Oh my knees...

It has been a while. The past couple of weeks have been a blur after a somewhat eventful beginning to July. Speaking of that, it is hard for me to believe that we are near the end of the month...

As for today, a group of friends and myself decided to scale Mount Lady MacDonald. I am not a complete stranger when it comes to hiking, for I have done it a couple times when I was younger (including Mount Fuji). With that in mind, I probably didn't prepare for the hike as much as I should have, simply believing that I knew what I was doing. I ended up bringing my backpack that I use to travel (good ol' trust orange MEC bag), hiking poles, a couple disposable bottles of water, shorts and extra socks (I normally hike in long sleeves and sweat pants). Material wise, I might have been prepared adequately, but in terms of my own body and mind... it was almost a repeat of Mount Fuji climb #2.

Hike started well, with a small amount of breaks. I was out of breath for a great deal on the steep inclines (perhaps more intensive cardio is required in my workout routine),  but my heart rate wasn't too intense. Legs were feeling good till we reach the small, if I recall the name correctly, gazebo that overlooked the Bow Valley region (or was it the helicopter pad?). At this point, hikers have two choices: climb back down or scramble up the summit.

Mount Fuji has some minor scrambling, or what I perceive to be scrambling. There were some pathways up the holy mountain in which you had to literally get on all fours to climb. It wasn't as "slideful" in terms of loose gravel, but it can be quite grueling at times.

Mount Lady MacDonald's path to the summit... was pretty intense. It may have only been 50  minutes of scrambling for me, but it was an intense 50 minutes, I would climb two feet and slide down a feet for the entire time, despite trying to look for a stable path to the top. At the top of the false jackknife summit, we were greeted to a awe-inspiring view of Canmore and the Bow Valley region. I kept my eyes forward the entire time, since my back was exposed to a sheer drop... The true summit is accessible via a extremely narrow ridge (one side being the sheer drop while the other side has what I believe to be at least a 60 degree incline), but being tired from the scramble and not wanting to risk my neck, we decided that we were quite pleased with reaching the false summit. I doubt the view would be dramatically different from where we were, since, estimating, a 10 m higher peak wouldn't give that much more.

The descend was quite painful on my knees, despite have walking sticks, which I should note saved me many times from slipping or falling backwards. Anyways, I don't recall descending a mountain being so straining, especially on my knees. I'm quite sure that I'll recover in a couple days, but... ouch!

Don't mind my friend's head in the picture. I thought I excluded it when I was taking the panorama shot.

Grinding

Quite the grind today! I finally, successfully, went back to deadlifting three plates for a 5x3 session. Doing deadlifts properly really helped (without relying on the back as much).

Afterwards, it was off to play MH Generations. It's a little bit different than MH4U, but not terribly so. I spent around 4 hours playing with a couple of friends, which made hunting much more enjoyable. Fighting monsters with stock gear and nearly stock weapons made it feel like I was playing G-Rank, instead of low rank.

And that's it for today!

A story of three lives.

A long time ago, I heard a story/fable/tale/etc about reincarnation. As of recent, I searched around the web to find such a story, but to no avail. Either the story teller made up the story, or it's a vague reminiscence of a different story. Either way, this is how the story/fable/tale/etc goes:

Our spirits are granted three human lives: one life full of happiness, one life full of sadness, and one life where it's up to you to decide your own life.

As simple as it sounds, it formed a large role in my belief of reincarnation. True, the scientist in me have difficulties believing in a topic that seemingly has no solid evidence (that I'm aware of), but it does give comfort in knowing that you have "stored lives" in stock after a person dies. However not knowing which life you're in, because in all honesty how do you objectively define happiness or hardship, makes this story hard to believe. Not having an order, especially with the third described life, doesn't reinforce the story as well.

Once again, it does give solace to a heavy topic such as death. When I heard the story, the storyteller was comforting a sad soul.

And for today, it gave me some peace as well.

Till we meet again.

Day 3-6

On Saturday, besides my normal work out, I got the chance to catch up with a couple of old friends through lunch and Finding Dory (a good watch). Sunday started off quietly, but ended up quite eventful. I don't believe it's time to delve too deeply into it online, but it made me question some of my viewpoints. Yesterday, was essentially a typical day, but I was busy looking up and researching for today!

I really need to get a head start on what I want to accomplish during my break instead of sitting in front of my computer the entire time.

Day 1 and Day 2: Leg Day and Shopping Spree

Yesterday marked my first day of Summer 2016. I woke up close to my normal waking time, but ended up drifting back to sleep for a while. After waking up, I had time for a leisure breakfast before going to the gym to dead lift.

After the gym, I headed to Sunridge to purchase tea since my mom had a gift card to David's Tea. It was also Free Tea day, in which I tried their Grape Freeze (I believe that's what it's called) drink. It was alright, though I'm not a huge fan of fusion teas.

In the evening, I went to work out again, which is a first for me. I never had two session in a day before! The evening was dedicated to leg accessories... which is no fun at all. I think I rather squat than to do what we were doing yesterday.

After the workout, we went for some bubble tea before cruising around for a while. It's really fun to drive at night, especially when there's not a lot of cars around. =)

As for today... woke up later than I wanted to since I got home late this morning, but got in a quick workout. For the next 4-5 hours, I spent it detailing a car, before going out for the evening.

As for the title... I've been shopping the past couple days... well online shopping to be exact.

Sigh... if money figuratively grew on trees... or if car parts were cheaper. =/

Oh, and Happy Canada Day 2016! Almost the big 150!