Month: June 2016

Walking With Mom

On By Outdoorsy LadyIn Hiking, MindfulnessLeave a comment

A few weeks ago, my mom came to visit us for the first time in our new home in Colorado. My mom currently lives in Texas. She had one condition for visiting. “We have to go hiking a lot, okay?” I’m very fortunate that my mom is in fantastic shape. She gets up and hits the gym to cycle for miles. She is probably in better shape than I am because I simply refuse to get up at 5 am…

My mom was definitely eager to hit the trail. She missed hiking in California, and Texas is quite flat, and hot, and humid. Needless to say it had been a while since she had seen a hill, let alone a mountain. The first day she was here we hit up the REI anniversary sale so she could get some new hiking shoes. She ended up with North Face Hedgehog FastPack. I was super excited because we wear the same size (6.5), and she planned to leave the boots here in Colorado with me for future trips. Alas, not all hiking shoes fit everyone the same. Her boots were a little too big  for me so I’m sticking with La Sportivas for now. Whomp whomp whomp.

I’m so grateful for the time that I got to spend on trail with my mom. We were able to discuss wedding plans, life, and just catch up like old times. The last time I saw my mom was six months ago. That’s just too long for us.

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She is all geared up, and ready to go.

We started out with the Lookout Mountain trail in Golden, Colorado. We were able to take our time down the hill, and then climb back up because we took a wrong turn somewhere along the way, but that’s okay because life is all about the journey – not the destination. We walked for a long time with sweeping views of this valley. It was beautiful, and the trail wasn’t long which is perfect because we had an appointment to see the wedding venue later that day. We were able to take Sienna with us on this one too, which was great bonding for my mom and the pup.

The second hike was a bit more serious. We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park, and hiked up a little beyond Gem Lake. I even convinced my mom to do some rock scrambling. This place is located just outside of Estes Park.

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We don’t look related at all. Hey, we are officially “entering Rocky Mountain National Park.”

The woman at the visitor center tried to dissuade us from going up to Gem Lake because of thunderstorms in the area, but we were fortunate that the weather cooperated (and the trail was less crowded because people didn’t want to brave the weather). I’ve always been a fan of at least trying to go somewhere before giving up. I’m glad we went.  It rained on us for about two minutes, and while  we did hear thunder in the distance, it was nothing that would be cause for alarm. I enjoyed watching my mom cross this balance beam with style and flair. She’s been on a meditation mission, and her overall happiness level seems to have increased ten-fold as has her outlook on life. There were no dogs allowed on the trail to Gem Lake because of part of it is in Rocky Mountain National Park so Sienna had to stay home.

She rock scrambled like a champ.
The view from up top.

 

On our last hike we decided to hit up the Boulder Flatirons because it only seemed right. It was quite hot that day, but we ended up picking up a good bit of mileage. My mom had adjusted a bit better to the altitude, and I actually think she could’ve kept going well beyond when we decided to call it a day. We had Sienna with us again, and wanted to find a lunch spot that accommodated dogs.

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Flatiron Dog

One of our favorite things to do is tacos and margaritas. (Since I turned 21, of course.) We happened to find a taco and margarita spot in Boulder. $5 margaritas are so satisfying. I forgot to explain about the altitude and drinking to my mother. Needless to say…all it took was one margarita. We started driving back to Denver. My mom was silently reading a New York Times article when all of a sudden she burst out laughing. She explained the article was tracking different types of fitness and brain connectivity in mice. There were apparently several group of mice, including “weight lifting” mice. My mom could not stop laughing because she was picturing mice using mini weights. We laughed about this for about the next ten minutes.

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Crossing the balance beam with flair.

 

I will always cherish all of the visits I get to have with my mom.Every single one of them is precious to me. This visit will stick with me though. I’m so glad that I got to share my passion for the outdoors with her. She “gets it.” We can walk along in comfortable silence, in funny conversation, or in heavy topics of the day. I am so grateful for these moments, and I will take as many as I can. So thanks mom. For your company, your wisdom, and letting me walk with you. Now come back to Colorado so we can log some more miles on those shoes.

Injury – The Comeback Kid

On By Outdoorsy LadyIn Uncategorized, work outsLeave a comment

A few weeks ago, I decided to get back to running. I had been running before we moved to Colorado. I was comfortably averaging 5-6 miles. Also, I was working out six days a week doing yoga, pilates, and boot camp. Then we moved. The holidays came. I didn’t want to pay for a gym membership. That was back in November. You can do the math. So I kinda stopped all activity –  except for walking the dog and skiing, of course. It was winter…and cold. I wrote about excuses in an earlier post.

I did try to make the occasional kick boxing or yoga class. Life happens. I totally get it. Spring came and I realized that I have five months to get in shape for my wedding. FIVE MONTHS. So I registered for the Froyo 5k with a friend.  I figured I could do it no problem. My body has always been able to just keep going without injury so I pushed it. Let’s be honest who doesn’t love running knowing there is froyo at the end of the race. I trained for about a week. I ran the 5k just fine. So I thought. When I got home my back was killing me. I couldn’t move much for three days. The pain was so intense that my face would just crunch up into a prune. So much for progress.

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This photo was pre-run, pre-froyo, and pre-pain

I  did learn something. First off, I am no longer 20 years old. Running is something you have to ease into and work towards. The body is an amazing thing, but you have to give it time to adapt. This may seem like common sense, but sometimes we can get wrapped in a goal that we try to take a short cut to speed up the results. Don’t do it. I needed a massage, acupuncture, and another massage to get back to semi-normal. I know the massages sound great, but they were not enjoyable for the most part.

I’m happy to report that I made a full recovery. I started out walking again. Slowly increasing my mileage this time. Then I went on a couple of two-three mile hikes. When that went well, I upped it even more.  In fact, the whole family recently went for an 8 mile hike with no problems.

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The whole family also did a rock scramble!

I also started using Freeletics. It’s an app that has a warm-up, body weight circuit training (squats, sit-ups, push-ups, burpees, etc.), and stretching.  So far I like that it takes about twenty  to thirty minutes. I’ll post more about it when I see the results, but I think this combined with the hiking this summer will help get into shape for the wedding. I’m going to remove running from my routine for a while. I do want to run a half-marathon eventually, but I’m going to actually do some more strength training first.  Also, the weather has been amazing so it is time to get outside, and have some more adventures.