Photo Update

Here is my weekend in photos... starting with Thursday. :)

 Wanting to go snowboarding, but happy to be at home with my sweet boy at the same time.

4 mile tempo run on the treadmill! Longest treadmill run in a while, and I got a blister. To that I say, "toe skin, stop being such a baby!"

 A party at the ballet studio where we made snowflake ballerinas which was fitting for all the snow we'd get the next day!

I learned that drivers are really nice to you when you're running in a blizzard. I ran 5 miles to our favorite breakfast spot where I planned to meet Pete and the kids. Running in the snowstorm was SO AWESOME! Seriously the best run I've had in a long time! (It's hard to tell how hartd it's snowing, but I was wearing a green beenie on top of my hat which just looks white.) Running in fresh snow is really not slippery, it's more like running in stand. I felt really stable, except when crossing streets or where someone had shoveled. I was actually glad to be running on the snow-covered sidewalk as opposed to driving on the slushy road, and Pete actually got lightly rear-ended driving over.

 I felt warm for pretty much my whole run, but when I stopped, I started getting cold so some hot chocolate was really welcome! (George was taking shots of it out of the cream cup, so cute!)

 Snowboarding with the kids didn't quite workout because Brighton was so busy we couldn't even find a parking spot so we went to this awesome sledding hill insdead.

 See, Pete carrying our little monkey?

He loved the trees, the snow and the mountains. Can you blame him?

It was Elle's first time out on her new snowboard and she is a natural!

She even had her own perosnal ski lift.

Mindy didn't have the greatest time because she kept getting hurt and she didn't like this hill. Hopefully she'll have more fun next time!

The kids also rode their snowboards down the hill like sleds a bunch of times which looked pretty crazy and fun. That's what Ethan's doing here I think (white and black kid in the middle), but Elle's standing up riding down there on the right!

Monday morning it was back to the grindstone. I was going to do my whole 4-miles-with-intervals on the treadmill, but I could only make it a mile before my foot started hurting. I don't know why my foot hurts when I run on the treadmill. I also thought it would be more fun to run on the track anyway so I moved in here, and this is my timer for that. I did my next 2 miles as 4 3/4 laps (about .25 miles) fast, then 2 laps slow for 28 laps (I think that means I did 5 intervals...) Then I cooled down and finished out 3 miles with this time. You can see I messed up hitting the lap button on that second to last lap. :)

Afterwards, I did 30 calf-raises, a one minute wall sit and 40 pull-ups! Yes, 40! Ok, they were assisted with 40lbs taken off and I did them in sets of 5 on different grips, but still. It was a good workout.

I also fit going to the climbing gym with Pete in there, but we didn't take any pictures because we were too busy! I got a new harness and we bought a new rope so we're all set for Vegas! I did 13 1/2 routes which is a record for me I think. It was so much fun and a great workout!

ZUMBA!

Wahoo, I got to go to Zumba today! That is always so much fun.

I'm so glad that George likes to go to the daycare now so it's no big deal for me to go. He made this crown there a little while ago. So fun!

I love it! The Zumba class I go to is combined with Ripped which means, in between dancing and trying really hard to pretend to be Latino and not the only skinny white girl in the room, we get to lift weights and do push-ups and squats and all that fun stuff. It's Awesome!


The only problem is that it's an hour and a half long class so I have to pay for 2 hours in the daycare for 2 kids (since Elle doesn't have school on Tuesdays, she goes too) if I want to go to the whole class. Usually I just show up 15 minutes late because they'll let you go 1:15 before they charge you for the second hour, but the class ended late today so I went over my time anyway. Oh well, it was still fun. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and go to the whole class next time.


Yesterday was such an ideal holiday too! It started off wonderfully with me feeling better (YAY!), which was followed by the sun shining and the air quality being pretty good! You know what that means! Yep, I got to run outside! It was a really slow 3 miles after taking a week off, but it was so great! I wish it didn't take half an hour to start feeling good when I run because I get to the end and don't want to stop! But I didn't want to push it, especially because I could tell my lungs were not back to 100% yet, so I just left it at 3 miles and was happy to have done any at all!

I went home, brought Pete some hot chocolate because he had caught my cold, took a shower and made stir fry for lunch! So ambitious, I know! It just felt SO great to not be sick anymore! After lunch, we packed the kids and the climbing gear into the car and drove to Ogden to go to The Front climbing gym. It was so much fun. We're really getting the hang of bringing the kids there and getting some climbing in ourselves.

We start out with letting the kids climb until they're tired, then they go into the little play room with George and watch movies or play and have snacks while Pete and I climb.

I did 3 pretty easy routes in a row with no rests, then belayed Pete while he did some and gave my arms a rest. Then I got back on and did 2 kind of harder ones in a row. By the end, I was falling off because my arms were just tired. Elle was ready to climb again too, so I was happy to be done and let her go again.

I really need to work on my endurance because we want to be able to have several good days of climbing in a row while we're in Vegas. We're 6 weeks out now! But Pete added me onto his pass for The Front while we were up there so now I can go as often as I want (or as often as I'm able to really) so that's exciting!

We're also 16 weeks out from our half marathon! I'm totally falling behind schedule with all my dumb little problems that keep coming up, but my sister just asked me to add another running day to her schedule today because she doesn't feel like she's being challenged enough! Go Katie! I'm so proud of her, she's doing really well with her training! I really hope she has a much better experience this year! I'm excited to get back into running again too, and hope all goes well this week!

Bad Things Happen

My week started off pretty good. George was just getting over being sick and it was a beautiful day on Monday so I took the stroller out for the first time in a loooong time. George was so excited! It was hard pushing that heavy boy when I'm not used to it at all, and I tried to do some one-block pick ups since it was supposed to be a speed work day. They were not very speedy, but it made me work!

We ran past a skate park and saw some kids out there with shovels clearing the snow off so they could skateboard. I thought that was pretty cool!

So after Monday, I was feeling great, and I was excited to try Zumba again on Tuesday since my ankles are feeling all better. It was so much fun, and she mixes in some weights, push-ups and squats too so it's a killer workout! I was so happy I went because it relieved a lot of the stress I was feeling. I was so busy the rest of the day that I didn't even have a chance to change out of my Zumba clothes and the Nike Frees that I wore there. They are not very good shoes for standing around in, and that's what I did all day since I was working on cake stuff. By the end of the day, the middle toe on my left foot felt really bruised and I was actually limping on it so it felt so good to finally go to bed. I wish I knew if it was the Zumba or the standing around that made my foot hurt. I really want to keep going to Zumba! 

My foot was still sore the next day so skipped running and ballet and just did a lot of work on the cakes.

The next day it was feeling mostly better, but I was too busy with my big cake + cupcake order that needed to be done that afternoon that I didn't have a chance to run. When the kids went to swimming lessons, I decided to just bring George in and let him swim with us, which meant I was just walking around with him the whole time. Not a great workout, but I'm glad we got to do something fun for Valentine's Day. We also got pizza so that was fun for the kids too.

By the time we got home from swimming, I was starting to feel a cold coming on. Pete and I watched a movie, and the cold had totally hit me by the time I went to bed. Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday is usually a rest day anyway so it wasn't a big deal to just take that day off to recover from my cold (other than the fact that I'd taken the last 2 days off already!), but I planned on still running Saturday, dangit!

I still felt pretty miserable Saturday morning, though, so I didn't go. Then Pete's friend offered him a free pass to Snowbird so he went snowboarding last minute and Mindy went to ballet so I didn't have anyone to stay with the kids while I ran anyway. I did get to take a nap, then take a shower which helped me feel a lot better so I took the kids to the Hansen Planetarium when we picked up Min. I was so glad to be feeling better because Pete and I had a date planned.

We went up to Ogden to the Banff Mountain Film Festival. We went last year and really enjoyed it so we wanted to go back this year, and we were not disappointed. It was really good, though it is 3 hours long so my head was starting to hurt again by the end.

When the show was over, we went outside and stood there for a few minutes waiting for our friends to come out. We had been separated because it was so full when we got there. We were standing there talking when we heard a loud crash. We turned around expecting to see two cars, but there was just one and there was something on the ground. It was people! Three people had been hit by this pickup truck. I'll spare you the details, but it was very traumatic. I went over to help, but there were already a lot of people over there and two of them were EMTs so I just stood there helplessly until Pete grabbed my arm and we got out of the way, shaking. They all seemed ok, and the ambulance arrived before we even got to our car so that was a relief, but I couldn't stop replaying the whole thing in my mind all night, and all morning. I didn't sleep very well, and kept looking for updates on how they were doing on the Internet. This morning I found an article that said they were all taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition. That was a relief. I really hope they're all ok. It was a reminder about how fragile life is and how we need to savor every moment we have with the ones we love. I was so grateful that my kids were safe and sound in their beds when we got home. It's scary how fast your life can be totally changed like that. I will be keeping all 4 of those people in my thoughts and prayers.

Today I have been feeling really sick again, but in a different way. After a rough night, I actually threw up this morning and have been sick to my stomach all day. I thought at first it was just nerves from last night, but I don't think it would have lasted all day if that were the case. Maybe it was from eating at Dee's on our way home, or maybe I'm just stick. Who knows.

BUT I AM GOING TO BE BETTER TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is president's day, and I really hope to get a run in and to go to the climbing gym with Pete and the kids. We'll see how we all feel in the morning, though. Pete's also nursing a sore ankle from snowboarding.

Fittingly, I read a little biography about George Washington today while I sad in bed. It was really interesting, he had quite a life! I hope you all have a great holiday tomorrow!

This Is What I Know - This Is What I Believe To Be True

I loved that line from Silver Linings Playbook. The whole movie was great (if you can get past all the F-bombs being dropped every few minutes. ) and I thought it had a good message.

It has made me think a lot. Or I guess I was just already thinking a lot when we went to that movie.

What do I believe to be true?

What do I know?

I've come to realize that nobody knows anything, and you can't always just trust what people say. You have to go off what information you have and make your own conclusions. Lately I feel like I can't say I know very much anymore.

I do know that I love my family, and they're the most important thing in my life.

I know that I'm happy when I'm running.

I also know that when I stop running I get really depressed!

Here's what happened last week:

I ran on Thursday and realized I needed to take a break because my ankles (Achilles Tendons) were really sore. I'd been ignoring it for a while, but finally decided it was an injury and I needed to fix it.

Friday I went climbing at the gym so that was awesome and Saturday I spent the day with the kids so I was fine, I loved that. Then Sunday it started snowing like crazy so Pete and I spent about an hour shoveling out our driveway since it was still bad from the last storm. It kept snowing so I did a lot more shoveling on Monday in our driveway, and helping a friend with hers. I got some pretty good workouts on those days, and spent some time outside so I felt great. Then Wednesday came and I didn't know what to do since it was supposed to be a running day and I wasn't running. I felt like I should be running even though I knew it was the right thing to do to take the day off, and this made me start feeling depressed.

My depression just got worse and worse and I know it also had to do with this other thing I'm dealing with, but It was bad. When Thursday morning rolled around and the kids' school got canceled because of the snow, I just came home and curled up in my bed and cried. I was a mess. I didn't want to do anything, I didn't care about anything. Even sweet George standing there by my bed, couldn't persuade me. Pete told me before I went to work that I should ride my bike or something and that would make me feel better. I don't know if I didn't believe him or if I just didn't care, but I didn't want to do that right then. I finally got myself out of bed and we went in search of some new snow pants for Ethan because his are way too short and they were going to want to play in all this snow we were getting! Getting out helped a little, and made me start thinking about why the heck I was so depressed.

I realized that I had turned back into the person I was in high school. I felt exactly the same. I felt insecure, like I was doing a terrible job, I didn't like myself, and I just didn't feel happy. This is who I was a lot when I was in high school and I thought I was done with that! I think it made me feel a little more depressed that all I had to do was not workout for ONE day and this person was back!

So, when I got home, I got serious about making these feelings go away. I tromped through the new foot-high snow out to my garage, got my bike (that I haven't ridden since like August) and brought it inside.

I set up the trainer, and put my bike on it. I was having trouble with my chain at first and my old self just wanted to give up, forget the whole thing, and get back into bed, but I knew that wasn't a good idea. Finally I got everything working smoothly and I changed into my cycling clothes. I found one of Frayed Laces' Trainer Tuesday workouts and just got started.

I spent an hour working hard on my bike, listening to music, looking out the window at the beautiful snow, and I LOVED IT!

I can't even tell you how much better I felt as soon as I got on the bike. I felt like myself again, and I remembered that I could do anything. I remembered that I was awesome, and that life IS AWESOME! I was cured.

I've thought a lot about that since then. It's been a week now and my ankles are feeling better. I've gone running twice this week. I started swimming again last Thursday and my swim fitness has completely gone out the window, but I'm going to keep doing that while my kids are at swim lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I am in control of this.

Saturday, my dad watched the kids and Pete and I went snowboarding. It was amazing! I loved every minute of it. It was so beautiful up there on the mountain, the air was clear and I was pushing myself a little past my comfort zone, doing something I love with the man I love! Love, love, love!

So this is what I know, this is what I believe to be true: I NEED to be working out, and I NEED to be spending time outside, and I NEED to spend time with my family. That is my drug. (I think it's a pretty good drug to be addicted to, though.)

I haven't been outside much lately because the air in Salt Lake is so bad right now. It's disgusting. So it was really good to get up in the mountains out of the bad air and see the blue sky.

I want to start climbing more and I will start running outside again once the air clears up. Right now it's like smoking a pack of cigarettes to go run in it so I refuse to do that. Pete and I decided to make a goal of getting up into the mountains at least once a week all year long, whether it's snowboarding, hiking, climbing, mountain biking, running or just going a picnic with the kids.

Pete and I are also planning a climbing trip to Las Vegas in 8 weeks! So that gives me a goal to work towards and train for. I need to get strong enough that I can climb for several days in a row and feel good. I'm so excited! We'll also do a little bike riding and running while we're down there.

I've already started training by doing push ups, assisted pull-ups and leg lifts at the gym after my run on the indoor track yesterday. I'm going to keep running because I have a half marathon to train for in June, and it will hopefully help with my endurance. I've been going to a ballet fit class on Wednesdays while Mindy is at her ballet class, and I'm going to keep doing that. I was worried it was what was making my ankles hurt, but I'm not sure it was. I think it will be really good for my ankles and feet.  It's also great for working on balance and strengthening my core!

That is my plan right now and I feel happy and good about it. There is a lot out there that I just don't know about anymore, but I'm happy that I know about this, and think it will keep me sane. Life is great and I hope to keep enjoying it!


PS - If you're reading this and you're a real person, will you give me a little shout because I'm getting so many spam comments that I'm thinking about turning comments off or turning this blog private so let me know if you're there reading it and I'll keep it around. Thanks!