probably never set foot in a gym and do any work out during vacation
How it actually went down:
Monday:
I did an hour interval training at elliptical machine. Turn out that being in a moving ship that sway is a challenge on its own, let alone being in the elliptical machine on the ship. I did level 15 for the high interval and level 10 for the lower interval. I did really good, other than feeling a bit woozy afterward due to a moving ship
Tuesday:
Me at Juneau, AK
I went on 4.5 miles instead of strength training. It was beautiful scenery and the trail actually pretty streneous. There were part of the trail that pretty steep and I felt really good afterward. The scenery was fantastic and the company were fabulous. I did not have any additional weight on my pack, other than my usual 10-essentials, layer of jackets, and water but I enjoyed this hike very much.
Wednesday:
I did variety of strength training, started with 4 different upper body work. Pull down, Chest Press, Pull up and Row. I did 3 sets of 12 reps. Then I did conventional lower body exercise. I started with leg press, leg curl and leg extension. I also did 3 sets of 12 reps. I felt really good when I’m done which is a great feeling to have after the work out
Thursday:
Rest Day
Friday:
I snorkeled! Yes, I know – it’s not really a ‘work out’ but I was exhausted when I am done. The guide gave us 7mm wet suit and it made the cold water in Alaska felt like a bath water. We were in the water for an hour and a half. It’s pretty amazing! I was going to do a run or long cardio afterwards, but my body just can’t do that. I had afternoon training sessions and I had no energy left in the afternoon.
Saturday:
This is when I slacked off. I didn’t do anything or even attempted to do anything. I had all day class and when the ship docked in Victoria, BC – we went to Butchart Garden. I did leisure walk for almost 2 hours. Did that count? I’m stretching it here.
Sunday:
I knew that Sunday would be tough. Its disembarkation day, so morning was very chaotic. Then we went to the church, and by the time I got home – I had pile of laundry I have to do, so I skipped the work out, again.
Fundraising:
I’m very humble with the fact 70% of my donor come from SQL Community. You guys rock! Keep them coming, it’s all for a good cause. Online donation can be made here.
Week 8: Climb for Clean Air – Bad Planning
Plan:
Monday: Interval Training/Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Cardio with backpack
Thursday: Rest Day!
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Short Hike
Sunday: Cardio with backpack
I have ambitious plan for this week consider that I have tons of other commitment due to the week off I’m going to take for vacation. I thought, I can squeeze in some work out and still able to do what I need to do, but I was wrong. I know better than that but yet I did it anyway. Instead of accepting that this week is going to be crazy and plan my work out better, I tried to cram a lot of things in a limited time that I have.
In result, I failed. I missed THREE workouts this week. Worst week by far since I started this journey 8 weeks ago. I was angry to myself for stretching myself really thin and ended up disappoint myself. Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve, right?
I need to be better with organize my time and not over-committed myself to things that it will be difficult to accomplish due to time constraint. Lesson learned.
How it actually went down:
Monday
I need to increase my interval training and short the interval while I’m doing it. So I set an hour on the stair-master, put it on interval program, increase the intensity to 15 (for the higher) and 12 (for the lower). I did really good tho and an hour went by without me even realize that. My thigh was a bit sore afterwards, but nothing that a good stretching can’t help
Tuesday
Weston wanted me to focus on my shoulder and back. We did a few total body exercises with 20lbs dumbbell and pull down and chest press. I only did 6 routines, but he increased the set to three, with 15 reps on each set. So it’s pretty intense! My back was a bit sore a few hours later, but nothing that some ibuprofen can’t help.
Wednesday
I put my 45lbs pack on my back and adventured myself at the stairmaster. I didn’t set it to any program, just using manual on setting number 8 (Higher intensity) . I was a bit huffing and puffing towards the end, but I was pleased with myself to realized that how far I have come
Thursday
Rest Day!
Friday
This is the start of bad planning week. I was off that day and instead, I went ahead and spend the day with my girlfriend, Mindy. Then I was busy packing things for upcoming SQL Cruise, especially things for my girls. 7 days on board a cruise ship without self-service laundry facility with two little girls equal a lot of packing to do
Saturday
I was going to sneak in a work out in the morning, but it wasn’t happening (again). I took our friends to have a nice brunch and run errands to prepare the cruise and we had an event in the evening. By the time we got back, it was late and I still have a lot of packing to do. I didn’t make it as a priority. There, I said it.
Sunday
I was heading to the port. My stress level is up to the roof since it seems that there’s many, many things that could cause this vacation to not happening. We made it on board around 2pm. This is also why – this recap is a few days late. There is no Internet connection on board the ship
Fundraising
I made my goal and MORE! I lost track of how much I raised this week (I’ll have to tally them later and update this post) but I definitely made my goal!
Week 7: Climb for Clean Air – Finding Balance
Plan for this week:
Monday: Long Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: Rest Day!
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Hike!
Sunday: Strength Training
Seven weeks into this training, I continue to have a hard time finding a balance between my commitment to training, family, work and life in general. I really am feeling that I stretch myself pretty thin and having my 5 years old complaint that she didn’t get a lot of quality time with me lately, enough to made me cry quietly at night. I know that this climbing the mountain business will require a lot of commitment and some sacrifice. My husband and my family, even my work, understand this and they support me 100% but try to explain that to a five and three years old in the language that she understand – that’s a huge challenge. I started to question, more than once, if all of this worth it. What is it that I’m trying to prove by climbing the mountain? I did it once six years ago, why bother to do it again now. I’m just exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally. I’m SIX weeks away from doing this. Am I going to be ready? Am I able to do this commitment for six more weeks?
I am rambling. I know. This is supposed to be my recap, not my whiny post. I’ll get to it in a minute.
In short, this week is interesting. I improvised. A lot. I was being creative. I struggled. I did my best. I guess at the end of the day, that’s what matter. I did the best I could.
How it actually went down:
Monday:
Long Cardio day. I started this week with struggle. We had some family thing that we need to take care of, so I wasn’t able to go to the gym and did my long cardio due to the time. I need to do an hour, and by the time I had the chance to do any work out, it’s 830pm at night. I was bummed, and almost didn’t do anything but then I remembered that I live on the neighborhood that have hilly street. So I put my 45lbs pack on my back, my mountaineering boot and start walking around my neighborhood. We walked from our house towards the freeway, only on the sidewalk, but it’s about 6% grade hill. It was pretty good work out actually. I walked for an hour and a half, and about 4 miles.
Tuesday Morning:
Since I just did my long cardio on the evening prior – Weston focus on my upper body for today’s strength training. I honestly can’t remember the list of routines, but I know that we did series upper body work out. We used some kettle bell, dumbbell and some resistance band. There’s a few total body work out in there too, and of course, it’s not Weston if he didn’t sneak lunges in there too.
Tuesday Evening:
Since today is a full moon and weather is pretty good, I decided to do something different. I usually do long cardio on Wed morning, but I am replacing it with a short hike on Tuesday evening. I loaded my 45lbs pack, put on my boot and we did an evening hike at Rattlesnake Ledge. I reached the top of the ledge within 50 minutes. I felt really good about it, since if you look at my post on Week 0, I made it up there within 50 minutes without a pack. Well, I did have a pack, but only have a bottle of water in there. So I made it 5 minutes faster with 45lbs heavier pack on my back. Not too bad. We stayed up at the ledge for an hour and watched the moon rise behind the mountain across us. It was pretty magical. The moon is huuuugee! And the color and how it shine around the mountain, created a very unique color and shade – it was pretty awesome. Too bad the cloud was hiding the moon, shortly after it rise.
Wednesday:
I slept in. Since I did my night hike the night before, I didn’t do anything.
Thursday:
Rest Day!
Friday:
Well, here’s where things went haywire again. Life get in a way on my schedule again and I didn’t get a chance to go to the gym and did my strength training. However, I did get all my gear packed up on my pack. This is everything that I will need for my climb day, other than a couple small things (utensil, bowl, spork, toothbrush, etc). It weigh about 45lbs. I still need to learn to pack all my gear more efficiently but hey, this is why I’m doing this.
Saturday:
Me climbing up a steep hill
Big day. We head out to Mount Rainier National Park so we can hike to Pebble Creek (7,000 ft). I plan to meet up with a couple climbers from Climb for Clean Air team who also want to go up there. After a couple hours of drive, we arrived at the upper parking lot around 8:45am. Weather is so-so. It was raining and the fog were covering the mountain, but the trail look pretty good. We started to walk around 9:30am. Right off the bat, we are on straight hill. I was panting and huffing and puffing. Paradise (where the upper parking lot) is at 5,600 feet and I came from sea level (where I live), drive two hours to where we park the car (5,600ft) and started to walk on straight hill with 45lbs pack on my back. On top of that, I am trying to follow the pace of my fellow climber. Boy, I was nowhere close. Those two gentlemen had to keep stopping and wait for me and I felt a bit discouraged. Darn. I thought I did really good and I can’t even keep up with my fellow climber. After 30 minutes, I told them to go ahead and don’t wait for me. I’m pretty familiar with the trail and I don’t want to hold them back. They went on their way, while I’m trying to focus and walk on my own pace. Shortly after, a bunch of climbers came up, lead by RMI guides. There were probably about three teams, and it’s about 10 climbers on each team. It dawn on me right there – that is the pace that I need to focus on! They are going to be my guide on July and if I can keep up with their pace, then I’m good. So I started to follow them and forgot the fact that I can’t keep up with my two other fellow climber.
Me at Pebble Creek, 7000ft
I talked to a few guides on that team and I told them that I’m going to tail them. I put one foot after another, and I focus nothing other than my breathing and the pace that set by the lead guide and I follow them just fine! I follow them until their first break, which was where I turned around the last time I was there (6.200ft). From our rest place, I can see the big hill in front of me. It’s pretty hilly. I mean, picture can’t do justice but this hill is pretty darn steep. It’s a good 60 degrees angle. I knew that since when I walked it, I had to keep balancing myself every step of the way. I watched the RMI climbers and they climb that hill as slow as I was, so I wasn’t feeling so bad. We reached 7,000 feet based on our GPS even though I can’t even recognize my surrounding and see if where we stopped indeed was Pebble Creek. Oh well. Weather was very strange too. It was pretty windy and cold, and the fog made our visibility very limited but there was about three areas/places as we hiked — temperature suddenly change. It went to really, really hot – like a sauna hot. At one time, it was enough for me to strip all my layer off, even though 15 minutes later, cold wind was coming back. I was very pleased with this hike. I have no blister on my toes or feet, and I was wearing my new boot! That’s huge! My shoulder didn’t hurt and none of my leg/feet were seriously hurting. They sore, well, of course, but nothing more than regular muscle soreness.
Sunday:
A sudden change on the child care situation made me not able to do any work out again. I was about to drop my girls to my mom and sneak in an hour or two work out but I changed my mind. I stayed home and I spent quality time with my girls. I left my phone, iPad, and any other distraction downstairs. I was down in the floor with my girls, did a tea party, play a playdoh, did some art and snuggled with them while we watched TinkerBell for, oh I don’t know, 100th time? I skipped a work out, but today, I didn’t feel even a slight guilt. Next week, I need to find better balance but for now, nothing else is important.
Fundraising:
I’m so close with my goal!! Incredible donations from many of my peer on SQL Community as well as my co-worker and my family. I raised another $350.00 this week! Thank you SO much for your support and keep those donations coming! Visit my fundraising page for online donation, or please let me know if you rather to send me a check.
Week 6: Climb for Clean Air – Get back on the program
Plan this week:
Monday: Long Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: Rest Day!
Friday: Strength Training + Interval
Saturday: Long Cardio
Sunday: Training Hike
Just for a kick – I’m going to start this recap with the video from last year climb. Whenever I watch this video, I get really pumped up and this is exactly what I need – less than 10 weeks away. This is last year video, and my brother-in-law, Aaron Robel, actually one of the climber who made it to the top.
Pretty awesome, eh? I thought so. I want everybody to see what is waiting for me on July. THIS is what I am working towards. Well, not only I’ll be standing on top of the highest mountain at the state of Washington but from a persona level, just last October, I was struggling with 3 weeks of radiation and not knowing if I can make it through another day of hell and yet, less than a year later, I would be standing on top of the mountain. How awesome is THAT??
This week went by so fast. I deviated from my plan again, well, sorta. I am still having a hard time finding a balance between my commitment to training, being a mother to my children, a full time employee, a wife, and just in giving back in community in general. I feel that I am stretching myself really thin and I have to adjust things on the fly. Life happen and I had to make the choice, and I made the best out of it. I am definitely getting stronger. I still have a lot of work to do, but comparing to my baseline on week 1 – I am making a huuuuge progress.
How it actually went down:
Monday:
After going back and forth with the decision of which summit pack I’m going to use, I finally settle on Osprey Women Ariel 75. This pack is made for chica, and Osprey actually known for the best pack for women (they made awesome pack for men too). So for long cardio today, I started to put most of my gear inside this pack, such as my sleeping bag, parka, etc plus some add-on weight to make total weight about 42lbs. I also put on my La Sportiva Neval Evo Mountaineering Boot, the one that I’m going to wear on my summit trip (I’m still trying to break that boot in) and I did an half hour on 15% grade treadmill and half hour on training hill elliptical. Note to self – elliptical machine is not the greatest cardio machine when you have 40lbs plus pack in your back AND a mountaineering boot.
Tuesday:
So Weston have this new routine in store for me. Let see, there are 16 total routine (yes – you read right) and I have to do 2 sets with 12 reps. We started the workout with 4 different lunges. Front and Back, Side and Curtsy. All with me holding a pair of 12lbs dumbbell. Then I did lateral step-up with kick, also with pair of 12lbs dumbbell. From there, I did squat with ball against the wall while holding 8lbs medicine ball. After the squat, I did 2 total body routine. One with me holding with just one 12lbs dumbbell, one arm, alternate, from squat to standing and the other one was just holding it with both arm. From there, I laid on the ma, hips up in the air and lift my leg up, alternating between two legs — I hated this routine so much, I had to stop and told him to remind me on why I was paying him to be my trainer — then he had me on all four, and stretching my leg up and to the side, alternate between leg. After that – I did crunches with 8lbs medicine ball. Back to the step up, he had me do another step up, but now with an arm curl follow by a row and chest press using a terra-band. To end with a bang, he had me do a dip with a single legged squat. When I was done – I can barely move!
Wednesday:
Another long cardio – I put on the same pack, with another 42lbs weight and this time, I did an hour at the stair master. Now, that’s hard core. I hate stair master to begin with and to be in that machine for an hour plus a 42lbs pack and wear a mountaineering boot – I mean business! I did really good tho!
Thursday:
Rest Day!
Friday:
Strength Training. I repeated the routine that I did with Weston on Tuesday. All 16 of them, 2 sets and 12 reps. I didn’t do the interval training since I really didn’t have the time. We had to do our work out after work and we had to drop our girls on the day care. The strength training routine took about 1.5hrs and we had to get going to pick up our girls
Saturday:
Me and my girls during the hike
Instead of long cardio today, I decide to do a hike with my girls. This is actually a highlight of my week. I’ve been missing some quality time with my girls and every weekend, whenever we had to go hiking and I had to drop them at their grandma or their dad, they kept asking me to go with me. This week – I decided to skip my long cardio and did a leisure hike with my girls. They both were soooo excited and it was so refreshing and different to hike and walk on their pace. You were suddenly looking at things that you normally ignore. The moss, the root of the tree, the funny shape leaf – you named it. We went to Twin Falls and walked for about 1 mile to watch the water falls and back. That is a LOT of walk for a little ladies like my girls. They had a blast and seems to enjoy it, and I had the quality time with my girls that I’ve been missing. Yes, I didn’t do my long cardio and only walk for 2 miles – but I get to walk 2 miles with my 3 and 5 years old. I take that any day.
Sunday:
I managed to arranged some child care so I can join the training hike that arrange by American Lung Association. On this day, they are supposed to go to Pebble Creek, elevation 7,000ft at Mt Rainier National Park. Due to the weather, the training hike was canceled. There’s huge avalanche warning out and it was almost white out over there. A bunch of climber decided to go to Mt. Si. I was contemplating to go to Mt. Si as well, even already had my pack ready to go but we had a late morning and didn’t get ourselves together until around noon so we decided to go on hike since it was pretty wet out there. I started play Wii and did a few aerobics game for 20 minutes and I looked out and rain was tapering off, so I put my shoes on, put my rain shell and head on out. I ran for 3.6 miles around the neighborhood for an hour. For someone that never run outside (I did my running on the treadmill) – I think I did really well, consider my neighborhood is very, very hilly!
Fundraising:
Another awesome week on the fundraising front. I raised total $230.00 this week and am so close with my goal. I am so touch with everybody’s generosity and amazed on how many lives that actually touch by asthma, or any other lung disease. Almost every one of my donor told me that they have either a history of lung disease, or their family does. It just this week, I watched my 5 years old struggled to breath again when her asthma flared up and her lung didn’t get enough oxygen. I still have all of the brochure from Children’s hospital, which has an insert from American Lung Association about how to live with Asthma. As a parents, an education about chronic disease is so important and American Lung Association does a wonderful job about it. Keep the donation coming please. Visit my fundraising page and learn more about it. Every dollar count.
Update: This post is now part of Get Hawt #6
Week 5: Climb for Clean Air – Hurdles
Plan:
Monday: Long Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: REST Day!
Friday: Strength Training + Interval
Saturday: Hike day
Sunday: Strength Training + Interval
Did you ever have a plan something, and totally blew it? Well, this week is kinda like that. It started good and it shifted somewhere half way in the middle of the week and my plan is completely out of whack. I can make all the excuses in the world, but at the end of the day, I am accountable for things that I didn’t do and I’m not to pleased with myself this week. Yes, it’s mama day weekend and I’m supposed to cut myself a slack and be pampered and all, but it didn’t really give me a hall pass to skip a work out, let alone TWO days of work out. I faced life hurdles this week. Between work, family, children and just life in general, I am having a very hard time to find those hour or two, to do my work out, let alone 3 or 4 hours to do training hike. In result – I skipped a work out this week and no training hike. Not a happy Yanni. However, I’m not going to mope around and hide. I ‘fess up. Let the world know, that I will get my behind back into the program tomorrow. Get up, dust myself up, and move on. I have exactly 73 days to my climb days and I really need to get with the program. I don’t have too many weekend to do training hike and the one that I do have, not all of them are available to me to do it, so I really, really need to plan it wisely.
How it actually went down:
Monday:
Long Cardio day. After a week of letting my leg rest, I’m ready to get a lot of lower body exercise. I did an hour at elliptical machine, using a cross-ramp, training hill program on the machine. I kept my heart rate at the endurance zone at all time (hover at my 80% of MHR) and I did really good. The whole hour went by just like that and I did 5.26 miles on that hour.
Tuesday:
Weston decided to mixed up my strength training. We started with just regular squat, but with kettle bell in my hand, did variety of upper body combination while I did about 4 sets of squats, follow by lunges. Then I did single legged squat, also with kettle bell in my hand as an extra weight. Half way into it – he had me walk into the treadmill for 10 minutes to stretch my muscle, since some of the routines still gave me the sharp pain, but it went away. We repeated the same routine. I did total 8 sets, 12 reps each of combination of squat, lunges and single-legged squat and step-up with kettle bell upper-body combo. I was so spent by the time I was done and barely able to walk
Wednesday
Long Cardio Day. I loaded 45lbs weight into my pack, strapped in my back and set the treadmill to 15% grade and walk for an hour. Since this is going to be my summit pack, I thought this would be a good long cardio since it will also help me train with my pack. I found out really quickly that I need to exchange my pack from the medium frame to small, since my shoulder is a bit sore afterward. I set the treadmill on 2.0 mph and able to maintain it speed for the entire hour, even though I have a hard time to maintain my heart rate within the endurance zone. It was peaked all the way up on the upper level of the zone. I was panting most of the time. I didn’t want to adjust my pace nor drop my weight (yes, stubborn me) and just kept walking.
Thursday:
Weston told me to NOT take a rest day this Thursday, and did strength training on the traditional leg work out. Bummer. So I went to the gym. I did my warm up at the treadmill for 10 minutes then start my routines. It consist of Lunges and Squat – both used 10lbs dumbbell combination with upper body routine, then I did Leg Press, Leg Extension, Leg Curl, Hip Adduction and Hip Abduction. Then I did my cores exercise consist of plank, side oblique crunch and bridge. I did 3 sets of 12 reps of all routines.
Friday:
I skipped work out. I was planning to do it after work, but I just can’t make the time.
Saturday:
REST DAY! This is my planned rest day. Even tho I skipped work out the day before, I already made a plan with the family to do thins today. Yes, I could squeeze an hour to do something, but I didn’t.
Sunday:
- My summit pack and boot
This is when things went downhill. I didn’t go for any hike. I plan to, even dropped the my girls to my mom so I have absolutely no reason to not go. Instead, I decided to go over my gear. I laid out all my hiking gear in the floor and went over my list. I went and exchange my pack to the right size, had it readjusted and got the right model. I didn’t go for any training hike, but I know for sure what gear do I have and what gear that I still need to get. There is a wee bit sense of accomplishment. I’m not happy that I didn’t go for any hike, but I feel better knowing that I know what gear inside that bin that’s been sitting in the garage in the last few years.
Fundraising:
I raised $1279.21 this week plus $779.21 company matching with total $2058.42 this week!!! I did a happy hour fundraising party at my office and it’s a huge success! Thank you SO much for those who participate on the event and supporting my cause and for the SQL community that keep surprising me with their generosity! Keep the donation coming!
Update: This post now become part of Get Hawt#5 series
Week 4: Climb For Clean Air – Week of Recovery
Plan:
Monday: Long Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training with Weston
Wednesday: Long Cardio
Thursday: REST DAY!
Friday: Interval + Strength Training
Saturday: Hike
Sunday: Long Cardio
Wow, it’s been a month since I made a commitment to do this journey and time flies! I found out earlier on this week that I tore a vastus lateralis muscle, which is a muscle that attaches to my iliotibial band. My trainer suspected this might have been caused by doing two days in a row of long cardio workouts. Doing the same repetitious movement and somehow the way I moved my leg, put certain pressures on it and ended up injuring it. The fact that I hiked for almost 7 hours the day after didn’t help either. Long story short, I was ordered to back down, take it easy and really nurse it this week. I learned a lot about me, my limitations and that my patience is really, really being tested. The most important thing that I learned this week – it is okay to slow down and to take a break. It doesn’t make me weak, it makes me stronger. My body needs time to recover, build, and heal.
How it actually went down:
Monday:
I did not do anything. I can barely move my leg, or walk. Everything hurts. My left calves are throbbing, since I literally put my whole weight to them when I limped my way down to the mountain on the Saturday prior. My right leg, well, it has this sharp pain that keeps reminding me it’s there. I decided to take extra rest day.
Tuesday:
I limp my way to see Weston. He took one look at my leg, asked me to do a few things and told me that I tore my muscle. He was pretty certain of it. We didn’t really work out but he taught me a few stretching exercise that I should do. I was bummed. He explained to me in great detail on what he think the cause of the injury was.
Wednesday:
Long Cardio day. Per Weston instruction, I did 15 minutes increment of the cardio with total of 1 hour with stretching in between each interval. I went on the elliptical machine, crossramp 10 and treadmill on 15% grade. I worked up a pretty good sweat and the stretching helped with the pain.
Thursday:
Rest day. I almost didn’t want to take it, but decided to take it anyway.
Friday:
I did interval training on elliptical machine for 30 minutes, follow with my strength training. I decided to avoid any lower body work out and did upper body work out instead. I did a workout on the machines, Upper Back, Pectoral, Low row, and Chest press with 20lbs on each, three sets of 12 reps each. I struggled a bit with the pectoral machine and dropped the weight for two reps, and the next day wondered why my chest hurt. I also did core exercises consisting of plank, bicycle crunches, and bridges. I did three sets and 12 reps on all routines.
Saturday:
Me at The Mountain
Hike day. Well, this is actually the highlight of my week. My husband surprised me for a weekend gateway for my birthday. I didn’t know where we are going to go, until a day before. Turned out, he took me to stay at this awesome cabin at Ashford on Friday, which is a town at the base of Mount Rainer National Park, with the intention of doing a hike out there on Saturday. Weather wise, it was cloudy and foggy. The sun came out only for a few minutes, enough to show the mountain to me. It was cold, and windy, but as you walk, you can actually feel the sun penetrating the cloud. The trail was covered with snow. Usually, the trail to go to Pebble Creek from Paradise is all pavements and a lot of rock/steps but this time of the year, it’s nothing but snow. We put our snowshoe on, and started to walk. I noticed the thin air right away. Paradise sits on 5,800ft so the air already somewhat thin there and try to walk, on a steep incline trail, with snowshoe, with somewhat limited lung capacity. Yeah, it’s interesting. My lung and I kept having a conversation as we went along, if you know what I mean. We didn’t go all the way to Pebble Creek, and decided to stop at 6,200ft. Due to snow, the switchback is gone, so the trail is on steep hill across Panorama Point (I’m talking straight incline for about 800ft) then it dropped down to the creek. I didn’t feel like climbing that last hill and didn’t see the reason to do that other than a bragging rights, so we sat down, ate our lunch and enjoyed our day. It was absolutely majestic out there. My iPhone app shows that I hiked for almost 4 miles, for 3 hours.
Sunday:
Well, it was a gorgeous day today in the Pacific Northwest! The sun is out, the weather is absolutely fabulous! I was going to do a long cardio at the gym, but there’s no way I’m going to do any inside work out so I was planning to do another hike, but then we got home from church, and unpacking from our trip and before long, my husband was working on the yard and I’m cleaning up my car. I didn’t get any work out done, but the yard is looking really good and my car looks pretty clean inside. I am thinking to play some Wii Fit for an hour later after I finish up this summary, but it’s getting late, so that might not happen either especially tomorrow I have to get up early. I guess it’s another rest day for me.
Week 3: Climb for Clean Air – Week of Changes
The plan:
Mon: Interval + Strength Training
Tues: Strength Training with Weston
Wed: Long Cardio within Endurance Zone with 25lbs pack
Thu: REST day!!
Fri: Interval + Strength Training
Sat: Training Hike – 6 Hours Hike, 30lbs pack
Sun: Long Cardio within Endurance Zone
Oh, where do I begin. Let see. I introduced a lot of changes this week. I changed my schedule around to accommodate holiday, used a new pack, hiked in the afternoon instead of the morning, have no rest days until the end and I struggled to identify what caused me to, well, struggled during the hike. If there’s a lesson to be learned this week, I need to have compassion for myself. I need to allow myself to fail, since failure is just a beginning to another success. I need to learn to be more forgiving, more patient and not to introduce too much change at the same time. As a Production DBA, I should have known better. We hate that during deployment, yes?
In overall, this week is a week of changes. I learned a lot about myself and my limit. This is only my week 3, and I know I’m doing pretty awesome so far <this is me patting myself in the back>
How it actually went down:
Monday:
I had a hard time finding motivation to do my training today. I was super sore and just plain tired, and my schedule today is a bit out of whack so I can’t really work out in the morning and have to do it after work, which is very difficult to do after full day at work. I did do it tho. I started the work out with a Cardio Interval Training at the treadmill. I ran 2.1 miles in 3o minutes, with 3:1 ratio again, which means – I ran with 6mph for 1 min to push my heart rate above 163, then slowed down to 3.5mph for 3 mins and let my heart rate drop below 163. I did okay until the last 5 minutes when I can’t really get my heart rate down, so I didn’t push it and just coasted through the end of the interval. Shortly after, I did the strength training, new routine that Weston designed for me. Today its routine B as describe here. Let me start by saying, I have a LOT of work to do. First routine – I literally cried from being so frustrated due to not able to do even one rep. My husband John was trying to help me by holding my back and feet, but I was being a way too stubborn and wanted to be able to do this routine on my own. Did I do it? Yes. I did. Second and third set – I did them all by myself without weight but this is just another thing that I know I have a lot of work to do. The second routine – I suck. Again. I can not lift my hips from the floor at all, especially my left one. So we improvised and only lifted my leg and I had to report this back to Weston tomorrow to see if he can adjust my routine. The rest of the routine, I did pretty good. Overall – I am not too happy with tonight’s strength training but I have to keep reminding myself that I’m creating a baseline. This is where I am going to look and compare weeks from now to see how far I have become.
Tuesday:
This is the day that I’m working out with Weston and I think the fact that I show up means something, or he probably just feeling sorry for me, haha, but he gave me a semi-rest day! We didn’t really work out today, but worked more on doing a review on the plan and how I did. I had to repeat a few exercises to him and show him things that I can’t do. He adjusted a few things for me, showed me the right way to do a few routine. The most important thing that I took from today’s session is I have to do my repetitions slow, focused and within my range of motion. He’d rather have me do lighter weight, but complete reps, rather than heavier one. We agreed that every strength training will consist of four hip exercises, lunges, squat, step-up, and four types of cores exercise. Ten routines total, 12 reps, 3 sets. We also talked about cardio and how important it is for me to build a lactic acid tolerance by doing a long cardio activity within my fat burning/endurance zone. He used the comparison of a storm drain. My body is trying to build more storm drains by doing a long cardio so lactic acid can be flushed faster and my endurance level will increase. All in all, it was a very good session.
Wednesday:
I changed my plan around. Instead of long cardio, I decided to do an interval training and strength training today. I did the interval at the elliptical this time, no weight. I put on the interval program on the machine and go with it. I made sure that my heart rate is pushing to 170 during the 1 minute interval and hover around 160 for 3 minutes and I was able to keep it the same interval for the entire 30 minutes. I noticed a big different though. I’m no longer struggling as much compare with last week. That.is.progress!
Thursday:
Due to my semi-rest day on Tuesday and the fact that this Sunday is Easter, I decided to move my rest day to Sunday and do my long cardio today. I set my music on, get my book ready on my iPad and just get going. I made sure my heart rate hovered between 148-150, which is the border of fat burning zone and the endurance zone and I was doing great. I didn’t feel tired at all and I knew I could carry on conversation just fine with others during it. I kept on going and going and going…. and when an hour pass, I looked at my iPhone and it said… 4.42 miles!! Wow! This girl just did 4 miles. This girl. I smile cheek-to-cheek. I know for all of you runner out there, that prolly nothing, but for me — this is huuuuge!!!
Friday:
Another long cardio day. I had to cut down the work out time today to 45 minutes due to the limited time I have due to an event I was attending at our church. I hopped on the elliptical machine and just started walking. My iPhone app said I did 3.42 miles in 45 minutes and I was right on the border of fat burning and endurance zone the entire time. I felt great and hopped off the machine. Shortly after, I immediately felt this sharp pain on my right thigh. I stopped walking and somewhat puzzled and kept walking. Did my thing, went to my event and when I finally lay in bed, I realized this is not just “I’m sore and my muscle hurt” kinda feeling. Few peeps on the twitter told me that this might be an injury or some sorta strain. I kept stretching it, took some Advil and went to bed.
Saturday:
View from Top of Mt. Si
Hike day. I had planned to go to Mt. Si for today’s hike. With 3,700 feet elevation changes, I thought this would be a great hike to test how my training been preparing me. I also switched my day pack and used what I called my “summit pack” and I put my usual 25lbs weight plus my 10-essentials. I can’t ask for a better weather to do a hike! It was one of the best weather!days so far this year! I still felt the pain on my left thigh but I shrugged it off and headed out. Due to an Easter Egg hunt activity in the morning, we didn’t start walking until 1:30pm. It was pretty hot and even with the cold breeze, the sun is warming the whole mountain out! Within 10 minutes of walking, I noticed a significant different on my strength and energy. I was struggling. My right thigh hurt, my shoulder hurt, I was breathing heavy, it was hot, and I can’t get my breathing or my pace right. I slowed down, tried to find my pace but it wasn’t working. Half hour into it, I gave up. I looked at John and told him that I had to dump some of my weight (I put extra water as a weight on my pack) since I barely can walk. It was very hard for me to do that mentally. I felt like I’m moving backwards. One step forward, two steps backwards.
Me at the top of Mt. Si
We hit 2 mile mark about 1hr 45 mins and decided to keep going. As we went higher to the mountain, the air was getting cooler. I breathed better, and was able to focus more on my walk. I wasn’t struggling and managed to walk slow, focus and steady. At mile 3, the trail was covered with ice. It was slippery and I was quite amused to see others who walked on this trail with tennis shoes and slip and slide on this ice. I didn’t bother to put my Yak Trax on and just kept walking since my boot had a good traction and I had my good hiking poles with powder basket on them, so I was on a good shape. The only problem, the pain in my thigh was getting worse and I had to even walk slower. 3 hours and 45 minutes later, I was finally arrived at the top of Mt. Si, about an hour longer than I was anticipated. Heading down the mountain turned out to be more challenging than I thought. It was by far, the worst descent I ever had for the history of my hiking (and I did a lot of hiking in my life-time!). My leg hurts every time I took a step down, and I used my poles to shift my weight to it and my left leg and I literally limp my way down to the mountain, for entire 4 miles! It took me almost the same time we hike up to the mountain to come down. It was a long day, a long hike. I was soooooo happy when I took off my hiking boots and elevated my leg. I did an 8 plus mile hike, for 7 plus hours. That’s huge. Yes, it wasn’t my best day and I was a little discouraged by it, but as I write this post, I know that I accomplished something. And I’m pretty darn proud about it.