Fit After Little Bits

Hello, 2022! Why yes, I did fall off the face of the Earth 😉

Last Fall was a crazy one. Not going to get into too much detail, mainly because it is boring. I ended up teaching 2 in-class Anatomy and Physiology courses, 2 online courses and 2 labs. I also joined Ken in his tire business…it resulted in ALL the work and very little play (and even less working out-granted I was ALWAYS exhausted because wheels are heavy). 😉

BUT!! I decided to step away from teaching in-person and stick to my online courses. They keep me plenty busy. Brooke’s schooling is always getting more and more involved, so we are spending more time working on that. Remember learning multiplication….yeah, it’s exciting.

We are also FINALLY getting back into working out and finding some form of fitness. My pants will hopefully thank me 😉

The first month of the year has seen us doing a lot of playing in the snow! Ken and I very much enjoy uphill skiing (aka skinning, backcountry…etc). We definitely take advantage of pretty days and get outside. It can be a butt-kicker for sure and we love that we get rewarded with a nice ski down at the end.

This is the top of Emerald Mountain.

Jasper enjoys getting out a bit in the snow, but at 12.5 years old, also enjoys a solid nap 😉

We have also been working on our cross country skiing. Brooke is getting better and better on her classic skis and Ken and I are working on our skate skiing technique. Another workout that absolutely gets the heart rate up.

On those days that the snow is good and the crowds are small (hello, midweek), we head to the resort for some downhill skiing. Brooke has suddenly become very hard to catch.

On rare occasions we even put on real clothes and go places…okay, so it was Costco, but it still counts.

We spend last week in Wyoming visiting parents and had a lovely time. We even mixed in some workouts 😉

Brooke crossed skiing Jackson Hole off her list. It was a gorgeous day and we spent all day skiing Blue runs. By the way, their Blue runs are similar to our Black runs….girl crushed it!

Overall, it has been a delightful start to the new year. Excited to see what adventures are to come! But for now, just enjoying our family…and having this kid of mine start to steal my things. Sure, the hat looks better on her 😉

Hope you are having a good start to 2022!

Hi there! It has definitely been a minute. Or 7 months, but who is counting. My absence has been due to a combination of needing a break from the social media/blog world and equal parts being overwhelmed by work and family doings. But…I thought I would try to sneak in and share a little be about our year and what we have been up to! (Plus I am procrastinating cleaning our office which gives me anxiety just mentioning it!)

The beginning of the year was jam packed. I took on teaching a general biology course which basically consumed most of my life. Between my normal online classes, an A and P course and gen bio, it was a struggle to find time for much else. Thankfully, we did find some time to play in the snow! Because things were still weird, we did not get ski passes last season. (We do have them already purchased for this coming winter, though-bring on the snow!) We did, however, purchase uphill passes. I had never tried the uphill ski thing (skinning), but wow-I totally fell in love. It is an absolute butt kicker of a workout. We spent many a morning earning our turns! Cant wait for this year!

We also got into skate skiing. Another killer workout. This one took a bit more practice to figure out, but both Ken and I ended up loving it. Brooke rocked her classic skis all winter.

Brooke also got pretty into climbing at the Hot Springs. Girl is braver than me!

As the snow melted, we took advantage of the trails being dry (it happened too fast!). Love hiking with these two!

We have had the opportunity to visit some neat places over the course of the year. This is at Gates of Lodore. So cool!

Brooke got a quad for her birthday. She has been having a blast ripping around.

Brooke turned 8 in June and requested a Harry Potter themed day. Cutest ever, I know, I am biased. 😉

Always be hiking-and finding places to cool off!

So cool.

We spent some time in early June in Wyoming camping with family. It was lovely to get away. I did about 70 miles of the 100 mile Dead Swede gravel race, but was dealing with some nerve issues (which we later discovered was due to a mis-sized saddle). Luckily, I had a support crew that found me out in the middle of nowhere! Still fun. 😉

Joined our friend, Brent to ride to the top of Mount Evans. Wow. What an experience. So hard, but so worth it. I definitely scored a ride partway down the mountain in the back of a pickup truck because it is EXPOSED and basically terrifying.

Jasper is just living his best life.

For 4th of July, we headed up to Flathead Lake in Montana to camp with my sister and her husband. We had an incredible time and did so many fun things!

Brooke was sure she needed to bring her horse, Parker, home with us.

We also took the time to drive up to Glacier National Park. It was amazing! I didn’t even cry as we drove up Going to the Sun road-but it was close 😉

Just spectacular.

Lots of lake time!

Maybe even some relaxing!

Camping on the way home. Never ugly.

As we were getting home, we saw the beginnings of the smoke from this fire. Not my favorite summer time staple. Luckily, the weather has been cooler and there has been decreased activity. Hoping for more rain.

And that is about it!

As far as exercise-I have ridden a LOT of miles this year. It has been amazing getting to ride with Ken. Brooke is at an age where we can leave her home (basically she tells us to go ride! ha) for a couple of hours. I have definitely gotten much better riding with him. I have decided that I am not currently into the bike race scene after everything that happened last year, so I skipped the Crusher this past weekend. I have started to incorporate a lot more running into my life (hello marathon in Sept.-looking at you!). Trying to find all the balance.

It has been nice to only have online classes this summer, but come August, I will have 2 online and then two in-person A and P courses. Better start getting on that prep!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Hoping to jump back in more regularly-especially as workouts progress. Someday I will figure out how to fit everything in….maybe 😉

Happy “Lose an Hour of Your Day” Day!

Anyone else tripped out by the fact that it was so light this evening? I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be making lunch or dinner 😉

We had quite a fun week over here! It started out with babysitting a polar bear. His name is Angus and he is a giant animal. He was also terrified of the stairs. It took about 15 minutes to get him down.

He and Jasper love each other. I promise. Jasper is about 1/2 his size but he is still Alpha and what he says, goes. Don’t be fooled by the fact that he completely disappears under the giant fluff.

More pickleball fun…totally normal to wear your trench coat while playing. At least she was warm?

We hit up the pool afterwards to practice her strokes-she has tryouts tomorrow!

She takes recovery very seriously…hydrate and compress those legs!

We had an awesome time at our homeschool meet up-why not pull your friends around on an ice rink?!

Her first time on groomed snow for cross country skiing! Mine too!? Her form improved a large amount over the course of the 2 miles. 😉

In preparation for swim tryouts, we grabbed a swim cap. As you can tell, we are still working on figuring that one out! haha.

On Friday, I got in a good downhill workout. Ken dropped me off on the top of Rabbit Ears and I ran the 12 miles back to town. It felt really good at the time (my quads were not so happy about it today) and was so nice to be running outside in the sunshine!

Ken got in a long ride on Saturday while Brooke and I hung around the house. I got a short little recovery jog in just to get outside! Today we were back to snow/rain/yuck.

Workouts this week…

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 2x3k efforts for 7 miles total
Wednesday: 5 miles easy recovery
Thursday: Off
Friday: 12 miles with 7 at sub marathon pace
Saturday: 5 miles easy recovery
Sunday: Was supposed to run but quads were painful so 1.5 hours on the bike!

Looking forward to one more tough week and then some tapering!