In five weeks I’ll be in Kathmandu, Nepal.  It feels unreal right now.

In preparation, there has been a lot going on.  My passport was expired, so a couple weeks ago I had new photos taken and applied for a new passport.  According to the government website, it is due to show back up in my mailbox soon.  Then, I will ship it off again, this time to the Embassy of Nepal, so I can get my tourist visa.  The visa for Nepal, for a trip my length, is $25.  It’s like some big bureaucratic toll booth.

Earlier this week I went to a local travel clinic to get all my immunizations.  I was really impressed with the clinic I went to.  Although I didn’t meet the head doctor, Terri Rock, I did meet the rest of her staff at TripMedicine.com.  I told them where I was traveling and what my plans were.  They asked me a series of questions and then had all the information needed — maps of where I would be, CDC recommendations, photos of supplies I would need, etc.  Despite being poked with a ridiculous amount of needles, it was a positive experience.

In the end, I was immunized for Hepatitis A & B, Typhoid, Influenza, Tetanus, and Polio, as well as given prescriptions for altitude sickness, general nausea, malaria prevention, and a general antibiotic.

I am disease proof.

Next is to start thinking about packing.  My goal is to pack lighter than any trip I’ve ever packed for before.  I will have my camera, plenty of extra batteries, multiple mosquito repellents and as few items of clothing as possible.  The travel clinic also advised me to bring electrolyte packets in case I get sick and become dehydrated.  I will be bringing my netbook and installing Skype and any other necessary programs before I leave so I can journal, store photographs, and contact the Western world if I feel like it.

I am still torn about whether I should acquire a Kindle/Nook and read electronically, or if it’s better to save money and not re-buy books I already have physically.  It’s a long couple of flights to get to Kathmandu from Los Angeles.

This week Omid was the Kahuna and came up with a kettlebell workout for us, which he dubbed, “Kettle-Hell.”

8-12-16
Overhead Squats
Swings
Squat Snatches
Sumo Deadlift High Pull
Kettle-Sit
15:40

I did everything with the 16kg kettlebell.  I typically would do 20kg on a workout like this, but the squat snatches threw me off.  I can rock the power snatches all day long, but am not used to doing squat snatches with the kettlebell.  So, down to 16kg it was.

I did the overhead squats straight through each time, same with the swings.  The snatches were slow and I can’t remember if I did the SDLHP straight through each time.  I’m pretty sure I did.

Kettle-sits were just awkward!  They actually go easier each round as I found my balance better.  I did more of a chair sit than an L-sit on these.

Tomorrow is going to be a rest day.  My back feels tight and my legs don’t work.

It was summer time and we were borrowing a family friend’s cabin for the weekend.  My parents, my brother, and I, all deep in the woods with no television, no proper kitchen and just each other for company.  My parents, as always, brought reading materials.  As the sun came up the first morning, and the blueberry pancakes had already been consumed, I observed my mom and dad enjoying the newspaper.  I picked up a section they tossed aside and was delighted to see an illustration of a dinosaur.  I was quite young.  Four, maybe?  And obsessed with dinosaurs.

I held up the newspaper at my mother, pointing to the article.  I asked her to read it to me.  “No,” she said. “You can read it yourself.”  I decided perhaps I was not all that interested in dinosaurs after all.  I put the newspaper down and began to slink away.  “Wait,” my mother called out after me.  Caught!  She beckoned me back to the paper, told me to spread it out on the floor and requested that I read the article out loud to her.  She had never been so interested in dinosaurs before.

I remember the feel of the words in my mouth.  They were too big.  Unchewable.  By the time I reached the end of a word, I had forgotten the beginning.  “Start over,” she would say.  I wanted to stop.  She wouldn’t let me.  I was a bit mad.  After an eternity, I reached the end of a sentence.  “Now, what did that mean?” she asked.  Oh no, not that, too.  Over and over again I sounded my way through the words and reasoned my way through the sentences.  Every syllable was excruciating.

I remember learning to read music.  My father went to the music store and purchased two plastic recorders.  He bought a rickety wire music stand and a series of primers.  He set up in the living room, raising the music stand so it was my eye level.  We stood in front of it together.  I would practice tapping my foot along with his, counting the notes, counting the rests and playing our duets.  “No, you played during the rest,” he said.  “No, you’re rushing, stay with me.”  I wanted to stop, but we did not.  We played on.  Weekend after weekend.  I practiced even more on my own.  Staring at the fingering charts like the dinosaur paper.

When my mother would pick me up from school, she would play classical music in the car.  Anytime there was a solo instrument, she would say, “Which one is that?”  And I would triumphantly call out, “Trumpet!” or “Clarinet!” or maybe even my favorite, “Oboe!”

In grade school, my father bought an organ.  And more primers.

In fourth grade my mother brought home a Word-A-Day calendar.  Each morning, before I walked out the door for the bus, we pulled the old page off the calendar, exposing the fresh word below.  I would read out loud the word and definition.  I remember “triskaidekaphobia.”  At the end of the school day, when I walked back in the front door, the first thing I did was greet my mother with the day’s word, spelling it out, and using it in a complete sentence.

I enjoyed the Word-A-Day calendar.  I enjoyed it when I became the school spelling bee champ.  I enjoyed playing the organ, even when my father was no longer over my shoulder.  I enjoyed playing the oboe even more.  I had wanted to stop.  I thought they were mean.  They didn’t need to play recorder.  They didn’t care about dinosaurs.

And they didn’t really, at all.  They just cared about me.  They cared about giving me a language.  They cared about teaching me to learn.  And perhaps momentarily during the years of scales, etudes, and sour notes, even they themselves might have wished for me to stop for just a momentary reprieve.  I do remember my mother saying to me as a teenager, “I actually really enjoy listening to you play now.”

I remember learning.  I remember the pain of it all.  I can feel the feeling of not knowing.  And yet, it is like it was never not there.  The words and the music, like air.

Another Fight Gone Bad Friday, as we head toward our big event day on September 25th!  This week was “Fight Gone Wild” where we all moved DOWN a weight class.  I also started in a different position.  I’ve been starting at Wall Ball all this “season” so far and today I started on Sumo Deadlift High Pull.

“Fight Gone WILD”

With a continuously running clock, complete three 5 minute rounds, switching between movements every minute during each round. Take 1 minute of rest between rounds. Your score is the total number of reps/calories completed during the entire 17-minute workout.

Sumo Deadlift High Pull – 35# – Scores: 30, 28, 27
Box Jumps – 20” – Scores: 16, 16, 17
Push Press – 35# – Scores: 27, 24, 25
Rowing (calories) – Scores: 11, 12, 13
Wall Ball – 8# – Scores: 18, 16, 16

Total Score: 296

My legs felt really stiff today.  I think the residual effects of “Roy” on Tuesday—lots of deadlifts and box jumps that day.  It was really difficult to be able to bend my legs today and really put much hip into things.  Which really isn’t helpful on a workout that’s all about hip.  It was definitely good cardio to go at the lighter weight, though!

Today looked like a good combos of things to work on, but after all the pull ups yesterday and the fact that I haven’t done all that many in the last month, I decided it wouldn’t be smart to do 125 today!  I swapped out glute-ham developed situps instead.  So, this workout became some serious hip flexor fun!

5 rounds, for time:
15 deadlifts (135#)
20 box jumps (24”)
25 ghd sit ups
25:13

I also did a little lighter weight than prescribed on the deadlifts.  I did 135#, instead of 155#.  So, I went higher on the box jumps and did 24”, instead of the prescribed 20” for women.  As you can see, there was a lot of mental bargaining going on today.

I did the deadlifts in sets of 6-5-4 almost every round.  The box jumps I did in sets of 10-5-5.  And the sit ups were something like 8-6-6-5, or there abouts.  EXCEPT for the last round, where Burch yelled out to me as I got on the machine, “Straight through!”  I said, “Yeah, right!”….and then proceeded to do them straight through.  Thanks, Burch!

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We are accepting donations for these shipments. A card from the donors can be included with the shipment. All other laundry items are purchased at local stores at cost. We package everything here at our factory and deliver the boxes to the post office. Postage is expensive but we are only responsible for shipments within the USA.

The troop kits containing one washboard #2033-F, one washtub, clothesline, clothespins, 3 bars of ivory soap, foot powder and most importantly instructions on how to use a washboard. Total cost for these items, plus some of the shipping is $25.00. Shipping in most cases is paid by The Columbus Washboard Company from donations from our visitors, tours and the loving families of servicemen and woman.

I think this is the first time I’ve been in one of our 1pm advanced classes.  It was quite a little crew today, too—me, Leslie, Doc G., and Welch.  And for some reason we were all very wound up and silly.  It made for a pretty entertaining hour.

I was excited for the workout.  This is totally the kind of workout that I traditionally love, plus, today I planned my triumphant return to push ups! Yay!

For time:
11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
L Pull Ups (subbed – dead hang pull ups w/ mini band)
Handstand Push Ups (subbed – regular push ups)
21:59

In the past I’ve been able to do L-pull ups, I just have to build my strength back up after the last month of little to no pull ups.  Same with hand stand push ups.  But no complaining here!  It was good practice/training to do all the dead hangs today.  I did the first round almost totally with no help, and even did most of them as chair situps, but quickly realized that was not going to last.

Push ups I did all on my toes!  Yay!  It was a little painful at first in one spot on my sternum, but I think it was just some adhesions or something, because it went away quickly and everything felt. great.  They actually felt better and better as I went through the workout.

I think I’m ready to start kipping again soon, too – range of motion is feeling pretty darn good in general.  I’m excited!

…Oh and I’ve been testing the classes all day today, dropping the line, “This one goes to 11” just to test the sense of humor out there!

So glad I went to rowing today, even though, or actually BECAUSE it crushed me.  I was excited I was seated between Jay, a fellow firebreather, and Chris, the instructor, today, as that meant I’d be going hard.

Here’s what we did today (and I’m trying to write these out in a more logical way from now on, so it’s more clear what we do in these classes):

Warmup – review of rowing technique and our “pressure test” where we determine for ourselves what split times we’re going to hold ourselves to for easy, medium and full pressure (think jog, run, sprint).

Wave #1 – 12 minutes:
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure

Wave #2 – 6 minutes:
3 minutes easy pressure
3 minutes full pressure

Wave #3 – 5 minutes:
5 rounds
20 seconds easy pressure
40 seconds full pressure

Relay Race:
6 members per team
50m, 100m, 50m, 100m

There was an awful lot of full pressure today!  Yowza.  Particularly, a lot of long intervals of full pressure.  This was actually perfect for me and my focus on mental toughness.  Really trying to keep pushing and not give myself any “outs.”

The fact that we row in sync definitely helps—you get a sense of energy from the people around you and it also reminds you to stay in rhythm and not abandon your form.

On the relay race I made it down to 1:26 on my intervals.  I may not be able to maintain it, but I can do it for 100m.  It’s a start!

This was a really hard class today and I also felt in better shape cardio wise than I have the last couple weeks.  Hard work is starting to pay off!