Stress and Platonic Love for Strangers

Today I fell in platonic love with a stranger. 

It was one of THOSE mornings at work where, if it wasn’t for our upcoming Tanzania trip I would have decided to be unemployed by this afternoon.  One of those days where the stress just builds up to the point that tears, snapping and walkouts seem like a completely viable solution.

It cannot be emphasized enough as to how bad stress is for us.  Our bodies have a natural stress-response system which prompts our adrenal glands to dump a load of hormones into our system including epinephrine and cortisol.  Epinephrine, otherwise known as adrenaline, causes increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and a variety of other adrenergic responses (I recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinephrine for more info ... and, btw, you can also support Wikipedia for its awesomeness here: https://donate.wikimedia.org).  For a slightly less scientific, more awesome view of the effects of adrenaline on our system, I recommend a movie night with Crank!  
Increased cortisol release prepares the body for a fight or flight response by increasing the availability of glucose to increase available energy for those cells required to either get the heck outta there or stay and fight.  At the same time, in acute stress situations, cortisol also creates heightened memory and immunity.   In chronic stress situations though, when the body does not have a chance to return to a relaxed state before the next stress experience, heightened cortisol levels can inhibit the immune system, impair cognitive function, lead to glucose-related diseases and increase blood pressure (among other things).

In these routine stressful situations, when we are constantly under pressure and either do not allow ourselves or are not able to physically relax, the stress-response system stays on contributing to an onslaught of health problems including, but by no means limited to: heart disease, hypertension, sleep & digestive problems (& consequently, in an evil loop of fate, weight gain), depression, memory impairment, skin conditions (just like weight gain, this one is a looper for those of us with certain vanity issues), headaches, gingivitis, loss of concentration and, another looper, varicose veins.  UGGG.

Even though I know all of this, I tend to be a person who embraces my stress-response and not so much my relaxation-response … sometimes I am not even sure if that response was correctly programmed in me at conception.

Back to my work day … I very conveniently booked myself into lunchtime yoga Wednesdays and Fridays and it started today.  Phew.

I arrived at the Wellness Center just about ready to, as they say, blow a gasket.  I sat by myself sulking against the wall waiting for the instructor.  Where on earth was that instructor anyway?!?!  Five minutes of awkward silence passed (apparently I am not the only one with stressful days at work) when in bounced (literally, like Tigger) our yoga teacher completely and utterly full of life, happiness and relaxation.  As the hour class passed, I just absorbed her energy and it was AMAZING.  So positive and free-spirited and wonderful.  So very very different from the majority of others who claim my work day hours.

I had two realizations in that hour today:

1) I’d fallen in platonic love with a stranger with toe rings and braided bracelets and a peace sign t-shirt

2) I need to find what I love in life and make that my career so that I can be a permanent source of life and energy and positivity for those around me.   I definitely have it in me, I just need to find my outlet!

So, with all of this being said, I’m going to go to my yoga class 2x/week (possibly 3 depending on what is offered on Monday at lunch) until July and then climb my mountain and hopefully somewhere between here and there, learn what it is that would make me an inspiration to the stressed work horses around me. 

Training today: 1 hour Hatha Yoga & 8k run with 6 400m+ hills, no walk breaks

Hiking Boots and Why Team Kilimanjaro

We attempted to get our hiking boots on Saturday, which turned out to be a very bad idea.   Apparently on Easter Saturday the world and his or her wife also needed hiking boots, tents, backpacks and all of the other outdoor paraphernalia that the shops on our list provide.  

We did, however, learn that we require a day hiker for Kilimanjaro.   Apparently hiking boots are broken out in light hikers, day hikers and hikers.  As we are not going to be carrying 50+ lbs and do not have any ankle problems, it is the MEC guru's belief that a day hiker will fit our stability requirements without adding the extra weight of a hiker.  Reduced weight sounds great to me!   However, he used all of his available time to tell us all of this and then didn't have time to follow through with any fitting.   So, after trying Bushtaka and Expedition and having much the same luck, we have decided to postpone this shopping to Tuesday PM.   

A lot of people have been asking how I picked Team Kilimanjaro, so I thought I might as well add in a few posts detailing the planning and decisions I/we have made to this point.   

One of the first things I did was lock down Team Kilimanjaro.   A lot of the people I chatted with who have previously climbed Kili recommend just arriving and sorting out a climb group when you get there; this can apparently be cheaper.  However, as we are travelling with Mum, there are certain levels of standard that I wanted to ensure that would be met and decided to book from here.  My key search criteria were: 

• Registered with Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (http://www.kiliporters.org/)
• GPS/social media tracking for people at home to folllow
• Routes/service that involved high quality tenting and not using the huts on the mountain (ask me about this if you have any questions)
• Vegetarian meal options
• Full service company providing safari options
• Individualized routes so as to avoid traffic jams as much as possible (this can actually be a thing!!!)
• Friendly customer service!

I contacted quite a few companies and Team Kilimanjaro really stood out amongst the others.

We will be climbing their own variation on the Rongai Route (http://www.teamkilimanjaro.com/rongai.html).  This is a 7 day climb on a quiet TK variation of the standard Rongai route which allows for a better climb high/sleep low differential than any of the existing Rongai routes.  This is great as the reason the standard Rongai route is so quiet is because it has the second worst likelihood of summitting (failure rate of approximately 50%) of all 6 conventional routes.  With their route variation, which they own exclusively, TK have great success on the Rongai route and we will hopefully have a more serene experience!

Feel free to ask any further questions you may have as to how/why I selected Team Kilimanjaro!

In terms of our training this week ... we are making progress ...

Training since Wednesday:

Thursday - 6km tempo run.  I did this with an overall pace of 6:18 though, so below where I want my 'tempo' to be

Friday - 7.4 km walk

Sunday - 14km LSD run

Monday - 3km run.  Today is supposed to be my off day, but hubby has decided to start running so we are going to work through one of the intro 5k programs with him.  I also skipped Saturday, so this is not not resting, just diverted resting!

I need to add in some strength training somewhere and will likely add in some  Bodyrock on my running rest days ... I love love love Bodyrock (http://www.bodyrock.tv/) and find their videos one of the most amazing ways to kick my own butt in around 20 minutes!