Running Thoughts

Ruth posted a "Bucket List" of fitness-related things she'd like to do in her lifetime. I loved reading hers, so I decided to put some thought into mine. It hasn't been easy for me, though, because I'm really struggling with this low thyroid thing and have been somewhat discouraged. Luckily, I was able to dig deep and realize some dreams. Here they are. My Bucket List: Climb the 5 fourteeners surrounding our town (peaks over 14,000 ft) Learn to snowboard Run faster (I have a number in mind, maybe I'll disclose it when I reach it) Run a marathon run the 50 miler here in my little town, maybe in a few years sweep the 50 miler this summer investigate every trail in my vicinity and write about it go on a running vacation like this plan my own running vacation, beginning in one town and running to the next for overnight, then run the next day to another little town for overnight...and take friends with me organize a fundraiser race to raise money to buy a hyper...

Wow! Being without internet is debilitating! What a spoiled person, I am! I haven't had strong enough internet signal to get sites to fully load or to post anything, and I thought I might not survive until it got resolved. But I did! Some things that have happened that I wish I'd had a camera for... I went snowshoeing on Sunday with Sara and Lydia. We took the Alpine Gulch Trail, which is my favorite, favorite any time of year so far. It's the one that Ruth and family took last summer, so I immediately scolded myself for not taking my camera. It was incredible. The snow covered trees bowed to the creator, making a canopy over and around us. The trail goes up and up so I love that the beauty distracts from the pain, ha! We went to the 3rd creek crossing (I can't remember how far that is, but there are 9 creek crossings over all on this over-6-mile trail) and decided that time required that we turn around and get Sara back to Baby Brooks. We turned and retrace...

We are so excited that we have about a foot of new snow and it's still coming down! Finally!!! So, we took our sleds out for some fun. I love that! I had a great fun workout running uphill in deep snow and then sledding down. Then, Sara and I went to the gym and lifted...we worked out back, biceps, and legs/booty today. It was great fun, but we missed you.

Yesterday was strength test day, and was fun. Sara and I went to the little community weight room and tested our strength on 4 exercises: bench press, leg press, bicep curl, and lat pulldown. We tried to go with the heaviest weights we could manage for 5 reps. Neither of us are really sure that we couldn't have lifted more than we did, but we got a good general idea anyway. I pressed 60 lbs on the chest press, 221 on leg press, 20 for bicep curls, and 60 on the lat pull down. We made some changes to the original Maximum Growth plan to make it more workable with running and yoga. We will be adding legs to the back and biceps day and will rely on yoga for abwork. This will open up more days to be available for running and will make yoga days work out better. What does this mean for today?? Today is a lifting day, chest, shoulders, triceps. And I will probably run too because I want to. Tomorrow is yoga and I will probably run again too. Friday, we will lift...back, bicep...

Sara mentioned the "Blitz" that we are about to begin, and Ruth asked about it. I'm just now managing to post our plans, and it would be fun for anyone to join us! Over a year ago, we did a 4 week muscle-building blitz. It's a lifting program designed by Shawn Phillips. I downloaded it for free. You can too. It's a nice change of pace and very effective. We are taking the strength test today because we had to be out of town all day yesterday for my daughter's eye appt. The day before, we went for a snowy hike on a trail at the edge of town with a friend. We'd hoped it would be runnable, so didn't take our snowshoes. Next time, we will take them, though, because there was no way to run it. It was a beautiful, fun excursion, and provided plenty of heart rate acceleration as it was...lots of steep hiking. It will be fun to run it in the spring. Happy Blitz-ing!!

For my birthday, my MIL made me some arm warmers for running. It's been cold enough that I needed a jacket, but yesterday was warmer and I tried my new arm warmers! I love them! I wore a short sleeved shirt with long sleeved shirt over it and then the arm warmers over my sleeves. When I got too warm, I pushed the arm warmers down, see? Then, I pulled them back up when I hit a shady, cold area. They were great! I ran 4 miles with my new w-armies. 1 mile to the ski hill, then on to the turn-off to the lake for the 2nd mile, then back. At one point, I had to move over to the side of the road when a car came along and I stepped to what looked like packed snow and sank up to above my ankle and nearly injured myself. And my ipod died somewhere along the way too and I didn't even notice. haha! It was a steeeeeeep first 2 miles with NO walking. Felt great! Big Huge Congratulations to Ruth on completing her 13.1 miles yesterday and setting a PR for herself!! How cool is that?

Here's the AFTER picture, finally! I've reclaimed my workout space, with Sara and Baby Brooks' sweet company. Sara and I took turns holding the baby and pumping iron for a nice upper body workout for us both. I'm pleasantly sore today! Big thanks to my blog for keeping me accountable to get this done like I blogged that I would! Thanks, also, to Brooks and Sara for encouragement and companionship in the effort and to Ruth for checking to see if I'm on track! :) Aren't we good for each other?!

Well, close, but no after picture! Not yet. I'm retiring for the day and will finish tomorrow. On the fitness front for the day, I jumped rope with my sweet boy and went to yoga too.

I didn't lift yesterday. It's my own fault...I keep piling things in my room which is where the workout equipment is. I've managed to yet-again make it into a giant mess where a workout looks impossible, but by the end of today, I will have my space back!!!! Embarrassing before photo...

Today was a favorite. It was almost 30 degrees and sunny outside. I found my lost glove of my favorite pair. :)yay! I ran up just past the ski hill and back. Not very far (about a mile up and a mile back), but a long climb. I wasn't fast, but no walking. :) It's fun to meet a goal. Now, my legs are tired. And to add to the favorite-ness, this week is "mystery" week in our homeschool. We began doing detective/mystery activities today. And it's Twosday...we celebrated Sara living here for 2 years and her baby, Brooks', 2-month birthday! So, Happy Twosday!

About five miles, taking it super easy. That's what ended up happening yesterday. Sara and I wanted to go on another snowshoe adventure run yesterday. But she completed her first "back at it after the baby" lower body workout just two days before and did such a superior job that her legs just couldn't manage the whole adventure. Here was the plan that we will have to try again soon: We strapped our snowshoes onto backpacks again and this time headed up Henson Road which is a gradual climb for about a mile and a half where it takes an upward, windy acsension to some cool old mines. We planned to run/walk up almost 3 miles to the Alpine Gulch Trail (Ruth, you took this trail with your family when you were here) which is completely covered in snow, snow, snow. We wanted to climb up part of the trail with our snowshoes, then turn around and come back down to the road and run/walk home. We managed to run/walk up about 2.5 miles and then mostly walk home. It was fu...

The fitness-related things that have happened since I last posted... From the most recent: Today, I ran 1 mile easy, then sprints, then another mile easy. Yesterday, I complained about my sore muscles. Tuesday, I ran 2 miles easy, then ran sprints. Monday, I went to Yoga which made every muscle in my body sore, thus the complaining. It seems that I'm missing the lifting part of my plan. Hmmmm. But we've had a fun homeschooling week, making cookies and decorating them like amoeba, paramecium, etc. for biology, laughing over silly myths from history, making a wooden dragon (leftover from our Harry Potter Unit a long while back that we just can't get over), writing about starwars, making a viking longboat, and oil painting....not to mention all the geometry and long division. So, I'll cut myself some slack on slacking in the weight-lifting department. We've had fun learning and living.

so fun! Sara and I were adventurers today. More about it later!! ********* Well, Sara has the pics, but today was her second day for a run since baby Brooks was born, and she is already running lots of the distance. We took our snowshoes on our backs and ran/walked uphill just past the skihill (about a mile and a half) to a trail that cuts over to the road that goes to the lake. The trail is probably another mile and a half of snowshoeing, then we ran/walked back home which adds about another 3 miles. It was hushed and beautiful out and we enjoyed it so much. What a fun adventure! still to come... my run in the snow from the other day...I'm planning to post video.