Happy New year!!

hey all, Happy New Year!!!!
Having the week off we were having lots of fun playing in the snow. Skating, skiing, shoveling... then I got a cold. Went to bed New Year's Eve at 10:30, blew off the 5k in Sugarhouse park, didn't want to get sicker to start the year. Had a great brunch this am, then was going to snowshoe. I turned the corner to come upstairs from the basement and bang, it felt like someone shot me in the right calf. After swearing and rubbing my leg, knowing it was a bad cramp or something bad with my calf/Achilles, I limped to the chair. So here I sit with a pain in my as..., er calf, gingerly walking on it still not able to contract it. I don't know what was worse, knowing I couldn't start my 24 week build to Ironman or having to sit through 2 football games and 1 really bad movie (Apocalypto?). It might be a long few weeks. Maybe, I'll heal quick?!

Merry Christmas!!

Rich and I had the most mellow Christmas we have ever had, I think. It was just the two of us, which is unusual. We usually invite over some of our other "orphan" friends for dinner, however, this year, Rich was working and everyone was taken care of somewhere else. Kathy is out of town so she wasnt around either. Actually, it was really nice - very very relaxing and warm. Rich was able to get home from work around 10ish or so, which was lucky. We had a nice breakfast and then opened presents. We'd like to thank our families for all the wonderful goodies! Lots of books to read, snuggly clothes to wear and things to "play" with! We had a blast opening all the great presents! Afterward, I took a nap, Rich read, we did some stuff around the house, took a nap, read, prepped dessert, napped, made dinner.... :-) Actually, it was I that did most of the napping! Like I said, a really mellow Christmas! We cracked open our "crackers" to get our little surprises and our crowns for dinner - even Heat Miser got a crown this year! We had an amzing dinner of filet mignon, with a blue cheese topping and a port reduction sauce... and white chocolate bread pudding with homemade caramel sauce for dessert - of course some very good wine as well. Afterward, we snuggled up on the couch and watched the original, 1973 movie musical of Jesus Christ Superstar - it was awesome! Funny, I saw the lead - Ted Neely in the stage show last year - 35 years after! The snow fell, and fell, and fell, leaving about a foot on our driveway for the morning shoveling. All in all, a wonderful holiday! Rich is still working all weekend, on call, unfortunately, but next week he is off so we can play! :-) Merry Chritmas and Happy New Year to all of you!!

Weekend Fun in the Snow

Lots to do when the snow falls! Although we didnt get up skiing yet we still had a ton of fun without gravity! On Saturday, I attended a skate ski clinic with Rhonda, Andy, Tam and Lara... Rich went, too, but didnt do the clinic - he and his friend Zach did laps around us! Tam and I will be participating in a winter triathlon in which one leg is skate skiing so we thought some instruction would be a good idea. The clinic was put on by the race and was free - great! We also were given water bottles, gel and very nice running hats! I've skated a handful of times before, but am always looking for pointers on technique. With skate skiing, it's all about technique, the better you are the easier it is. Tam, Rhonda and Andy had never tried it before. We had a lot of fun, but it was very cold...mainly because we werent' moving for so much of the instruction. Once we got to do a couple of laps on our own we warmed right up!
On Sunday, Rich needed to do some Christmas errands and swim - it's his only day off this week as he is on call for Christmas and working all week, so........ I couldnt get him up skiing and I didnt want to go by myself. No worries - I called my friend Eli to see if she wanted to play - lucky for me, she was just getting ready to go for a hike up in the foothills behind the University. We had a great hike on and around the Shoreline trail! That's it! Happy Weekend!

How Quickly Things Change

A week after the "perfect bike day" we were cross country skiing up East Canyon. Since then it has been doing nothing but dumping snow... I think we've shoveled a total of about 2 feet off the driveway in the last week! Of course, this is fine with us as we love the winter, especially in SLC. The snow makes the mountains unimaginably beautiful and, of course, is great for skiing! Unfortunately, we havent been up to downhill ski yet - just havent been able to fit it in, looking at going tomorrow - although the high temps are supposed to be ZERO - might not be too bad if the wind is calm. Today, we are heading to Mountain Dell for a skate ski clinic, well, I"m taking it, Rich is just skating as he's already pretty proficient at it. Want a good cardio workout?? Try skate skiing - it's amazingly hard! haha. I've gone about 10 times over the past couple of winters, if I can go more often I think I can get better - I better, as I'm doing a winter triathlon in January which include skate skiing! Yikes!
For those of you who havent been out to visit, I'm putting in some pictures of "where we live". As I was driving home the other day I couldnt resist snapping pictures out my car window (probably not the smartest thing!) because the mountains and the area looked so pretty. It's a great place to be!!
Hope everyone has a great Christmas! More on the holidays later!

Perfect Bike Day

Wow, December 7 and 50 degrees, no snow and great trails!! Somewhat of a different winter this year. Did a 2hr ride on the Bonneville today (with 100 other people), enjoying the great weather. As the forecast is for a maybe, possible, perhaps chance of snow in the valley, maybe the last real ride for a while. Although, until the snow is ready to skate on, I may be riding. Anyway a good relaxing ride, Karen was flying on the way home, just cruising over the terrain, giggling and singing "Weeeeee", "Weeeeee". So, happy biking fora little while longer!!!!

Giving Thanks

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Happy Thanksgiving! We had planned to travel south to camp, as we did last year, but due to inclimate weather we decided to stay home and relax, get some work done around the house and play together. We invited our good friends Tammy and Ian over for dinner, as they are our family away from home here in SLC, with their new 4 month old baby Annika it felt like a real family get together. We cooked up a big turkey and all the trimmings, drank wine, and had some awesome apple pie after a nice long walk around the neighborhood after dinner. It was a perfect evening, even while missing those back in MI and CT. Kathy is in Arizona, so we missed her as well, but she was in our thoughts as we stuffed ourselves silly. :-)

Black Friday took us away from the crowds and on to the trails. Tammy and Ian (and little Annika) joined us for a hike up Grandeur Peak trail. Grandeur Peak is a beautiful trail up the mountain (3 miles up, with 2419 feet elevation gain) in Mill Creek Canyon. We went to the saddle, but it was getting windy and chilly so we decided to head down with the baby. We were only about 400 feet short of the summit, so we had a good haul up still before heading back. It was the perfect option to the insanity at the malls and stores!

Saturday, Rich and I worked on some projects around the house - I'm painting the "art/massage" room and redecorating it - as it was, it was totally uninspiring and I finally decided to take the plunge to re-do it. I'm envisioning a peaceful, Zen space that will be lovely to be in while I paint, or do art projects. I'll post pics when it's done, it was covered in "old man pajamas" wallpaper that just had to go! After stripping off the lasf of the paper, we went for an awesome trail run in East Canyon - 4 miles along a wooded path to the lake and back, although cloudy, it was really pretty in subtle browns and golds.

Today, Sunday, we have patched the room and are waiting for it to dry before priming. Not sure what we'll do for fun... hike? run? bike? :-)
Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Try a TRI

I jumped. I am now officially a triathlete. Last Saturday I did my first triathlon. It was a mini sprint, meaning very short - good for me due to my lack of swimming ability! haha. Total distance was 3 mile run, 13 mile bike and 250 meter swim. It was a lot of fun. My friend Eli, who talked me into doing it, her husband and I did the race. We went up to Weber State University for a 9:00 a.m. start. It was cold - around 30 degrees, but promising to be a nice day overall, at about 50 or so. The tri was done backward, presumably because of the short swim (which was in the pool), and the cold temps. The run started off with two laps around the track then outside for a good climb up a hill, around the event center and back to the bikes. The bike course was a 3 lap course, with a wicked long, hard climb on the backside. Then, on to the pool for 5 quick laps. I did well, and really enjoyed myself - 13th out of 39 women and third in the 40 - 49 age group. Here are some pictures, but none of them are of us, as none of us brought a camera! These will give you a feel for the day, though. What next? A winter tri (run bike ski), then a sprint distance in March, an Olympic lite (with a trail run) in June, and a full Olympic distance in September....