Great big stuff

Last week was a big old week for me, HUGE week! Why you ask? Well I got myself a smart phone. I have the world wide web at my finger tips any second of the day now. I thought it was big when a couple years ago I got phone that had a camera in it. Bobby was the reason I got this awesome new gadget. Now, you're probably thinking 'oh what a great guy, he's so good to her' which is completely true, but... His motive for me getting a data plan for my phone was so that I would stop using his. I guess he got tired of getting onto his phone and finding MY facebook open, which is why if you've ever seen a status of mine that is overly gushy and is all about him you'll know that I forgot to log out when using his phone :)

Second reason last week was huge: I went to masters swim class at 5:45 in the a.m. Twice. First time happened to be Martin Luther King day and first thing I see when I walk in the door that despicable hour of the morning was 2 of the people from my swim class running on the treadmille. I stopped dead in my tracks and said to them 'it's Martin Luther King today isn't it?' they just laughed at me and told me to go in and start swimming and they'd be in in a sec. So since they are so great they let me swim with them. They lapped me many times but I didnt mind. I was just thrilled to be back in the pool. I went on Thursday as well. What I love most about masters swimming is it's social hour at from 5:45-8 am. I get a great workout that I wouldn't get on my own, get to be with fun people, and then best of all we go sit in the steam room for 40 minutes. I love it.

3rd reason for being a great big week: I went skiing, twice! That's more than I've been in the last 4 years. It was really fun.

Ok enough of why my week felt so epic here's a breakdown of my training:

Monday- swim 2,500 meters. Pilates. Skiing all day.

Tuesday- ran 5.5 miles

Wednesday- rode trainer 1:20

Thursday- masters swim 2,800 meters

Friday- ran 4.5 miles (hills and in the snow)

Saturday- rode trainer 1:20

Sunday- ran 8.3 miles

Monday- masters swim 2,550

I was really bummed out that I didn't get to do the St George half marathon last weekend. I don't have enough miles on my body and I don't want to "blow it" as Sarah Jarvis puts it :D so I played it safe and stayed home. Great job to everybody that did run in it though!

California

I went to Southern California this week with my husband and parents, unfortunately it wasn't for a vacation. My wonderful Grandma of 90 years old passed away.
The most amazing thing about my parents is that they ALWAYS have a positive attitude even during very sad times. My husband is always positive as well so... even though we went down there for a funeral of a most beloved one we sure did enjoy each others company and had a great time!
The day we left, Bobby and I stopped at good old Runner's Corner and used our birthday money to buy both of us a pair of hobbit feet. Ya know, Vibram Five Fingered shoes. 
We woke up early on Wednesday in St. George, strapped on the hobbit feet and hit the mountain bike trails in Green Valley.

4 mile trail run in the hobbit feet

Here are some pictures of that run

 Demonstrating that you CAN run over rocks n stuff

 Bobby can run over REALLY big rocks and not feel a thing

Zen, a new trail in Green Valley. It's fun.

After our run we headed on down to Thousand Oaks, California.

 We stopped at Antonio's a delicious Italian restaurant, hideout to my father after racing up and down the highway at 100+ speeds. It's his favorite.

Thursday we woke up and ran in the glorious sun and 78 degree weather. I love Cali!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera which is a shame because this trail run through the green Californian hills was unbelievably beautiful. 

4 miles hilly trail run

Thursday afternoon was the funeral, which was in a gorgeous little church and was a beautiful memorial. Grandma was a smart, spunky, sassy woman. She will be missed dearly.

Here are some photos of my cousins and aunts and uncles. My cousin Elizabeth insisted that none of these pictures end up on the web. I don't listen very well.

 Collins' cousins and Aunt Karen

 The boys

 EVERYBODY

We got home Friday night and woke up early Saturday to meet Bobby's family to skiing. I have a rough life.

Back to Church

For those of you who have known me my whole life know that I've always been a spiritual person as well as a church goer.  Well about 5 or 6 years ago I decided I didn't really care about going anymore, so I stopped. It's hard to live the standards that you were raised with if you're simply not doing even the basics. It's crazy to me to think that all Bobby has known of me is non-church goer Erin. So yeah, I've been a real dummy during those last 6 years. When I say a dummy I am in NO way chastising those who don't go to church, who don't believe in religion or anything of the matter. Believe me. Everybody has their own needs and beliefs that will help them better their life, just for me personally I believed it was going back to church. Well last year about this time I decided I was ready to go back. I told Bobby and he obliged to go back with me. Well the only problem was that his best friend lives up the street from us and it just so happens that we are in a different ward. So of course he wanted to go to his friends ward (I know I would do the same) so for the past year we've been attending a ward in which we could only be visitors. The boundary that sets us apart from his friends ward is simply one hundred feet. So we kept going with the hope that they would just accept us as their ward members. This never happened. They were great, nice, lovely people I just couldn't couldn't progress much as a vistor. I put my foot down right as the New Year was about to begin and said that I would be going to our "real" ward. I can be a really stubborn sometimes. We went to our new ward today and both loved it. I love the people and the bishop is so fantastic! I really feel good about the decision and am just sorry it took a year to make it (well 6 years really).

Saturday Snow Run

We went to work early this morning and came home to a house that didn't want to let us in. The power was out so the garage door didn't work and both our house keys were inside. So naturally we parked the truck in our neighbor's drive way so that Bobby could use it as a boost and climb onto the roof. Long story short, when we finally got in our house was 50 degrees! :D I didn't want to just sit there with no power in a freezing cold house so we decided to drive up American Fork Canyon and go for a run. It was awesome. And if Bobby gets any stronger and faster I am going to kill something! =)  No, I actually LOVE that he's getting so strong!

 

4 miles
54 minutes
Slow I know, but the snow was not packed very well! (I'm saying that in a whiny, defensive voice)

I must say that I've never actually taken a camera on a run. Ever. And it was so much more fun to take pictures than to run! I will sacrifice a quality workout so that I can get pics for my blog, because who just wants to read a book with no pictures??

I also made Bobby take a picture of me riding my trainer last night so that I have evidence that if desperate enough I will ride indoors.

Yes, that is Harry Potter on the screen

I have a blog!!

My husband set this blog up for me. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again, I don't deserve him. He's the best thing that's happened to me! Seriously. Ok so now you know how I feel about him :)
To be honest I set up a blog after I got divorced back in '06 or '07 but I never told anyone about it and I really didn't want anyone to know about it so it was just a place that I could vent my feelings. Now that I've got my head on a bit straighter I'm excited to try this on-line journaling again!

Re-cap of the last 3-4 months, basically since race season ended

I worked for the in-laws for a year and a half and back in July I went through a weird time with them I decided I probably shouldn't work for them anymore, They are amazing people and I love them very much. It really took a toll on me quitting that job, I was great friends with all of my co-workers and I miss them so so much! The stress of it all really affected my racing. I really struggled with it during the B.A.M. race in August and honestly I haven't been able to complete shake it from my system since. So I raced Xterra Nationals late September and didn't do as well as I hoped. I hadn't been able to train like I wanted to because of an injury to my hip. The day after the race I started feeling a terrible aching pain in my back, butt, hamstring, calf and foot on the right side. Sciatic nerve pain is the worst! So I stopped doing any type of exercise since everything made it worse. I had problems sleeping, standing, walking, sitting, laying down, pretty much everything. I've been dealing with that since September and I'm graciously happy to tell you that I'm free of pain now! So to celebrate my birthday and celebrate being able to exercise the hubby and I headed down to St George to do some mountain biking and running.

 Church Rocks tunnel is awesomely freaky!

 

 Birthday Ride

8 Mile run in the rain. Bobby dropped me the last 2 miles. He rocks!

Christmas was great! I got this sweet new camera from Bobby. I can't wait to use it under water!

 Bobby's awesome Dad got him this real Broncos football helmet!

 Busted eating chocolate for breakfast

Fletcher got a new industrial strength bone and a backpack

New Year's Day Snowshoe Adventure

 Yesterday's 4 mile run around town. We both love our Saucony Kenvara shoes! 

Thanks Shaun @ T3 Triathlon where you can get any of your triathlon needs and wants.

It took some convincing, but I talked Bobby into reading the Harry Potter books. 

He stays up til 2am reading every night :)

That's all for now. That was really fun! Thanks again Bobby :)

im testing to set up Erins Blog

so, here is the deal, Erin reads everyone elses blog in the world, i thought she should have her own so i am settin this one up.. hope she likes it.