Weekly Review February 21-27

Can you believe we're already done with February?! Here we are with my eighth Weekly Review of 2016! Read on to see how the week went in Fitness, Farming, and Life!

Just loved the clouds!

Fitness
We've now covered four weeks of Shape Up Montana. I really haven't written much about SUM yet this year, so maybe I'll dedicate another post specifically to it soon. This week, I started off with another 10K training run that didn't go so well. With about 1.5 miles to go, my hip and knee all of a sudden started to hurt very badly and I had to walk/jog the rest of the way in. That meant the rest of the week I spent considerable time stretching and doing things that weren't too stressful for the knee. Yes, I did do a couple more running workouts, but they were at very slow pace, with no incline, and included lots of walking. I'm frustrated that I keep having bouts with this hip/knee thing.

Vizsla selfie after one of our runs!

Jeff and I also went for our first bike ride of 2016! We did an easy 10-mile loop "around the block" where we live. I should say that the first 5 miles were easy but as soon as we turned south, we were headed into a strong SW wind for the remainder of the ride. The wind had DEFINITELY picked up from when we left the house. The last 2 miles in particular were pretty much head-on into the wind and were very miserable. All the same, it felt good to use my biking muscles.

Lastly, I was in Bozeman over the weekend and my sister-in-law and I tried a yoga class at a studio downtown called Your Yoga. The class was called Weekend Restore and was very restful. It was sort of a Yin Yoga style class-- not too many poses, none too stressful, held for a long time. I think it was just what my hip, knee, and lower back needed. I felt very "zen" by the end of the hour. Your Yoga had a ton of classes listed and classes cost $10. I'm definitely going to keep this studio in mind for future visits to Bozeman!

Here are the stats from the week:
Sunday- 6.2 mile run
Monday- 1.2 mile walk, 50 minutes stretching.
Tuesday- complete rest.
Wednesday- 2.7 mile treadmill run before school
Thursday- 3.2 mile easy run in the afternoon after a day of working cows, also 45 minutes of core and hip strengthening exercises
Friday- 10 mile mountain bike ride on gravel roads!
Saturday- 60 minutes yin yoga

And, YTD through February 28:
2016 Year to Date, through 2/28/16
Running: 91.95 miles
Walking/Hiking: 20.7 miles
Yoga: 395 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles (since I started tracking mileage on 1/17) 
Alpine Ski: 3 days
NEW CATEGORY--Mountain bike: 10 miles! 

Harvey basking in the sun outside the corrals. 

Abby trots up to say hello! She can't resist an opportunity for kisses.

Farm
After Jeff and I spent a day last week prepping for calving, the action is now starting to ramp up. As of this morning when I did the morning check, we had 9 calves. That means we have 87 to go, still. The weather continues to be pretty good and warm, so that means we don't have to do too many overnight checks. Jeff goes out at about 10 p.m. and then at around 2:00 a.m. Then, I get up a little earlier than I normally would and do a check at around 6:00 a.m. before getting ready for school. This morning was my first morning check. It's kind of a nice way to greet the day-- with a short walk, looking for newborn animals.

This calf was about five minutes old when this picture was taken!

Life
Yes, I was traveling again over this past weekend. I was in Bozeman for the baby shower of a good friend. My sister-in-law Katie planned it and held it at her house. The party was baseball-themed and was very cute. Katie did an excellent job planning and executing the event, and the Mama-to-be seemed very pleased, too! She got a lot of nice gifts. :)

The mother to be with some of her gifts and some of Katie's homemade decorations!
Photo credit: Katie Strissel

A big highlight Saturday night was the MSU Bobcats Women's Basketball game I attended with Tom and Carol. It was a hugely exciting back-and-forth game against the Idaho State Bengals. The Bobcats hit a couple of key 3's to send it to overtime tied at 66, and then momentum carried them through a late surge from ISU to finally come away with the victory 82-80. It was possibly the most exciting basketball game I have EVER attended!! Here's a game recap from the MSU Bobcats website, in case you'd like to read more detail: Late Game Heroics Give Bobcats Win Over Bengals On Senior Night.

Tied at 66 -- headed to OVERTIME! 

Montana Class C Divisional Basketball Tournament was also held over the weekend in Great Falls. Interestingly, the Class C Girls Divisional Championship game between Belt and Box Elder drew 2500 fans in Great Falls while the MSU Bobcat Women's Game drew 2100 in Bozeman. People really love their Class C hoops in this state!

Looking ahead this week, Jeff and I are both off to the Twin Cities for the National Farmers Union Convention March 4-8. Looking forward to connecting with friends form across the country and talking about farming!

Peanut, our last remaining cat, enjoying some evening sunshine on the porch post.

REMINDER-- The NEXT POST will be my 400th post and I'll be switching the URL to the new Prairie Sun Life link!!! Be on the watch for that! 

Have a great week!