Men on Mountains

Today China celebrated Qingming Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day. This is the day the Chinese show respect to their ancestors.

Chinese schools were closed and many companies have the day off. While many of the SWIC hiking ladies enjoyed an extra day home with their spouses, some of the ladies brought their husbands to hike Nanshan today.

The weather heading up the mountain was sticky. It actually sprinkled a little when we left the apartment, but it didn't help any. Climbing the equivalent of 60 floors was tough in today's humidity.

Speaking of tough, I watched The Barkley Marathons documentary on Netflix. This is the craziest, most brutal race I've ever seen. 

Whenever we go to Hong Kong, we make it a point to cruise through the grocery store at the mall where we catch the ferry back to the mainland. Since we were there multiple times last week, I got to check it out a little more closely. Apple cinnamon rice cakes with pb & jelly used to be one of my favorite snacks. I was super excited to find some apple flavored rice cakes in the baby foods aisle and bought 5 bags (they're small). It's so nice to not have to eat plain rice cakes.

It is believed that the weather will turn nice after Qingming Festival. Almost appropriately, the storms moved through this afternoon. Watching the visibility drop from the 11th floor is quite something. We can normally see Hong Kong across Shenzhen Bay.

Back home in the US, I'm hoping for beautiful spring weather for all the Reds fans heading out to Opening Day. I wish I could be there again this year.

Mountain Monday: 5 Lessons on a Rainy Day

The forecast for today was thunderstorms.

Approaching the meeting place for the weekly climb up the mountain, the sky looked rather ominous.

We always go unless it is pouring.

Here are some lessons I learned from today's hike:

1. Don't let a little rain scare you away. I would have missed out on a great climb and great company.

2. Mosquitos come out to party when it's wet and cooler.

3. I'm still afraid of thunder, but friends laughing at me make it better!

4. Athleta shorts stick to your legs when they are wet.

5. Sometimes you have to take a lot of breaks on your way to the top. It's ok.

It did start to rain on the way down the mountain. Good thing I also had an umbrella. It was still a fun hike and the post-hike chatting at Starbucks is always entertaining.

Climbing the mountain also helps me hit my 10,000 steps. I love the feeling when my Fitbit has its little celebration on my wrist.

In other news...the difficulty level is rising on my daily plank challenge. Today we had to do 10 second walking plank, 10 second spiderman plank, right into timed standard plank. Oh abs on fire!

And today I conquered the daily recommended 20 strokes with The Stick.

Tell me something you learned from your fitness today.
Do you exercise in the rain?