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This might be a tad long of a post, so sorry in advance if it steals too much of your time! 🙂

Yesterday, Teri and I took Taylor on her first hike. We headed up to the Little Si trail. Little Si is the little brother of Mount Si and is a good alternative when Si is covered in snow, or you want a shorter, less steep workout. Little Si is about 5 miles round trip with a little over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. In contrast, Mount Si is 8 miles round trip with just about 4,000 feet in elevation gain. Again, I had my Forerunner 305 with me and again, I was disappointed in it’s performance on the trail. Looking at the Forerunner during the hike gave weird readings. Like it said that we only did 3 or so miles, however after downloading the data to Motionbased, it put the round trip at 5.25 miles. So Garmin must be doing some error correction on the fly when downloading the data. It would be nice if they could just fix the device to give you accurate readings while you’re actually accomplishing the task at hand. I did remember my chest strap this time, so I do have a nice read out of my heart rate during the hike. My HR never really got above 145 and on the way down, it was a mild 120 or so. I know my aerobic capacity is getting better. Now I just have to work on strengthening my legs so they don’t get as tired as easily. Unfortunately that means I’m likely going to have to incorporate legs into my lifting routine. Oh well . . .

The whole thing took us just about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Only 1 hour 54 minutes moving time though. Not too shabby, that averages out to a 2.5 MPH clip . . . I’m happy with that. As it was pretty overcast and misty, the view from the top wasn’t great, but it was nice to get out and get some fresh air. Taylor did REALLY well for her first hike. You could really tell that Teri has been working with her. There were a couple times that I thought Taylor was going to pull Teri over or down a hill, but for the most part, she listened. She sat when told to sit, she stayed when told to stay, and she heeled when told to heel. She did great and she’ll be a great addition to our summer hikes this year. I think next up we’re going to do Rattlesnake Ledge. Here’s the chart from MotionBased for the hike and following that, some pictures.

Teri and Taylor on Little Si Trail

Taylor on Top of Little Si

John, Teri and Taylor on top of Little Si

OK, then this morning, I got up at about 10 after 6 and headed to the gym. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after hiking yesterday, but I felt surprisingly good. So today it was treadmill and lifting. I started out at 5.2 MPH on the treadmill . . . I did about 1.25 miles at that pace, then walked for about .10 miles then ran at 5.3 MPH for another .75 miles or so, walked for about .15 miles, then ran at 5.4 MPH for .75 miles and then at 7.0 MPH for the final .25 miles. That last quarter of a mile hurt. But my overall time was 36:29, pretty respectable I think. Then I hit the weight room . . .

• 3 X 10 @ 135 Lbs Bench Press
• 3 X 10 @ 110 Lbs Lat Pulldown
• 3 X 10 @ 65 Lbs Triceps Extension
• 3 X 10 @ 80 Lbs Pectoral Fly
• 2 X 10 @ 30 Lbs “7-Ups”
• 1 X 10 @ 20 Lbs “7-Ups”

So I increased my weight on a couple of lifts, I can feel myself getting stronger. Because of my bum shoulder however, the bench press still gives me some trouble. I need to work on building the muscle around my shoulder so it’s not such an issue.

Only 7 days to triathlon. I think on Monday and Wednesday, I may do two a day workouts getting a couple spin classes in there somewhere. Light workouts on Tuesday and Thursday, likely swimming with weights. Rest day on Friday and Triathlon on Saturday. I’m pretty sure I’m ready. I’ve been visualizing my transitions, and my final time at the finish . . . I won’t tell you what it is . . . but I have a dream . . . 🙂