Cross Training up Gray's Peak

Yesterday, Brandon and I decided to do a "little hike" up Gray's Peak, from the less traveled side. We camped out near Keystone the night before, had some tasty dinner thanks to Brandon's excellent cooking skills, slept hard and woke up to get some legwork in.
We started out casually at 8:30 A.M. and reached the bottom of the actual climb pretty quick, even with Brandon's shortcut that wasn't really a shortcut, but I digress. Ha. That is where the trail stopped. The next 2 miles up were free territory for us to navigate. We headed straight for the top, although not the highest peak, since that ascent looked a little too technical for us (me) with loose rocks all the way up. (I hate those loose rocks, especially on a 50% grade)The climb up to Gray's. This looks easy, but it wasn't.

After getting on all fours to keep balance while seemingly going up a rock wall, we finally made it to the ridge, the top, and I was happy. The way back down was a piece-a-cake compared to going up, as we took the scenic route (the ridge- it was so awesome, I recommend everyone hike Gray's this way) and had less rock mess to deal with. The Ridge.

A 7-hour roundtrip with some stops and we were ready for dinner. I ate my first ever Beau Jeau's Pizza in Idaho Springs (very inneresting town), and wasn't even full. I was hungry all day long today actually. And sore. Wow! It is amazing how fit you think you are, until you do an activity you don't usually do. My legs are sore to the touch and will probably need a few easy days. I am glad we made the trip though, as I am still going to count those 7 hours as training hours (ha), time on my feet= time training.
It's rather tough to balance in the wind, hence the less than perfect alignment of my gymnastic skill.

Tonight I hit the pool for the first time in a month for masters, got about 5 minutes into it before my SI joint tightened up and frightened me enough to pull the rest of the workout. I really, really wanted to swim, but no, SI joint decided it was going to rebel (probably due to the hike) and so I immediately took all precaution not to have it lock up completely. If that had happened, I would have been limping around for a good month. It's like walking on egg shells right now. I constantly need to be aware of what my body can handle. With my biggest block still to come, I need to make sure I do every little bit to recover and feel good. 43 days.