Spinning

Holy spin class Batman!  I forgot how kick ass these classes can be.  The rec center at Western offers a variety of hour-long classes throughout the year.  I think it's great how they provide structured workouts that introduce students to new ways of staying active, like yoga, Pilates, crossfit, and other sculpting classes. I thought this was going to be a typical spin class where we do hill climbs, endurance intervals and up-downs for an hour.  So I planned to make it a tough bike workout for myself, based on HR zones but, after 30 minutes the instructor had us put the bikes away and grab mats.  She proceeded to destroy our quads and core with a HIIT workout consisting of jumping lunges, burpees, planks, pulsing squats and mountain climbers.

Now I've mostly been logging long runs and lactate-threshold runs lately, so this blew me up big time.  It was amazing and I'm still riding the endorphin high hours later.  Seeing a double rainbow through the liquid sunshine and changing leaves also had an impact.  I made sure to tell the instructor how tough and fun the session was.  Taking a day off from running is what I needed as my IT has been finicky the last couple of days.  I'm probably gonna feel it tomorrow.  So I'll probably stick to a long swim and a yoga class or two.  

Marathon Build

I'm sitting here during my lunch break thinking about my run yesterday.  It was a south-north route along the eastern side of Baker Lake.  I've been wanting to get on this trail all summer but the mountains with their peaks and views pull me another way.  It seemed fitting that this trail is 15 miles one-way and I had a 20 miler planned.  I started out with the intention of going 10 and turning around. At my turn-around there was this trail heading upslope called Noisy Creek.  I had to see what it was about.  One mile and 1,000 ft later I found the inspiration for its name.  The slow moving creek must have encountered a rock slide at some point in time because there I found a dam of trees, limbs and boulders.  Water like life, finds a way (cue Jeff Goldbloom.)  The falls wasn't grandiose like Niagra but it contained power nonetheless.  I welcomed the break from running and listened to its sound for awhile before gathering my energies for the return trip.  I haven't checked off half of the places I planned on seeing this summer but a friend once told me, we leave reasons to come back. Next Spring I'll do the whole trail and report back.  

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention.  I'm tackling my first marathon this year.  I haven't nailed down which one but it'll be in December.  Either the Seattle or the Yukon Do It.  The training has been fun and it's great having an excuse to explore new trails in the area.