Training - Week 13

This week I decided to focus on speed, so I did shorter days, but I tried to do them fast. It was an interesting experiment to see how many miles I could do at a quicker pace, and I didn’t do too bad. I still feel bad that I will be so much slower than the rest of my party at the race, but I am sure they will not mind waiting for me for an hour or so at the finish line.

Friday afternoon I received an email from the race with some last minute information. I freaked out. Suddenly I was so nervous about how I would do and if I would even finish. I worried that I would forget something or that I would just hit a wall that day and not make it. I know that is crazy, because the van doesn’t pick people up unless you are doing less than a 16 minute mile pace, so I should totally be OK, but I still freaked out. Friday night I had nightmares about the race.

I am feeling better now, and I am ready to get ready.

For those of you that are interested, you can track the results of the race as they are happening. If you go to this web site -

http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=DisneylandHalfMarathonDetailPage

and click on the spectator resources you can enter to have finish times, and even splits, sent to you via text message or email. So if you want to know if I die or finish you can log onto that. Otherwise I believe they post the times later that afternoon.

Nervous and Excited – I have less than a week!

Summer Snowbirds

It has been a hard couple weeks at work and the stress levels were getting close to critical. We decided it would be a good weekend to get away. After a little debate and a lot of research we decided a weekend trip to Snowbird would be fun. We found a deal online where we could get the room and two all day passes to ride all the fun stuff at the Snowbird Center. That included a tram ride, zip cord, alpine slide, chair lifts, and a lot more. It sounded like a great deal, so we booked it and set off.

We left kind of late on Saturday, and decided to stop for lunch on the way up. That was a lucky stroke because we missed the closure of Big Cottonwood Canyon (for the Tour of Utah bike race) by about a half hour. We got to the Lodge at Snowbird and checked in (after finding the best parking spot!) Since it was already about five, and all the attractions closed at eight, we decided to save our passes for Sunday.

We unpacked then walked around Oktoberfest and the rest of the resort. Saturday it had to be 100 degrees in the valley, so it was about 85 up there. Perfect. We ran into some of Matt’s old buddies from when he worked at Snowbird and spent some time talking with them. We also took advantage of the swimming pool at the hotel. It was really nice later in the evening because we could sit on our balcony and hear the live music playing at the downstairs café and just admire the beautiful view of the mountains. Very nice. Oh –and another cool feature of our room – it was the very basic room, and came with two Murphy beds. MURPHY BEDS! The kind the fold up into the wall. I thought that was really cool. It was the first time I have ever slept in a Murphy bed. Very awesome! I liked it much better than a couch fold out bed, and it was nice to have the room during the day. We may have to build one of those into our house now.

So we wake up on Sunday ready to use our tickets and have a day of fun, and it is pouring rain and about 50 degrees. I will admit I was very disappointed. We checked out and drove our car in the pouring rain up to the top of the canyon to watch the weather and decide what we wanted to do. We decided it was our “vacation” and we needed to have fun, so we drove back down to Snowbird and walked around for a while. The weather was clearing up, so we decided to bum a ride up the tram. Matt spoke to some of his old buddies and up we went – right into a cloud. We hiked down from the tram stop to the tunnel that Snowbird made through the mountain – it is pretty cool I must admit.
We also luckily hiked out of the cloud and it was getting nice. We took the Peruvian chair down the mountain. At that point we were both tired and decided to call it a day. We drove down to Matt’s Grandparent’s house for dinner. We arrived at their house just before they did and I had a chance to get a good nap in before dinner. They made us a wonderful Anniversary dinner, and I ate way too much of it!

After a great weekend and a wonderful dinner, I was ready to go home and start the week.

Happy Anniversary

Monday the 17th was our 2 year wedding anniversary. 2 years! It may not sound like much to all you that have been married for 10+ years, but it is a big deal to me. I was impressed how much more quickly this second year went. We had some big steps, bought a house, Matt went back to finish school, I studied for and pass some certification exams. We adopted two cute kitties. We went on a cruise, went to Disneyland a couple times, traveled to Montana, and trained for a half marathon. It has been a good year.

To celebrate Matt woke up early and made me breakfast in bed. I was so happy (and actually surprised!) I was a little sad that I still had to go to work, but that was OK because I knew we would go out for dinner. At about lunch time I got a message from the front desk at work that I had a delivery. I go down and there are two dozen roses waiting for me. I was so excited. Attached to the flowers is a note, excusing me from work for the rest of the day!

I hurried home and Matt said we were going to go to Salt Lake for a great afternoon and evening on the town. So I change my clothes and off we go! Sadly, at about Farmington my stomach decided it was going to be sick and we had to pull over. I was sick for probably the next 24 or so hours. That put a damper on my fun. But we decided to take in a dollar movie, and watched Angels and Demons (which was actually good). Then we went to Litza’s Pizza. That is our tradition because we ate there after our wedding reception on the way to our hotel. (Somehow we didn’t eat the sandwiches and drinks at our own reception. I don’t know why.) I didn’t eat much, but we still had a really good time.

(stop reading now if you don’t want to read mushy stuff)
My life has changed so much since I met Matt. It is so much better now. I love having someone as great as Matt to spend the rest of my life with. He has helped me grow as a person. He helps me through good times and bad. We can have fun together just sitting around, or playing. He is my handy-man around the house. He is my advisor in all things. He works so hard to be the best he can, and I want to be better because of him.

Happy Anniversary Matt

Training - Week 12

This week will be a short log. I didn’t do much. Went out a couple days, didn’t do anything too impressive. I had a plan to do 8 on Saturday, but we went on vacation instead! Does hiking at Alta count as high-altitude training? I sure hope so!

I am both excited and terrified about the upcoming race. Hopefully the adrenalin of the event will help push me through.

Training - Week 11

It seems like I have been training forever. I don’t feel this way because I am always out working. I feel this way because I am always feeling guilty that I am not out putting sneaker to road. I have to say that I have been an almost complete failure in sticking with my training schedule. I blame scheduling. I have not been able to find a time that I can consistenly go out. First thing in the morning seemed to work for a while, but I just love my sleep too much! It always seems to hot right when I get home from work and then I am usually busy doing something else by the time to cools off in the evening.

So this week was a lot like all other weeks. I was able to find things to do that were much more important than training. But then Saturday came – and this Saturday was test day. I was supposed to try and do 13 miles and see if I would die. I knew I didn’t want to try and do all 13 on my trail, because it is only 3ish miles long, and I would get bored going back and forth all day. So I scanned the internet trying to find a longer trail, where I could just go out and back – and I thought I had found it.

We filled the car up with water and Matt came with me. He had already proved his ability to do 13, so he was only going to do 8 and then relax and read. We drive out to the trail I had so brilliantly selected and realize that it isn’t paved, and it isn’t hard dirt, it is big rocks. But I don’t care, I am ready, I am all psyched up and ready to go, so I go. I go slow. I couldn’t get up to pace with my feet twisting and turning in the rocks. But I go – I am going to do this! I get out about a mile when the biting flies appear. And they are everywhere! I realize there is no chance I am going to want to do this for the 3 hours it is going to take me, so I bail. I walk back to the car, defeated.

Matt wouldn’t let me give up and drives me to our trail. I try it again. This time I am able to keep pace and am doing really well, for the first 10 miles. Then my legs just give out on me. What surprises me is that it isn’t my knees that get all mad, it is my ankles! So, at just short of 11 miles I give up. My cardio was doing OK, but my legs were killing me. I am hoping that it is just because I spent the 2 miles on the rocks earlier and as long as I don’t do that before the real race I will be OK. I decided I could give myself 13 miles, since I did do 2 before, but there was quite a break between those 2 and the other 11. We will see how it goes.

Oh...I love the mountains

Summer is quickly coming to and end and there are so many things I haven't done yet. One of those things is go hiking. Matt and I decided to take a quick hike on Monday night. We ended up in Taylor Canyon - just North of Waterfall Canyon here in Ogden. It was a great hike. We took a short detour part way up to Malan Basin (I think that is what it was called). On our way back Matt took this picture of the sun on the mountains.

Then on Tuesday night we decided to drive up Trappers Loop and catch some of the meteor shower. We were able to get my mom and my brother BJ to come with us. We saw a couple really good "Earth Grazers" they are the ones with the long tails. Matt set up his camera to try and catch some. We didn't get any meteors in the pictures, but they still look really cool. It is strange to think that the sky changes that much is so little time.

That black spot is dust on the camera, and the structure is the "scenic point" where we were set up. It was the perfect spot, and I had a lot of fun. I can't wait to see the meteors again next year.

Training - Weeks 8, 9, and 10

These weeks I have done a very, very bad job at training. Week 8 was the week before the 24th of July. I was plagued with horrible headaches that week. I couldn’t hardly walk up stairs let alone attempt 5 miles. So I did my 4 on Tuesday and then fell right off the wagon.

We went to Montana on Thursday and I was going to be good and exercise and keep up my miles out there, but I didn’t. I even packed all the stuff I would need. It was still neatly packed when I got home. OH well. Then, because I hadn’t gone out in so long I was able to justify not jumping right back into training. I was supposed to do 12 miles that next Saturday, but I did a few that Thursday and realized there was no way I should attempt to do 12 after letting myself get back out of shape. So, since I couldn’t do 12, I didn’t do any!

This week I did a little better. I did my four on Tuesday. My knees were a little sore so I skipped the miles on Wednesday. I was all ready to go out on Thursday but the winds kicked up and the air filled with dust. It was nasty and I didn’t think I wanted to be breathing it. But I did get right back out on Saturday and booked 8 miles at pace. So I am still OK.

The good news is that Matt decided to test his fate and do all 13 miles the other day – and he did it! He set out in the middle of the day when it was over 90 degrees and still finished. He is not going to have any problems on race day.

Here’s hoping I do better this week. I am quickly running out of time!

60 and Counting

Matt and I recently drove up to Bozeman Montana to attend Matt’s Grandparent’s 60th wedding celebration. We drove up with Matt’s mom and our nephew Carson. I will admit that we tested the limits of what can fit into a Toyota Corolla, but we made it safe and sound.

On our way to Bozeman we spent the night in Idaho Falls and took a drive through Yellowstone. Though I have been there many, many times – I still love it so much! Something about the drive between West Yellowstone and Madison Junctions just feels like home. Cheesy I know, but I still love it. Since it was Carson’s first time at Yellowstone we decided to visit Old Faithful. Of course we arrive just after it erupted. Luckily that gave us just enough time to get some ice cream before it went off again. Very nice!

We drove the rest of the way to Bozeman and arrived in time to attend the community open house for Matt’s Grandparents. It was very nice, and though I will admit that I spent a lot of the time in the room with the kids playing trucks, I still had time to visit with a lot of Matt’s family and have some yummy cake.

That Saturday we spent most of the morning and afternoon at a park. People talked and played. There was a secret mission to the store to get some water balloons, and then quite a few people got wet (including Matt – Thanks Frank!) That evening we were able to have a nice dinner together. There was also a talent show, which somehow I got out of participating in (I promise Matt and I had an act – but we just ran out of time). There were several highlights that night, piano playing, dancing, singing, guitar playing, and jokes. I really enjoyed it. I have to admit my favorite part was the wheelchair dance, though I may be bias because my cute husband was part of that act. Matt and I had a really good time learning how to dance from Amy. It was a really fun event.

Sunday we went to church and then to the Grandparent’s house to take pictures (I need some of the whole group if they ever get distributed). Then we went and watched a slideshow of older family pictures. I enjoyed trying to guess who was who. Then Matt and I went back to the Grandparents’ house and enjoyed some time just talking to Grandpa about life. That was probably my favorite part of the trip.

Monday was the long ride home, but we made it back in one piece. It was a good weekend, we are so happy that Grandma and Grandpa were able to be together for 60 years. Only 58 more and we will be there too.