First Hike of the Year – Simi Peak and China Flats

January 9, 2015 by 2 Comments

IMG_7494China Flats, on the way up to Simi Peak

Thanks to a standing arrangement with my friend Deb, I take a hike about once a week, and usually somewhere that is new to me. Deb is an important part of this because without a person who will expect me to go somewhere, I will stay in my house sitting at my desk and basically just atrophying while the kids are at school. Also, she knows all the trails and she usually drives.

This week it was Simi Peak and a short jaunt through a mountaintop meadow called China Flats. Technical expertise on this hike can be found here at Nobody Hikes in LA. I’m just here to show you how amazeballs it is at the top:

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The first mile is a very do-able climb up. We were passed by a dog (and its owner).

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We stopped at a lower peak to get a geocache, because that is how we roll.

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Then the trail snakes around the back of the mountain and goes through these beautiful oak groves and meadows.

IMG_7479If you look closer you can see a hobbit.

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And here is the view from the top. That road that heads south off to the other mountains is Lindero Canyon.

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To the west you can see the ocean. Well, I guess you had to be there.

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Just hanging out. In that metal drum below me is a log book you can sign to show you reached the peak.

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Then we turned around and went back down the way we came up. It only took us about 3 hours, with a few breaks. I recommend!

 

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What Doesn’t Kill You Makes Your Butt Hurt: a Pure Barre Workout

May 14, 2014 by 26 Comments

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I mean that in the nicest way.

And actually, it was my hamstrings that hurt – a good hurt – for days afterwards.

The lovely people of Pure Barre in Woodland Hills invited me to bring my friends and try one of their classes a few weeks ago. So one balmy spring morning, I and three of my friends (plus one sleepy little guy) drove east of Calabasas (I KNOW!) to check it out.

Pure Barre is in a multi-use building with parking on the roof, and plenty of it. You check in at the front desk and take off your shoes – no shoes on the classroom floor. You must wear socks to keep your feet and ankles warm because they will be working hard!

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Every class has the same general format. There’s a warm-up, a series of exercises for each body part, and then a great stretching cool-down. There are floor exercises, standing exercises, and barre exercises that have nothing to with ballet, really, which is what I had thought before coming into the class.

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There are also props – stretchy bands, balls, and hand weights, but all of that is provided so you don’t need to bring any.

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The exercises themselves are small movements. You isolate one muscle, it seems, and then squeeze the heck out of that muscle a bunch of times, then finally relax. It was hard – but not so hard that I felt like I had to give up. I rested plenty of times, but the instructor was always there to encourage me and keep me going.

What this mother of 2 loves is that the class is not bouncy. I like dancing and Zumba and boxing, but all the bouncing in those classes makes me feel like I have to excuse myself, if you know what I mean. I didn’t experience that here at Pure Barre. I got a tough workout that left me sweating and sore, without the worry that I’d have to run out of the room.

IMG_2359 (Kids not usually allowed in the studio, FYI!)

Pure Barre Woodland Hills has a full roster of classes so you can find something to fit your schedule. They sell them in packs or you can pop in for an individually priced class, too.

Pure Barre Woodland Hills
21728 Ventura Blvd.
Woodland Hills, CA 91364 US

Website

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