Weekly Review January 10-16

Time for my second Weekly Review of the year! In case you missed the first one, you can check it out here: Weekly Review January 1-10.

Our "fat beef" started on their rations this week!

So, let's find out what happened this week in the realms of Fitness, Farm, and Life!

Fitness
Despite having some hip and knee pain this week, I still managed to stay on track with my #RunLoveChallenge. Wendie, my partner, nailed it this week, too! She really impresses me and motivates me. I mean, balancing two young children with a job and building up running distance... killer. I have no reason not to get my workouts in! Also, regarding the hip/knee pain, I really think it's just resulting from tightness, perhaps in the IT band. When I stretch it feels much, much better.

Oiselle sends out weekly challenges for everyone who's participating in the #RunLoveChallenge and this week it was to complete this Tough Love Challenge-- a core strength workout. I got that in on Monday. Exercises that focused on leg strength were much easier for me than those that worked on upper body and especially arms. I have a lot of room for improvement in the pushups department...but, oddly, I can plank like no problem. Static vs. dynamic movements perhaps? Either way, despite being good at planking and doing yoga several times a week, I think I'm going to try to work on getting better at simple pushups. Your job is to hold me to it! :)

Anyway, here's the breakdown for the week:
Sunday Run 3.75 miles on Dreadmill
Monday 20 min Tough Love Challenge core routine, plus 30 min yoga

I didn't have the medicine ball that the workout called for, so I used a water jug. 

Tuesday Complete rest. (busy day!)
Wednesday Run 2.7 miles-- ran "The Loop" after my haircut in town. 20 min stretching.
Thursday Walk 1.7 miles. 20 min stretching.
Friday Run 4.1 Miles (I met my weekly "long run" goal for #RunLoveChallenge today!) and 20 min stretching.

Victory photo after finishing my 4-miler.

The route for the 4-mile run wasn't challenging at all, but what made the run pretty tough was that it was cold, windy, and snowing.  The plan was to run out four miles and Jeff would pick me up on his way back from doing chores at another farm yard. I misjudged the wind when we made our plan, so I was running into it the whole time. I finished the run before Jeff was back, so I ended up walking almost another half-mile, too. I was so, so glad to see the pickup! I joked with my #RunLoveChallenge partner, Wendie, that I really wished someone had surprise-installed a hot tub at my house when I got home. Alas, no such luck! A hot shower did the trick, though. :)

Saturday 30 min walk (1 mile), 30 min yoga

I downloaded the Strava app this week and I'm really loving it. If you're on Strava, hit me up or let me know so I can find you!

My hip/knee tightness seems to be greatly alleviated with lots of dedicated stretching, so I'll be spending a lot of my free time while watching TV doing extra stretching. I need to be better about post-workout stretching anyway, so this will definitely provide more impetus for that!

I had a question recently on Instagram (@katie.r.bangs) about how I dress for cold weather running. For my 4-miler, when I left the house it was 25, windy, and snowing. I wore thick tights, knee-high ski socks, a thermal turtleneck, yellow medium-weight shirt over that, and a fleece jacket. I also had my earband, fleece hat, and gloves and ran with my hood up. I'll admit that I tend to layer way more than many runners, though, so you may not need as much as I wore.

2016 Year to Date, through 1/16/16
Walking: 110 min/5.1 miles
Yoga: 135 min
CC-Ski: 220 min 
Alpine Ski: 1 day
Running: 17.25 miles

Farm
Again, not a ton going on right now other than feeding cows daily, tax prep, and 2016 crop season planning. The highlight of the week was that we started feeding our "fat beef," which is the animals we finish ourselves for our own beef consumption. Right now, we have one and our neighbors have one and they're both housed in our corrals. They get all the hay they want plus a ration of chopped up feed barley. In the past, we've purchased feed, but this year Jeff and our neighbor DIYed it using barley that our neighbor grew. Once the cows reach the appropriate weight, they'll be butchered and our freezers will be full. This is local food, folks!

I had just fed them their evening ration. 

Life
At school we're reading a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck as a staff. It's about having a "fixed" mindset vs. having a "growth" mindset. It's sort of interesting. A person with a fixed mindset believes that they are what they are and they can't change. This person is constantly working to prove their abilities, and struggles when setbacks occurs. Someone with a growth mindset believes that they can constantly grow, change, and learn. They see "failure" as opportunity for growth. Think about people in your life-- which type of mindset do they have? What about you? Can you change your mindset? How does confidence work with both fixed and a growth mindset?

This was a graphic someone at school photocopied and shared with everyone. 

I liked this quote: ...believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training. (p.21) I think that can be applied to just about any realm of life.

How was your week?! 

That's Abby and Bella in the back, after our run, and Princess Harvey rode in the cab.