Garmin – A Year of Wonderland

Winter Safety

Washington State is notorious for avalanches due to our topography and wet climate. Always carry the 10 essentials, bring waterproof poncho, handwarmers, microspikes, snowshoes, shovel, probe, and transceiver, chains for snow parks. Familiarize yourself with Northwest Avalanche Center where you’ll find there are many great videos on snow safety in the back country and stop by ranger stations for trail reports before heading out.

I found this nifty package at our local REI that contains the plastic shovel, probe and transceiver.

One of my favorite places to snowshoe is located in Ashford, WA. The Mt. Tahoma Trails Association is a hut to hut cross country ski or snowshoe trail. My first snowshoe this year was late, January 18th. I wore MyZone so I could figure my calorie output. For the day, with a 20 pound weighted pack and snowshoes 3,000 calories. Garmin recorded a 14 mile trip with 1,800 elevation gain to 4,200 ft. More on why I wear both to train in the gear section and nutrition section. Washington Trails Association Trip Report

I hope to get up to Paradise at Mt. Rainier on Wednesday and snowshoe from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes.

I met my training and hiking friend Candace at Pt. Defiance in Tacoma for an urban trail hike for our first hike of the year.

This January, I set goals for two hikes per week in addition to my regular gym and and replacing my endurance running workout.

Since I recently trained and finished a 1/2 marathon in December, my body felt sore, tight and fatigued, so I took a well deserved running break. I also had some hamstring tightness that resulted in high hamstring tendonitis. It took about 6 weeks of recovery with no sprinting or high knee stepping at the gym. I also saw an acupuncturist for 3 non-invasive treatments to the area with the TENS unit hooked up to me.

Note: The best advice I can give you with any injury or before embarking on daily physical training is see a doctor. During your training make sure you have adequate rest and nutrition. Needing a nap at noon everyday, or having frequent injuries is a sign of overtraining, not enough calories or both.

Since my endurance training has now been mostly replaced with hikes, I will need to pay close attention to my weekly workout and calories. Some of my endurance training will count as endurance, while others days are simply beautiful urban hikes which refuel my recovery and add to my rest days and spirit.

I also continued to meet with my personal trainer who noticed my dietary intake had changed with poor eating habits over then holidays.. My potassium, calcium and iron percents were well below normal based on my nutrition tracker MyFitnessPal as well.

During January find a beautiful urban hike such as Pt Defiance Park. It has an abundance of nature trails. Garmin measured the loop at about 5 miles. Calories 400 at sea level and 420 ft at the highest point. Just breathing in the abundance of oxygen completely restores me. Washington Trails Association Trip Report