Weekly Review April 10-16

Busy week of fitness, farm, and life! We had a major event that really changed our outlook on the farm this week. Read on!

Our apricot trees blossomed this week. It was pretty!

Fitness
I continue to make good progress in my April fitness challenges. At this point, I've done 7 out of 13 different running routes/workouts for #Oisellefullhalf, and I've put in 25 miles toward my 50 mile goal in Million Mile Month--half way! I'm also getting really close to my goal of scoring 600 points in Shape Up Montana this year. I'm not ready to coast toward any of these challenges yet, though. Gotta keep working so I can get them done.

Here's how the week shaped up:
Sunday- I had an awesome 6.4 mile run up to the Goldstone Road and back. I didn't push pace, just went for it. When I got back, Harvey gave me a ton of kisses. I'd like to think he was telling me "Thank you for taking me for the run!" He's not usually a big kisser.

Post-run vizsla kisses!

Monday- No running or dedicated physical activity but I ended the day with four miles of walking on my pedometer.
Tuesday- 3 miles on treadmill before school (running), 30 minutes of yoga, and 4 miles of walking.
Wednesday- 30 minutes of yoga
Thursday- 4 miles of walking
Friday- I was sick, so I did nothing.
Saturday- I felt slightly better, plus the weather was really lovely and it was too nice to stay inside, so I forced myself out for a 2.2. mile walk/jog. Felt good to move a bit, even if it was really a struggle just to do that.

Year To Date, through April 16
Running: 148.7 miles
Walking/Hiking: 53.7 miles <-- Really pumped up this one this week!
Yoga: 685 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 34 miles 

Also in Fitness news, I'm really excited about next Sunday-- it's the Icebreaker Road Race in Great Falls. Jeff and I are pretty firmly planning on going down to run it. I'm planning on doing the 5 mile. It would be my first official race of the season, and I'm pretty pumped. Hoping I can stay healthy to be able to run it.

Farm
We were really busy in the first part of the week with seeding.

Photo cred: Jeff
Jeff had checked in to see how the peas we seeded last week were doing, and happily, they are already sprouting!

Jeff and Tom got all our barley seeded, thankfully, just ahead of some much needed RAIN that fell on Thursday and Friday. Truly, this rain is the biggest news of the season, perhaps even of the entire year so far. We were DESPERATELY in need of some rain. Last year was pretty much drought conditions the entire year, and we really depleted our pasture, not to mention our crops taking a huge hit. Starting off this year with minimal optimism for both crops and pasture grass was not a great feeling. We had actually talked and planned for what we would do if it didn't rain this year again--how many cows would we sell? how could we cut input costs on farmland?

And then it rained over 2 inches. And it was glorious, and there was much rejoicing! It can be very hard to convey to people outside of agriculture just how dependent we are on rain. We can plan and plan and do everything within our own power to try to ensure a successful farm or ranch season, but if we don't get rain, we're in trouble. With this rain being over 2 inches, it was huge for us. We're feeling much, much better about our pasture grasses taking off, hay ground being productive, and our crop land getting the moisture it needs to germinate and sprout strong seedlings. This one weather system totally reversed our entire outlook on the year, and we are so, so grateful.

After the rain, there were huge puddles and lots of mud EVERYWHERE!
Photo credit: Jeff

Life
Jeff and I have been enjoying early season baseball games. I'm a Cubs fan and he likes the Braves. Otherwise, nothing earth-shattering in the Life department. I was not feeling well over the weekend, and still am not feeling 100%, but I know it will pass. I'm looking forward to the beautiful weather we're supposed to be having this upcoming week, and hoping to get some good runs in outside. This week, I'm grateful for the rain, my awesome husband who is a constant source of strength for me, and simply the ability to run and move, and that my body is capable. 

What are you grateful for this week?

Our rain translated in to snow on the Sweetgrass Hills. 

Weekly Review March 27 - April 2

Another busy week in review comin' at ya here on the Prairie Sun Life! Read on to see how the week went in fitness, farm, and life! 

A view of Sage Creek from our pasture.

Fitness
In addition to continuing Shape Up Montana, I also kicked off two new April fitness challenges on April 1. You can read about them in this PREVIOUS POST, but just to sum it up, they are the Million Mile Month challenge and the #OiselleFullHalf challenge. For Million Mile Month (MMM) I pledged to run 50 miles in April. For #OiselleFullHalf, my goal is to run 13 different runs or treadmill workouts in April. I had two days this past week where I woke up early to get my runs in on the treadmill before school. Not my favorite, but sometimes it just has to be that way.

Also, the weather has been nice lately, and Jeff and I were able to fit in a long bike ride on Easter Sunday-16 miles. My longest ride ever on a mountain bike. I was tired at the end, but it felt good.

Here's a screenshot of my route from Strava.

I'm also fitting in slightly more yoga lately, as I've been leading more sessions myself! I lead a brief 15 minute after-lunch yoga session for students every Tuesday at the Elementary School, and we've been incorporating yoga into our Track workouts (I'm a coach on the local high school team) at least once a week. I find that I really enjoy sharing yoga with others, and the kids are really liking it, too!

Here's how the week went:
Sunday- 16 mile mountain bike ride, 3 mile walk in town
Monday- complete rest.
Tuesday- 45 minutes yoga
Wednesday- 3.1 mile treadmill run before school. That 5:15 alarm is harsh!
Thursday- 15 minutes yoga
Friday- 2.8 mile treadmill run before school.
Saturday- 2 mile walk with dogs

Kicking off my April challenges! 

And, here are the Year to Date Stats:
Running: 137.7 miles
Walking/Hiking: 37.2 miles
Yoga: 655 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 26 miles WOOHOO! Movin' on up! 

Farm
We are really starting to transition from calving season into the beginning of Spring farming and seeding. The cows are still up in the corral area- not out to pasture yet- and we have about eight more animals that still need to calve. We continue to feed hay bales every day, but the calving has slowed down enough that we thankfully don't need to walk through and check them so often. So, my morning cow checks are done for the year.

Jeff spent some time on the disc last week to prepare our newly tilled organic farm ground for seeding later this spring. The disc is an implement that is pulled by a tractor and works to break up ground. We have some newly leased farm ground that we have decided to farm organically, and we're really excited about the new challenge and opportunity that will bring. Jeff and Tom also spent some time preparing the sprayer (sprayer only to be used on non-organic, or "conventional" fields!) and other implements for spring work. We will likely start seeding peas first, probably later on this week. This year, we are again seeding yellow field peas. They are primarily ground into flour for human consumption or processed into snack foods.

Life
Jeff and I were able to attend the Montana Farmers Union Young Producers Conference this past Friday and Saturday, along with our good friends Dan and Adria. It was a nice event and we enjoyed spending time with them, and meeting a few new people, too. I'll do a separate post about it soon.

One key takeaway was that people in agriculture can and should be using social media to tell their story. We had more than one speaker who addressed this, and they were convincing enough that my husband has started his own Instagram account! Now, you can follow BOTH of us on Instagram @katie.r.bangs and @farmerjeffinmt  -- Look us up!

Here's a screen shot of one of Jeff's recent Insta snaps. :)

Have a great week, everyone! 

Harvey, Iggy, and Abby on a recent pasture walk with me. 

April Fitness Challenges, a.k.a. AM I CRAZY?!

You guys know I love a good fitness challenge. I've signed up for several in the past, including a mileage challenge last October, the #RunLoveChallenge earlier this year, and the Pulse Pledge Challenge, to name a few. I don't know what it is about challenges that draws me in. Typically, I set a manageable goal that is a bit more than I normally would do, and strive to get better in some way throughout the challenge. I think I like seeing what I can do. Maybe it's the structure of having a plan.  Or, maybe it's just my inner crazy finding something new to obsess over every so often?? (Don't answer that!)

Well, suffice to say that my inner crazy is being unleashed for the month of April. I'm committing myself to not one, but TWO challenges this month! WHAT?!

This is no April Fools. This is for real.

Is that a crazy twinkle, or just sweat?!

First off, introducing the Million Mile Month challenge, or MMM. I'm doing this one as part of my Team Beef Montana involvement. It's pretty simple. Everyone who signs up pledges to total a certain number of miles or minutes of physical activity in the month of April. I pledged 50 miles of running. For me, that's a bit more than I normally do in a month, so it's a stretch, but not impossible. I typically run between 10 and 15 miles each week (lately closer to 10), and with a few races penciled in for April, I think I'll be able to do it.

This is the old-school paper calendar I made to keep track of April mileage.
I also have potential races written in, and wrote in our Track Meet schedule.

Second, I'm also participating in the #OiselleFullHalf Challenge as a member of the Oiselle Team. For this one, the idea is to highlight 13.1 (or round down to 13) as being a FULL distance of a half-marathon. Full Marathon gets all the love, right? But achieving 13.1 miles is also quite an undertaking. So, for this challenge, we're supposed to set a goal of doing something 13 times in the month of April. I decided to run 13 different running routes/treadmill workouts during April.

The sign I made, expressly for the purpose of taking an Instagram photo. Yep. 

Since I had already committed to MMM, but still wanted to do #OiselleFullHalf, I wanted to choose a goal that would work together with what I'd already planned to do. I've decided that my 13 different runs could be done outside or inside on the treadmill. Outside runs cannot repeat routes exactly, but could build off previous routes. I'll continue to challenge myself to run trail routes on the farm, and to keep working to find new routes to and from our house, or in town. Inside treadmill workouts are allowed, but may not be repeated more than once. Again, they could build off previous workouts to extend time or distance. I think both challenges will help work together and will build off each other as running different routes/workouts will help keep things fresh and exciting as I work toward hitting my goal of 50 miles for MMM.

I added a #OiselleFullHalf tracking log under my calendar to help make sure I don't double up on runs!

Or, maybe I'll just go crazy trying to track both challenges, AND Shape Up Montana, which continues through April 30, while also balancing home life, farm, and the busiest month of Track Season.... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!

Follow along all month by checking back on the blog, on my Facebook, Strava, and Instagram (@katie.r.bangs) to see if I'm able to keep it all in check, or if the craziness will overwhelm me!

And here's one more Pro Tip for you... Oiselle is on Zulily today! Go ahead and shop the sale! You won't be sorry... :)

Here's a screenshot I took of the Zulily event.
I own those Charcoal leggings and I LOVE them. Favorite tights.
I also have the Flyte top in a different color and wear it a ton.
Needless to say, it was easy for me to find a few more items to add to my collection from this sale!

Do you have any fitness goals or challenges lined up for April?