Pre-pain status

I figured I'd type this quick entry out before the pain of my day truly set in.

I went snowshoeing today.

I haven't been snowshooeing since 2004. Cathy and I went to Gatineau Park and rented some snowshoes... We were walking around from 11am to about 2:45pm. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow when the pain sets in. My legs are already stiff and sore, and this is after a hot shower and an evening of relaxation.

We walked along two trails, the easy "Sugarbush Trail" and the "Blanchet Trail." The woman at the Visitor's Centre told us that the Blanchet trail had a few vertical climbs and whatnot, but that it was a good walk. She failed to mention that "vertical climbs" translates into "scaling a mountain"... That's right, somehow Cathy and I managed to snowshoe our way up the side of a mountain.

We probably got 98% of our way through the trail before finally turning back. We were both ridiculously cold and tired from hiking upwards... I can't decide whether going up or down was harder. Going up was difficult because we were climbing all the way, but going down was also hard on the knees/thighs because you were constantly leaning back to counteract the angle of the hill while wearing snowshoes. At least going down went faster than going up!

Despite my impending pain, I had a great day. It's so nice to do something different from staying inside, or going to a mall or anything else.

Hill of death

The day after I arrived at my parents house for reading week, I decided to hop on their treadmill (aka: mom's clothes hanger) for an hour before they woke up. Since I hadn't used it in a loooong time, I decided to set it at a really easy pace. I pushed the "lower" button on the incline setting, and set myself an easy speed.

Things were going good. I was definitely sweating, but not out of breath, so I decided to do a two minute sprint at 5mph. That's when things went terribly wrong. By the end of my first minute, I was gasping for air. 10 seconds into the second minute, I was trying not to fall over. I managed to finish the sprint, but by then my lungs were bleeding, I couldn't get enough air, and even though I kept lowering and lowering the speed, I was still gasping.

I decided to take a short 5 minute break and got off the treadmill. As I was about to get back on though, I noticed something. The treadmill had a definite incline on it... That's when I realized that the "lower" incline button actually lowers to back of the treadmill to CREATE an incline. For CHRIST'S SAKE! Every other treadmill in the world raises its upper portion to create the hill. No wonder I was so damned exhausted - I was running uphill the entire half hour! Needless to say, I immediately corrected my error and did my next half hour at an easy pace. LOL