Monday, December 30, 2013

Florida bound

26dec13 - 30dec13

Christmas was its usual fun and stressful endeavor, which a house full of people and lots of food to prepare its a lot of fun and tensions of course run high. 

Anyways, I slept at home on 25dec because on the 26th Ma, CC and I headed to Florida to see the Ricky. Our flight was at a completely ungodly time. But we were up and at um at 4. And at Logan at 430.  The flight was uneventful... Which is what you want with a flight and we were landing in west palm  beach by 9am. 

Thursday we didn't do much cause we were all exhausted. Drove around, went to publix, and took a nap at the hotel. Ricky was working so we met for dinner. And then relaxed in the hotel. Lazy vacations are great because there is very little agenda. 

Friday I got up early and went to crossfit hardcore. There are about a million crossfits in boca raton, and this one just happened to be the closest. The workout was 

21-15-9 
Split jerks and sumo deadlift high pulls 65# 
In between each round I did 50 singles and 10 double under attempts. 

It was pretty aweful. After the whole class did abs on there own which was fun. I did them too. 

On the schedule for today was boat rentals at Ricky's work and some cruising  on the intercoastal water way.  We lucked out with the weather. It was bright and sunny. 


We even went for a dip in "lake boca" by putting the anchor down. It was chilly, but fun to jump off the side of the boat. 

The rest of the day was low key, went back to the hotel to relax and shower. Quick trip to walmart and dinner. 

Saturday, I got up and went to a Hatha yoga class. It was good but a bit for the old ladies. But who doesn't mind a light class. 

After that we got ready and went to downtown delray. Which is a street. We came across a street fair and walked around there. We even made it in the beach for 15 min before it started to rain. 


Toe dipping occurred. Once the rain started we headed to the mall, had dinner with Ricky again and went home. ( anyone sensing a theme) 

Sunday started very lazy.  As our theme would suggest we didn't have much of an agenda. After breakfast all us girls headed to LA Fitness nearby to get the sweat on. I did a RWOD for rowing and the others did, who knows. 
It was 4 x 1000 m with 2:30 rest. It was tough. 

But I was happy with the results. 

After that we headed back to the hotel to change and eat. We went to the movies in the afternoon, mainly cause the weather had been extremely unpredictable.  We saw the secret life of Walter Mitty. It was really good, though took a little to get into because it jumps around a bit at the beginning, but worth the watch. 

After the movie we mainly killed time until Ricky was done with work. 
Ferris wheel rides happened. 

When we synced up with Ricky we made a trip to home depo and dinner at a pizza place. 

Then home to pack. 

Monday 
Travel day, uneventful and early. Note to self... Don Jon not an appropriate movie choice for an airplane... Just saying. 







Sunday, December 29, 2013

Renagade rowing wk 4

23 dec 13 

This week we started focusing on stamina. After coming the first 2K race on Saturday, which was awesome, we now had a pace goal to beat. I actually managed my goal which made me really happy. The current 2K race pace was 

Avg 2:06/ 500 m

My goal for the crash B's is sub 2:00.  Which is totally achievable. I'm going to rock it. I actually should say that it's my goal for now... Because depending on training progress I may change it, I mean that's the thing with this kind of goal you can always change, and you want to the race day to be hard but achievable. 

So today's workout was supposed to be 8 x 500m with 2 min rest in between. I say supposed to because that's what other people did, but because me and nick had do the workout that morning which was 

6 rounds 
15 push ups
Row 250 m 
15 ring rows (pull ups) 

So let's another 8 round workout and I would have crashed and burned. So I did 4 rounds. 


By this my goal is definitely reachable. And then I'll get the awesomeness award 


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Christmas revels

18dec13 

There is this thing is Boston (or Cambridge technically) that I've known about forever but I'm slowly realizing is not that widely known. It's called the Revels. 

What is Revels?

Revels is song. Revels is dance.

Revels celebrates the seasons and cycles of human life through the arts, the songs and dances, and the stories from traditional cultures. Audiences recognize the events, desires, and dilemmas from another place and time as their own. Spring Sing hails the renewal of life and color. SummersDay Revels glories in abundance. RiverSingmarks cooler, darker days. The Christmas Revels welcomes the return of the light.

Copied from revels.org website. 

It's been going on for 43 yrs and always takes place at Sanders theater at Harvard. 

And it was great. I actually forgot how participatory it was which was fun. Some of the songs were tricky because they were in Spanish ( not a language I'm comfortable with) but it was awesome and I totally want to go again next year :-) 

Before I forgot this years story came from Spain and "the road". It was sort of the story of Don Quiotex. 

The 43rd annual Christmas Revels takes us to Galicia in Northern Spain, an area with a strong sense of Celtic identity where, since the Middle Ages, pilgrims have walked the Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James). Our story follows Everyman, a allegorical character summoned by a mysterious figure who tells him his days are numbered.  He must go on a journey to the end of the earth to be there for the shortest day. Needless to say, colorful encounters - and glorious music- abound!

Filled with evocative Spanish music, exciting dance and magical stories, our celebration includes a treasure trove of Galician processionals, songs and carols plus many Revelstouchstones audiences enjoy every year including Susan Cooper's classic poem,The Shortest DayDona Nobis Pacem,the Sussex Mummers Carol, a seriously funny Mummers play, and Revels' signature piece, the joyous and participatory Lord of the Dance.


Overall a great time :-) 


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Renegade rowing wk 3

16dec13 

This week was another good week. We focused on what our race pace was going to be on Saturday (my first indoor erg event)  

The workout 

We did the first part in sync with Nick calling the changes.  Then we practiced race starts, which are actually really awkward.  Because you have to go fast, but also doing three different lengths of stroke in the row is tricky. And doesn't feel great yet. I am working on quick hands, basically right now they are super lazy.  So on the return I get sort of fouled up in myself. It also makes you loose hella time. So that's not good either. 

My goal for the workout portion was to keep the same average split for all the pieces. I did not but got pretty close. 

I think my strokes per min were pretty good at 30. I'll probably stick to that. But split wise my goal is going to be 2:06.  Because at low 2:04. I sort of left like I was going to vomit. And then 2:07 was a bit too comfy. I mean technically the crash Bs and the race on Saturday will be all said and done in about 8 min. So we don't need to be too comfy. But I don't want to burn out in the first 500 meters. 

So I have a plan... Woohoo


All dolled up

14dec13 

This weekend was the annual biogen Christmas party. This will be my first time going since contract employees aren't invited... Kind of a bummer, but whatever. Oh and last year I was in Norway so I didn't go. 

So on Saturday Sunita and I got dolled up and had a date at the biogen Christmas party. It was at the fairmount Copley plaza. A very swanky hotel down town. 

We got there fashionably late. Changed the shoes because it being winter it was snowing. And explored. They had a bunch of stations and it being biogen, lots of bar tables. We chatted with some people and mingled. And ate. The desserts were by far the best thing there. 

And we got to take a Christmas picture 

It's fun to actually have an excuse to put I really clothes. Occasionally :-) 

Friday, December 13, 2013

Renagade Rowing wk 2



09dec13

It was another good practice at rowing this week. We had the rowers set up in a different fashion this week, essentially in 2 "boats". But that didn't matter much because we didn't warm up with the pic drill. 

The workout was 

We ended up not doing the team warm up but everything else was accomplished.  I think we skipped it because we went over the website. And how to find it. I found out I was actually in photograph in the website. 

http://renegaderowing.com

So hey, I can lift... Snatch it 

The prep


Full extension 


And kapow!

Pretty cool to actually see it cause snatchs are hard. 

Anyway, the workout was good. Though it's really hard to stay at a consistent stroke rating, but I know I'll keep working and get better. 


I like the feeling around a 30 s/m, right now the other ones are really hard. 







Sunday, December 8, 2013

Two years

07dec13

Another year has gone by since my life was changed forever, and it's been a great year. I decided last year that every December 7th I'm going to do something special and celebrate life and the happiness that I have, that even though bad shit happened, I'm still hear and still doing my thing. 

This year I spent some time in the natural world. Ben and Daniel and I discussed possible hiking locations. We settled on Dogtown in Gloucester. 

So Saturday started relatively early, got but and pack up lots of snacks and water and bundled up, and made my way to Bens. I will first day thank you GOD the weather report was wrong. It was likely supposed to snow, and though it was still pretty cold, it was bright and sunny. 

After meeting up we drove up to Gloucester to meet Daniel for brunch.. Cause who doesn't love brunch, I mean really. 
We went to George's. 
http://www.udine4less.com/georgescoffeeshop/

It was quite tasty and very cute. And we had a very chatty waitress that reminded me of when I was doing the breakfast crowd on Sundays at cabots. High schoolers are so fun to talk to, sometimes. 

We fueled up and made our way to Dogtown. It was very pretty and really quite there. There was a few big climbing boulders scattered around the area and they also had some words scattered around. 

First we found a reservoir. I love water so that was awesome. 



It was gorgeous. And there was a big boulder that we climbed up. 


The rest of the area was wooded. And had fun boulders. I climbed one. Which was fun, but a little scary coming down. 

The rock carvings were cool too! 

And kind of random





The mandatory tree pose infront if this one. This was the second boulder the boys climbed. I did not because I had a feeling even if I got to the top, climbing up that crack you can see in the picture, getting down would have been a bit of a spaz attack. 

We got back to the cars just as it got really dark.  And we made our way back to Cambridge. It was a relaxing rest of the day. 

We were going to watch Silence of the lambs... But that didn't happen because it wasn't on netflix streaming. 

We had the most random dinner I've had in awhile 

And dozed / watched the Glatiator :) 

All in all another great dec 7 



Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Renagade rowing wk 1

02 dec 13 
I had my first indoor crew practice yesterday. It was held at crossfit Boston. There were 8 people or 9... Don't remember exactly, but a few I knew and a few I didn't.  Overall it was super fun and I can definitely tell my rowing is going to get better. 

Today's workout focused on control.

The workout 

The whole point was to stick certain stroke rating at certain  times and maintain consistency.  Once you got the stroke rating consistent you were supposed to maintain a consistent split. It was actually hard to keep so consistent. But I know with practice I'll get better.

The warm up was a 1k 


The first set

Pretty good consistency 

The second set 

So overall I varied a little... But things to work on. 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Adventureness

30 nov 2013

The great part about having extra time off is there is modivation to actually do some stuff that you've been "putting off" or stuff that life as gotten in the way of. In my case this was getting outside.... Aka hiking in the woods. I was determined to get outside this weekend company or no company. And as fortune would have it, it ended up being a pretty great day. 

I had aquired a hike book... Basically a travel book for hiking in New England, because I know nothing. So I figured even if a number of them were not particularly strenuous it would at least get me in the mode of getting outside and getting to know different areas.  So when I found one near my friend cliffs house... Aka very central mass. I figured perfect combo. 

Cue

Fortunately Cliff was free, so we met in the parking lot and did some exploring. Me, him and a yellow lab. Initially I wanted to do a long trail, which ended up not being a perfect loops so we sort of did a combo run of that trail and this other one called the coffee house trail. It was completely empty which was great, and really pretty. 


A bit of time in we ran across this pond, marsh thing. I mean who doesn't love water. Cliff was psyched because he fly fishes and that is apparently a good kind of area. Needless to say it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. 

It was still early when we parted ways, so I decided to check out purgatory chasm in sutton ma.  This was done solo, so I send Abby my location... She had volunteered to be my location buddy safety person, the previous day. And away I went. 

Mandatory selfie 

This place was really neat. Extremely rocky as you can guess and VERY crowded :( 




The weirdest thing was the random ice bits that were all around 


But there was so many potentially good rock climbing places. I may have to figure out a way to come back there... With ropes. 

This area was much smaller so I stayed around an hr. And then headed back to the car.  When I went to message Abby I was safe and sound I noticed a dinner invite, so the evening was spent with Abby and paul enjoying great food, great company and almost winning at settlers of catan... 

It great when days fall together in a really unexpected and great way.