Merry Christmas

 Aww, but not so easy, you do this workout just like the song.  #1 then 1 and 2, then 1,2,3 etc. I'm glad the bike was last, it's not my favorite thing.

9:00 am Crossfit

 Who knew--retirement means you can go the 9:00am class!

Done, way scaled, but done!

Turkey Trot

It was cold, I wanted to get back in the car.  Then the wind started, good thing I didn't have the keys in my pocket!

We did the three mile run, Kerri did nine, rumor has it she won the women's division, at least that's what they told her, but she's pretty sure someone finished ahead of her.  They were having trouble with the results so I guess she'll know in a day or two. At last count I think we had 24 for Thanksgiving dinner, give or take a few, it was a fun day.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend and did I mention I have 11 more days of work?

2.48 at the Ranch

A little run/walk on a beautiful morning.

 

Registered!

First event in a very long time!

So onward with those little runs!

Hey wait, I want my two mile credit!

 Ran two miles with the NRC app, I don't want to run run.  I got a call at one mile in and didn't know I had to restart the app--two miles, honest!

Ok, now the real work begins, I gotta get myself over to my mom's cabin and finish painting her bedroom, her guest bedroom looks really good, but I'm afraid I don't have enough time to get everything I want ordered for her bedroom.  New stove comes tomorrow, microwave and fridge back ordered. Ok, off to work!

It's always about the starting over

And that was a run, not a walk.  Training for that half marathon in June, only room for improvement.

 

Babies and the beach....

 Too much sun, fun and loving the baby girls, life is good.

Check out where Reese is standing, we parked close to that sign and strolled onto the beach, I thought for sure when we left there wouldn't be any parking.  Wrong.  It's pretty unbelievable, anywhere we went there was so much parking.  We got to take the girls to do lots of fun things, and as always, I wish we could stay longer.  Retirement countdown update: 93 days.

99 days--52 working days

 My fellow commuters this morning!  It was hard to go back to work after 4 days off, but the official countdown is on.  The weekend was nice, we got to see Kael win frosh boys at Fastback, by 20 seconds!

Hiking Pebble Plains and a killer yoga/CrossFit workout and recovery in the spa and a little painting made me feel like something was accomplished!

The Wall----

                                                     Woohoo someone podiumed!

The Eye of God and The Wall

There it is, after going down the wrong road (don't use gps) we found the right road, ended up passing it, turning around and found it.  We kept looking up to find it, handy tip:  look down.

That was early so we decided to go ride the sky chair and beat up our knees a little with a downhill hike.

The hike down Bobsled trail is really pretty and it was kinda chill way to finish off the morning.

Then Ker asked if we wanted to do the wall with her in the afternoon.  I said sure, knowing I was getting myself into more than I could handle.

Almost puking, still not there.

But we made it!  Conquer the Wall is the official cross country fund raiser, I said I would send in my registration donation and help with the aid station, she said no, gotta do it again to get the t'shirt.  As we got back to the bottom of the mountain it started to lightly rain, after we got in the car and out of the parking lot we got a super hard rain and lightning storm--good timing.

 

Flat tire

 Craig's tire was flat this morning and we didn't have any extra tubes so we did a Pebble Plains hike.  We usually do a short Pebble Plains walk in the evenings to take Moa out, but this morning we started down by Sawmill Canyon.  The trails are really nice and pretty well marked, it ended up being 4.25 miles.  There was a pack of three, maybe four coyotes that kinda paralleled us for a bit, we had to put Moa back on her leash so she wouldn't chase them.

When there are lots of flower pics

... then you know there were a lot of rest stops! At one point I sat staring at a tree for at least 10 minutes, wondering if it was a sugar pine.  I finally decided it was and moved on after catching my breath.  Check out all the red on here, red actually means faster (honest!).

Todays bonk point--bonk food, the one and only Reeses cup leftover from my birthday.

There was a point on the trail where these flowers were lining both sides,  I should have stopped there for the picture--

This was actually way prettier than it looks here.  The contrast with the cactus always amazes me.

I rode some uphill better than I have in the past, but today cornering was really freaking me out.  I told Craig I would ride it better tomorrow--profound thought, you don't have to ride it better, just ride it if you enjoy it.  I think I'll ride tomorrow.

EDIT:  Kyle update, first surgery a few pins in the scaphoid, and a wired up clavicle, there was not enough  "real estate" to plate it.  Second surgery, carpal tunnel release.  All in all he's recovering well, his hand surgeon said the only limitation may be he won't be able to put the hand in a push up position.

Holy Sh*t

 Never tempt the gods of fate, Karma, the Universe, or whatever.  We got a call from Kyle tonight, he thought he may have broken his shoulder and wrist skateboarding with Moa.  One ED visit later: broken clavicle and scaphoid.  Craig is up there now, he has to get an ortho consult and possible pin in his hand.  It wasn't supposed to be Kyle.

Baldwin Loop vs School Loop

 

Today I got the chance to do Baldwin Loop, note the way I rode it is only 2.34 miles, I didn't record the way I walked it, maybe I walked it twice.  It's a quick ride with definitely more walking than I thought I would do, but I liked it.  Craig is back from SC and we rode it together with him waiting for me a lot.

And yeah, this was my bonk point today, but I came prepared with M&M's.  They probably didn't help me ride better, but life is always better with M&M's.

This is last weeks School Loop ride with Ker, 5.63 miles in 33m 34s--crazy time difference, especially with the increase in distance, maybe Baldwin was harder than I thought, or School Loop easier than I thought?

I tried to practice some of the skills I learned last year at a clinic I went to, it definitely helps if you do what they teach, but sometimes it's counterintuitive, more practice, more practice.  On another note, Summit opened today, maybe it's me getting old but I'm a little more hesitant than I remember being before, backyard trails are really super nice.  I'm going to the high school tonight with Kyle to learn to ride stairs, what's the worst thing that could happen--clavicle? wrist?  Earlier retirement!  Naw that's bad karma, shouldn't be thinking that!

School Loop

 This morning I took Moa to the dog park, and finally rode school loop when I got back.  It was a really fun trail.  I met Kerri at the Maple entrance and pretty quickly had to walk a section, but kept going.  It's single track and lots of rocks which my bike handles really well.  I probably had ridden half of it when I officially bonked.  Like need M&M's bonked.

This was my bonk point, my plan was to turn around at that point, but either way would have been uphill, so I walked some and rode most of the rest of the trail.  I'm really glad I finished it because now I know I can, there'll still be some walk points, but hopefully fewer with time.  Also makes me want to ride Baldwin Loop. Maybe next weekend.  

And it's done!!

Grands

 This weekend was all about the grands.  We celebrated Kyle J's birthday, I would say he had quite a grand day!

He spent the rest of the weekend learning how to drive a stick, he did so well he drove himself and Kael to practice yesterday.  I think Kerri has him convinced that it doesn't have the guts to make it back up the hill if  he drove it down.  We'll see how long it takes for him to give it a try.

I did some granddog sitting, Moa is stuck with me for the week.  We hiked the new Baldwin Loop on Saturday, it's really a beautiful trail, parts of it are very piney, foresty, and parts very scrub even with some flowering cactus.  Moa loved it and I was able to let her off leash to chase squirrels.  The only bad thing about Baldwin Loop is it's a loop, when I realized I had started the loop for the second time, I was not a happy hiker, I finally stumbled upon an exit point, but it's not well marked yet.

Sunday Kerri and I rode the ranch again, I never put my bike in my car and oops, realized it doesn't fit, so I rode from the house, it's not a hard ride but the uphill home isn't too fun.  Moa went too!

Monday was a barbecue at Kerri's there were fireworks over the lake at 9:00 but I decided not to brave the traffic and didn't go.  I could hear the booms, but couldn't see anything from the deck.

The best part, lots of hot tub time, a great reward for hiking, biking and lots of dog walking.

See this cute boy...

He just led his team to the league victory and won the individual league championship! Congrats Kael on an awesome win!

 

Last day....

We had a fun time this morning, but sadly it's our last ski day unless we go to Mammoth.  I'm not sure that's in the plans, at least not for a few weeks.  We also got out the mountain bikes.  I took mine home a few weeks ago thinking I'd get some riding in--I didn't, so we took our bikes back up the mountain this weekend.  My plan was to ride school loop as far as I could go, game rules:    1) if you have to walk because it's too technical, keep going  2) if you have to walk because your cardio sucks, mark that spot, turn around and go just a little farther next time.  On Saturday Kerri wanted to ride so we did Erwin Lake, I'm always up for Erwin Lake, it's probably the flattest ride on the mountain, and then little Kyle wanted to ride it too so we did it again as an evening ride, surprisingly I rode it better the second time.  So I didn't get to do the pretest on school loop, I probably could have this afternoon, but didn't.  It was a good weekend!

 

Cocomelon

 Cocomelon total immersion camp done! Took a detour on the way home at Barstow, the mountains were calling.  Dinner, hot tub, a full nights sleep, ski in the morning and mentally gear up for another week of work.

Weekend plan

Eat

Ski

Hot tub

Eat 

Sleep

Repeat-----or something like that!  It was close!
 

When you let the grandbabies grow up in Maine....

 They just speak a different sports language. (In addition to their Mainer accents!)

Enjoyable day with lots of company, lunch, great hike and hot tub!

Kinda thought this would happen

But still ramping up the running.  This just makes the ramp way gradual!

I didn't ski today...

 I should have skied today.

Slow Zone

 Very slow zone run today, slightly longer, slightly faster, slightly less lung burn. A good soak in the spa and I think I'll be ready to do it again tomorrow.

Silly me......

 thought I could capture the moon.

Me & Hal

 So I've decided to renew my relationship with Hal Higdon, starting today.  Got out the couch to 5K plan and got off the couch. Ouch! Hal, it says couch to 5K, first run being half the distance is not gentle!  It actually felt good, though lung burning being in the mountains, and slow, well you know slow is good, nothing new!

POW!

 

Extra Ski Week

Usual after Christmas fun week with the kids! I went back to work on the 4th and we were shut down for a week.  So we got an extra ski week!  We did Brianhead midweek and then Eagle Point for the weekend.  Strange to be at the cabin all by ourselves after a full house!

We went back to the cabin Wednesday afternoon (after my rib bruising yard sale on the flats) to recoup on Thursday and then ski Eagle Point, this left us with no cell service and no wifi until we started home.   Wow is all I can say, is it good to be out of the loop?

The best part....not the sking, but a new little granddaughter born on her Papa's birthday!  I always like to say "life is good".