Weekly Review through 1/20

Hey Everyone!

Hope you had an awesome weekend!

I'm here with my weekly review of last week in all the Fitness, Farm, and Life news!

We had a great week, which included some awesome family time and winter recreation!

Fitness
Reviewing a bit longer "week" this time, since my last post for week-in-review was on a Thursday. This week was filled with varied adventures, as the weather at home started off in the upper 40s and nearing 50 degrees on Friday through Monday! It was great to get outside. Genevieve loved it, too! Then, this past Friday we packed up for our annual trip to the Cabin near West Glacier, for some fun winter activities!

My ankle continues to feel better, but my hip is sort of staying the same. I think I injured it in overcompensating in my running gait while my ankle was sore. I should have taken time off sooner, rather than letting my hip get so out of whack! I'm continuing to take it really easy on running, and trying to work in yoga and strength activities to get my hip back on line.

Friday 1/11 ~ Stroller Walk/Jog outside! About 2 miles.
Saturday 1/12 ~ Virtual Ride on Rouvy in Lava Beds National Monument, CA.  Great ride for my current fitness level.
Sunday 1/13 ~ Fun family pasture hike outside! Nearly 50 degrees!!!  If you missed it, I did an entire post last week with pics from the hike. So much fun!
Monday 1/14 ~ 20 minutes "Flow for Balance" Yoga
Tuesday 1/15 ~ 35 minutes treadmill hike with minimal jogging
Wednesday 1/16 ~ Rest!
Thursday 1/17 ~ Rest. Hosted a Harry Potter themed baby shower for a dear friend! So fun!

Isn't this cake amazing?! 

Friday 1/18 ~ 30 min treadmill incline walk in the morning.
Saturday 1/19 ~ Downhill skiing at Whitefish all day!
Sunday 1/20 ~ about 2 hours of Nordic skiing at Izaak Walton in Essex!

In sum, I did about 10 miles of walk/slowjog/hiking this week, one ride on Rouvy, 20 minutes of yoga, one full day of downhill skiing, and about 2 hours on my Nordic skis. A pretty varied and FUN week!

We have a "big" ski trip planned to Canada in a couple weeks ("big" meaning just a long weekend), and Jeff and I are very motivated to be in good shape for that so we can really make the most of our time on the mountain! My goals are to do more strength workouts and some more biking in the next few weeks to try to get my legs in better shape, especially my quads, for skiing!

Farm
This was a slow week of farm-related happenings. Jeff had spent the previous two weeks hauling a lot of wheat, and took this week "off" to work on processing some of his wild game harvest. He made tons of jerky and summer sausage! This year, Jeff tried a bunch of new recipes and techniques and I think overall was very happy with the end results. My favorites are the maple-bourbon jerky and the Jalapeno-Cheddar summer sausage.

Life
The major highlight of this past week was the time spent at the cabin! Jeff's parents have a timeshare near Glacier National Park and were gracious enough to share their week with us! We stayed three nights at the cabin, and satellited our activities from there.

Our Home for the Weekend! 

Jeff and I went downhill skiing at Whitefish on Saturday and had one of the best days of skiing we've ever had together! We are both challenging ourselves and improving a lot. We skied a lot more technical runs than we have in the past, and it was really fun! The most satisfying part of the day was ending on a run called "Mully's Moguls," which is an advanced blue (intermediate) with moguls basically from top to bottom. A few years ago, we spent the better part of a day skiing that run over and over, just trying to get better at attacking moguls. This time, we just zipped right down like it was nothing. It was very illustrative of the advancement in skill for both of us!

This doesn't show all of Whitefish by any means, but gives you an idea. We skiedmost of the day off the Great Northern Chair, skiing on the black diamonds near the chair-- Langley, Friends of Langley, Powder Trap, etc. 

On Sunday, Jeff's parents joined us for some Nordic skiing at Izaak Walton in Essex. We always love this little cross country ski resort tucked into the side of a mountain, at an historic train stop and inn. We took one outing as a group and Jeff wore Genevieve in the backpack carrier. She liked it for the most part-- as long as she could see where everyone in our group was! After a warm up in the lodge bar, Tom and Carol took Genevieve back to the cabin for a nap, while Jeff and I took another loop. It was a perfect afternoon!

We took allllllll the winter gear with us! 

I didn't take any pictures of our ski activities. Call me a bad blogger, but I guess we were just too busy having fun!  I did take a few photos right around the cabin, literally as we were packing up to leave...

In a completely different vein, Genevieve has figured out how to climb out of her pack-n-play at nap time within the past few weeks and this has lead her to also teach herself how to climb out of her crib, which she did for the first time at home last night. Needless to say, our evening routine is about to change!  Stay tuned...

Family Pasture Hike

The weather here lately has been really nice, as in, not at all wintery! This past weekend, it felt downright Spring-like, so we tried to get outside and take advantage. It wasn't even windy! Sunday was nearly 50 degrees, so Jeff, Genevieve, and I packed up for a hike through our pastures. We really enjoyed ourselves and took a bunch of pictures!

Starting off! 

 Genevieve spent most of the hike in the backpack carrier, with Jeff. This was an old hand-me-down from a friend and, while it's probably on it's last legs at this point, it still gets the job done. I think Genevieve enjoys the vantage point for the most part, although she would really rather be walking on her on volition. Sometimes it takes a few distractions to keep her interested. She "helps" us look for deer and bunnies, or we sing songs, or encourage her one-year-old babbling.  It's just great to get outside as a family!

Snake Grass in Sage Creek.

 Despite the warm weather, Sage Creek is still iced over. This is near the natural spring, to the south of our house and yard.

Views!

Genevieve and me with the Sweetgrass Hills in the background.

 Little Miss Independent and Mama!  Genevieve got out for a little hiking on her own. She was thrilled!  What a lucky girl to get to have such a wide open space to grow up in!

Her very own Pride Rock!

 Don't worry- Harvey came too! He was just as thrilled as the rest of us to take a hike!

Harvey entertains Genevieve while we adjust her pack a bit.

 Seriously, what a nice day! 

Cow paths make great running and hiking trails!

That may be the end of our pasture hikes for a while. I think the weather is supposed to turn colder and possibly snowy later this week!  If I'm being honest, I love snow, so I'm kind of excited! Plus, I really like my seasons to be how they're "supposed" to be!!! It's supposed to be cold and snowy in January, darn it!  Stay tuned...

Hope you enjoyed this photo post from our hike!

Weekly Review through July 9

Whew! It's been a while since I've done a Weekly Review post! Time to get caught up. :)

Fitness
The bulk of my fitness has centered on training for my upcoming Triathlon on July 17. It will be here very soon! This most recent week, I began my official taper for the triathlon. Here's a breakdown of the past few weeks, since I haven't done a review since June 18.

June 19-25
Sunday- 10 mile hike in Refrigerator Canyon near Helena. READ HERE!

Monday- rest
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT: 14 mile bike, 3.2 mile run
Wednesday- 4.1 mile treadmill interval workout
Thursday- 2000 yards of swimming laps
Friday- rest/Drive to Red Lodge
Saturday- 5 mile hike in Custer National Forest. READ HERE!

This photo isn't from the hike, but Jeff, Tom and I drove to the top of Beartooth Pass and this photo was taken there. 

June 26-July 2
Sunday- 3.5 mile run in Red Lodge
Monday- 7 mile mountain bike ride in Red Lodge
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT:  10 mile bike, 3 mile run
Wednesday- I did a TON of yardwork outside today, and 30 minutes of yoga
Thursday- 3.75 mile treadmill tempo run
Friday- 1500 yards swimming, AND 12 mile bike ride

Saturday- rest.

July 3-9
Sunday- 4.7 mile run

Abby joined me on my run while Harvey chose to stay home.

Monday- BRICK WORKOUT: 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run
Tuesday- 8 mile bike, 1500 yard swim
Wednesday- 60 Minutes of yoga-- loved it!
Thursday- 4.3 mile run outside with Harvey! ICYMI, Harvey wrote all about this run and you can read his recap HERE!

Friday- 7.5 mile bike ride
Saturday- 4.6 mile interval run on treadmill

Year To Date:
Running: 313.15
Walking/Hiking: 87.2 miles 
Yoga: 1190 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 156.2
Swimming: 9000 yards

Spring wheat heads are filling. 

Farm
Things have been very busy on the farm, which is partly why I haven't written a Weekly Review post in a while! We've been busy cutting and baling hay, spraying our conventional farm fields, plowing up the rest of our organic land, and cultivating some of our fallow fields. We also moved some of our cows to different pastures, and had a cattle rep out to work out a deal for our calves to be presented for sale in a video auction. It really just seems like it's been a blur.

This is a picture of Jeff driving the tractor and breaking up ground that will be seeded as organic fields.

Life
I can officially say now that I am part of the unemployment ranks. I got laid off from my job in June and my official last day (even though I hadn't worked since school got out) was June 30. The whole situation was a really big mess and I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that I've never worked for such a poorly managed, dishonest company in my life. Frustrating. But, as I've written about before, the school where I worked (the school contracted with my former company and was simply the site of my job)-- the school was fantastic. I'll really miss working there and seeing those kids every day, and the teachers and staff, who were also amazing. I still have my track coaching position in the Spring, so I'll continue to be involved that way.

In the meantime, I've applied for unemployment, which is a hard thing to rationalize in my mind. I've been working steadily since I was fourteen years old. I remind myself that it wasn't my fault that my job ended, I'm a good worker, and I'm simply taking part in a system that was set up for situations exactly like this. It won't be permanent. On the other hand, I'm thankful that this system does exist!

So, I have been looking for work locally and applying for jobs. There isn't a glutton of jobs in Almost-Canada, MT, so there's not a lot to choose from, but I'm hopeful that something will work out. On the other hand, as I've said, summer on the farm is extremely busy and I've found that I actually haven't missed working over the summer so far. I've had plenty to do to stay busy and feel productive around home.


This upcoming week my parents will be here for a visit from Iowa. Jeff and I are looking forward to hosting them on the farm, and they'll also be joining us in Helena to spectate my triathlon. It'll be a great visit!

This is some of our neighbor's winter wheat-- feels like harvest is right around the corner!

Hiking Near Red Lodge, MT

A little over a week ago, Jeff and I were in Red Lodge, MT for a family reunion. We had a fantastic time in Red Lodge, which is a quaint mountain town near Yellowstone Park. We really enjoyed spending time with family and exploring the great outdoors.

A major highlight for me was the big group hike we took on the West Fork Trail in Custer National Forest, near Red Lodge. If you liked my post from a few weeks ago about hiking in Refrigerator Canyon, this one will be right up your alley, too. Lots of photos! Enjoy!

 The above photo is of our group gathering in the parking lot of the trailhead. We had 22 people in our hiking party, all family! I like the contrast in scale of seeing the people in the foreground as compared to the surrounding mountains.

The hike was interesting and fun. It was a fairly gentle uphill, nothing strenuous, and started off through an area that appeared to be recently burned in a forest fire. All the old treas were dead (which meant limited shade! Thankfully it wasn't hot that day!), but the forest floor was covered with tiny baby pine trees, and also lots of raspberry bushes. We were actually a little glad that we were there early in the season before the raspberry bushes were bearing- this place will be Bear Central when those berries are ripe!

 With so many people in our hiking party, the group strung out rather quickly as people adjusted to the pace they were comfortable with and grouped up accordingly. It was neat to look back and see the family along the trail.

After a while, we reached the first waterfall/rapids of the creek that the trail followed. We stopped for a while and took a bunch of pictures. Jeff snapped this one of me:

Photos of waterfalls never come close to doing justice to the real thing! It was really pretty.

After this first waterfall site, more than half of our group had decided to turn back and head to the car. A few of us decided to go a little further and see what else we could see. The trail itself went for over twenty miles, and we didn't plan to go that far but just to go for a while and then turn around. Soon, we were rewarded with a view of a nice wide spot in the creek. Very peaceful and idyllic as the water pooled up here. It would have been a nice spot for backcountry camping.


After stopping briefly here, we decided again to go just a little further and see what we could find. At this point, Jeff and I were hiking with his cousin and her husband. The four of us had a great time hiking together and catching up.

Again, we were rewarded for hiking onward. This time, with an even bigger waterfall!

We stopped here for a while and took a ton of photos and had a snack. Soon we were joined by another group of our family members who had also decided to press on. We had no idea there was anyone left but us, so it was nice to see them. After a rest, we decided to head back to the car. In all, we guessed we had hiked about five miles. It was great to be active in the outdoors and reconnect with family. Jeff and I both agreed that this hike was really nice. It was cool to see a wide variety of cool natural features, including the creek, forest burn, waterfalls, mountain forest, and, of course, wildflowers! We did also see a mama moose and her calf, but didn't linger as moose can be aggressive, especially when they have a calf nearby. 

If you're ever in Red Lodge, you won't have any trouble finding things to do, but definitely consider the West Fork Trail as you explore the area! 

COMING SOON! Harvey, our Vizsla, wants everyone to know that he is working on a guest blog post about going for a run in the country with me. Obviously, I'm helping him out with that. Should be ready to go this weekend! :)

Hiking in Refrigerator Canyon

One thing I really love about Montana is the access we have to the great outdoors. All across the state, there is excellent hiking and outdoor recreation. Jeff and I decided to take advantage of this access with a nice hike last Sunday to celebrate our anniversary weekend. We did about 10 miles on the Refrigerator Canyon Trail near Helena. This post contains a lot of photos, and I hope you'll enjoy looking through them. 

Within about a quarter mile, you find yourself hiking through a slot canyon. This is the actual Refrigerator Canyon and it was easy to understand why it was so-named. The canyon was much cooler than the surrounding environs, and a cool breeze was whipping through as well. I imagine it would feel very refreshing on a hot day. 

Here's a photo looking back toward the slot canyon once we had left it--

The wildflowers were blooming in great abundance along the trail. One of my favorites, Indian Paintbrush is below. There were many other flowers all along the trail as we hiked. And interesting to notice different flowers and plants as we climbed in elevation. 

The trail was a gentle uphill climb, mostly through forrest. Nothing too strenuous, but work nonetheless. 

At about two miles, there's a nice overlook with a rail fence. It would be a great spot for a picnic and a good turnaround spot for a shorter hike. Also nice for photo ops! 

We decided to press on and go a little further. 

After a while, we entered the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area, which is different from National Forrest in that no motorized vehicles are allowed in Wilderness Areas in Montana. There are a few more protections to preserve the land as it occurs. 

We kept trucking along and came to another scenic vista. Neat to see how far we had come!

When we planned our hike and left the car, we intended to do between 6 and 8 miles of hiking. We had read about a trail junction that we thought was about three miles in, and decided that would be our decision point. Turns out, the trail sign was actually four miles in, not three. At this point, we thought we were close to cresting the ridgeline and wanted to try to go for that accomplishment, so we went on, still uphill. 

After continuing on switchbacks for a another half hour or so, we started to feel like we would never reach the top of the ridge in a timely manner, and we'd already done more than we had planned. We decided to go back to the trail junction sign and stop for a snack. The downhill effort to get back to the trailhead took about half the time as the uphill climb, not surprisingly, but our legs were completely shot by the time we got there. Thankfully the wildflowers kept our spirits high!

This is a plant that I was told is called "Mountain Sunflower," but I'm not sure what it's official name is. It's cheery and so pretty. 

We encountered very few people on the trail on the way up. We did see one older gentleman with his dog at the trailhead as we headed out and spoke to him a bit. He was planning a multi-day hiking and backcountry camping excursion and was getting his gear organized as we struck out. He said he had hiked the trail "probably fifty times," and knew it very well. We didn't see another person until we had turned around and started heading down. Then, the closer we got to the trailhead, the busier the trail became. We did run into the older gentleman again and he asked how our hike was. We described how we had turned around at a point that we thought was just below the ridgeline and he confirmed that we were close, but also said that once you get to the top, there isn't a good view of anything anyway, and that we had already seen the best views by that point. That made us feel better about turning around a little early. Then he asked us, "Are you going to the York Bar for a burger?" In my mind, I thought, "Yes, Definitely!" even though we hadn't planned on it at all. At that point, a hamburger sounded too good to pass up. The man said they were really good. We thanked him and wished him well on his hike.

We made it back to our car about four hours after we had left, and were pretty tired and hungry from our effort on the trail. Jeff and I deliberated if we should stop and have a hamburger in York, which is a tiny, tiny town that you drive through between the trailhead and Helena/Interstate, or if we wanted to just get gas station snacks and get on the road for home. As we drove back down the canyon and hunger set in strong, we decided we had better stop. Plus, it's probably bad karma to ignore on-trail advice from a seasoned veteran, right? 

Pulling in at the bar, the patio was full of people. A good sign that this was the place to be. Then we walked around to the front and were greeted with this-- absolutely classic small-town Montana, right here. It's not just the York Bar, it's "The Friendly York Bar." We instantly knew we had made the right decision to stop.

 The atmosphere inside was very much a friendly, small-town Montana rustic bar. It was just perfect. The hamburger and onion rings tasted pretty good after our efforts on the trail, too. If you're ever in the area, definitely stop at the York Bar. It's definitely a slice of good old Montana Americana.

And if you're in the Helena area, the Refrigerator Canyon trail is a good one to consider hiking. We really enjoyed our hike and would definitely plan to do it again and recommend it to others. Gotta love Montana!

Weekly Review April 17 - 23

First off, thanks for everyone's support and enthusiasm with my big Triathlon Announcement. (ICYMI- READ HERE!) I can't reiterate enough how awesome it makes me feel to know I have such support out there!! You all know how to make a girl feel great!

Now, let's take a big picture look at how the week went in fitness, farm, and life.

Our cows were all lined up along the fence when I went out for a recent evening walk.

Fitness
I really wasn't feeling well last weekend, and my fitness took a little hit going into the week. I was able to scrape together a few short, or slow-paced runs, but everything else got pushed on the back burner due to being busy with track and seeding. I did get a lot of steps on my pedometer this week, but I didn't record them here, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Heading in to the last week of my fitness challenges, I've got to do three runs that total 12 miles and are each a different route than I've done so far this month in order to reach both my MillionMileMonth goal and my @Oisellefullhalf goal. I'm about 20 points away from hitting my Shape Up Montana goal of 600 or more total points.

I also picked up an easy yoga challenge last week that started on Thursday that I'm really loving. It's specifically for runners, through @runnersloveyoga on Instagram. A new pose each day focusing on IT band stretching. I am really loving it. It doesn't take much time, but the benefits have already been great!

Image source: @runnersloveyoga on Instagram.
Snapshot of each of the poses in the series.

This Week's Shenanigans:
Sunday- 4 mile run on flat, easy terrain, and a short pasture hike with family.

Nice to see our cows on grass that's turning greener by the second!
We walked through ths pasture on our hike.

We also spied this rare pincushion cactus on our hike. They are hard to find!

Monday- rest/nothing
Tuesday- early morning 2.2 mile hill run. First outside early morning run of the year!, 15 min yoga
Wednesday- rest/nothing
Thursday- rest/nothing
Friday- 4 mile easy run before leaving for track weekend trip.

I paused on my run for a photo op with this old pickup. 

Saturday- 30 min yoga

Year To Date, through April 23
Running: 170.5 miles
Walking/Hiking: 65.7 miles <-- Really pumped up this one this week, again!
Yoga: 790 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 34 miles - Watch for this to pick up as Tri Training continues!

Farm
After we dried out from the RAIN, Jeff and Tom were spraying and seeding this week. We finished seeding our barley and moved on to spring wheat. Whoever wasn't running the air drill, which is the implement we use to seed our crops, was spraying our crop land in preparation to being seeded.

Seeding barley at sunset last week.

The guys worked some really long days, trying to get as much seeding and work in as possible because we were set for another spring storm today/tomorrow. As such, we had to get a little creative with meals and food, as far as timing of when we ate, and all that. I even brought one meal out to the field because they were seeding at the farthest away field from the house and everyone agreed that we didn't want to eat dinner at the end of the work day- at 10:00 p.m. or later. Meals in the field are a more common occurrence for us during harvest, but the weather was good and it was just as easy to bring it out there. Tom said he wasn't sure if he could remember ever eating in the field at seeding time. I was out of practice for this, so I didn't have every little detail thought out, but we all got fed and got back to work, so I'd call it a success.

Jeff takes a break to eat during seeding. 

Life
We are at the busiest part of the season for track meets. Last week, this week, and next week, we are slammed with both High School and Junior High meets. It's hard at times for me to balance farm, track, and my own fitness and well-being. Hoping to continue to stay healthy. Thanks to my family members who continue to be understanding about my track coaching during this busy time, and are willing to make sacrifices and adjustments of their own.

Along the track and field theme, each year our team takes one overnight trip to an out of town meet. I've never gone on this trip before, but this year I went along. Our meet was Saturday in Missoula (a 5-6 hour bus ride from school). We left on Friday and took our team to a Carroll College track meet in Helena, where one of our former athletes was competing, then drove on to Missoula for our meet on Saturday. Our athletes really loved seeing college-level competition, and definitely seeing their former teammate competing at that level. It was really cool to see the team gather around her and soak it all up. I'm glad we could give them this opportunity.

Some of our athletes, in white, gather around for some wisdom from our former athlete, in center, wearing gray.

 HAVE A GREAT WEEK, EVERYONE!