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Minnesota: Nevis, Grand Rapids and Voyageur’s

9 Aug

The long-anticipated Minnesota pictures! (You were just sitting on the edge of your seat, weren’t you?) Since I took so many pictures, I’m going to break our vacation up into a couple of posts. Prepare to be shocked and awed by my awesome photography skills.

We started out for Minnesota around 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon, since we had to stop at Cabela’s in Sidney, NE, for a new gun (for Travis’ dad). While Travis shopped…

…I walked the pooches around this nice lake…

…I subjected Katy to taking photos with me – you can tell she’s thrilled…

…and we all rolled around in the grass for a while. I was incredibly itchy afterward. Note to self.

After grabbing some greasy deliciousness from Arby’s, we hit the road for the horrendous 16-hour drive to Nevis, MN, where Travis’ parents have a house (they live in Grand Rapids right now and rent their Nevis house out, but plan to move back to Nevis eventually).

About an hour into the drive from Sidney, I was wondering WTH made me think that I could handle the deadhead to Minnesota, overnight, after work? I hate to say it, but I’m getting too old for this.

I’ll spare you the gruesome details but we finally arrived at the Nevis household. After chatting with Al and Beth a bit, and giving Al his birthday present, I took a 2-hour nap (which in no way compensated for missing an entire night of sleep). True to form, Travis headed out to ride the ATV, shoot guns, and do all sorts of “fun” stuff…

 …like grate the driveway with an antique tractor.

The next day, I tried going on a run at 6 am (after being woken up by the pooches, as usual) but the deer flies were so bad (and those buggers hurt!), I turned around after a mile. It was a nice try. Then Beth, Carolyn (Trav’s sister), and I went to a place near Park Rapids called Summerhill Farm. It’s an old farm that has been turned into shops. There were a lot of things I wanted to buy but I confined myself to these finds:

The jam was made locally in Park Rapids but the salsa was made in Texas. No matter – it’s delicious and has a nice kick. I mostly bought it for Travis, who loves salsa. And the journal was just too darn cute to pass up (some of the trees are actually shimmery gold).

I spent some more time reading and doing crosswords until we packed up and headed for Grand Rapids on Sunday night. Their house in Grand Rapids is on a lake, which is great, but it’s also near a busy highway and other neighbors, which meant I had to watch the pooches instead of just letting them run wherever they wanted. Thus, my many, many mosquito bites. I definitely got bit up while I was there more than anywhere else.

The next day (Monday), we headed up to Voyageur’s National Park, where Travis’ extended family all co-own land that their great-grandmother bought in the 30s (I mis-typed before when I guessed the 40s or 50s). Like I said before, it is absolutely beautiful up there.

It was pretty windy on Monday, which made for a jolt-y boat ride and water too rough for floating. So we relaxed and picked some blueberries.

Tuesday was the perfect day though. Just the right temperature, calm water, nice breeze. Perfect.

Travis and his parents went fishing at sunrise. They brought back quite the haul.

While Travis filleted the fish,

I took my pictures of my feet.

After breakfast, Travis climbed a tree and cut the top off with a chainsaw. Seriously.

The top of the tree was dead, which is why they wanted to cut it off.

At first, the tree fell in the right direction but unexpectedly, got hung up on another tree. Then when Travis cut the trunk more and it actually did fall, it didn’t fall where expected. Luckily, no one got hurt.

After that excitement was over, I headed down to the beach and laid on a free-standing hammock. Katy was hilarious – whenever I was on the hammock, she would come lay underneath it – it was a pretty good deal for her. She got to be by me and in the shade. But there wasn’t a ton of room under there so I got jiggled around whenever she was switching positions.

A little while later, Travis suggested that we swim out to Fish Island and back. Since we’re at different levels swim-wise (the one and only thing I’m better at than Travis, he [jokingly] told me this past weekend), Travis swam out to the island and I swam back, while Beth, Matthew and Drew followed along on the paddleboat. We estimated the distance was 500 yards. Score 1 for an open water swim practice!

Then we went boating and the pooches came along.

I think Charlie actually enjoyed the boat rides.

She sat on the side of the boat a lot – maybe it gave her better balance?

She made a new friend with Drew, Travis’ nephew.

Matthew waterskied for the first time! Travis and I also waterskied a bit.

That night, we sat around the campfire and ate s’mores. Katy also took her first ride on a swing.

The next day (Wednesday) was rainy and overcast.

Travis and his parents waited to go fishing until after breakfast, when it had stopped raining.

Matthew, Carolyn, Drew and I stayed at the cabin and played the quintessential cabin game – Rummy. Carolyn won. (I lost, as usual. Those Kluthes are Rummy-playing fools!)

While we were playing Rummy, Katy and Charlie were vying for a spot on the only dog-friendly chair.

Hilarious.

Luckily, the rainy weather did not affect the fishes’ appetites.

They caught mostly walleye but a few small-mouth bass as well (I think – I only know so much about fishing).

After a lunch of delicious fish, Carolyn and I took the paddleboat out to Fish Island to pick some blueberries. Of course, we had to take the dogs with us (Carolyn has two dogs adopted from humane societies as well – one a golden retriever, the other a Rottweiler mix).

After a nap, Travis and I took the canoe out.

In vain, we tried to leave the dogs behind. They weren’t having it.

They chased us down the shoreline, whining and baying, “Come back! Don’t leave us!”I crumble immediately when Charlie bays so we pulled around to the dock in the bay and let them get into the boat with us.

Hence, dogs in a canoe. They actually did really well.

The sunset was gorgeous that night.

The next morning, it was time to leave already. Vacations fly by way too fast!

Stay tuned for tales from Pine City and Minneapolis.

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Weekly Recap: 8/01 – 8/07

8 Aug

Between returning from Minnesota, going camping this past weekend at Twin Lakes near Buena Vista and being ridiculously tired and worn out, both physically and mentally, my training last week wasn’t the greatest. But at least I did something, right?

Monday: Rest

I did laundry, dishes and grocery shopping instead of training.

Tuesday: 7.5 mile bike (22:00), 1 mile run (12:46), abs + pushups

I had hoped this would be a 7.5 mile bike + 3 mile run x 2 but we got to the Rec late and I ended up getting acid reflux from the spaghetti I ate for dinner. 😦 So I ran/walked a mile before deciding to do abs and pushups instead. (I did the bike ride on a Spinning bike, hence the 20 mph pace.) My arms and core were sore the next day so at least there’s that!

Wednesday: 7 mile run (1:23:22, 11:36/mile)

This is the only workout from last week that I am proud of. I was a little nervous trying for 7 miles after taking an entire week off from running. It was also 75 degrees and humid (for CO) that day, which I definitely felt during this run. My legs were very tired and sore by the end but I continued to push it, partly out of fear that I will have to run 6 miles during the race after biking 25 and swimming 1!

Thursday: Rest

I was just so wiped after work and knew that I would have to pack for camping too, that I decided to watch 2 episodes of Drop Dead Diva instead of doing a bike ride. Though I felt kind of guilty, this was the first workout that I intentionally blew off since I started training back in March. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

Friday: 1,750 yd swim

I timed myself on 825 yards (750 meters) during this swim, to get an idea of what my goal should be during the race. The 825 yards took me 21:20 so I think my stretch goal for the swim will be 43 minutes, realistic goal 45 minutes (the Oly swim distance is 1500 m).

Saturday: Rest

I went on a hike stroll with friends from church and then went swimming in the lake.

Sunday: Rest

We went on another easy hike on Sunday, but I didn’t get out of breath or break a sweat at all so to me, that is more of a stroll in beautiful scenery than a hike. But it was still enjoyable! (Photos to come soon!)

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I have decided to ditch my idea of getting up at 4:30 to get in the Word and train before work. Instead, I am going to spend time with God in the morning and train at night. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate or the pool is overrun by the swim team? Suck it up cupcake. I am really enjoying the more leisurely mornings. And because we are approaching fall, sunrise isn’t until 6 am now, which would make my outdoor workouts start later than they’d really need to for me to make it to work on time. So evening workouts it is.

With that, I’ll leave you with this creative representation of my day at work:

Happy Monday readers!

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Needed: A Swift Kick in the Pants

5 Aug

My alarm was set for 5 am this morning, because I was planning to go swimming. I took the night off last night – instead of doing the 25 mile bike ride and upper body weights I had on the schedule, I laid on the couch and watched 2 glorious episodes of my favorite summer show, Drop Dead Diva. Then I walked the pooches to Dairy Queen where I got a cone with crunch topping. This was a sanity call – I have not spent time a weeknight on the couch in something like 4 months – and my next free weekend isn’t until the 2nd weekend of September. I couldn’t wait that long to relax.

Since we’re going camping tonight with our care group from church, I really needed to go swimming this morning. Believe me, I laid in bed trying to figure out if there was any way I could do my workout some other time. During lunch? No. Too much traffic for biking. Too far away for swimming. Already ran enough this week. After work? No. Leaving early to get on the road up to Leadville. Dangit. I have to go now.

My dogs woke up at 4:50, wanting to go outside. Since Charlie is still potty training and will pee inside if not let out immediately, I rolled out of bed, depressed that my alarm was set for only 10 minutes later. (I actually turned it off when I got up so that it didn’t go off without me there, if for some reason I was detained longer than 10 minutes – doing what, I have no clue.) The well-rested me would have just stayed up, since I believe it’s harder to get out of bed than to stay out. But the sleep-deprived me went back to bed and set the alarm for 5:15 instead, remembering that 5:30 am is the prime time for swimming at our gym because all of the old geezers have finished their workouts but the young whipper-snappers haven’t gotten up yet.

5:15. Alarm going off. I can’t get up yet. Snooze.

5:18. Alarm going off again. (Yes, it’s only a 3-minute snooze. Pretty impressive pathetic that I have snoozed my alarm for an hour sometimes, isn’t it?) Just one more. Snooze.

5:21. Ok, seriously this is the last one. Snooze.

5:24. I really do not want to go swimming. [Insert brainstorming ways to do workout later.] Remember what you keep saying about triathlon training – that it’s mostly discipline? So get out of bed and go. It doesn’t matter that you don’t want to. Suck it up cupcake. Turn alarm off and get up.

I went to the gym and swam 1,750 yards. And I can honestly say that I am glad I went, but I am also sad that I couldn’t go back to bed afterward. Unemployment, I miss you!

I’m sure that there isn’t an athlete out there who hasn’t had some kind of inner monologue like this with themselves in the morning. Or before a workout. But especially in the morning.

I am happy to report that this catchy little saying works. So much so, that I would like to get a shirt like this one.

Now if only that would motivate myself to post about my Minnesota vacation too… but alas, it’ll have to happen on Sunday or next week. Guess it’s not a failsafe.

{Side note: This week, I have had a horrible case of adhesive-mattress-itis, which is making me seriously reconsider my idea to get up at 4-freaking-30 to get in the Word and train. I’m a thinking it isn’t going to happen… on to Plan F.}

How do you motivate yourself to train when you don’t want to?

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Weekly Recap: 7/18 – 7/31

3 Aug

The Jungle That Was Our Lawn

With everything unpacked; laundry washed, folded and put away; our garden harvested (lots of spinach, sage, snap peas and a 16-inch zucchini!); and the dishes done, I feel like have a handle on getting back into the swing of things. I even did a brick last night but it was cut short by acid reflux from eating pasta with spaghetti sauce (a notorious offender).

I don’t know how I manage to do it but I always come back exhausted from vacation (this time, I think the culprit was the short night after a wedding followed by 14 hour car ride.) So catching up on sleep is going to take a little bit longer, since I am staying up later than I would normally to get all the aforementioned tasks accomplished after work.

With that, here is my training recap for the past two weeks:

Monday 7/18: 15.35 mile bike (59:52), 3 mile run (28:38)

I did this brick with Travis at the Rec in the evening and totally rocked the run again! (It’s so much easier to run inside on a flat surface!)

Tuesday: Lower body weights, 2000 yd swim

Another evening workout. Did 2 x 15 of squats, lunges and calf raises, then went to the pool. Did 1 x 200 (fs), 1 x 400 (fs), 1 x 800 (bs), 1 x 400 (fs), 1 x 200 (bs). Right foot started cramping up during 2nd 400.

Wednesday: 6.05 mile run (1:10:29 in 85 degree heat!)

I took my Camelbak and went easy because of the heat. It was cloudy for the first half of the run and rained a bit, which helped a lot. This run was actually mostly pleasant, despite the heat.

Thursday: 14.25 mile bike (1:05:40)

Bike home from work – even though it’s slightly easier than the way there, there are still plenty of hills on the way home. My average heart rate was 152.

Friday: 14.6 mile bike (1:14:42)

Bike back to work – because the afternoon weather has been iffy in Colorado for the past several weeks due to monsoon season but the morning weather is almost 100% nice and sunny, I decided that it was safer to bike home one day and then bike back the next morning, instead of trying to do both in one day. That way, if there was an afternoon storm, I could just drive home instead of biking or having Travis come pick me up.  My average heart rate during this ride was 147. The mileage is a little longer than the ride home because I took a wrong turn. Whoops.

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 2.19 mile run (23:14)

I did this run on the county roads near Nevis, MN. While my legs felt great and I was optimistic for something more like 5-6 miles, the deer and horse flies were horrible. I turned around after a mile to see if they would get better the other way but they didn’t, so I called it quits. Boo.

Monday 7/25: Rest day

Tuesday: 10 minutes of waterskiing (arms and upper back!), 500-600 yd swim

My upper back was so sore from waterskiing. Waterskiing has to be one of the best workouts around because it saps your energy in about 15 minutes.

Wednesday: Paddle boating (legs), Canoeing (arms and core)

I noticed that I had more strength for these activities than I have had in the past, so that was exciting.

Yes, that is 4 dogs on a paddle boat…

…and 2 dogs in a canoe. They are seriously attached to us. (More on that in another post.)

Thursday: 15-20 minutes of tubing (arms!)

I told my dad that he had to treat me like a 5-year-old because I didn’t want to get flung off the tube going 25 mph. (You may say that’s part of the fun but after taking a really bad spill a few years ago, I’m so over them.) We found a happy medium going somewhat fast around the turns, but then slowing down for the waves. It’s the combination of going fast and going over waves that’s the doozy (and has the most potential for making you fly off).

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: Rest day

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While I enjoyed my week-long break from training, I am excited to get back into it. Last night, I was actually looking forward to a bike ride but then we got ready later than we should have, and the sky was really dark. So we ended up going to the Rec (after I threw a frustration party for 1). I just feel better when I am active.

Something that I’ve been thinking about for several weeks now and has come to a head with returning from vacation is that my time with God has really been taking back seat to training. I’ve thought about switching to night workouts but the weather here is so unreliable and warm at night (whereas it’s pretty dependable and cool in the morning) and the swim team takes up almost the entire pool at night. Plus, I really just enjoy morning workouts more.

But it’s the same thing with time with God — I’ve tried to do it during lunch but can’t concentrate sufficiently. I’ve thought about doing it at night before I go to bed but I have very little motivation and would rather just read an entertaining book instead of think deep thoughts.

These are the options I have:

1)      Get in the Word in the morning and train at night. (lunch doesn’t work because of the heat)

2)      Train in the morning and get in the Word during lunch or at night.

3)      Get in the Word in the morning and break training up into 2-a-days, morning and night.

4)      Get up early to get in the Word and train in the morning before leaving at 8:30 for work.

I am leaning toward getting up earlier to do both in the morning. My wakeup call would be at 4:30. Even as I type this, though, I’m debating. It’s so hard to stick to a bedtime like 8:30 when you have a husband and church activities during the week.

What I would really like is a 5th option: Get in the Word and train in the morning, go into work at 10:30. 🙂

How do you fit your training in among your other priorities?

Which option would you choose, if you were me?

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Back from Eating…er, Vacation

1 Aug

Travis and I got back last night at 11:30 from our week-long extravaganza in Minnesota. We are exhausted and stuffed.

I will give a full update, complete with photos, later this week when I have rested up and am thinking clearly again. Right now, I’d like to talk about the thing that I always do way too much of on vacation: eating.

If you look back on my post about healthy eating, you can see that I like to eat a little bit all day long. I don’t do big meals.

Well unfortunately for me, both Travis’ and my families do.

Here’s the typical rundown for meals:

Breakfast: french toast, sausage, fruit, coffee, milk

Lunch: sandwiches, fruit, lettuce salad, chips

Dinner: pork chops, beans, fruit, cooked veggies, chips

I’ve read that you eat more when you have more options. That’s why you can’t walk out of a buffet without feeling like you’re going to puke (that, and perhaps some health code violations). I am the poster eater of this fact. Seriously, lunch time would roll around and even though I was just barely hungry, or not hungry at all, I’d still eat. What if I get hungry later when no one else is eating? What will I do then? were the thoughts running through my head. Then there were the copious amounts of mini candy bars, licorice, and pop I consumed just because I was on vacation. Calories don’t count then, right?

Another kicker was that while I had the ambition and desire to workout on vacation, there were 2 hiccups: 1) I felt guilty spending time working out instead of being with Travis’ or my family. and 2) The deer flies were horrible. I did 2 miles on our first morning there and got 10-12 bites on my back, which turned into lovely red bumps. It was a good look for a strapless dress at a wedding.

All that to say, it’s no surprise that I have returned to my “normal” life feeling the Goodyear blimp. I am SO ready to be back to healthy eating, normal portions, and consistent exercise. The only thing I had energy for last night when we got home was to carry all our stuff in the house, drop it and go to bed. So tonight will be spent unpacking, doing laundry and going grocery shopping and then tomorrow, I’ll get back on the workout wagon. The Steamboat Oly Tri is less than a month away!

Stay tuned for a guest post from Lisa of Cow Spots and Tales tomorrow!

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Two Tickets to Paradise

22 Jul

Today Travis and I leave on our road trip to Minnesota. We will be gone 9 glorious days. Here’s our itinerary:

Friday: Leave work at 2:00, drive home, load up the pooches, get on the road by 3:00. Stop at Cabela’s in Sidney, NE, to buy Travis’ dad’s 60th b-day present. Continue on to Nevis, arriving around 8 a.m. (it’s a 16-hour drive).

Saturday: Spend time in the middle of nowhere (aka Nevis where Travis grew up). I will read and bum around while Travis shoots stuff, creates trails on their property of 180 acres, and goes 4-wheeling (not in a Jeep but on an ATV for all of you who use 4-wheeling incorrectly 🙂 ).

Sunday – Monday: Go to Grand Rapids where Travis’ parents currently live (they still have their house in Nevis, but rent it out – long story). Their house in GR is on a lake so we’ll probably do some fishing (I personally like to do tangling instead), boating, and sitting on their amazingly awesome wraparound deck. This will be the first time I’ll see their house without 5 feet of snow and negative temperatures. Yay for summer! Yay for a regular job!

Tuesday – Wednesday: We’re going to head up to Travis’ family’s cabin in Voyageur’s National Park in extreme Northern Minnesota (near the Boundary Waters). Trav’s great-grandma or great-great-grandma bought the property before it was a National Park (back in the 40s or 50s) so it’s very secluded (no phone or Internet) and you have to take a boat to get there (or a snowmobile in the winter). It is absolutely gorgeous up there.

{source}

The sunsets up there are amazing and you can often see the Northern Lights (aka Aurora Borealis). Another perk, Canada is just right across the lake. Oh yeah, dontcha know.

I’ll also get to see a lot of this:

And I think we’re going to throw Katy off the dock. Because she hates water. And we like to laugh. No but seriously, we’d like to expose our dogs to some water on this trip so that they stop being so scared of it.

Thursday – Friday: Time with my family at my parent’s cabin near Pine City (an hour north of Minneapolis).

There will be time for this:

(although right now I’m not feeling the whole getting-thrown-off-a-tube-careening-around-the-corner-at-20-mph thing.)

And this:

My oldest brother, Jeremy, and sis-in-law, Jen, will be coming up from Evansville, IN, on Friday too. I’m not sure what my other 2 brothers and SIL (who live in the Cities) are going to be doing but I’m sure I’ll get to see them Friday too.

Saturday: Lunch with college friends in Minneapolis, then my cousin Ben is getting married! It will be fun to share in their special day and see all of my extended family on my mom’s side.

Sunday: Early breakfast with immediate family and drive the 13 hours back to Denver. I’m always extremely sad when we leave after trips like this, mostly because I miss our family. It’s just a matter of time before we move back…

Since I will be enjoying all of these wonderful water-filled festivities and decomposing (Decompressing!) during the summer of Kathy (Seinfeld references), I won’t be blogging. I actually won’t even touch a computer (unless forced). I will be soaking up sunshine, lake time, and humidity that melts your face off, and being eaten by bugs the size of a small child. And it will be glorious.

I do have a couple of guest posts lined up so stay tuned for those. Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

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Save the Suave

21 Jul

As a person interested in health and fitness, I consistently try to improve my daily habits to promote my health. I’ve already done that with drinking 64 oz of water daily (still going strong!) and trying to maintain the balance between training and the rest of life. My latest focus has been on not washing my hair every day.

Here’s the dish on my hair:

  • It’s color-treated (from a box) to be slightly blonder than natural.
  • It’s naturally pin straight.
  • I get it cut every 6 months, usually going from shoulder length to chin length and back again.
  • I often get the comment at salons that my hair is thin but I have “a lot of it.”
  • I also get the comment that my hair is “very healthy” — since I use Pantene or Suave shampoo, [used to] wash, blow-dry and curl my hair daily, and only get it cut every 6 months, this comment usually makes me feel rather smug for thwarting the system of expensive shampoos, hair treatments and the like.

Even though my hair has always tended to be on the drier side and as such, has never really necessitated daily washings, I couldn’t fathom not washing my hair. I feared waking up with the hair that is just slightly greasy enough that you can tell it needs to be washed. I also enjoy a clean head and the smell of just-shampooed hair.

An additional objection I had to this notion of not washing my hair everyday was that I exercise a lot and I get really sweaty. I was trying to be considerate of those around me by washing my hair after every workout (some days I even washed my hair twice).

But then one day at work, I was talking with some of my female co-workers about a blog called My Yellow Sandbox. Abby, whose blog it is, only washes her every “fourish” days. Apparently, washing your hair every day makes it drier (because you’re washing out the natural oils your scalp produces that are good for your hair). She even says that the less you wash your hair, the less greasy it will be.

That was pretty intriguing to me. Less greasy the less I wash it? I’ll try it!

And you know what? I’m a believer. Here is photo evidence of me going 3 days with washing my hair once (I don’t think I could go 4 or more like Abby, because of the whole buckets-of-sweat thing).

This is my strategy:

Day 1

Wash and blow dry hair. Style with curling iron or flatiron; minimal product (as in none). Leave hair down.

Day 2

{Disclaimer: I went swimming and got my hair wet this morning so I wasn’t styling my hair from a dry state.} Blow dry hair and spray with dry shampoo before styling with flatiron. OR Blow dry hair halfway and pull hair into messy ponytail. Spray with hairspray.

Day 3

Pull hair into messy ponytail and spray with hairspray.

Since I go swimming every 2-3 days, I can’t really get completely away from blow-drying (wet hair is not very professional looking) or heat-styling (my hair does kinks instead of wavy) on the days I swim, unless I go swimming at night. If I do that, I towel dry my hair so that it’s not sopping wet, pull it into a braid, and go to bed. The next morning, I either put my hair half-up (and curl the ends, for reason aforementioned) or into a messy ponytail (Reason #1 Why I’m Loving the Length My Hair Is Right Now.)

I’ve also discovered that after a particularly sweaty workout, my hair looks better (i.e. less greasy from sweat) if I get it wet before styling it, rather than just trying to blow-dry the sweat out. Even then, I try to only blow-dry my hair until it’s slightly damp, then put it in a messy ponytail. Not only does that save me time and lessen the damage, my slippery straight hair stays up better if I put it up when it’s damp.

I’m still working on getting my routine down and trying to minimize the amount I use the blow-dryer and heat tools. Last night, I went on a run after work and then let my hair dry after my shower. (Win!) This morning, I still curled my hair (Lose!) and pulled it into a low ponytail. I suppose I could have foregone the curling iron but I felt that curling it would look better.

I do feel better about not washing my hair as often, and haven’t really had any or much trouble with it being greasy. (Dry shampoo also helps — I have TRESemmé Dry Shampoo for Dry Hair). Most of all, I like being able to get ready so much faster in the morning! Now if only I could find a way to keep my hair dry while swimming, I’d be set.

How often do you wash your hair?

What type of hair do you have?

Any tips for me on how to avoid blow-drying and heat-styling?

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Weekly Recap: 7/11 – 7/17

18 Jul

I had an awesome birthday weekend. I left work early on Friday to go get a pedicure. The owner of Arvada Nail Shoppe stayed late just to squeeze me in and it was seriously the best pedicure I’ve ever had. She was so attentive and friendly and didn’t cut corners on anything. That pedicure made my day. After that, we went out to eat at Rock Bottom Brewery, then bowling, then finished off with some ice cream from Coldstone (I got the Birthday Cake Remix with yellow cake added in. SO delicious but also SO rich).

Saturday, Travis and I drove up to Frisco and biked to Breckenridge and back. I’ll post pictures and more details later but the ride was mostly flat and very enjoyable, minus the hoards of people. We biked the 20 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes (including stops for photo ops). Then we went to a friend’s barbeque for a couple of hours, and then to the Rockies game (game 3 of 4 against the Brewers). It was the most intense baseball game I’ve ever been to. The umpire made a bad call (Travis watched the replay later which proved it) and the Rockies catcher and manager argued with the call so much that the ump ejected them. The manager even kicked dirt on home plate, which I understand is like spitting in his face. I thought it was hilarious because the manager had such pronounced body language that it looked like he was Charlie Chaplin in a silent movie. And of course, all of the Rockies fans booed the ump for the rest of the game. This was also pretty much the first Rockies game I’ve ever seen the end of. Usually we leave in the 7th inning stretch.

Sunday, we went to Panera, church and then out to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Tacos Junior with some friends. I had a Gringa Torta that was ham and some other kind of meat like pepperoni with cheese, pineapple, and avocado. It was pretty good. After some housekeeping (laundry, vacuuming up the massive clumps of dog hair), I took a 2-hour nap. Travis and I took the dogs to the dog park since they had been cooped up all day Saturday during our festivities and we visited our friends D and Doug on our way home. All in all, it was an awesome weekend.

On to the training recap…

Monday: BRICK: 10 mile bike in 37:37, 2 mile run in 17:49, upper body weights + abs

I did this brick with Travis at the Rec, since this was the Week of Rain in Denver. I totally rocked the run, doing the first mile in 9:00 and the second mile in 8:50. That is my first sub-9:00 mile since 2009. It is quite possibly the third sub-9:00 mile I’ve done ever. I was pretty pumped. I’ve noticed that I run faster after a bike ride. Maybe that should be my new racing strategy…

Tuesday: 1500 yd swim, 1.97 mile run in 22:00

I went swimming at night and to my chagrin, the swim team was there and only two lanes were open for lap swimming. Ugh. I had to circle swim with several other people for about 3/4 of my workout. So while I swam harder than I would have normally, I didn’t have the mind to keep track of my pace like usual. So who knows if that extra effort translated into any extra speed. I did the 2 mile run with the pooches, who annoyed me as always.

Wednesday: 20 mile bike in 1:18:47

I did the first 12 miles of this ride on the trainer, doing a pyramid interval (.5 mile at easy pace, .5 mile at increasingly harder pace until halfway then working back down). The last 8 miles I did on the road with Travis. We had to adjust our ride due to the massive puddles from the exorbitant amount of rain we’ve gotten in the past week but I got the miles in (rainy weather be damned!) and that’s all that matters.

Thursday: 2000 yd swim, lower body weights

In an effort to do more breaststroke, I did 4 x 100, 200 drills, 2 x 600 (1 fs, 1 bs), 2 x 100. 600 times were 17:15 (fs) and 15:?? (bs). For LBW, I did 2 x 10 reverse lunges, 2 x 10 one-legged squats, 2 x 15 calf raises, 2 x 10 front leg pulls, inner/outer thigh pulls with resistance band. I tried to not overdo it like last week (which I succeeded at because I wasn’t sore the next day).

Friday: 4 mile run in 46:05, foam roller

My legs were noticeably tired from the very outset of this run. (Reason #1 why I’m super excited to get these compression pants for my birthday. They should be coming soon!) I did the first 1.5 miles with the pooches and the last 2.5 by myself. It’s amazing how much work it is to run with the dogs.

Saturday: 20 mile bike in 1:22

This was our bike ride from Frisco to Breckenridge and back. The elevation gain is only 646 feet, so while we could tell that we were going uphill on the way out (averaging 13 mph – my legs were still tired) and downhill on the way back (averaging 20 mph), there was only 1 bad hill that left me panting. This ride also encouraged me that biking shouldn’t be that bad at 7,000 ft, since this ride was at 9,100-9,500 ft. Next ride to tackle: Frisco to Vail Pass. Significantly harder.

Sunday: Rest day

Yesterday, I figured my time would be better spent resting than forcing myself to do a 6 mile run on tired legs. I figured the same thing this morning. 🙂 But I’m going to do something tonight – depends on my schedule and the weather but it’ll either be the 6 mile run I forewent this morning or a 20 mile bike ride.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 3500 yds

Bike: 50 miles (Yay!)

Run: 7.97 miles

I feel pretty good about my workouts this week. I got way more biking miles in, did my strength training workouts, and some solid runs. The weekly summary on my heart rate monitor said I had spent 7 hours and 22 minutes working out, burning 2600 calories (though I’m pretty sure it was more because the battery on my sensor needs to be replaced). That’s a lot of working out!

We leave for our week-long vacation to Minnesota this Friday afternoon and I’ve been trying to brainstorm how to get some workouts in while we’re gone. Swimming and running shouldn’t be a problem, since we’ll be on the lake and country roads a lot. Travis’ hometown, Nevis, also has a really nice bike trail but we’re wondering if it’s worth it bring our bikes 1,000 miles one way for 1 or 2 rides. What do you think – is it worth bringing our bikes to MN? Or should we just concentrate on swimming and running for the week?

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Song of Myself

15 Jul

In honor of my being alive for 28 years today, here are 28 things you may not know about me:

  1. I don’t eat meat off the bone.
  2. I can’t spit.
  3. I hate scary movies. Hate.
  4. My middle name is Ruth, after my mom’s mom.
  5. I was born with lots of dark brown hair that stuck straight up.
  6. My hair changed into bleach blonde by the time I was one.
  7. I couldn’t swallow a pill until high school.
  8. I love my family – immediate, extended and inherited through marriage.
  9. I knew I wanted to marry Travis after dating him for 3 months. His smile made me melt.

  1. I don’t like sweating when I don’t want to be sweaty.
  2. I get cranky in hot weather.
  3. My body temperature can go from cold to overheating in less than 30 seconds.
  4. My favorite bagel is chocolate chip from Panera.
  5. I like doing special things on my birthday.
  6. I hate bugs of all kinds. Hate.
  7. I’m deathly scared of spiders (what female isn’t?).
  8. I love (recreationally) swimming in lakes as long as I don’t touch any seaweed.

  1. I hated running in high school.
  2. I got my snowmobile license when I was about 13.
  3. I mowed our lawn growing up on a riding lawn mower called the Yazoo.
  4. My first kiss was under a table in kindergarten.
  5. I first kissed Travis sitting on the floor of my college bedroom. He first kissed me a month later on the bluffs in Red Wing. J
  6. I have never attempted a back flip on a trampoline, though I love doing front flips.
  7. I love swinging and spinning.
  8. I hate roller coasters. Hate.
  9. Working on my birthday makes me feel grown up (in a very boring way).
  10. 2009 was the first year I worked on my birthday.
  11. My favorite cake is either fruit pizza (it’s kind of a cake, right?) or éclair cake.

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Fourth of July on Eaglesmere Trail

12 Jul

Here, finally, are the pictures from our wonderful and challenging backpacking trip.

We hiked Eaglesmere Trail, which is about 45 minutes NW of Silverthorne. The trailhead is located near Lower Cataract Lake.

Thank you, Google Maps.

The road to get to the trail head is pretty rough (washboard dirt roads) and tight (which makes for some interesting times when there’s an oncoming car). When we arrived at the trail head parking lot around 10:30 am, both the main lot and the overflow lot were completely full. We had no choice but to create our own spot, which was difficult because the Forest Service has lined the open areas with logs to prevent you from doing just that. Secret: there’s an open spot near the outhouse, which is where we parked.

We finally got on the trail, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was very wooded and green, with lots of plants and flowers. It actually kind of felt like a jungle. Since the last couple of hikes Travis and I have gone on were near Colorado Springs where it’s very rocky, this lushness was a pleasant change.

It was very hot this July 4th weekend with temperatures reaching 100 in Denver and mid-80s in the mountains. Within 10 minutes of starting out, I had sweat streaming down my face and dripping off my chin – and we were still in the shade!  There are a few stretches of this hike in full sun and while it gets hot out there, they’re not the steepest parts. But you do get a gorgeous view.

I totally think I look like my mom in that picture. Like mother, like daughter. 🙂

Our dog, Katy, was so cute on this trip. While our dog, Charlie, stuck to the front of the pack with Rocky (Ahren and Lauren’s dog), Katy followed along after Ahren and Lauren and would come back to watch for me and Travis pulling up the rear. Once we were in sight again, she’d continue on. Just wanted to make sure we I hadn’t died, I guess.

See my massive calf muscle? Hells yeah!

Also, note my little lantern hung on the back of my pack (it’s the blue thing at the bottom). Travis laughed at me when I bought it. I laugh at him when he wears his headlamp.

At about the time the last picture above was taken, my legs and my mouth were cursing at the never-ending hills on this trail. The highest point of the trail is 10,300 ft – starting at 8,500 ft – an elevation gain of 1,800 ft, which isn’t that bad except when you’re 1) not in backpacking shape and 2) doing hard workouts all week for triathlon training. My legs were just so tired. I have never felt like that on a hike before (well except for the first time I went backpacking, but I’m in a lot better shape than then. Last year, we did 30 miles in 3 days but they were flat miles. I hate hills!)

Finally, we were getting closer. We arrived at a stream (which was more like a small river it was flowing so fast) and then bushwhacked it on the ‘Rock Superhighway’ to the lake (which I don’t think is actually Eaglesmere Lake but some other obscure, yet well-known, little lake).

Finally, to my immense relief, we arrived. I survived! But the thing about backpacking (or really camping in general) is that once the hard work is over, there’s more hard work. Like setting up your tents, making a fire ring, keeping an eye on your dogs so they don’t piss your neighbors off (even though they piss you off with firecrackers at 10 pm and a dog named Slim that keeps visiting), cooking your food, filtering water, gathering fire wood, trekking up hills just to go to the bathroom, etc. Camping is so much work.

But at last, with all the dirty work out of the way, it was time for fishing, reading, picture taking, and a campfire.

The view of the lake from our campsite

The view of the mountains from our campsite

Our tent (borrowed from Ahren and Lauren because ours would not fit us + 2 pups)

Yay for self-portraits a la SkinnyRunner!

Isn’t that a totally awesome picture? Yeah, I took that – on my little Canon PowerShot.

The next morning, I woke up as the Green Hulk. That’s what happens when two dogs that should be exhausted beyond recognition still decide to wake up at 5 am. Grrrr…

Instead of accepting my early wake up call like I should have, I took the dogs on a little 10-minute walk, then tried to get them to go back to sleep in the tent. They weren’t having it (for the record, they hit their daily energy peak at 6 am). So I had Travis tie them to a tree when he got up to pee. Which was pretty much useless because I just laid there the whole time, hearing them walking around, tangling themselves together, and then Charlie digging a hole.

Finally, I resigned myself to my fate and got up. Not too long after that, Ahren and Lauren were up, and then I made Travis get up too.

After a breakfast of oatmeal and Strawberry Goober, we hiked down the stream that flows out of the lake to go fishing (I went to go reading). Actually, after contemplating an entire day of reading, I decided I would try my hand at fishing. Three casts in, I snagged my line on a rock or log and Travis broke the rod trying to get it un-snagged. Fishing FAIL. That is why I just shouldn’t fish. The universe was telling me something.

So instead, I read The Autobiography of George Muller and the Bible.

I also snuggled Katy.

She’s my little sidekick.

We also sat back-to-back for a little bit, which I thought was funny. (It’s also funny that I double as Popeye in this photo.)

I watched Travis fish for a bit.

Ahren and Lauren have been to this spot before and had tremendous luck catching fish. But the stream was a lot higher and faster than past years (due to the abnormally high amount of snow the high country received last winter) so we weren’t having much luck. After 30 minutes of no luck, we moved downstream to find Ahren and Lauren.

They found a great fishing spot where there was a bend in the stream and some trees had fallen across, creating slower water. It was also hilarious to watch the dogs make their way across these logs. Their balance wasn’t always the greatest, but not one fell in (though Rocky got wet a lot on purpose). Our dogs want nothing to do with water.

Kluthes didn’t have the greatest fishing luck. While Ahren and Lauren caught 4-5 small brook trout (and Lauren had caught a nice, big one the night before at the lake), Travis caught a few (I caught none of course) and then he caught his line on a log. After a wholehearted attempt to save the lure (I’m not a fisher so I don’t know what you call them), they cut the line and said RIP.

Meanwhile, the early-rising dogs were peetered out and trying to take a nap anywhere they could.

We all laughed at the places Charlie tried to sleep. While we were at our campsite the second night, both Katy and Charlie were so tired that they found little nooks to curl up in. Charlie even tried to crawl under the vestibule on Ahren and Lauren’s tent. When we told she couldn’t do that, she found a cozy spot in a some tall grass. I kept telling her that she wouldn’t be so tired if she’d just stop getting up so early but she just looked at me with her Eeyore face. Oh, bother.

Since the pooches were so obviously tired (and so was I), I decided to capitalize on their sleepiness by returning to camp for a nap of my own. It was glorious but I felt a little guilty because by the time I got up from my nap, Ahren and Lauren had filtered water, collected more firewood and gutted their fish. Whoops.

After dinner and some campfire discussion, I retired to bed with the pooches at 9 pm.

The next morning, pooches didn’t get up until 8 am! It was a miracle! I slept a lot better the second night (I got a little chilly at night but warmed right up by sticking my head in my sleeping bag). We ate our breakfast of champions (oatmeal with Strawberry Goober) and packed up camp. We took some pictures of the gang:

I had been nervous about the hike back and even prayed the night before as I was falling asleep that God would give me the energy and strength I needed to make it back. The first mile and a half on the way back was mostly uphill (since the lake itself is only at 10,000 ft) and I was sweating buckets again. After that, it was downhill. While I was glad to not be incredibly out of breath and ridiculously sweaty (I was only really sweaty), my legs were still exhausted.

I was SO ready to be done that I welcomed a break for this photo op (Travis took that pic – I think he did very well!):

Little did we know that the appearance of Colorado Columbine means the end of the hike! I rounded the trail bend, saw the trail head, and exclaimed “We made it!”

After using the outhouse, replacing our hiking boots with sandals, and loading up the tired pooches, we made our way to Silverthorne for some delicious food at Dairy Queen. I had the chicken finger basket and a mini Banana Split Blizzard. Delish!

Then we discovered that eastbound I-70 (the main interstate connecting Denver to the high country) was closed due to a semi-trailer that overturned. So our drive home looked like this:

It was a cluster. People were doing whatever they wanted or thought was necessary. What should have taken us an hour took us 2 1/2 but we finally made it home. We were so exhausted from the weekend and fed up with crowds that we decided to forego fireworks (and if you know how much I like fireworks, that is saying a lot). The annual Carnation Festival in Wheat Ridge always has a fireworks show so I figure I can just catch them then.

Well, that was our weekend. Backpacking is a fun adventure but man, it is hard work!

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