Fit After Little Bits

Hi there and happy weekend! I hope that you are having a great start to November. We have gotten a pretty good amount of snow in the last couple of weeks making it feel far more like winter than fall.

Over that last couple of weeks, we have been doing all the normal things: work, homeschool, play dates, working out…the good stuff. Halloween snuck in there and we were delighted to head to a lovely pot luck and trick or treating with some friends! Brooke has been loving all of her time spend with new friends!

On the workout side of things, I have upped my running game substantially. Part of that has to do with the fact that you cant really ride bikes outside anymore 😉 And part of that has to do with some goals that I have for next year. (More below) We have not really completed our “home gym” in the garage yet, so all of my miles have been outside. While I am not one to escape often to the treadmill, there were definitely a couple of runs in the last week that I could have used it. Better get on figuring that out 😉

Last Saturday, I did a 10 mile run and while there were a few areas of ice, the roads were mostly just wet.

And then it really snowed! Haha. Let me tell you how fun it was to do a hill workout on this. Thankful for spikes, but was still slipping around in places. It was also cold. And shaded. Woof. But, 9 miles later and I was very happy that I had finished the workout!

Brooke is doing the Nordic Team/Lessons this year and I am really hoping she can then teach me how to skate ski properly. Yesterday, I swapped out a 5 mile easy run for 50 minutes of skate ski time. It was pretty soft and I could definitely use some pointers. Maybe I can swap my road hill workouts for skiing uphill?

Okay, so why the increase in miles?

In 2019 I ran my one and only 50 mile race (and fell in love with it), I have wanted to do a 100 mile run race ever since. Then all things Covid, injury and life kind of got in the way. BUT my desire to complete one of these ultra events did not go away. Fast-forward to the end of 2022 and the itch has gotten so crazy that I have started the beginning stages of training!

There is an event in Oregon in August of 2023 and I am planning to sign up for it when it opens. (Excitement and terror all in one!). It looks gorgeous and I have read that it is a pretty good “first 100”. More details on that when I bite the bullet and actually sign up. But for now, I have started running. I definitely need to get back to some weight lifting because just running a bunch of miles isn’t going to cut it at (almost) 40 years old 😉

More to come on the plan I am working off of (and adapting) and what training will look like, but for now…snow running it is! And some treadmill time coming my way. Now that it is in writing, it feels a lot more real!

Cheers to big dreams-however crazy they make us feel!

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a rough year for many of us. Though COVID influenced our races and hanging out with friends, it did not have the biggest impact on our lives this year. Unfortunately, this August we lost one of our closest friends, Mark. While I had intentions of jumping on here many times, my heart has pretty much been wrecked. I wont talk about it much. Writing about that day isn’t something I can do, still. But I thought I would share some other parts of the second half of our year-definitely not an all-inclusive showing, but some things we were able to do!

COVID made church-going an exciting event. We were not mad about spending summer Sundays outside. Services have since moved to a call-in style since it is currently cold and snowy 😉

We were able to sneak away to Flaming Gorge a couple times with our families. Nothing like camping in the middle of nowhere as a means to being very social distanced. Who are we kidding, that’s my real life anyway!

And then there were the projects! Ken and I jumped into building a carport off the side of the shop. Thank goodness for Skiddy the skidsteer. She was super helpful.

In August, we celebrated the second year of SBT GRVL. Due to COVID, it was virtual this year. As Mark had passed about 2 weeks before this date, we all rode in his honor. A tough day.

I was able to do 2 rides, one 37 mile ride with Errin and Rene’-on which I found this antler a few miles in and rode with it in my jersey pockets. Was extra careful not to crash!

On the day of the event, Ken and I set up a little memorial to celebrate Mark. It was great to feel the support of the community.

Ken and I were excited to ride the 65 mile course with Errin and Robert. This was also one of the last real rides we did for the year. It was really hard to find motivation afterwards and I am just now starting to think about any sort of exercise, in December.

The project continued….

There were several fires which made the summer pretty smokey. None of them were threatening to us personally, but we were on alert in case friends needed help evacuating.

Brooke and I made it to the zoo once! A definite highlight.

And success!!!

Took some fall pictures. This girl.

Another project….stairs off the deck!

Over the summer, I was offered a position teaching at Colorado Mountain College here in Steamboat. I accepted and began teaching A and P this fall. It was an incredible experience and I am excited to be teaching in the spring as well.

Brooke was very helpful in preparing for the lab practical 🙂

We did get to do some masked homeschool group activities! Thank you, Rangers!

Hanging with George.

Halloween was fun! Brooke and I met up with one of her close friends and walked their neighborhood.

At least some of us got some riding in 😉

And 2020 in a nutshell….remember my wonderful green house? A day of sustained 40-50 mile winds caused complete destruction. It was so very sad. Had to spend a lot of time sorting that out and taking it apart. Is it 2021 yet?

Visitors, always.

At least we are ready for winter!

We spent Thanksgiving in Moab with our families. It was great to get away and we were all very careful with who we hung out with before we traveled.

We spent 5 days hanging out, jogging and playing on toys with motors.

On our way home, we picked up Brooke’s Christmas present. She basically outgrew her small snowmobile last year and this one should do much better in the powder at our house. She has already spent so much time playing on it!

We ventured out for our Christmas tree-it is just perfect.

And for good measure, Jasper with a squeaker.

I will mention, also, without a ton of details, Ken and I are no longer part of SBT GRVL. Due to the terrible way Mark’s wife was treated after his passing, we could no longer work with the remaining partner. We offered to buy her out, but in turn she was able to buy us out instead. While we are very sad to no longer be part of the event, it no longer reflects the values that we signed up to be part of. We are looking forward to the future and what we might be able to create.

And that was much of our 2020.

I hope that this finds you healthy and that you will be able to enjoy this holiday season. I plan to be more active here as I jump back into training and hopefully find motivation to train for the next year. Plans for the Crusher this coming July and then attempting to BQ in September in Salt Lake City if life returns to some sort of normalcy.