Fun Times

I forgot how much fun it is to ride bikes with my kid. When I first started exercising the two of us would go out and ride. Somewhere along the way we stopped going together and then I stopped riding my bike around the neighborhood all together.

I've pulled out the old rusty Wal Mart mountain bike that I used to ride before and  have been riding that again with Trevor (the roads are too rough to ride the fancy road bike).  We've been going out and riding 5 miles every night after dinner, every day this week.

One thing I remembered real quick. When you ride when the sun starts going down there are a lot of bugs. We had to stop to make sure we got bugs out of our eyes at one point last night.

We tend to divide our neighborhood up by lakes. We have 3 little man made lakes. We have the church lake, the lake by Grandma's house and the lake with the hill. The lake with the BIG hill, which somehow does not seem big at all now that I've actually rode my bike up a mountain, is Trevor's favorite spot to ride. We go around that lake 3 times every night.

As we were going around we saw little kittens and OMG they are so cute. I'm sure they are wild rip your face off feral cats but they are cute to look at. Every time we would go around they'd either be running across the road or sitting on the side playing. The last time we went around the mama cat was out there and they were all nursing on her. Trevor was saying how if we go by and one is squished in the road he's going to be really upset. Lets hope we don't see one squished any time soon.

The night before we saw a big owl fly out of a tree and across the sky. It was kind of awesome.

Yesterday I signed us up for a 25 mile bike ride. It's in 3 weeks. I think he'll do fine since there are plenty of rest stops. It's not a race so no need to hurry and we can take breaks. Plus it's on really flat ground so it shouldn't be too hard! I'm kind of excited to have him do the ride with us.

I also signed myself up for the 2 mile run that is in the morning before the bike ride. We'll see how well that works out haha.

Back To It

I'm pretty much feeling exhausted today. I'm pretty sure that's not good English either but that describes how I feel.

I've been getting up at 5 am to go run. I fell off my running routine awhile back and nothing seems to be working to get me back into it so I decided I just need to make myself run (no walking!) at least a mile every day. So far today was the first day I "only" ran a mile since Sunday. I might have went farther, but I was giving myself the excuse that running without headphones really sucks so I'd just do a mile. Melissa keeps borrowing my headphones since hers broke and I forgot to tell her to leave them on the table for me.

I'm really, really not a morning person. Scott leaves around 4:30 every morning and gives me a kiss goodbye (even though I've told him it's totally ok if he doesn't wake me up to tell me goodbye) and then I usually lay there nodding in and out until about 5:45 when I go into a deep sleep for 15 minutes lol.

So since I'm usually kind of awake anyways I've told myself that I need to just get up and go run. I've declared that I will run at least a mile a day on Facebook and Instagram so you know, that means I actually have to do it so I don't look like a liar.

I've determined the only good thing about running in the morning is that it's done and I don't have to think about it anymore. It's REALLY dark at 5 am. It's dark when I run at night too but for some reason the dark in the morning makes me more nervous. Weird.

I've also been going for a bike ride every day with Trevor after dinner. He's decided that he wants to ride 5 miles every day. We set up Runkeeper on his phone and he's been using it for his bike rides. He even set a goal for riding 1200 miles for the year. I'm impressed!

I REALLY need to get a more comfy seat for one of our mountain bikes though. The ones we have have been really killing my ass and I've been trading them around all the bikes (we have a collection of bikes for some reason) trying to find one less painful. I'm pretty sure one does not exist at our house and I think I need to just go buy one. I'm pretty sure your crotch is not supposed to be numb when you get off the bike.

Other than the seat pain I've been enjoying riding with him every day. It's nice to have some time to gether doing something.

With the running and the biking I haven't went to the gym. Seems like something always falls off when I pick something else up.

Saturday is the Color The Skies 5k run I'm signed up for and I'm feeling hopefully that maybe I can run the whole race. Last year I was trying to get a sub 30 minute run, which I just barely missed (but later smashed). This year I'll be lucky if I get a sub 35. It's amazing how much you lose in your endurance and speed when you take a break from running. Hopefully if I stick to it I can get back to where I was.

I'm glad that I gave myself the rule to do one race a month though. I'm sure I would have totally stopped running if I had not done that. Who would have thought when I was running so much just a short time ago that I would have stopped? Weird how that happens. I think I was just exhausted from doing all the long runs and then having a lot of emotionally taxing things going on at the same time. Somehow just laying on the couch seemed so much easier ;)

The important thing though is that I am attempting to pick myself up (again). If I keep trying eventually I'll succeed right?

Dry Creek Trail

Sunday afternoon Scott, Trevor and I took our bikes and went out to ride on the Dry Creek Trail.  I had only been on the trail once before when I ran the Resolution Run. Scott was just starting to run then so he didn't do the run but he had went to support me. I knew if I went to the school then I would know where the trail was so that is what we did.

Scott was all nervous about where to park but eventually he took a chance and parked in the high school parking lot. We put on our helmets and rode down the street to the trail and let Trevor set the pace.

I had said that anything over about 5 was probably going to be too much for him but he thought he could go farther. We ended up riding to what appeared to be the end at a park and then back which was 10 miles. I can't believe he rode 10 miles and didn't even complain.

The whole trail is pretty flat and has little windy paths along this creek. There are park benches, parks and even a couple bathrooms (one of which was open but no doors on the stalls ick). It's a great little trail! I think we figured out a better place to park next time too so that will be a little bit less stressful since Scott was so worried about them towing our truck.

There were a few homeless people in the last park we ended up at before turning around but nothing too exciting or scary along the path.

The whole ride seemed to go by really quickly. I guess that's what happens when you are used to trying to keep up with your husband for 50 miles.

I'm glad we got Trevor out to do something active instead of just sitting on the computer for the whole weekend.

This Is Good

Yesterday after homework and dinner (and dishes) Trevor and I went out for a little bike ride. When we were riding he asked me "won't you be happy when we all move out and you can have a craft room?". My answer is a little different than it used to be when they were little and the possibility of them leaving seemed like NEVER.

Now that the kids are all getting older and I have got a glimpse into empty nesting from a few of my friends, I have to say that now my answer is "no". No I'm not ready for all of you to leave me. Sure a craft room is nice but it's going to be so quiet and lonely without my little ducklings here.

Although, I might be worrying about something that never happens too. I do know of someone that had to move out of her house to get her two twenty something sons to move on.

Funny how when you're younger and you watch those sitcoms with the mom that's always popping in and bringing plates of food you think how RIDICULOUS that mom is and how she should just let them go and live their own lives. But really, our kids ARE our all consuming lives for most of OUR lives.

Hmmm, makes me want to go call my Mom.

Also, to enjoy all the moments of when they are little for awhile longer. Even if they do include things like homework and having to get up extra early to drive them to town to make up something at school.

Back To School

Melissa started school on Monday. She is a sophomore this year.  She's quite the fashionista lately.

Trevor started school on Wednesday. He's in 6th grade now and could care less what he's wearing ;)

Jessica is signed up to take 2 online classes at the Jr. College in North Carolina.

The kids are getting all grown up. Before long they'll all be gone and I'll have a craft room! haha yeah maybe...

Round Valley Regional Preserve

Saturday had me heading back over towards the Antioch-Brentwood area for another meet up with the new East Bay group of ladies.

This time it was Susie, me, Susie's friend Allison and a gal named Esa that I've been friends with online for a couple years now. I was excited to finally get to meet her!

We met up at the Round Valley Regional Preserve, which was about 45 minutes away from my house. Who knew that all these great paces existed so close to home?

Susie and Allison had done this hike before so they took the lead.

The path started off pretty shady but as we made our way up the hill there wasn't quite as much shade. I felt like I was panting by the time we got to the top haha. It wasn't too bad that I thought I was going to die or anything though ;)

They way down was much easier.

There were several runners and people on horses. We even saw a deer and wild turkeys. It was a lot of fun. I'm totally enjoying hanging out with other women who are like minded and getting a little exercise while we're at it! I'm hoping something gets scheduled for next weekend too.

Walk In The Boonies

We have this little area by where I live that is between our houses and the river. They call it "The Boonies". My friend Traci invited me to join her and our friend Nancy to go for a walk out there after dinner last week.

Since I knew I wasn't going to make it to the gym I decided to ride the cruiser bike over there (1 mile each way).

Then we went for our walk. It took us a little bit to get down to the water since the river is sooo low with the drought we are having. But we found it!

and if we needed to take a break we would have had a couch to sit on. Kind of. It amazes me the crap that is out there sometimes.

Traci's dog Blue taking the lead. He's like 19. He's deaf but other than that you'd never know he was so old.

After our walk which ended up being two miles we went back to Traci's and sat on the porch. I tried to not drink but they had some slushi wine something or other. Ok I cave. Nancy had made a rhubarb pie so of course I had to try that out too. 

Maybe some day I'll be able to say no to stuff again. Thankfully I was only up a little bit on the scale in the morning. (I've been trying really hard to be on point again!)

A's Game

Awhile back someone posted a link to the A's website where they had special $5 tickets. $5 to go to a baseball game? Sign me up! Scott had been talking about going to another game so I went ahead and bought us some tickets.

The only bad thing? It was a Monday night game.

So I met Scott in Livermore at the train station and then we stopped and got some Subway sandwiches and then took BART to the game.

I'm glad we got some food because all those nachos looked freaking delicious. And corn dogs. And pizza. And kettle corn. I swear it was a non stop circus of food walking by us. It's probably also a good thing that we weren't near the end of an aisle..

The game was a lot of fun. It had to go into extra innings though so we had to leave before it was over. We got home super late and had to get up to go to work the next morning. 

Ahhh that's why those tickets were $5 ;)

Empire Mine Road

I met this really inspiring gal through Instagram a couple weeks ago (LPAPPAS18). 

She sent me a friend request on Facebook and then she made this group for local runners and people just working on their fitness. Then she went one step further and made an event where we could all get out and do something and get to know each other. 

Brilliant!

So with that I found myself driving to Antioch last weekend. It's "not too far" but "kind of far" if you know what I mean. Took me about 45-1 hr to get there (probably on the lower side since I was running late and MAY have sped a bit). 

There ended up being four of us that met up. One of which is my friend Susie, who I have knows for about 12-15 years (somewhere around there) from wayyy back in the MomsOnline Message boards. We've met up a bunch of times over the years and she even ran a race with me once.  It was great hanging out with her!

The other two gals were the one who organized it all and her neighbor.  We drove down the street from her house a bit and hit this trail called "Empire Mine Road". 

Apparently this road was closed a few years back because there was too much crime going on in the area. So they just took out the road! Which is totally a win win for people who run and bike.

What is kind of cool about the whole area is that it has "history" of having some ghost type activity. Nothing exciting happened to us four moms though lol.

It was so nice to get out and meet some new people. We just walked but it was still getting exercise which is always a win!

I promise I'm not dead! My son just keeps hogging the computer. Eventually I'll have some time to sit down and do some blogging!

Also working on a new blogging project if I can figure out all this tech stuff lol!