Weekly Review January 24-31 ~ Discovering Trail Running

Another week, another Weekly Review post! 

Photo from Saturday's trail run.

The theme for this past week is definitely trail running and discovery. You can read last week's review HERE.

Fitness
No skiing this week, sadly. All our snow has melted away. It's unlikely that we'll get enough snow again this year to ski at home on the farm, but you never know. Maybe a spring snowstorm with heavy snow??? I suppose it's possible. Earlier in the week it was really icy in the yard and on the roads, so Jeff and I tried out our new YakTrax. They slip on over our shoes and provide really excellent traction on ice.

YakTrax on the ice = awesome!

We went for a light run together on Sunday evening, then I wore mine again on Monday afternoon on my first ever trail run at the new place. You can read about that in this previous post. I also had great road run on Wednesday, than another awesome trail run with Jeff on Friday morning through the pastures for five miles. Trail running out there is a great way to get to know the land in a very intimate way. Again, just super, super thankful for all this great access we have.

Looking back toward the Sweetgrass Hills.

The #RunLoveChallenge continues this week. Wendie and I pushed our distance up to 5 miles. The weekly challenge with that was to "discover" a new run, which I did out on the trails on Monday and again on Friday. So, that Friday run was a double-whammy of increased distance plus discovering a new route. Let me tell you, five miles on trails is MUCH different from five miles on the road. What I really discovered from getting into this trail running stuff is my own strength. Sure, my times are slower, but man is it a workout. One of those hurts-so-good challenges, you know? I know in the long run the trail running will make me a stronger, faster runner, and that's what I'm really going for. I want to know what I'm capable of.

Here's the weekly breakdown:
Sunday- Running 3.2 miles with Jeff
Monday- 3 mile trail run "Discovery" run
Tuesday- 1.6 mile walk, 30 min. core exercises
Wednesday- 3.4 mile HILLY road run at sunset...

The sky can be so beautiful around here! We have had a lot of good sunsets lately.

Thursday- 30 minutes of yoga after school
Friday- 5.2 mile trail run with Jeff

Jeff took this photo of me on our run. That's Sage Creek down below.
Hard to believe not that long ago we were skiing on the creek.

Saturday- 30 minutes elliptical

I guess you'd say the yoga day was my rest day, and I guess you'd call the hill workout and some of the trail running my "speedwork..."  Big week for me overall in terms of mileage and activity.

Filling in my #RunLoveChallenge calendar!

And here's YTD:
2016 Year to Date, through 1/31/16
Running: 45.35
Walking: 8.3
Yoga: 165 min 
CC-Ski: 380 min / 10.8 miles (since I started tracking mileage on 1/17)
Alpine Ski: 2 days

Farm
This week we completed and submitted our Organic Producer application. If you remember a few posts ago, we decided to farm some land organically this year. Well, you have to apply in order to be certified organic. The application is thick and tedious. I think the powers that be will review it and then someone will come out and inspect our farm and our set-up, probably this spring or summer. Sort of exciting. It's an interesting process, for sure.

This is a photo of a poster in the FSA office. 

We also continue to feed cows daily. They typically two hay bales rolled out for them in this feeding pasture each day, plus some more hay and straw in feeders in the corrals. They can wander back and forth between the pasture and the corral as they see fit. They also have an excellent view as they munch. I wonder if they appreciate it?

Our cows graze as the Sweetgrass Hills loom in the distance

Life
We continue to work on small things around the house to make it our own and finish the moving process. We decided to forego our kitchen face lift project for now and put our money toward some much-needed furniture instead. Turns out that I find shopping for furniture online or in store to be overwhelming and stressful. You ever go to a really big lunch buffet and become so overwhelmed with all the choices that you either pile your plate with way too much, or, walk out with absolutely nothing? That's what furniture shopping is like for me. Too many choices make me frustrated and confused, so then we get nothing. But we need things... so it starts again. On and on. We'll get there.

Also, you may have noticed that I changed the name of the blog.... (it's OK, I'll take a moment while you scroll back up and look...) I've been wanting to change it for some time and finally decided on something I like, and Jeff likes, too. A friend of mine is helping with a visual overhaul of the blog, so once that's ready to be unveiled, the URL will probably change too. Don't worry, though, I'll let you all know and give you plenty of lead time before that change so that I don't lose any of you as readers!

Well, that's all for this week! Hope you're all doing well! Catch you on the flip side. :)

Harvey says see you next week!