Good Morning!

I'm happy to announce that the Sunday hikes will be starting up mid-April!!!!

Kristi Johnston, a Dream Team member, is coordinating the hikes we will be doing in Gatineau in preparaton for the trip. I received an email yesterday noting that the hikes are to start up again on
APRIL 14, 2013.

We do the same trail every Sunday to serve as a benchmark for everyone to measure improvement.

The trail we do is Wolf Trail. we meet in parking lot 13 at 10am sharp. I have attached the link for driving directions which was included in the email the team received so that if you would like to join, you know where to find it. I'm also happy to carpool with anyone that wants to come with, but you gotta meet me at my place  If you're coming, let me know so I will know look out for you!!!  :P

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Enter+your+starting+address+for+directions&daddr=45.540668493291285%2C-75.91557318338221

Training went well last week, though I didn't do as much Yoga as anticipated...sometimes you just need to take a bit of a break and let your body recooperate!!  This week I hope to get into CrossFit and Yoga on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

As part of my preparations for the trip, I've also gone on a diet! So far that is working out pretty well, and i've lost a few pounds. I'll post more details on the days it says to go and re-take weights and measurements. The way I see it, the less of me my legs have to carry up the trail, the better!! ha ha

My goals this week are as follows:

1. Get all the details finalized for setting up the framework for my fundraising event. This includes a general time table, and permission from the building landlord to use the common area (parking/laneway) between the buildings. Once this is approved, I can then get out the official word and get people to register!

2. Send out a mass email to personal contacts in my email so anyone who doesn't have access to Facebook knows about the climb and can follow my blog or make a donation!

Lets do this!!

Em

March 14, 2013

Hello!

I feel great this morning, full of pep - maybe that's because it's only 8:51 and my day hasn't really started yet....fingers crossed this keeps up all day, I'm gonnna need it!

Thought I would try attaching a photo into my blog.....Hooray it worked!
The below was taken on Tuesday night by my friend Marty, who trains there with me and now happens to be O-Town's photographer.

KNEES OUT!

This was sort of a warm up weight at 20kg.  I think I ended up working at 30kg becase there were a lot of overhead squats and i was trying to be careful!

Just an FYI for anyone who doesn't know much about lifting a Woman's olympic bar is 15kg. Those red plates on the end are plastic and weigh 2.5kg each. Alternately, a Man's bar is 20kg, is a bit longer, and is wider..

Tonight I'm gonna head to CrossFit and then do a couple yoga classes at Pure!

I found out yesterday that the hikes are going to be starting soon again in Gatineau so I will post about those should anyone else want to get some fresh air with me!

Cheers!
E

March 12, 2013

Good Morning!

My week is off to a good start, and I hope yours is too!

I thought I'd talk a bit about my training this morning. I know a bunch of my teammates are doing bootcamp training with Lawrence Ringwald, and seem to be enjoying it. I have chosen to stick with my regular training (CrossFit) and have added hot yoga (at Pure Yoga Ottawa) and will be starting to go for some hikes again in Gatineau. I try to get in 3 CrossFit workouts and at least 3 hours of Yoga a week; however, some weeks just get a little busy and the plan that week goes by the wayside.....

Anyways, this week is certainly off to a good start with respect to training!
Last night I was at CrossFit O-Town. The CrossFit classes are an hour long and broken into two sections, a "skill" and a "Workout of the Day' (WOD). The skill portion is a focus on a lift, while the workout is like a circuit with a time element. If you want to see what the workouts look like, go to the link to my gym's website on the right side of my blog : - )

So the workout started with squat-clean thrusters - got to 1 rep at 40kg (not bad, not my best either)
and then did the WOD which was:
30-20-10 Wall Balls; Pull Ups; Pistols - 15 minutes of this for as many rounds as possible. I did two rounds and was 20 wall balls into my third round when time ran out....

Then did both of Todd's classes at Pure Yoga. There's nothing like a hot yoga class to help stretch everything out and get you relaxed before bed! I've been doing the hot yoga a month now, and I'm already seeing improvement with my flexibility.

The plan for the rest of the week is to do both today, Thursday, Friday and then to just do Yoga on Sunday.

I'm also starting to plan a lifting event at CrossFit O-Town, and I will of course keep posting details on here about it as more gets set up.

Thanks for reading!!

Em

First Post

Hello to anyone reading this!
I've decided to start a blog about the things I'm doing in advance of my trip coming up in June. Time sure flies by fast. It feels like just yesterday I was registering to do this, and here I am, within 3 months of getting on the plane!!!

Anyways, I hope to have a more thorough understanding of this whole blogging thing in the near future. It's funny how even growing up around computers, I still feel so inept at working with them sometimes!

So, about the trip:
The trip will be 10 days. We fly into Lima, and stay there overnight; the following day we fly into Cuzco where we will have a few days to acclimatize to the local conditions before we start our trip up the trail.

The trail (The Inca Trail) will take 4 days to get us to Machu Picchu. days one and two will be the roughest due to the steepness of the climb. My team and I each will have a little day pack to carry, and then we have porters that carry up our overnight bags - but don't go thinking they are carrying full suitcases - I believe we are only allowed to give them packs weighing approximately 6kg. As a woman, I'm wondering how I'm going to get 4 days worth of goods into my pack!!!

I'm hoping to do some excursions and tour around Cuzco during the days we aren't climbing, but nothing so far has been planned!

As for fundraising, so far I'm sitting just shy of $1,000 of my $5,000 goal. Still have lots to do, and am still waiting for more donations to come in. I'm also hoping this blog will catch some attention and perhaps help with the effort!!

Thanks for reading!

Em : - )