Breaking 30 and My Foam Roller

A Milestone in Swimming!

I dropped the kids off at school and went right to the pool. I was really tired this morning and having a hard time being excited about swimming, even though I knew it would be awesome, like always, and that I would feel better afterwards.

I started out with my normal 800 warmup as follows:

200 x kick board w/flippers

200 x swim

200 x pull

200 x swim

Then I did 1500 straight to see how fast I could do it. In the back of my mind I was really hoping to do it in under 30 minutes, but I don't know if I really thought that would happen.

When I got to the halfway mark, I was trailing about 30 seconds behind that goal - partly because I had to stop and talk to the guy getting into my lane for a few seconds, but I was probably also dragging a little. Then I noticed a guy in the next lane swimming at a pretty good pace and I decided to try and stay with him. It was so much fun, and just what I needed! Not only was I able to keep up with him, but I found myself pulling ahead sometimes and I'd think, "come on, don't let me lose you." It was just so much easier to pull hard when someone was doing it with me, and we stayed together pretty good. I need someone fast to start swimming with me regularly! Any volunteers?

I don't know if he knew about our little race, but every once and a while we'd look at each other as we turned around at the same time so maybe he did. He stopped when I had about 5 laps to go, but I just kept pretending I was racing someone and pushed really hard at the end. When I got down to one lap, I knew I was going to make it in way under 30:00 and I couldn't help but smile even as I sped through the water. Pretty amazing that I didn't drown myself in the process!

I finished 1500 in 29:42! Wahoo, not even just a little bit under 30! I was so happy, and I wanted to thank the guy in the next lane, but by the time I stopped he was going again and I didn't want to bother him.

I did 150 to cool down before getting out.

Total Distance: 2450

Total Time: about an hour

What a great swimming day! I can't think of a time I've regretted going to the pool. I always love it, and I especially love it when I can see my speed improving!

So, How Are My Legs Feeling?

Last night I was getting really grouchy and irritated because my legs were hurting so bad. It wasn't so much just my hip anymore, it went all the way down to my knee so I thought I'd give my foam roller a try. I worked on my legs for about half an hour (well, actually for 2 episodes of 30 Rock so a little longer) before bed. This was my first time really doing this. I just bought the foam roller when I bought my shoes because the sales lady said I was going to need it. I mostly thought she meant for my calves so it took me way too long to realize I needed to use it on my quads. It also took me way too long to realize that it was just muscle pain, and not some kind of hip joint injury.

This is the fancy foam roller I got. It's made by Triggerpoint.

What you do with this is slowly roll it up your leg (or, more accurately, roll your leg down it so that all your weight is on your leg) then when you find a really sore spot you just stop and hang out there for a while. Then you flush it out by rolling it the rest of the way up the muscle.

I can't even tell you how much this hurts! I'm sure I was complaining about it very loudly and annoying Pete since we were trying to watch his favorite episode of 30 Rock. I was even thinking, "This can't be working, it just hurts too much." But after I'd done it for a while, all over my sore quads, I suddenly realized that my leg didn't hurt any more. At all. It was so weird, and I went to bed feeling so happy and relived!

My legs are a little sore again today, but not nearly as bad as they were. It actually hit me that my legs feel like they do when I walk around a lot in high heels. Ah, why did I not think of this sooner? :) That makes sense right? Then today I got a message from a friend that said:

"Colleen I was just reading that you have a hurt hip. I get it every now and again. Especially when I run a lot. It's probably a trigger point. The worst one I had made my hip totally give out while I was running. All u need to do is rub it out or go to a trigger point specialist to get it worked out. It cures it real quick. No running time lost."

I was so happy to reply that she was exactly right! I'm going to go do some more foam roller right now. So excited! (Note: Pete says he wishes his legs were sore so he could try it out.)

Run #2 with Bioms

Today I had to take Pete in to Riverton and this time I followed my instincts and found the gym I had tried to get to the other day. Today it was even better because the childcare was open until 11:15 so I actually had time to do my run. Just barely.

My hip was not feeling 100% better, but I thought it felt pretty good, and I was feeling kind of depressed and I knew that a run would make me feel better. I decided to try running with my old shoes first, then the Bioms at the end this time. At first, my hip started hurting kind of bad, and I thought I would try to make it 10 minutes to see if it would feel better after I warmed up. It actually did start feeling better, and by the time I was half done, I hardly even noticed the pain unless I thought about it too much.

After 40 minutes, I changed my shoes and did the last 20 in the Bioms. I didn't really feel much pain in my hips with them on, but that could just be a coincidence because it was feeling better already. I was able to run pretty good with them, but it was slower than my other shoes.

When I stopped running, my hip immediately started hurting again. I made sure to stretch really good at the gym, and again when I got home. Then I made myself an ice bath. My first one. I've never felt the need to do an ice bath before, but I'm getting really sick of this hip hurting so I'm willing to try anything. It. Was. So. Cold. I had a really hard time keeping my feet in at first, and I eventually propped them up on the bowl I had used to bring the ice in. I mostly wanted to keep my hip, calves and knees in so I was ok with this.

See the little pieces of ice floating around? They were mostly melted by this time.

After I sat in it for about 10 minutes, I felt fine. It reminded me of tubing down the Provo River. That river is COLD! It made me think that it would be cool to take a dip in the river after one of our long runs leading up to the Marathon. It will still be really cold that early in the summer though.

I sat in the ice bath for 15 minutes and I didn't really feel much pain when I got out, but this evening it is really hurting again so I don't know how much help the sitting in cold tub was. Maybe if I would have done it Saturday after my run when it first started hurting it would have worked better. I might have to skip my "long" run on Saturday. I really need to let this get better. Luckily my long run isn't really long yet. I don't think I'll have too much trouble catching back up on a 6-mile long run. I'd rather skip it and feel really good next week.

On a lighter note, Stacy from Three Winks Photography put the pictures she took of me December 31 up on her blog today! Check them out. I met her on Twitter and it was a lot of fun to go out and play around in the snow with her. She's a cool girl and a great photographer. The dress I'm wearing in these pictures was given to me by my Grandma. It is her old dress, and the scarf was hers and (I think) her mother's too so it was really special for me to go be photographed in it. And, yes, I am wearing an off-white shirt under it. And boots. :)

Rainy Day Second Thoughts

Yesterday I did the same swim workout as Friday, and it felt really good. The lady I shared my lane with was really nice and she was impressed by how long and hard I had been swimming. She made me feel really good, but she didn't know that I'm slower than most the people in my age group. Oh well, it's nice to feel like a real athlete sometimes. :)

Total distance: 3800m
Total time: 1:15

I wore my Bioms for the second part of the day, and by the end my feet were kind of hurting and my calves were a little sore. I did run a tiny bit from place to place with the kids, but I'm kind of glad they work my calves even on non-running days. Maybe I'll get used to them sooner than later! Or maybe my legs will just be more sore.

Today I woke up with a sore throat and with my hip still hurting. It feels better than Saturday, and swimming had helped it feel better, but I don't really want to run on it again until it's all better. I just want to be starting more from scratch to see where those shoes make me sore.

I really hope my throat doesn't get worse for tomorrow though.

I hate unscheduled days off, and it seems like I've been having them a lot lately. Right now I'm feeling really torn about my new shoes. One side of me just wants to go out and run in my old shoes how I'm used to running so I can feel comfortable and have fun, but the other side of me wants to be smart and patient with my running and change it so I don't ruin my knees or anything. It's really hard to want to change my style when I was just fine all last year and did my Ironman without any problems. But then I remeber how miserable the St. George Matathon was. I just love my Pearl Izumis so much, I feel a little sad today.

Hopefully my run will go really well tomorrow and I can feel good about all this again.

Run #1 with Bioms

This morning I ended up having to take Pete to work half an hour away. We tried to get out quick, and I decided to go to the gym that's pretty close to his work that I've been to before. The child care is really awesome there and I had promised Elle that we could go again sometime because she really liked it, but they do close at 10:15 on Mondays so I really had to hurry or I wouldn't have time to do my run.

I couldn't remember exactly where it was so I looked it up on google maps. The location it gave me didn't seem to match the address, but I followed it anyway, and it brought me to the middle of a neighborhood. Totally the wrong place. I didn't really have enough time to go back and find the real location so I just hurried back to our usual gym where the daycare is open until 11. We got there at at 10 so I just barely had time to do my run and stretch before I had to get Elle. I was sad that I didn't get to do the strength training workout I had planned, but I'm so glad I was able to get in at all!

I decided I'd do my 20 minutes with the Bioms first then see how I feel about finishing the 4 miles. I was pretty surprised with how good I felt for those 20 minutes. I could definitely feel it a little more in my calves, but it wasn't anything telling me I needed to stop. I felt like I was just really more aware of my feet. I guess just more aware of the mechanics of my feet instead of just two flat things pounding on the ground. I paid more attention to how I was landing and everything. I feel like if I did land on my heels, it would hurt and I would know it in those shoes. When I got to the end of the 20 minutes, my calves actually didn't hurt any more than usual, but I was good and changed my shoes before finishing.

Total Distance: 4 miles

Total Time: 41:56

Total Uphill Time: 4 minutes

The thing that was really hurting was my hip/butt which is still sore from Saturday and it hurt just as much in my regular shoes so I don't really think it was from the shoes. It didn't hurt enough to make me feel like I shouldn't run on it or anything though.

When I got home, my lower back started hurting too. It kind of feels like it's connected to the hip pain, but I don't know. I hope it all feels better before my next run on Wednesday so it can feel more like a fresh start with the new shoes. I am excited about how well it went today, and how good my calves feel. They feel totally normal. Maybe that means I'm still heel striking, or maybe since I've run in Pete's Newtons 3 times it made it easier for me.

New Running Shoes - ECCO Bioms

Yesterday I went to Salt Lake Running Company with the intention of just getting some Newtons because Newton's website have them listed as a carrier. When I asked the saleslady if they had them she said they only have them in stock during the busy season which begins in March. I thought about just leaving, but then decided to talk to her a little more and see what other shoes they had that would, like Newtons, help me learn to be a forefoot runner. They did have the Vibrum Five Fingers, and she showed me some racing flats that have a smaller heel, but I was still feeling really iffy about it all. Then she showed me the ECCO Biom B. These shoes are made to let your foot run naturally, almost like berefoot running. They are trying to achieve the same things as Newton, I think, but in a different way. I actually like this shoe better because it doesn't have that weird projection on the bottom that makes them hard to walk in, and they're actually really comfortable.

She then told me that this shoe will last for around 1200 miles instead of the usual 300. Wow. That got my attention. I hate buying shoes every 6 months. If that is true, it would kind of justify the price of $220. Yep, you heard that right, $220. Yikes! That is the highest priced running shoe on the market. I sure hope it's worth it.

I tried them on and ran on their treadmill for a few minutes. She said I have a really neutral gait, which is kind of necessary when buying these shoes because they have no support for pronation. After debating for a while, we finally decided to get them. They felt good for the few minutes running I did in them, and if they can help me run more mid/forefoot that would be awesome, especially if they last 2-3 times longer than a normal running shoe.

Like the Newtons, though, I'm going to have to really gradually work my way into running in these. I'm really nervous about this since my current shoes have already got about 300 miles on them. Plus, I'm going to start upping my milage this week. They've got a little training plan right inside the box to help you ease into these shoes. It starts off with having you wear them half of every day for normal use whenever you can, and running 20 minutes 3 times a week.

They also came with some extra insoles.

I've been reading a bunch of reviews (now that I have the shoe...kind of backwards!) and there have been both good and bad so, like I said, I'm really nervous about this whole thing! I hope it ends up helping me instead of hurting me. My hip is still really sore from yesterday and that makes me even more nervous. Is it worse because of testing these shoes out? Or is it so sore because of snowboarding? I just don't know.

Here I am wearing them for "normal use." Don't I just look stylish?! I put them on when we got home from church, and will probably wear them the rest of the day. My first 20-minute run in them will be tomorrow so I'll let you know how that goes!

Swimming, Snowboarding, and a new PR

Swimming

Yesterday I took a new workout that I found online to the pool with me. It's a workout that a world class swimmer does a couple times a week, and it totals 4,500 meters so I decided to scale it down a bit. I'll put his whole workout here, but what I did in bold:

Warmup
500 swim 250 swim
200 kick
300 pull (breathe once every five strokes)

I'm not used to such a long warmup, and I usually do the kickboard first and my arms were starting to ache pretty quick so I cut it in half then stretched. My arms felt fine after that, and I did the rest of the warmup. I also thought it would be hard to breathe every five strokes since I'm used to breathing every 3, but I did it.

Set 1
10x100 @ 1:30, freestyle/backstroke by 50

I did 6x100:

1. 1:40
2. 1:46
3. 1:46
4. 1:46
5. 1:49
6. 1:46

I guess 1:46 was my number today! Considering how weird it was to breath every 5 strokes during the warm-up, it sure stuck with me, and I ended up doing that for most of the time. It seemed to make the whole length go faster, only breathing 4 times! It also made it so I could focus on my form a little better. I think I'll keep doing it.

Set 2
4x400 @ 15 seconds rest, descending: I did 4x200
No. 1 @ 70 percent effort 4:12
No. 2 @ 80 percent effort 4:05
No. 3 @ 90 percent effort 4:00
No. 4 @ 95 percent effort 3:47

Set 3
300 easy pull

Set 4
4x50 @ :40, sprint it took me :50

Cool-down
400 easy swim 200 alternating back and easy

I usually only do like 150 for cool-down, but I was going to do the whole thing except when I got half-way through it they took one of the three lanes out to make way for water aerobics which pushed two more people into the lane next to me that already had 2 people, and the lady there was looking worried. I just told her I was done so she could come over to my lane where there were just 2 of us.

Total Distance: 3800 meters

Total Time: about 1:15 (I forgot to check my watch when I got out, but it was at 1:30 when I looked at it after I was dressed)

My goal is to be doing the whole workout by St. George Tri.

Snowboarding

In the afternoon, our baby-sitter came over and Pete and I drove up to Brighton. It was snowing, and there were WAY more people there this time! I remembered to take a few pictures before it got dark this time!

My pants are a little big...

I did so much better this time! I wouldn't have fallen down nearly as much, but I decided to try to learn how to ride my front edge which is really scary and hard. I fell down pretty much every time I tried it. I feel pretty comfortable snow plowing and riding my back edge, but that makes it hard to get going very fast and I ended up unclipping and walking past a few of the flat parts when we did the blue square again. It was still way easier than last time, and it was really fun! We only did 5 runs (I think). We did 3 of the green circle, then back to the car for some food because I was getting awry. When we went back up, there were just masses of people waiting to get on the lift, and since the lift for the blue square run was moving faster and it's a longer run, we decided to try that again. After that, we went on the bunny slope to practice riding the front edge. Pete's really good at it, and the kids say it's easier for them to do it that way. I think I'm kind of starting to get it, but I'm still no good. Then it was time to go home and go to bed. I love snowboarding at night, it's so sureal! It was so pretty being up there when it was snowing too! I can't wait to go again.

10k PR!

This morning I was supposed to do the Strider's 10k, but I never was able to register for it online, and I decided I'd rather not wake up early and drive to Ogden to do a run I could do myself. Plus, if I went I probably wouldn't have been back in time for Pete to go to Krav.

So, I did my own 10k, and I did the same route I did January 2nd that took me 58:05 (and I actually only did 6.1 that day).

Guess how long it took me today!

55:14!

Wow hu?! I was so happy! Not only is that 3 minutes faster than last time, it's 7 minutes faster than my last tri!

It was pretty hard, and I kept reminding myself to act like it was a race and I think that helped. Towards the end my hip was starting to hurt. I think that's from snowboarding, but I don't know. My shoulder was a little sore for the first few miles, but then it was ok. Other than that I'm not really sore from last night so that's pretty cool.

Total Distance: 6.2 miles (10k)

Total Time: 55:14

(I just wanted to say that time again.)

Why, Oh Why, Another Marathon?

Monday

I was in Heber hanging out with my sister, but I still managed to do a little run around my old stomping grounds. I just had a 30 minute tempo run scheduled, so I ran my usual 3-mile loop around Charleston, and added a little bit to make it 30 minutes. Man, having to add that little bit was so cool! :) I hit 30 minutes right when I got to my house, and I had done 3.33 miles! I went in and changed into Pete's Newtons (I still haven't bought my own...) and went back out for 10 more minutes. In fact, I was feeling so good, I did 12 minutes. No pain. Sweet! Next time I'll try 20 minutes again. :)

Tuesday

That was yesterday, right? This week is feeling so weird with the long weekend! We came home yesterday, and when Pete got home from work he took Mindy and Ethan snowboarding. They were so excited too! Having it be just me and Elle in the evening made it really easy to get her to bed by 7:00! It was so nice! I had plenty of time to get a trainer ride in, wahoo! I found a documentary called Ballerina about what it takes to be a prima ballerina in Russia. It was really interesting, and watching those girls push themselves and practically work themselves into the ground helped me push hard too. When I got to the 40:00 mark, I wanted to up the resistance, but it was already on the hardest it would go! So I just pushed harder for the last 10 minutes before cooling down.

Just the other day I was telling Pete that I never get sore after a bike ride anymore, and that maybe meant I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. Well, I guess I pushed myself hard enough last night because my legs and hips are sore today! I even stretched really well afterwards.

Pete got home with the sleeping kids just as I finished. He said they did a really good job and that Mindy is a natural. Maybe a a snowboarder would be a better career choice for her than a ballerina...

Wednesday

Last night Mindy woke up crying with her ears hurting, and this morning she was feeling sick to her stomach so she didn't go to school, and I didn't go to the gym. I stayed home and played nurse. I did get to go on a little walk to the store for juice, though. She seems to be feeling better now, but her ears are still plugged. Hopefully she'll be better tomorrow, poor girl.

My sister, Katie, called me today and asked if I could send her the marathon training plan I made for us. As soon as Pete got home with the computer, I sent it on over. We start on Monday with our 16-week plan. It's a really simple plan that I adapted from the one on runnersworld.com, only having us run 3 or 4 days a week. I didn't want to get burnt out on running, and I still want to have time to keep up on swimming and biking even though they won't be as much in focus until after the marathon. That being said, I am doing the St. George Tri at the end of week 12. It will just be for fun, but I'll have to do a little rearranging with my 12-mile run scheduled for that day.

So, Why?

The big question of the day, though, is WHY am I doing another marathon? Seriously, after St. George, I had no desire whatsoever to do another marathon (except for at the end of an Ironman, but that's so much more fun!), and I really didn't plan on doing one this year until I heard about Operation Jack.

There's this guy named Sam, who has a little boy, named Jack, who's autistic. Sam wanted to do something for his little boy, and for all the other people who are affected by autism. I actually can't say that I'm really affected by autism myself, but there was just something about his mission that pulled me in, and I wanted to be a part of it. Sam is doing 60 marathons this year to raise awareness and money for Train 4 Autism and he's calling it Operation Jack. He's already done 9, and when I say done, I mean really done! He gets down on himself if he's over like 3:15! I can't even imagine running one marathon that fast, let alone 60! Here's his schedule.

Still, though, I was only thinking, "If I do a marathon this year, I want to do one with him." If. Well, at some point I was talking to my sister and my sister-in-law and they both decided they wanted to try to do a marathon this year. Of course, I was like, "Well, if you want to do one, I'll do it with you!" (I've got to quit saying stuff like this, it gets me into trouble!) They also liked the idea of doing a marathon with Operation Jack so that narrowed it down to the marathons he's doing in Utah: Park City or Utah Valley. We liked the idea of Park City because it's at the end of summer, but it's also right before the Bear Lake Half Ironman that I wanted to do so we decided on Utah Valley. I'm actually really excited to do this one now, it's going to be so beautiful running through Provo Canyon in June, and a lot of it is downhill! Plus I'll get it over with pretty early in the season and be able to shift focus to triathlon for the rest of the summer. Hopefully I'll be a faster runner after all this too!

Now it's time for me to ask for your help. :) Again. Here I am, always trying to raise money for something, hu? Well, I just need to get 10 people to donate $10 to Operation Jack. Click here to be one of those people and donate 10 bucks! Then I think I get a t-shirt? I'm not sure, either way you'll be awesome for doing it!

Or do you want to run this marathon (or 1/2 marathon or 5k) with me and try to raise money yourself? That would be so fun if you wanted to do it with us, the more the merrier! Click here to join our team. (It's being really slow for me right now so you might have to wait a while.)

My First Time Snowboarding!

I have lived in Utah my whole life where we have the greatest snow on earth. The cross country skiing for the 2002 Olympic was actually on the hill right behind the house I grew up in, where my dad still lives. My mom met my dad when she moved here from California to ski. I even worked at the Park City ski resort in high school. Despite all these things, I have never, until yesterday, gone skiing or snowboarding. Pretty pathetic, hu?

When I was in high school, I did go up to Park City with my friends, Ben and Dustin, and they were going to teach me how to ski. Well, we went to rent me some gear, but ended up not being able to because we weren't old enough. You had to be 18 or 21, and I was the oldest at 16 or 17. We ended up just going to Denny's and sharing a huge banana split, and I was secretly relived about not doing it.

Yesterday afternoon my dad came and picked up the kids, then I hurried over to Pete's work and picked him up. We drove my dad's car up to the park and ride at the mouth of the canyon leading up to Brighton Ski Resort where our friends, Kaleb and Suzanne, were waiting for us. We loaded our snowboards into their car and rode with them the rest of the way. It's quite a ways up there! I had actually been to Brighton before, but in the summer, for girls camp.

As we were pulling into the parking lot, I just had this feeling like something was going to happen again so that I wouldn't be able to go through with it. We had all our gear, though, and soon we had our lift tickets. We made a quick stop in the bathrooms, and before I knew it, I was clipping my right foot into the binding, and I tried not to look like an idiot as pushed the board over with my left foot to the line for the lift. Now my heart was pounding and I felt a little bit like I was going to throw up, but the thing with ski lifts is you can't really wait around. When it's your turn, the lift just picks you up, and you're on your way up the mountain! I couldn't believe how long we sat on the lift either. It just kept going up, up, up the mountain! I was able to relax for a little while, but then we got to the top and Pete instructed me on how to just ride my board off the lift. Ah! I thought for sure I would crash first thing, but I didn't! I just rode it down! Then we stopped and got our left feet hooked in, and made our way over to the start of the run.

Since the only downhill snow sport I'd ever done was sledding at our little hill in Heber, I really didn't know what to expect for a ski run. I always pictured it as being able to see the bottom of the run from the top, and just having it be a pretty strait shot down. You seasoned skiers/snowboarders are probably laughing at me, but for some reason that's what I had always pictured. It's not like that at all. You're on TOP OF A MOUNTAIN! There's not just like one little place to go, there are huge wide paths winding around the mountain with other paths sometimes crossing or joining them. It's crazy!

It's also a lot HARDER than I thought it would be. I was like, "Oh, I've been skim boarding a lot, wake boarding a few times (a long time ago) and surfing a couple of times so I should be able to do it." Well, it's kind of like those other things, but not really. You have to stand on the board for a long time and steer it. Of course, the first run I wasn't really standing that much. I was sitting down quickly a LOT. It took us a long time to get down the first run, but I did make it down. Pete said it was probably only half an hour.

Once we got down, we headed right back up the nearest lift, and it turned out to be a blue square run (which means it's harder). We still did it. I mean, what else could we do? It was really hard, though, and it took us forever to get down. There were a lot of places where it flattened out so you had to be going pretty fast to get past, but we weren't going very fast so we'd get stuck. Suzanne and I got stuck that is. Pete and Kaleb could have done it, but they stuck around for us. There were a lot of people zooming past that made me want to curl up in a ball sometimes. I'm amazed no one ran into me with how much I fell down. At one point, I was trying to get through one of these places, and I took my back foot out to push myself a little. I guess this was a bad idea, though, because my foot hit my board and slipped and I fell pretty hard. Pete was ahead waiting for me, and I was laying there making sure my ankle was ok, because it had kind of hurt pretty bad, when this guy came carving right by me and sprayed me with snow. It wasn't really a big deal, at all, but it kind of made me feel good that Pete was like, "Hey, you just sprayed snow all over my wife back there!" when he went past him. I'm glad he didn't get into a fight or anything, but it was kind of nice that he stuck up for me like that.

When we got to the end of that long hard run, Pete and I went to the car for some cookies and Gatorade and to get me some warmer socks because my toes were freezing. I felt better after that, then we headed back up to the easier run. We were just getting clipped in up there when Kaleb and Suzanne got off the lift. Perfect timing! We decided that Suzanne and I would go down the easy one together so Pete and Kaleb could go down a harder one. I told her that this would probably be my last one, but it ended up being so much better! I actually felt like I was kind of getting it, and we got to the bottom much faster! We got to the bottom and got right back on the lift to do it again. Suzanne was so much fun to hang out with too!

When we got to the top, it was 5 to 9, and they close at 9 so we knew this would be our last run. This one was my favorite one. For one thing, it was awesome that there was hardly anyone left on the slopes, but mostly I just felt so much better. I didn't fall down very much at all this time, though I did have to sit down a couple times to rest my legs. My thighs would just start burning when I'd stay standing for more than a few minutes. It was crazy. I felt so out of shape, I just couldn't stand it! I'm just not in snowboarding shape. Yet.

Overall I had a REALLY fun night! It was way more epic than I thought it would be. Being up there on top of the mountain, in the woods, in the dark, was so awesome. I can't wait to go do it again!

Afterwards

Today I am mostly sore in my arms and shoulders! I didn't expect that at all. I expected my butt and thighs to be sore, which they are, but not as sore as my arms. I guess all my "sitting down quickly" and pushing myself back up was hard on my arms!

I was scheduled to run 10 miles today, but I wasn't going to do that. I did do 4 miles, then I came back and put Pete's Newtons on and ran around the block. I was much more careful this time. I don't want to be in pain all week again! I was going to go twice around the block, but when I got back to my house I felt a twinge in my calf that told me to just be done. I still haven't gotten my own Newtons yet, but I think I've decided to go with them. I just need to go pick some up sometime!

Run, bike, swim, board!

Hey everyone! It's been a while! I haven't really had any computer time this week, I'm actually typing this on my iPhone. This works, but it's slower so I'll try to be quick.

My last post was pretty dramatic wasn't it? Saying I didn't feel like I'd ever be able to run again! Well, I went running the next morning! For some reason, I didn't put my compression socks on right when my legs started hurting. I wish I would have because when I finally remembered to put them on, they made my legs feel sooo much better! I pretty much wore them for the next 3 days, and when I'd take them off I would just be like, "ah, I hate this!" so yeah, these were my favorite things for the last few days!



I even wore them on my run. I went to the gym and ran for an hour on the treadmill. I started off walking for 5 minutes, then running nice and slow at like 5mph. For the first mile or so my legs felt pretty tired and I was thinking I might just do 30 minutes instead, but once I was warmed up I felt so much better! My legs didn't even hurt at all while I was running! It was amazing! I turned my speed up every 10 minutes, topping out at 7.5 just for a few minutes, then back down to 7 until I hit 45 minutes, then I slowed it down and walked again for the last 5 minutes. I did a total of 5.3 miles, so it was pretty slow, but It was a really good run, and probably the best thing to do for my sore calves! Once I started walking again, they started hurting again, but not as bad. I stretched really good before going home where I also did crunches, planks, push-ups and a few pull-ups. Elle did more than me, she did 5!

The next day I just did an hour on my trainer after the kids went to bed. I also went to the doctor about whether or not I needed birth control for my bones and she said I should get a bone density scan first. The best thing abou the day, though, was that I got my snowboard and gear in the mail! It's such a pretty board, I love it! I have the best husband ever (he ordered them for me and picked everything out) and I think this is way better than real roses for valentines day!


Yesterday I should have gotten up early to get my run in because my legs were feeling really good and I was excited to run, but ended up not having time. I took the kids to school, then Pete to work, then got ready to go to my bone density scan. On the way there Elle started really crying and complaining about her ear hurting so I was worried I'd be going to another doctor. Luckily the doctor who did my scan gave her some gum and that kept her happy while we were there. My scan went really well and my bones are nice and strong! Now I don't have to worry that I got a stress fracture because of osteoporosis! I should be fine if I get all my miles in for the marathon, and if I can stop heel striking so much, that should help too. It was quite a relief, but Elle was in a lot of pain by the time we got home so I got her some ibuprofen and some ice and put her in bed. In no time at all, she had calmed down and gone to sleep. I sat and read while she slept, totally planning to take her to the doctor when she woke up. She slept for like 2 hours, and when she finally woke up she was so happy and cute! I told her to tell me as soon as her ear started hurting again, but it never did and she's been fine ever since. That was a little weird, but I'm relieved she's better!

In the afternoon we had to go to a presentation by Mindy's class, and that lasted until almost time to get the kids to bed. I guess I could have gone to the gym after they went to sleep, but watching The Office and 30 Rock with Pete was so much more enticing! I kind of felt like it was a wasted day, especially because I felt to good, but I went to bed early so i'd have no excuse not to get up and swim in the morning.

Today I did get up nice and early, and got to the pool by 6:00! It was so fun driving on the freeway at that time when it's so empty!

Since I got there so early, I had time for a longer workout! I did my usual 800m warmup, then did 2 x 1000m as fast as I could.

I did my first one in just around 20:00. It's hard to know the exact number because I forgot my watch.

The second one I did in 20:10. I felt like I was working pretty hard to get that time, but I'd like to do it faster. Maybe next week!

This afternnon, my dad is coming to get the kids and Pete's going to take me up for my first time snowboarding (for reals) so watch for my report on that hopefully tomorrow!

Swimming Breakthrough!

During the night Ethan came into my room because he had a nightmare, and when I got up to take him back to bed, my legs were so stiff I could hardly even move. I did manage to get him to his room, though and get back to bed. It was no better when morning rolled around, though. I could not believe how tight my calf muscles. I iced them while I had breakfast. That and walking around the house, loosened them up a little bit, but they were still really sore. I was hobbling around trying to get the kids to school.

I was scheduled for a 60 minute tempo run and decided to switch that with my swim scheduled for tomorrow. Though, right now I don't feel like I'll ever be able to run again, let alone a 60 minute tempo run. What have I done to myself?!

Anyway, so I headed to the pool and dropped Elle off in the childcare. I love having a pool I can go to with a drop-in childcare, by the way. So much nicer than getting up early and rushing back. I was really excited to swim today, and also hoping it would loosen up my legs a little.

I did my usual warmup:

200 kick

200 swim

200 pull buoy

200 swim (I timed this one just for fun and it was 4:08)

I had a good rest for a few minutes before starting my first set, and I'm still doing them every 2 minutes (so when I do the 100 in 1:40 I get a 20 second rest with is NICE). The first 100 I was feeling so good, and I told myself it was too fast, but then I thought, "But I like this speed! I'm going to try to keep it up." I did the first lap in 1:40, but I've done that before so I thought I would get slower, but I was just amazed by how powerful I felt! I was just pulling that water like it was no body's business! I made every stroke like my life was depending on it, and I was just gliding through the water. It felt AWESEOME! I don't know why I was able to keep it up for the whole 5 sets. Maybe because I practically had 2 rest days in a row (as far as my arms are concerned). I felt like I kind of had a breakthrough, just by the way I felt in the water. Is it a breakthrough if you don't know what you did differently, though?

1. 1:40
2. 1:43
3. 1:43
4. 1:45
5. 1:46

I rested for 7 minutes before starting into my second set. When I started again, the nice cool water felt so good on my face! I told myself I would just do the same thing, but I could tell right away it wasn't working. I didn't feel the same magic I felt the first time. This time my times were about what I'm used to:

1. 1:40
2. 1:49
3. 1:53
4. 1:55
5. 1:51

Oh well, at least I did the first one fast.

I did another 150 to cool down, switching between backstroke and a nice slow crawl.

total distance: 1950
total time: 57:19

I got out of the hot tub and hobbled over to the hot tub thinking it would help my legs. There was a sign that said to limit hot tub time to 10 minutes, so I looked on the clock and planned to stay for 10 minutes. That didn't seem like very long, but after 5 minute, even though one of the old men in there was telling the other old man about getting held up at knife point in Tijuana, I was done.

I got a drink from the drinking fountain because I felt really hot, then got in the shower. About half-way through the shower, I found myself leaning against the wall and fighting the urge to sit on the shower floor (because that's just gross). I couldn't resist it for long, though, and ended up on the floor for a few minutes. That made me feel better until I got back up and I was leaning against the wall again, trying to finish my shower. I turned the temperature all the way down, trying to cool it off, and it just stayed warm. The one time I want my shower at the gym to be cold, it stays warm! I ended up kneeling down one more time, then I just hurried and got out. In fact, there might still be conditioner in my hair. I didn't care, I just needed to sit down. I sat on the little bench in the locker room and put my head down. The lady in the next isle asked me if I was ok and I told her I would probably be ok once I cooled down, and I was. After a few minutes, I was able to get up and finish getting ready.

I gave my calves a massage while putting lotion on, and it was hard because they were so tight! In the end, after all that, my calves were still really sore, but at least I was able to walk out of the dressing room normally, which is about the best I could ask for. I don't know if it was worth almost passing out over, but I was glad to be able to walk normal.

I downed the mix1 and the Mrs. Mays nut bar, and felt fine for the drive home, but I did lay down for a little while when I got here and I've been really tired all day.

At the end of the day, my legs are still really sore, and it's making me quite grouchy. I feel like such a baby too. Getting all lightheaded from 5 minutes in the hot tub (maybe my hard workout had something to do with it too...) and complaining about my legs hurting all day because I ran 2 miles 2 days ago! I really do hope they feel better soon so I can get back to running. Like I said, I don't feel like I'll ever be able to run again right now. It will get better, though. It will get better. I'll just keep telling myself that, and go to bed.

Speed Cleaning and Testing Newtons

New Sport

Yesterday Pete had a Krav Maga seminar that lasted from 10 to 5 so it was just me and the kids for most of the day. Sure, I could have gotten a run in before he left, but I still have this overwhelming feeling that Saturdays are for sleeping in (a little) and making pancakes or waffles in the morning. Maybe that's a bad thing, but maybe it's a good thing. I don't know.

So, I didn't get a run in before Pete left. I called a friend and asked her if she could watch the kids for an hour or so, but it turned out that one of her kids had just been throwing up so I told her we'd stay away just to be safe. She totally would have taken the kids, though, and that was nice!

Since I couldn't run, I decided to make up my own sport that can be played in the house, and help me get stuff done. Speed cleaning! Yeah! I had some really messy rooms down in the basement where no one ever goes, except for the kids, so I decided to see how much I could get clean in an hour. I worked as fast as I could, and anytime I had the chance, I'd sprint up the stairs. When I got the 2 rooms clean, which took about 1:10, I wiped down the walls in the hallway which was a good workout for my arms! Remember, "Wax on, wax off"?

Ok, so it's not really that exciting, but it was better than nothing!

I told the kids that if they got their rooms clean, we could go to the Clark Planetarium. They mostly did it, but I ended up having to help them finish up and we ended up getting to go in the afternoon.

Here they are on the moon:

And on Mars:

And here they are talking about the beautiful weather we've been having:

As we were leaving, Pete let me know that he was on his way home so we made a quick stop at the store (not really quick because I had the kids with me, it actually took forever!) then hurried home so I could do a short run before dinner.

Newtons

It was already starting to get dark, but I really wanted to get out, even if just for a little while since it was so nice today. I had also been wanting to try out Pete's Newton running shoes. I know that sounds weird, but we wear almost the same shoe size. It's actually quite convenient. :)

I'm getting to the point of needing new shoes, especially with marathon training coming up. I've thought a lot about trying to change my running style and therefore shoe style. Studies show that barefoot runners might be less prone to injury because of how they land more on the balls of their feet then roll off their toes, protecting the joints more. Here's an interesting video about it.

I'm not quite ready to run barefoot. Newton's shoes are supposed to help simulate that. They also are supposed to help you run faster.

Check out their cool little animated demonstration on the differences between having a forefoot strike and a heel strike. The bottom one is what I do now. Yep, I'm a heel striker. You probably could have guessed that from the stress fracture in my heel during the St. George Marathon hu? Yeah, that's something I don't want to ever do again.

Also, on Newton's website, they say that "Natascha Badmann set a world record in the Ironman 70.3 in 2007... wearing the Distance Racer"! Natascha Badmann runs in these shoes?! Well, then, I wanna run in them!

The Test

I put Pete's shoes on and he said to just go around the block a couple times. I was like, "Yeah, ok," put on my headphones and headed out the door. Of course, I took "around the block" pretty loosely and ran around about 7 blocks. I just ran for 20 minutes so it was about 2 miles.

Running in those shoes I felt like I was a deer or something. Really springy! I also felt like I couldn't really slack off or drag my feet. Pretty much the whole time I was concentrating on how my feet were landing. I kind of felt like I was running in heels, albeit very comfortable heels, but like I could roll my ankle at any minute if I wasn't careful. (Pete says that was because they're support shoes, made to correct for pronation so if I got some it probably wouldn't be that bad.) I could also really feel it working different muscles. My feet and calves were like, "Hey what are you doing?!" and I was happy to get to the end of my 20 minutes.

When I stopped running, my calves started screaming at me! They were almost so cramped up I couldn't walk! I did manage to walk into the house, though, and complain loudly to Pete about how much it hurt. He was like, "I told you to just go around the block!" Oh, he was serious about that! Oops. So yeah, now I can see why he was having such a hard time when we went on an 8 mile trail run when he just got those shoes. Sorry, hun, now I know how you feel!

Pete says your legs get used to it, though, and he really likes his Newtons. I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing to work some new muscles, but would it be a bad idea to make the switch so close to starting marathon training? I could, like always, use as much advice as I can get. If you run in Newtons, or have ever run in Newtons, or know anything about forefoot running would you please post a comment here and tell me about your experience. Pros, cons, how long it took you to get used to them. Thanks!

Quick Morning Swim & Student of the Month

Yesterday I got up at 5:30.... um, well probably more like 5:45. That snooze button is just so satisfying to push! I had half a cup of oatmeal with half a banana, a scoop of peanut butter and a scoop of brown sugar, then I hurried off to the pool. I really do need to start getting up earlier, though, because by the time I got there it was already 6:20 and I needed to get out by around 7:00 to get home in time to get the kids to school, especially since I told Mindy I'd curl her hair for the student of the month assembly.

When I got to the locker room, I realized I only had one flipper! Dang it! If I would have realized the other one was just out in the car, I might have gone out and got it, but I just decided to go without since I thought it might have been at home. I really like to start my swim off with a kick board and flippers. It kind of eases me into the water and and loosens my arms up. But, using the kick board without flippers is painfully slow! I can hardly stand it! So, I only did one lap of that, then finished my usual warm-up:

50 kick board - no flippers

200 easy swim

200 pull buoy - no paddles (I really need to get some paddles)

200 easy swim

All I had time for after that was 750 meters which I did in about 15 minutes. I forgot my watch so I just had to go off the clock on the wall so it's not a very spot-on time. It was a good swim, though, and probably worth going even if it was a little short. I did 150 slow and on my back to cool down.

Total Distance: 1550 meters

Total Time: About 45 minutes

I got home in plenty of time to curl Mindy's hair and get them to school. I then stopped to get her a balloon and candy for being student of the month, and went back to the school for the assembly. The kindergarten sang a couple songs too so I had a double reason to be there. Ethan was really cute, and did a great job! (he's the one in yellow with the "h" on his head.)

I'm so proud of Mindy for being student of the month! I can't say I'm suprised, she has always been a really good student and her teacher is always telling me how well she's doing. In fact, she says that Mindy is doing the best out of all the English dominant students, and this is even her first year in dual immersion where the other kids have had 1 or 2 years already! She's such a good girl!

Her hair doesn't even look very curled now, does it? All that fuss for nothing! Oh well, it's nice to be fussed over sometimes.

Jousting & Mix1

Today was my first trainer ride in a long time. It was actually a really nice day again (dang you weather for playing games with me and making me think it's spring when I know good and well it's not going to be spring for at least a month or two!), but I really didn't want to hook my bike up to the bike trailer when I knew I'd just be taking it off and bringing it back down to the basement soon. It's so hard to get the bike trailer on and off my bike. It's not really made to do that. If you look closely at this picture, you can see how dinged up my poor chain stay is from doing that exact thing! It's so sad. It's such a nice bike to do that to! But, it is all superficial, and I would never have been ready for Coeur d'Alene without all my rides towing Elle along. They made me a lot stronger!

I put A Knights Tail on to watch while I rode, and that was really fun. I tried to sprint as hard as I could during the jousting scenes, and there's kind of a lot of jousting in that movie...

The theme of the movie seemed so fitting too. That a person can change their stars. Basically, that you're in charge of your own destiny and it's up to you how great you become. I felt like it helped me push really hard.

I just rode for an hour, and got done just after they danced to Golden Years and Kate was putting her double Nike swoosh logo on his armer. I watched some more while I stretched, but then turned it off before it got to the end. I kind of get bored or annoyed or something at the end of that movie. The bad guy just bugs me too much! Plus, I have a hard time justifying watching a movie in the middle of the day unless I'm sick or riding my bike while I watch it, or unless I have nothing else to do, but when does that ever happen??

After my ride, I got to try my first Mix1 protein shake! I've been wanting to try it for a while since two of my favorite twitter friends, goSonja and Michelleford6p, are sponsored by Mix1 and they are always talking about how great it is. Don't you just love their branding too? I don't know how long my grocery store has had it because I've just always looked in the wrong place. They were in the diet isle, as you can see, right by the weight watchers stuff and I just happened upon them the other day. I was so excited!

I got the Blueberry Vanilla flavor and I must say it's not my favorite taste, but it's pretty good and Elle was mad I didn't let her have her own. Plus, it's really thin, and I had a no problem drinking the whole thing right up! A lot of the protein shakes I've tried are really thick and more rich so it's hard to get them all down, especially after a hard workout. I like to take a shower and get ready before having lunch, but it's good to have something like this before I shower so I'm not all shaky by the time I get around to eating. I'm excited to see how I feel tomorrow after using this, and I'm also excited to try the other flavors: Mango and Mixed Berry!

Running and Rhapsody

First of all, let me say how excited I was that I had enough time to do Mindy's hair before school, and she actually LET me! Of course, the reason we had so much time was that Elle was up at 6:30. That was ok, though, because she let me stay in bed. Then Ethan was up by 7 when he somehow managed to squirt sanitizer into Elle's eye. Nothing like being woken up by your daughters blood curdling scream. I ran into the bathroom and started splashing water onto her eyes, and also all over her and the floor. After a few minutes, she was ok, but we were all up so time for breakfast! It really was kind of nice not to have to rush so much, though.



When we got home, Elle let me do her hair too! Probably because she wants to be just like Mindy in everything that she does. I was happy with this, though. My girls both didn't look like ragamuffins today, score! This is Elle's hair after a few hours, so it's not as fresh and Mindy's picture. Of course, it's hard to get such short hair to look very good in pig tails anyway.



This morning my knee was feeling a little funky so I was worried about how it would act during my run. I went to the gym prepared to make my run shorter/easier if it hurt, but that was not necessary. I got on the treadmill and started off nice and easy for .75 miles. Then I turned the speed up to 7.5 (8 min/mile pace) and did that for a quarter mile. Then I'd turn it down for .25 to recover, walking half of it, then bringing it up to jogging until it was time to turn it up again.

I did this 8 times. Well, actually, I did that 6 times. On the last two intervals, I turned the speed up to 7:53 min/mile pace! And I was able to do it! Yeah! I cooled down, doing about 10 min/mile pace, for half a mile which brought me to 5 miles.

Total Distance: 5 miles

Total Time: 54 minutes

Actually, I wasn't even feeling like I was going to die, so I think next time I'll do that faster speed for all my intervals. I'm sure it would be harder on a track, though. Maybe I'll try to go to the track for my next interval workout...

When I got done, I stretched really good and did a bunch of crunches, planks and 2 sets of 10 pushups (on my toes).

At the end of my workout Bohemian Rhapsody came on and I thought, "I will never get sick of this song." In fact, I clicked my ipod back a few songs so it will be sure to come on for my next run. (I'm so excited!) Then, tonight, after dinner Mindy asked Pete to turn some music on, and guess what song he picked!? I hadn't even said anything to him about it either. Sometimes we are so on the same wavelength, it's scary! We all danced to that song like maniacs, and had so much fun! No, I won't be getting sick of it anytime soon. That song so totally rocks! :)

Pool Doctor

This morning I decided to sleep in and go to the Holliday-Lions pool and just pay for childcare1. Yep, that's right, I'm supposed to pay for the daycare there! I found out last time that my Gold Membership does not cover the childcare. At least not there. I didn't have money last time so they said I could pay for it next time. I went in today planning on paying for the 9 or so hours I've used so far, but when I told her about it she said not to worry about it. I bought a $15 punch pass for 14 hours so that's actually not bad at all! I like this sleeping in and going to the pool when I'm good and ready!

The pool is pretty crowded at that time, bit I still ended up having my own lane for most of the time which was so luxurious!

I did my warm up:

200 kickboard
200 swim
200 pull
200 swim

Then I did 2 sets of 5 x 100 every 2:00, still trying to get them all in under 1:50, but I couldn't:

1:46
1:49
1:56
1:56
1:55

I made sure to rest for a good 5 minutes before my next set:

1:40
1: .... Bla bla bla, I am wracking my brain and can not remember the other times after the 1:40! I was even trying to go slow on that one too! The rest were all in the 1:50-1:56 range though. I'm pretty sure the last one was like 1:51.

I rested for a for a few minutes (since I was leaning on the deck, gasping for breath at the end) and did one slow lap, then I decided to do just one more 100 to see how fast I could do it:

1:40

I was hoping it would be faster than the one in my set of 5, but 1:40 is pretty good! :)

I did one more 100 to cool down.

Total distance: 2150 meter

When I got done with my workout, the older man in the next lane asked me if I was training for something, and told me I looked like I was working hard. We got to chatting and he told me all about how people who run barefoot are less likely to get injured. When I told him about getting a stress fracture running the St. George Marathon he told me he was a retired gynocologist and said that stress fractures are a sign of ostioporosis (ahhh!!) and that if I started taking more estrogen (birth control) that would help with that, and that I should also be taking calcium and vitamin D. So I'm going to go pick up some supliments and talk to a doctor (who's not retired and attje pool!) about the birth control and stuff. It's amazing the people you can meet at the pool! :)

More Stroller Time

Today I decided I was feeling well enough to give running a try. It had been exactly a week since my last little run so I was a little worried about how it would go. Would I even be able to run still? Would I be really sore afterwards? It was such a beautiful day, though! Holy cow! It was about 45 degrees and the sky was blue and clear! I couldn't not go!

I did a bunch of things around the house before we left which is the nice thing about running with the stroller. I could pretty much go any time I wanted as long as I was back in time to pick the kids up from school!

I pulled the stroller out and guess what! Two flat tires. Again! Oh well, it had been a week since I used it last so I just pumped them up, hoping they were just slow leaks so we'd be ok. That ended up being the case so I didn't have any problems! Wahoo!

I was scheduled to do a 50 minute tempo run, but since I didn't know how I'd feel, and since I had Elle, I decided to go easy and just do 40 minutes. Go easy? Ha ha ha. Elle fell asleep right away so I didn't have to worry about her getting bored, and I really had a great time! It was so much fun!

My knee started hurting at around mile 3, but I reminded my legs that 3 miles was nothing, that we are going to be doing 26.2 again pretty soon. Then it stopped hurting. :)

When I stopped after 4 miles, Elle was still asleep and my favorite Foo Fighters end-of-run song, In Your Honor, came on so I decided to finish that out before I stopped. If you don't have that song, actually pretty much that whole album, on your running playlist, I'd highly recommend it! I ran as hard as I could at the end of that song! I glanced at my pace and it said 6:50! Wow! And I was even pushing a stroller! And I wasn't even going downhill! Of course, I only did that for about a block, and my knee started hurting again towards the end. But still.

I ended up running for 4.5 miles, then I walked around the block because it was just so nice outside, I didn't want to be done. My knee felt fine by the time I got home. I even stretched outside until Elle woke up and insisted we go inside so she could watch the movie I'd promised her. I took a nice long time stretching so I hope I don't get too sore, and I hope my knee remembers what it can do.

Here are my mile splits:

1. 9:34
2. 9:20
3. 10:14
4. 9:36

Total Distance: 4.5 Miles

Total Time: 43:51

Average pace 9:44 min/mile

Winter Wonderland

Good news: Most of the kids from The Hope for Little Angles Of Haiti who had parents in the process of adopting them, are now in the US. Lori is now with her little boy, Nathan in Florida waiting for the final OK to take him home. They have found Jessica and she's alive, but she might not be going home to them because she's with her birth father and he decided he wants to keep her after all. Go to lori's blog for more info about the heroic pilot and crew who refused to get off the tarmac until the kids were on the plane and everything else: countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com

I have been sick for the last week. SO not fun! I've checked twitter probably a billion times during that time. I usually am not one to get bored, but this week I got SO BORED. I pretty much just sat around the house for the whole week. Ok, it was actually just 4 days, but still!

I woke up early Tuesday morning to go swimming, and just didn't feel good. I thought maybe I would feel better after getting up and having something to eat. It did not get better, I actually felt like I was going to throw up so I went back to bed. I felt like that for the next 4 days, and for a couple days, I was having periodic, severe stomach cramping. Or something. Pete told me I'm not good at describing pain. All I know is that if I moved around too much, my stomach would start hurting really bad for a few minutes. I tried to move around as little as possible when that started happening, hence the boredom. I watched a couple movies and read a lot (blogs and books). I even thought about going to a doctor because it was so weird, but it started to feel better on Friday so I held off.

We had been planning on going to Heber to play in the snow this weekend since we really don't have much snow left here in Salt Lake, and my dad said there was a lot up there. I was really worried I wouldn't be feeling up to it, but since I was feeling pretty good on Saturday, we went! I'm glad we went, I really needed to get out of the house! As soon as we got there, we all put on our snow clothes and started converting the pile of snow from my dad's driveway into an awesome snowboard/sled ramp. Of course, we couldn't really make it too awesome, but we made it pretty fun. The kids were kind enough to help out by sledding down the hill several times to pack it down.



Once we got it packed down good enough, Pete tried his snowboard on it, and it worked! So, my snowboarding lessons were suddenly upon me.

I've lived in Utah my whole life and I've never been skiing or snowboarding. I've always been really nervous about trying it, plus it's so expensive so I just never did it. Recently, Pete and I decided we wanted to take up snowboarding so that we'd having something to enjoy about the winter. I mean, we're in the state with "the greatest snow on earth" so we really should take advantage of that! Pete had been snowboarding before so he knew he liked it and went ahead and bought himself a snowboard and all the equipment that goes with it. I wanted to wait until I'd tried it before spending a bunch of money on the gear. This was my first little try.



I fell the first 2 times I went, but the 3rd time I was able to stay up! I was really glad to have my first few falls on a little hill in my dad's back yard where it wasn't too scary or embarrassing. Now I won't be so nervous for the real thing!

After a few more times like that, Pete set to work building a jump, which is not easy to do when the snow is really powdery and you can't pack it down very well, but he managed to make a pretty good little one.

I think being outside doing something actually helped me feel better because I felt much better after the "snowboarding" then when we left Salt Lake. Or maybe it was just a coincidence. Whatever it was, I'm just really glad I'm not going to feel like that forever! Do you ever start thinking that when you get sick?