An LMI Event- Devil's Causeway!

An LMI Event-Devil’s Causeway

Devil’s Causeway a 6 mile out and back hike or 11 mile loop hike in the Flat Top Wilderness.

Devil's Causeway is one of the most notorious hikes in Colorado. This hike, which ascends the Chinese Wall in the Flat Tops Wilderness, contains a narrow 3-foot wide, 25-yard long segment of broken rock with 1,000+ ft drops on either side. This segment, which gives the trail its name, is demonic indeed. Anyone with the slightest bit of acrophobia will cower, cringe, and otherwise drool on themselves with anxiety. The pictures of this chunk of rock do nothing to convey the emotional impact of the drop off so don't be fooled.

The Hike:

Sunday Aug 11 -Meet at the trailhead at 8 am it is an 180 mi drive and estimated as a 4 hour drive by Google maps so a group will be camping the evening before at a dispersed campground near the trail. We would like to start early in order to avoid any afternoon storms and hope to be back down to the trailhead by 1-3pm depending on which route is taken.

·        What to Bring –

As always, you are responsible for your own safety and well-being on this hike, but here is some suggested gear:

Water

Lunch/Snacks
Several layers of clothing
Gloves
Good hiking boots
Rain Gear
Poles – optional

Camping:

Saturday Aug 10- Camp the night before near Stillwater Reservoir. The camp spot will be car camping in an undeveloped dispersed spot in the National Forest. The camp spot is near two different reservoirs with restrooms/toilets but no other amenities. If you are joining the evening before to camp please bring anything necessary for comfortable sleeping arrangements and your own food/drink.  A grill and a camp stove will be available to use too.

Please post in the comments or email annalissa.smith@gmail.com for any questions and to RSVP.

An LMI Event- Paddle Boarding at Aurora Reservoir JULY 13

When:  Saturday July 13 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Where: Aurora Reservoir- 5800 S. Powhaton Rd. Aurora, 80016. Picnic tables above the watercraft launch area.

What: Beach Fun, Paddle Boarding & Relay Race, and a BBQ

Who: Anyone who is interested + your Friends and Family. 

 (Disclaimer: This is a voluntary group, and as such, you participate on these outings at your own risk and are responsible for your own personal safety (and safety of your family, should you bring them). As mentioned above, we can offer tips that will minimize these risks, but cannot obviously eliminate them. Please try to use common sense and know your physical limits. We will not judge you if you participate at a slow pace, or cannot finish an event in its entirety. Try to be smart about this. We want everyone to have a safe, enjoyable time.)

Meet at Aurora Reservoir to spend some time on the beach and take 2 paddle boards out on the water at the same time. Throughout the day you can rent the paddle boards from Steve at $10 an hour with a $10/min. Paddle Boards can also be rented from Aurora Reservoir at the same rate. Belt Pack Life Vest included.

At 11am we will do a Paddle boarding relay race. Two teams, first team to paddle out to a landmark turn around and paddle back wins! No charge for renting the paddle boards at this time.

There will be a grill available to cook any meat you’d like to bring for the BBQ. Please bring a side to share as well and anything that you would like to drink throughout the day.

RSVP to Steven.e.williams78@gmail.com if you would like to rent the paddle boards (one or both), how long, and at what time.  

Reasons to Workout

What motivates people to actually make the time to go to workout?  For me the answer to this question changes based on how I'm feeling. 

The first one that comes to mind is one that hits me after a I've slacked off for a while and haven't been keeping up with thing the way I should.  After a longer lay off from working out, FEAR actually gets me back to the gym.  I"ve been extremely over weight in my life and know how hard it is to do anything.  I fear that I might be sliding back towards that lifestyle when I stop working out.  Another FEAR that I have is that I will let people down.  My friends and family are very active, and expect to see me doing activities.  The last thing that I want to do is leave those people wanting more or looking elsewhere for someone to do activities with.

Another reason that I take the time to workout is simply it is something that I SHOULD do.  I know that there are things that I would like to do and in order to accomplish those things I SHOULD make it to the gym.  I know that when a peticularly difficult workout shows up, it is something that I SHOULD do to make myself stronger and overcome weaknesses that I might have. 

By far the best motivation is simply the LOVE of being active.  I LOVE being able to do cool things.  I LOVE the fact that I can show up to a CrossFit gym and have a community of people that LOVE to do awesome things, and support others in their journey.  Certainly LOVING what I do to workout makes dealing with the pain, and giving up the time. 

This has helped me realize that finding activies that you LOVE to do with people that will hold you accountable is one of the best ways to continue to improve fitness levels.

The Incline... revisted!

It is time again to work on conquering The Incline... approximately a mile straight up the side of a mountain. This hike is short but intense with a pleasant hike down.

Join LMI in hiking the incline on Saturday May 4th. Leave Aurora and carpool down to Manitou Springs at 11am return by 5pm. 1 hour drive time each way and allows for four hours hiking... grab something to eat and head back.

While this hike is only a mile up it actually takes a fair amount of time to do the ascent. It is pretty exposed at times and if it is a clear sunny day the heat can get intense quickly. I suggest bringing a hat, sunscreen, lots of water, layers, and nourishment. The ascent is a lot like climbing about a thousand flights of stairs (I'm not sure it is possible to over exaggerate this one) but offers a pretty great hiker's high once you conquer it.

Leave a comment here if you would like to join us and we will get back to you with more information about meeting and carpooling.

Paleo Meal Swap

LMI Fitness will be coordinating the third Paleo Meal swap on May 6, 2013 6pm at CrossFit CRUSH.
Our first and second swaps have been great with 9-10 people participating in each!

Guidelines for the swap:

1. In order to avoid duplicates provide the meal you would like to swap by replying to all in the email sent to those interested in participating. Choosing of the meals on the day of the swap will go in the order of responses received. Respond no later than May 2. 

2. Keep it Paleo, and as clean as possible. A good resource for learning about clean/Paleo foods.

3. Six of the same meal, Four servings in each.  

4.Freeze it before swap.  

5. Include recipe and any instructions for re-heating. Label meal directly with what it is and date it was packaged.

Some tips... for easy transportation bring a cooler to the swap with your meals in it and pack away your new meals in your cooler to take home.

Freeze your meals in an airtight container, gallon Ziploc bags work well as do the large Ziploc containers.

Looking for recipe ideas? Check out this blog.

For those that have participated, does anyone have any other good tips about batch cooking or storing/freezing?

One more thought... I propose donating one of the five meals to provide a set of meals for a family in need (know anyone?)

If anyone in the Denver/Aurora area is interested in meeting up with us to swap meals please email me and I will add you to our list. Next swap is scheduled for Monday, June 3rd!

Super Specialists

The other day sitting in the dentist chair something hit me.  I was sitting there getting my teeth cleaned thinking, here is a woman that deals with nothing but teeth the entire day to make money to live.  Of course then I realized I firmly plant my butt in a chair all day in order to do that same thing.  I realized that this sort of thing has been building since the birth of societies and cultures.  But it really amazed me how far we have taken it.  Think about it.  Do you have the knowledge to take care of the basic needs for yourself on a daily basis?   I know that if something were to happen and I was responsible for my daily needs I would certainly struggle (aka die).  I've become a specialist that doesn't even know how to grow or kill enough food to survive.  Also makes me realize that if variety is the spice of life then I must be failing miserably.  The variety I have in a standard day revolves around food.  Might explain some things there.  I guess I do get a little variety in the gym for 1 hour on 4 days a week.  That makes things really exciting!

Mostly I didn't come up with any answers here, just more questions.  It did make me realize that I just need to get out more.  Out of the office for sure, but even out of the house, out of the gym, get out of the NORM.  Do something that is new and different and enjoy the variety that is all around. 

Monkey mind

After watching the CrossFit South West Regionals last weekend I couldn't help but ask myself why these people?   How can they achieve so much more using the same blueprint that I'm using?  The answer is obvious but came to me while watching a documentary on Miyamoto Musashi.  Musashi spent 4 years in the wilderness perfecting his swordsmanship,   During those 4 years the documentary talked about the level of discipline that Musashi maintained the entire time we was in seclusion.  In his book he revealed that every movement, everything he did was to become a better samurai warrior.  That same discipline is what makes the games competitors stand out.  More of their time is spent moving towards their goal.  They don't have the constant mental lapses that I seem to have, which brings me to the title of the post.

Mark Devine addressed this in his CrossFit Journal Article "Staying in the Fight".   He talks about how the thinking mind is our "Monkey Mind" because it is always grasping for the next thought or stimulus.  I see this in myself all the time.  When the morning comes around I'm perfectly clear on my goals and intentions for the day: eat clean, workout hard, drink enough water, and stretch/mobilize throughout the day.  When I look at the day from the other side I realize that I might have had 1 clean meal, multiple sodas, struggled through my workout, and sat in meetings all day at work.  Obviously there are many upsides to the day, but also many lapses in reaching my goal of not only good health but true fitness. 

Devine uses goal setting as one of his tools to get through this monkey mindedness and in fact utilizes what he calls, micro goals.  Often times the task of something like losing 20 pounds is completely overwhelming at the beginning of the journey.  Instead using microgoals you can simply plan for the immediate task.  Example: get through lunch without drinking a Diet Pepsi.   It is a very easy to understand goal with a very real and immediate outcome.  Each of the microgoals that are accomplished also leads to momentum which helps create the real movement needed to achieve the larger goal. 

I'm sure that Musashi used simlar techniques to become the most revered Samurai warrior in history.  I can imagine in the wilderness all alone thinking "I've got to complete ______ before eating lunch then lunch itself being a different goal".  Add the fact that Musashi as well as the SEALS like Mark Devine lived under succeed or die situations and the option to waiver from the smaller goals seems much less rewarding. 

Tying this all back to the Regional event, the guys who are in the top spots, setting records for speed on some of the most difficult workouts have obviously done their homework before getting there.  This has to include insane dedication to the goal of becoming the Fittest Human.   None of that can happen over night.  Each man and woman has had to prepare for multiple years learning the movements and skills involved, but also learning the type of didication and discipline needed to achieve their goal. 

For more information read "Staying in the Fight"
http://journal.crossfit.com/2011/09/staying-in-the-fight.tpl#_login

also read the "Hard Routine" by Jason Dougherty
http://journal.crossfit.com/2008/05/the-hard-routine-by-jason-doug.tpl