The road less traveled....

Seriously, you want to talk about silliness? I just sat down to write this post, filled with guilt because Katy still manages to stay on top of it no matter what, and I can't for the life of me decide how to spell traveled in the title. Double the l to travelled? I tried spelling it both ways and went to 4 different dictionary sites! Waste your time much Laura? Turns out it is one of those undecided words, but for clarification the British English language would spell it travelled, while the American English language would spell it traveled according to most.

My weekend was just jammed packed with a list of tasks to get accomplished. I never should have fired my maid or my personal assistant, but it had to be done. Did you know my maid had the nerve to leave my clean laundry draped across my trunk, never put it away and let me pull clothes from it all week long? And she left another basket of laundry in my car for 3 days?!?! I can't tell you the last time I saw her get on her hands and knees and scrub my kitchen or bathroom floor. She has done a half ass job of simply wiping down the counters and running the vacuum over the most traveled areas of the carpet for weeks now. Don't even get me started on my personal assistant....she is losing track of what days bills are due, forgetting to check the mail, doesn't return phone calls or emails to people for weeks, and the whore let me run out of ketchup last week. That was the straw that broke the camels back. No ketchup? FIRED!!!!

I am right there with Katy, having that feeling of are we training enough? Can we do more? Are we training efficiently? What should we be working on? It's impossible to train for the unknown. All I know is, work harder, work more often, do whatever seems illogical and impossible and make it possible. With that being said, I think Katy may be going to an extreme with the "deck jumping", but I like her enthusiasm. Her Sunday workout has inspired me to create something nasty for myself next weekend at the beach. I wish I could have joined her when she was bonding with logs, but did my own little Sunday workout that left me sore, bruised, scraped and fatigued.

After my crossfit workout filled with deadlifts, pushups and box jumps, I decided to go explore el moro canyon and hike with my buckets of gravel. I couldn't persuade anyone to join me in the fun on a sunny 80 degree day, but thought it would be good mental training to go solo anyway. All I can say is, the best decision I made all day was to leave the buckets in the car. I elected to wear my 50# backpack instead, which has left me with extremely sore traps and a nice bunch of bruises on my lower back. I set out with my map, a water bottle, a cell phone that had service for 10% of the hike, and a stomach that was already growling with hunger. Initially I thought a small loop of maybe 4 miles at the most, get used to the pack, get a feel for the terrain and come back ready to go next weekend with a plan and the buckets. My plan slowly started to detour as I got further into the hike and thought, oh just go another mile to the next checkpoint and turn around....or the sun is still out for a while, don't waste an opportunity like this...or I would run into a trail that was closed due to the erosion and mudslides from rain the previous week. Four miles into the hike I map out my options again on how to get back. I can turn back around the way I came (boring), or have 2 other routes that are going to be about 5 miles either way. I pick a route, guess I have an hour and a half of hiking left, since the first 4 miles took about an hour and move again. That's when I made my worst decision of the day. Note to self: When given the option of the "slow and easy trail" covering 1.7 miles or the "elevator trail" covering .9 miles to pretty much the same location, there is a reason for the names. I spent the next 40 minutes or so clinging for dear life to rocks or stray branches, crawling on my hands and knees, covering 15 feet only to slide back half the distance when my backpack would start to tip me over. I had 2 thoughts...I should have told someone where I was hiking (duh, Laura) and I was shocked that they would let people hike on such a steep, poorly maintained, dangerous trail. Turns out when I finally reached the top, they had barricades and signs saying the this trail was closed due to unsafe hiking conditions. A brilliant idea would be to post that sign at the base of the trail as well! By then I just wished I was at my car, drinking an ice cold beer and eating half a cow I was so hungry. I still had over 3.5 miles to go, so I trudged along and even found myself jogging at some points. I tried to recite my ABC's backwards, count by 7's, list some presidents, do conversions and math equations in my head. It made the time pass, kept my focus off my hunger and my wandering thoughts. As I approached my car, I thought this is when they will tell me to turn around and go pick up some papers at the top of the mountain. But while you are at it, carry this bike with one wheel with you. Katy and I will do it with a smile. I covered almost 9 miles in 3 hours, and that was only hiking.....last years race covered 45 miles and the winner did it in 22 hours. Yikes, I have a lot of work to do.