Clicking Bones

When I try to engage limited use of my right hand, like to use my index finger to help my left hand just a little...click.

Click.  Pop.  Click.

Dammit, Jim!  Those are dislocated bones!

See, I'm really not in pain, so the desire to have some normal usage is quite high.  It's like I'm in a splint for nothing.

Just some of the crazy bruising.

Fitness Quest.  My primary worry (I cannot, I repeat cannot lose these abs!) as I cancel my gym for next week.  Hiking alone does not work-I need the targeted exercises.  I start formulating ideas, and decide to take this week off until I know what the prognosis is for my hand.  I'll hike all week (Canyon next Sunday-not giving that up!) and figure out my schedule the next five (I have some cool ideas.)

Heading here!

So today, I worked a little (good as a distraction) and start learning what I cannot do.

1.  Dry self off after shower.

This may be an issue if the King isn't around.

2.  Put on a necklace or post earrings.

Good thing I'm no longer a jewelry lady, eh?

3.  Blow dry hair while styling, or braid or put hair in ponytail.

 Bye-bye Viking braids for now.

4.  TALK ON PHONE WHILE DRIVING.

This is a severe negative!!

5.  Do my nails

Dude-don't laugh.

6.  Put on yoga pants.  

There's a lot of pulling involved.

7.  Keep a straight face when retelling how I broke my hand.

Chris will attest to this.

8.  Shoot a gun.

They *say* I can go left, but I'm not holding out much hope that I can hit a target shooting left with no support hand?  Come on.

I want to make clear I am not complaining. It's just different-and I like to note differences. So the Fitness Quest will reflect this-I'm excited to see what it brings.

By the way, I'm desperate for junk good right now.  Aching for it.

Yum-O.

I've managed to stay on track only because broken bones make you sleepy...but I want this all the time!!!

Abs.  I love my abs.  Repeat!!

Pray for me!

The Aftermath of a Canyon Hike (Captain's Log, Supplemental)

The blister on the middle toe of my right foot is stinging.

Like this was sticking out of it.

Poor tootsie.

My external quads are tight, my lower back is minorly peeved and my shoulders aren't speaking to me.

Might have something to do with the weight of eight water bottles I carried yesterday.

My hair...well, I went to bed with wet hair.

That's a rat's nest right there.

I weighed myself, hoping I'd lost about five pounds.

Dang if this thing ain't stuck RIGHT there. 

It's probably because I ate this:

Actually, I ate 1/4 of the steak, all three shrimp and 1/3rd of the mashed potatoes.

Plus two rolls....and two beers.

Anyhow, the King would tell me it was the carbs.

So, no carbs today.

Which means life will certainly be less fun this week, but if I can break under 150 lb for the first time in nine years (knowing I have muscle, too) I would be over the moon.

I could soooo write a story about this moon.

Every step I take today will remind me of what I did yesterday.

It was terribly awesome.

I'll be sore, but I'll love it.  I'll want to brag about it (so unfair that's not socially acceptable), I'll want to rehash it, I'll want to plan another trip there this month.

Because this is not exercise.

It wasn't a workout.

It was a pilgrimage.

"Leave it at the altar," I've heard said many a church service.

I left it in the Canyon.  Among the buttes, the mesas and plateaus.  Down a steep and rocky trail few will ever traverse.  Uncontent to sit and watch the beauty from the rim, I've taken it deeper.  

Inspired by Dotty.

I will always stop for purple flowers.

Yesterday, for the second time, my excitement grew as I neared the Canyon rim at the end of the hike.  There was no desire for the hike to be over; no worry that I'd never get there.  The weariness of the hike mattered little as I finished the task.  

Nothing else on earth compares to this; it is addicting, this soul-drenching excursion to a land that calls me, soothes me and embraces me.

I hate exercise.  I assure you, this is not exercise.  It's exploration.

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (although I did plot out some business plans while skimming along a butte.). I do know, however, I must include the Canyon in them.  I'd head back today if I could.

Grandview Trail, Grand Canyon #49

Seven weeks ago I couldn't climb the stairs without becoming winded.

These stairs were not a problem.

Dotty and I planned to leave at 7am, but she forgot she was working until midnight last night.  So her husband Darrin & I agreed she should sleep, and we ended up leaving at 8am.  On a whim, Darrin decided to join us.

I actually met and became friends with Darrin first, back in September 2013.  I met Dotty this past Christmas; we love telling people we met because I was friends with her husband.  

Aren't they cute?

We hit the Grandview trailhead at 10:30am, a little late for a start but HEY, it was only three miles there and back, right??! 

Except the trail looked like this...

Or this (yes, this is the freakin' TRAIL.)

So instead of a quick hike down, we had a very arduous three mile hike.  To a freakin' half a house.

We just did what for this?

As we ate lunch, a few hikers coming back up the trail let us know the view was another 30 minutes up the trail.  Upon hearing that, I threw my boots back on, and dashed off as quickly as I could.  My phone said it was three, add an hour on for this plus the hike?  We'd be done at 7pm and dark!!!  We had to hammer this out quick!

The view

Darrin photo bombing me.

One cannot, in pictures or words, adequate convey the beauty of the inner canyon.  Cliffs and buttes of spring green; a quiet unlike any other on earth.  Addicting like a drug; I need to be there.  There is a peace that blankets the heart and soul; truly the canyon is like no other.

The hike up would be tough-you saw the trail-but I had a sneaky suspicion we might make better time in the trip up. We went very slow, trying to secure footing on the way down.  On the way up, the 1000ft drop off wasn't as big of a deal, and it was a matter of putting on foot in front of the other.

No air monster.

No Maverick.

No Mephistopheles.

Just joy.

Physically, the hike out is hard.  Psychologically, it was exhilarating.

After seven hours of hard hiking, I'm still smiling!

I leave stuff in the canyon.  I carry in my baggage, and leave it behind.  God and I still had some good one to one time, but in general my thoughts replay the past few weeks and plans for the coming months.

There were several, "Oh, S***" moments with the drop offs. The mesa trail was scary!!

We finished up 7 1/2 hrs after we started, emerging on the rim at 6pm.

The Three Muskateers.

We headed over to the Bright Angel Lodge for dinner, and left the canyon at 8pm.

A better day I cannot imagine.

Eight and a half weeks ago, I could not hike Thumb Butte without stopping, and gasping for air.  Six weeks ago I couldn't do it.

I just did my second Grand Canyon hike, with no issues, in the past two weeks,

Maybe there's something to being fit after all?

Ready, Set.... #48

Two whole days.

I've been healthy, and I haven't done any exercise in two whole days.

Except squats.  I kinda sorta like those.  Therefore, they can't be exercise.

They are ice cream instead.

Squats come in many different forms (stance), you can add all kinds of different toppings (weights)...yep, from now on I'm calling them Ice Cream Movements, aka ICM's.

ICM's keep the lower back from hurting, and even my smallest jeans are getting baggy in strategic places due to them.

I may just love ICM's.

I know I love hot fudge banana pecan royals, too.

Today is Parry's 13th birthday, and we had brunch with my parents downtown off the square.

I love where I live.

The rest of the day was spent shopping, where I picked up important items.

Items for the 2016 presidential race.

Given that I'm still on antibiotics from last weeks horrid ear infection, I suppose it's ok to have two days of rest.  Before I head here:

Which is three miles down here:

Yep, tomorrow is an inner canyon hike.  I've got new trekking poles for the adventure (I loved Dotty's, so I sold some boots I'd never worn and bought poles with the proceeds) and hope they'll serve me well.  Next week is Pilates...so it's best I do the hike now before my core hates me.

But maybe I'll be able to do a push up?

#girlpower? How about make me FURIOUS instead!? (#43)

 #GIRLPOWER Monday on @GMA: What would you do if you weren't afraid to fail?

Those are words meant to empower my daughters.  To identify the fears holding them back, so that they can be successful.

Oh, I am an angry Mama.  

Today, Parry woke up sick; I woke up finally well.  While cuddling on the couch watching Good Morning America, we see  a segment on The Empowerment Project.  Two young women took a month to travel 7000 miles across the country, interviewing 17 successful women the media knows nothing about.  They challenge all viewers (i.e. girls) to ask themselves:  What would you do if you weren't afraid to fail?

Really.

I started to seethe.

#1) Why, as a girl, am I ASSUMED TO BE AFRAID?

and #2) Why is FAILURE a negative for girls?

Fear, lately, has been getting far too much credit for our lack of success.  I talked about it last Thursday in the blog-I feared hiking Granite #261 due to a bad episode with the air monster the day before.  I never got over the fear during that hike (in fact, I'm certain it will accompany me this entire week); fear marched by my side.  It didn't stop me from succeeding-I succeeded in spite of it.  

As you can see, I was NOT my happy self.

Fear of failure does not stop our girls from becoming who they want to be.  What stops them are two intertwined things:  knowledge & resources.  Looking back on reasons I wanted to quit the Quest, you might have called some of them fear; fear of pain being primary.  Let's break that down.

What caused the pain?

1) Air monster (aka undiagnosised exercise induced asthma)

2) Being unfit for # of years

3) Doing exercise above my fitness level

Are any of these really fear-based?  Or are they facts that needed to be acknowledged and properly handled?

1) Air Monster:  got a diagnosis, now get an inhaler.  Problem fixed (thank you, Kim O for correcting my oversight on that.)

2) Being unfit:  yep, and you're gonna be sore for about three months.  Knowledge:  it will take about three months when you are 43 and completely soft.

3) Doing exercise above my fitness level:  maybe you shoulda spoke up, eh?  Heck-you're a flipping reporter!  You could have stopped and just reported!  Additionally, I lacked knowledge in this case of proper form (since corrected by The Professor.)

Knowledge makes quitting illogical.  

Live long and prosper.

Resources-had I made USE of the plentiful resources (i.e. prepared) I could have avoided most of the injuries.

Except the black ice.  Remember my bloody knee, with an embedded pebble?  Here it is today, 6 weeks later.

The point is:  knowledge and resources where, and are, available to me.  I CHOSE not to use them (I've since corrected this error.) In my case, it was thoughtlessness.  With our girls, however, it's usually naïveté.  They simply do not know what is available to them.

As a girl growing up in a 900sq ft ranch house with three other siblings, eating Kraft macaroni & cheese, and having just exactly what I needed, I had no idea HOW to make my dreams come true.  At age 15, I visited Arizona.  I decided I wanted to move there, and wrote down the numbers for realtors on the big signs off I-17 as we drove to the airport (let's think about that for a second...I WANTED to buy the land inbetween Bell Rd and what is now Anthem.  Granpa laughed at me in 1987.  Sigh! I still have them in my journal...) 

Hiking in Prescott with best friend Rochelle, 1987.

When I returned in 1990, I thought my only two college choices where Prescott College and Embry-Riddle.  Wrong again...and let's chat about ASU, Grand Canyon College and NAU.  Why didn't I apply there?

Quite simply, because I didn't have the resources to attend, or the knowledge to change that.

So I buy a book about hiking the Inner Canyon on 5-11-90...

...and I just opened it last Thursday for the first time in 25 years.  

Oh, I cried.  Big crocodile tears.  

I didn't fear failure.  Fear didn't stop me.  Lack of resources and the knowledge to get around that stopped me.

All weekend, I feared being unable to do today's workout, and I still fear my breathing capabilities in hiking this week. Thinking of today's misplaced blaming of fear, I decided to enjoy the workout (it was yoga, after all) and see if I could make it more challenging if I found I was able.

Yoga, sweet blessed yoga (I'm with yoga instructor Katy Kolasa all week.) Today I experienced truly EMPOWERED yoga.  With shoulders back, dropped and lats on (thank you, Professor!) I created resistance within my movements, using my own body weight (thank you Sgt Steve!)  Tonight, my pects and biceps are happily sore-from yoga!  I created a variation using knowledge-and I loved it!  I look forward to doing this all week-and note who did the empowering.  It wasn't Joey or Steve-they simply passed on the knowledge.  I used Katy's class as my resource-and viola!

Parry tried to take photos of me doing yoga at home:)

Did I overcome fear of failure?  No.  Failure isn't even something I fear.  You LEARN so much from failure that it helps you succeed down the line.  I tried an adaptation, and blessed be, it worked.  If it hadn't?  So what?!  

Are our girls to wimpy to try again?!? What the heck?

Today-I had my very FIRST exercise high.

I could conquer the world.  

I stepped into the Arena.

Makes me weep; I'm inspired to get up at last.

No one "empowered" me.  I didn't have to find something I could do if I wasn't afraid of failure.  I simply had to lay down the DISTRACTIONS, FOCUS on a clear VISION, and move towards it.  So what of fear tags along.  So what if I fail.

I'm gonna dust myself off, smile, and get right back to it.  Did I mention I now can fit in one of my favorite dresses again?  And my Lucky jeans??  Oh, today was good.  Not because I was empowered.  Not because I thought about what I could do if I wasn't afraid of failure.

Because I took fear by the hand and said-

Let's have some fun.

37: Sometimes it's just not enough

So today, after being told by numerous people that The Flume and Watson Lake Dam trails are awesome, I hiked them.

I was a wee bit disappointed.

Oh, they are gorgeous.  Don't get me wrong.

Dam.

The Flume.

They just weren't the super cardio I was expecting.

Gorgeous, yes.  Strenuous, no.

We are truly spoiled ROTTEN in Prescott, Arizona.  Our trails are amazing, so anything less than spectacular, I can rate "ok."

Because THIS is also Arizona.

I am itching to get back to the Canyon.  April 12th is our next adventure, likely down Grandview.  I am desperate to do an overnight, but lack the permits.

I could just kill Ian out of pure jealousy; he's doing a north rim six day hike right now.  Ugh.

Soooo-I'm getting my ducks in a row.  Planning my hikes 4-13 months out.  Tomorrow is April 1st-gotta call GC if I want to hike and stay at Phantom Ranch one year from now, right?

Praying!!!

Today was a big "get your ducks in order" day-an organized laundry room and clean clothes put away was a new adventure.  I acknowledge that I cannot embrace the new while clinging to the old, and am making an effort.  While this morning's hike was not the workout anticipated, it was still quite beautiful.

Lush meant mosquito's, though.

I feel guilty not doing squats.

It's funny how a lack of a workout produces just as much anxiety as if there was one!!

I'm worried about losing what I have (look David-that's twice I used it right!) and I am desperate to stay on track.  I want to workout-but I need individual guidance.

I need to start making some serious cash then :)

Yes, I'm spoiled.

Princesses often are.

Some of the best hiking in the world in my back yard.  World class training.  Fantastic husband.

Yep-I'm spoiled-but I want to earn more. As in, earn the body I know mine could be.  It may not be fun, but I want it-and no one can spoil me with it.

Excuse me while I go so squats:)