Headache/nausea after exercise

[Wisteria]

Bah. I have been called to repentance. I usually work out two to four times a week but I've been slacking the last few weeks for no reason other than I apparently have no desire to get on an elliptical right now. But shorter, darker days means that more exercise is a very good thing. Although I *did* rake up all the leaves in the yard today . . .

[thebigcheese]

I was a bit of a mountain climber a few years back, but there was one particular peak that I never got to climb...so I'm dragging my husband up there with me before it gets too cold. We're going Saturday, so I'm hoping it doesn't snow...and I really wish I had some gaiters to keep my legs dry. Yesterday, we hiked the Y to prepare for the exertion. It was harder than I anticipated, and that makes me nervous since we'll be climbing about 3,000 feet higher. Ugh. I'm so out of shape...

[Emiliana]

Ooh, fun. I've done a decent amount of hiking, but no true climbing. There's a very lovely mountain by my house that I've hiked a couple of times and would like to again, but it's unsafe this time of year because of the rain. I'd really like to do Kilimanjaro while I'm in this part of the world, but it's crazy expensive.

[thebigcheese]

Kilimanjaro would be SWEET! I only know one person who has climbed it, and he's a pretty dang adventurous guy.

You know, I really haven't climbed much in the rain, so I never really thought of it as being particularly dangerous...but me and my husband got a little taste of that on our hike yesterday. We hiked up some pretty serious elevation and ended up in about 6-12 inches of wet snow. Those wet rocks were definitely a little sketchy at times. I haven't seen my husband so visibly nervous in quite a while.

Oh, and my legs are KILLING me today. Wow.

[Emiliana]

Eeeesh, snow. I don't know that I could handle that. It rains so much up on the mountain this time of year that the paths (which are not switchbacked, ever) turn into slick, muddy gullies -- occasionally actual waterfalls.

I know quite a few people who've done Kilimanjaro. It's almost a rite of passage for expats in this area with even a modicum of adventure in them. (That, and white-water rafting on the Nile, which I did last year. SO COOL.) Supposedly the only really difficult thing about it is the altitude.

[thebigcheese]

YOU RAFTED THE NILE?! Awesome! I'm totally jealous.

[Dragon Lady]

I rode a boat on the Nile. Does that count? The driver even let me steer for a bit. I think he was hitting on me. Which was awkward cuz he was at least twice my age. I have a picture of us with his arm around me while I steered. Hahaha.

[Emiliana]

Yep, that's one of the perks of living in Uganda. It's a trade-off: there's no decent ice cream, but you have access to some really awesome rapids. Besides, it just sounds way cooler to say things like, "I've been skinny-dipping in the Nile" than, "I've been skinny-dipping in the Mississippi." I had the opportunity to raft the Zambezi a few years ago, which is supposed to be some of the best rafting in the world, but unfortunately I spent the day being violently ill, instead. (Frequent bouts of stomach illnesses are another downside of living here, although fortunately those decrease with time.)

Hahaha, Dragon Lady. Were you in Egypt? Seems like everyone I know who goes there gets hit on by sleazy old men.

In other news, I've ridden my bike to church and back three days in a row, and I'm no longer getting passed up by old men with huge loads of charcoal on their bikes!

[Dragon Lady]

Hahaha, Dragon Lady. Were you in Egypt? Seems like everyone I know who goes there gets hit on by sleazy old men.

I was! Summer 2007. And it wasn't an old man. He was probably… 30ish. And he offered me something like 2 million camels to be his wife. But I'm pretty certain he wasn't serious. Nor was even remotely tempted by the offer. This was after he punched and kicked the little boy leading my camel because he couldn't contain my camel when it started to buck me off. Which was utterly stupid to think that the boy could have done anything about it since earlier it took both adult men to keep my camel from rolling over onto my bag that had a very expensive camera lens in it. Needless to say, he didn't get a very large tip from us. The other guy's tip was about 4-5 times larger. Much nicer, he was. Then again, he didn't try to bribe me into marriage...

[thebigcheese]

2 million camels? How romantic! (And way better than 8 cows!)

So, remember how me and my husband planned a fun mountain adventure...yesterday I came down with the flu. Totally lame.

[Emiliana]

So my current exercise frustration is that no matter how fast we feel like we're walking our route, it still seems to take exactly 62 minutes. You'd think we'd be able to improve our time by now, but no. 3.6 miles in 62 minutes.

I also feel like we walk some sort of demented M.C. Escher-esque loop that's uphill the entire way no matter which direction you go.

[thebigcheese]

62 minutes? That's very precise of you... You know, the eternal uphill thing actually reminds me of a trail I like to jog sometimes. It peaks in the middle. So when you jog one way, turn around, and jog back, you're actually going uphill both ways.

So...adventure story. Since we're not sick anymore, me and my husband finally got to hike up that mountain that I've been drooling over. It was HARD, but incredibly fun and adventurous. The whole mountain is covered in this unbelievably thick brush and scrub, so you're literally just forcing your way through vegetation the whole way up the mountain. We should've brought machetes or something. Anyway, despite being out of shape, willpower prevailed and we actually made it to the top. Unfortunately, we didn't quite beat the sunset on the way down (honestly, we just needed another 20 minutes of daylight). Let's just say we had a rather interesting night...um, involving a search and rescue crew coming to get us off the mountain. We weren't hurt or anything. Just couldn't find our way back to the stupid trail in the dark and incredibly thick vegetation. We somehow managed to find the only cliff in the whole place (which didn't even show up on the topographical map). And we got stuck on top of it. In the dark. Awesome.

So uh, that was...embarrassing.

[Emiliana]

Oh no! At least you got a good story out of it?

[thebigcheese]

Haha yeah. And we didn't have to sleep on the mountain, which was a definite plus.

[Emiliana]

So, after a month of being knocked flat by typhoid, I am very cautiously beginning to exercise again. Tonight I did the six-minute warm-up on a beginner's yoga video and I'm pretty wiped. Baby steps, I guess...

[thebigcheese]

Oh yeah...exercise...I forgot about that. Whoops. Anyway, I'm glad you're feeling better. Typhoid sounds like no fun.