Have Media Will Travel

A blog about outdoor adventure, family travel, national parks, media, technology, marketing, fitness and me.

Fitness

Fitness Post #31: Stronger, but Smaller

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This is POST 31 of my “fitness journey.”For backstory, see Post 1,
Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6, Post 7,Post 8, Post 9, Post 10, Post 11, Post 12,Post 13,Post 14, Post 15, Post 16, Post 17,Post 18, Post 19,Post 20,Post 21, Post 22,Post 23, Post 24, Post 25, Post 26, Post 27,Post 28 Post 29, and Post 30.

Some of you may recall that I came up with several short-term fitness goals on Sept. 18. As of Oct. 26 — about 5 weeks later — I had achieved three of them. I was able to do 21 dips. I squatted slightly more than my bodyweight (135 pounds) 25 times, and front squatted 135 pounds 16 times. It should be noted that while these squat stats are gym records, neither had any data in their place so it doesn’t necessarily mean I “own” these records. Furthermore, we only “went after” these “reps at bodyweight” exercises/records once for front squatting and twice for regular back squats. (The first time I did 21 reps on the back squat)

For practical purposes, it appears these three goals can be checked off my list as being accomplished.

Me, on Cyclone Pass.
Three goals remain from the Sept. 18 goal-setting meeting with my personal trainer, Steve Bechtel: beating my record of 19 pullups, doing at least one rep (more?) of bench press equaling my body weight, and, finally, the seemingly-elusive goal of getting my weight down to 129.

What you hopefully recall from my goal-setting video in mid-September is the end of it. Specifically I was quite concerned about “bulking up” while pursuing so many ambitious “strength” goals. I thought/think this was a legitimate concern given my training would inevitably shift to low reps and lifting very heavy loads. This is what everyone thinks. But it’s actually all wrong, according to Steve, who shrugged off my concern, emphatically stating that I will not bulk up.

Another concern, which I still have, is getting my weight from 133-135 down to 129. For the record, this is a goal mainly because there are a pair of jeans I really want to wear and they require losing some weight. I’m kidding! Sort of. The weight loss goal represents a weight that I honestly cannot recall ever weighing. Suffice it to say if I was ever 129 pounds, I can’t remember when it was. I like the “impossibility” of this goal.

First, let’s address the bulking up concern. Steve was right. I have not bulked up. In fact, I’ve gotten leaner and smaller. This fact still boggles my mind, although Steve’s knowledge about getting stronger without getting bigger has been supported previously in my numbers. (Several months ago I deadlifted 135 pounds 39 times and did 19 pullups to the same result — no weight gain or body size increase; if anything, the opposite).

Since I hired Steve as a personal trainer and joined Elemental Training Center in March 2009, we have kept good data on my weight, body size (measurements) and body fat percentage. So, don’t take my word for it, or even Steve’s. Look at the data:

Part of the way Steve explains my getting stronger while getting smaller has to do with the fact that muscle is more dense than fat. Steve attempted to explain this to me by saying that a pound of muscle may resemble in size a small apple, whereas a pound of fat may resemble in size a grapefruit. Okay, that helps.

So here we are today. It’s Nov. 8, and I’m having a challenging time. Last Thursday, during my session with Steve, I was telling Steve I was disappointed in my pullups ability during our Tuesday session a couple days earlier. Being whacky, I punished myself for that by doing 100 pullups (and what the heck 100 pushups) in addition to my usual cardio/high intensity intervals on the elliptical trainer, stepmill and air dyne on Wednesday morning. Steve was not happy. I showed up to Thursday’s session — gee I wonder why — tired and sore.

It was at this point Thursday that Steve took me over to one of his beloved whiteboards and charted how I should be working out right now. What he charted didn’t look anything like the self-prescribed workouts I was choosing to do on my own time. In so many words, he said: “If you don’t follow this plan (pointing to his strategy on the whiteboard) and we don’t achieve your goals, it’s your problem. If you follow this plan and we don’t achieve your goals, it’s my problem.”

Once again, Steve’s wisdom is compelling. So, I will let it be his problem and do what he instructs me to do. After all, he is my hired coach and trainer. And somehow, as a result of this little chat we had, and the data like that included in the image above, I feel confident I will achieve my goals. Including the weighing 129 one.

If all goes well, it will be nobody’s problem.

Elemental Gym has a fantastic gym, some terrific programs and classes that will help you achieve better fitness. And, I might add, some great personal trainers: Steve Bechtel, Ellen Bechtel, Jagoe Reid, Sophie Mosemann and Lee Brown.

Interview with Endurance Athlete Tavis Eddy

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I recently interviewed Tavis Eddy, an endurance athlete here in Lander, WY. I did the interview for Elemental Training Center, the performance training gym to which I belong. I really enjoyed interviewing Tavis. He articulated better than I can the reasons to love uphills and covering long distances on the trails in our mountains. I hope you enjoy the interview!

Elemental Training Athlete Tavis Eddy, from Lander, WY from Shelli Johnson on Vimeo.

Another Best Wind River Hike, Ever…

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Hi from the Wind Rivers.

I have had a great four months. My beloved Wind River Range has been good to me. I have been lucky enough to experience seven or eight long and stunning day hikes in my back yard plus a bunch of smaller hikes and outdoor adventures with my family.

Most recently, my husband, Jerry, and I hiked up (and down) and up to the end/top of Roaring Fork Mountain. The mountain itself it not that spectacular. Its high point is a little over 12,000′. But the mountain is broad, and as its name suggests, it forks into what are two pretty long mountains/ridges that are all part of The Roaring Fork. We are pretty sure the Roaring comes from the roaring nature of the wind, but we’re only guessing?

One of our many spectacular views. These are a handful of lakes in the Stough Creek Lakes Basin.

There are two reasons this hike was/is so special to Jerry and I. For one, we can see this mountain from most of the hikes we do in the southern Wind Rivers as well as from the deck of our mountain cabin. The Roaring Fork, complete with its notch (“bite”) in its summit ridge, are iconic if you live and play in the mountains above my town of Lander, WY.

Jerry and I with some Stough Basin lakes and much of the southern Wind River Range as a backdrop.

The second reason is Roaring Fork Mountain juts out of a landscape composed of regions marked by spectacular canyons, cirques and lakes. We have hiked into, or taken llamas into, most of these awesome regions. Standing on the top of Roaring Fork and getting up-close and more intimate with it, was quite a meaningful experience for us.

I wish I could take credit for thinking up this hike, but I can’t. A friend, Jared Kail, has talked about wanting to do a version of it for some time. For his 40th birthday he was going to hike it and invited us along. Unfortunately, he came down with a cold the day before and had to forego it. But I owe Jared for thinking of the hike.

I have pretty much hiked and camped in and explored a good majority of the trails in the southern Wind River Range. And yet, somehow this one eluded me until last Sunday. And, turns out, it’s a major favorite. I cannot wait to return when I have more time to explore the mountain even further.

There is quite a bit of scrambling and boulder field hiking.

For the record, we did a long version. We did an out and back. We started at Worthen Reservoir and hiked the Stough Creek Lakes Trail for almost 4 miles to the Stough Saddle. This saddle is a favorite day hike that affords one of the best views of Wind River Peak, the tallest peak in the southern Winds, standing 13,192′ tall. (Jerry and I climbed it in 1997.)

Standing in front of LF Lake, at far end/above Silas Canyon area lakes.

From there, we headed left, off-trail for approximately five miles of tundra, scree, boulder field hiking. It was quite windy in the Winds! The Winds, as well as the Roaring Fork lived up to their names on Sunday. But no complaints — we had a perfectly brilliant Autumn day for the adventure.

Jerry hiking over the tundra.

We had jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring scenery pretty much constantly, and in all directions. To our right, for the five miles we hiked toward the end/high point of Roaring Fork Mountain, numerous lakes and cirques unfolded to our right that make up the spectacular Stough Creek Lakes Basin region. At any single vantage, we could count six to seven lakes and cirques. This is how it was the whole way to our right.

To our left, especially when we gained the high point of the ridge, we had similarly spectacular views, including the Roaring Fork Lake/Creek, Leg Lake, Silas Canyon and its lakes, Atlantic Canyon and its lakes, not to mention Fossil Hill, Frye Lake and Worthen Reservoir. And, let’s not forget the view that unfolded behind us, which was basically one containing most of the southern Wind River Range, complete with iconic Wind River Peak, Temple and East Temple Peaks and Lizard Head peak standing out. We could also see Shoshone Lake, the lake we hiked to the previous week.

Another friend of ours, Mike Lilygren, had hiked a different variation of the same hike a week prior and provided invaluable input to us the night before. Basically he instructed us to not head directly over the rocky mounds immediately to our left of the Stough saddle, but to instead keep them to our left. This was great advice.

Still this adventure found us ascending to 11,000, then descending 200′, then gaining 400′, then descending 200′ and so on. All told we hiked out about 9.3 miles and gained 6,600′ in elevation gain due to the aforementioned contour of the mountain (and due to our route-finding decisions).

By the time we were back at the car, our GPS indicated we had ascended 7,900′, despite the fact our high point was just about 12,000′ for the day, and hiked almost 19 miles. There are ways to make this hike a little shorter and probably have a little less elevation gain/loss, but that’s another conversation. And, um, we like ’em long. 🙂

VIDEO BLOG OF THE ROARING FORK HIKE:

LINKS TO MY OTHER HIKING ADVENTURE POSTS:

  • Big Sandy to Jackass Pass to Cirque of Tower, North Fork, Middle Fork
  • Shoshone Lake
  • The Bears Ears Trail
  • Historic Blue Ridge Lookout
  • Deep Creek and Ice Lakes
  • Jackass Pass to Cirque of Towers
  • Grand Teton Expedition (4 parts)
  • The Olympic Peninsula
  • Skate Skiing at Beaver Creek
  • Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim

    • My Upcoming Fitness Goals

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    This is POST 30 of my “fitness journey.”For backstory, see Post 1,
    Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6, Post 7,Post 8, Post 9, Post 10, Post 11, Post 12Post 13,Post 14, Post 15, Post 16, and Post 17,Post 18, Post 19,Post 20,    Post 21, Post 22,Post 23, and Post 24, Post 25, Post 26, Post 27,Post 28 and Post 29.

    Elemental Gym has a fantastic gym, some terrific programs and classes that will help you achieve better fitness. And, I might add, some great personal trainers: Steve Bechtel, Ellen Bechtel, Jagoe Reid, Sophie Mosemann and Lee Brown.

    Shelli and Friends Vs. Wild

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    I love survival reality shows like Man Vs. Wild and Dual Survival. They showcase great challenges, stunning scenery and “news you can use.” Who knows when I might need to know how to skin and cook a field mouse, or start a fire without matches.

    Here’s my first effort at my own such show. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
    Part 1:

    Part 2:

    Part 3: