Exercising me and the horse

 I wanted to run this morning but its way too cold so after I fed the horses I did get ready to go out, then just waited. After Sunshower had finished her breakfast I gave her a good grooming and we headed out ~ for a walk. I've taken her on walks before, when she was pregnant but not since then so she was a little skittish. Only a little though, she trusts me enough to follow anywhere I lead and she doesn't pull back or freak out. She did snort at a barking dog and step on the back of my shoe, pulling it completely off my foot and I didn't like that.
 We walked about a mile today. I want her to be in shape for the Ride n Tie in a couple months and I didn't feel like riding so walking her is good. She needs it as much as I do and I just wanted her to have some one on one time with me again. Good for both of us.
 As we left the farm and got out onto the road I could hear Wifi whinnying, again and again and again. Shes such a silly girl, all the other horses are still there but she knows her mom is gone even though she couldn't see us leaving. But she did see us walking out of the barn and we didn't go into the arena, which she can see just fine.
 Here are photos of our arena and the horse runs outside the barn. Wifi's stall on in the barn of the barn, you can't see her stall door from this angle.

Arena gate

Arena before we added the new wooden fence across the back

This photo shows the arena fence with the access road and runs on the right

On the left is the outside turn-out & run, its about 3 times as big as these stall attached runs. Wifi's run is on the left on this side of the turn out. The white shed is out tack room on this end and feed on the other end. Notice the deck?

  Anyway, Sunshower did great on our walk. I'm going to have to get her in shape faster than i did last year because the ride n tie is in March and that only gives us 2 months.
 

What we did last summer

 Last June Lan and I went on a 3 week vacation with our mountain bikes. We left on June 10th and headed to Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Back to Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon & back home. We went to Arches National Park where we toured with a park ranger. We rode bikes at Slick Rock, Moab. Desert riding in Gunnison, CO. & Las Vegas, NV. Single track in Crested Butte. Road & dirt at Leadville, CO.  Here are some of my favorite photos for your viewing pleasure...

My Rock Hopper

Lan at Slick Rock Trail, Moab, Utah

Denise, Lan & Pete above Crested Butte, Colorado on the Snodgrass Trail

It was pouring rain here

Denise on Snodgrass



To get to Snodgrass Trail you have to carry your bike over this stile



7/21/64 ~ 46 years before we were there

Snodgrass trail is done, now heading back into town

Pete is the town Sheriff

Lan & Pete

Townie bikes

Our brand new car was loaded

I absolutely love the Snodgrass Trail; we rode it 3 times

Lan & I in the Gunnison Desert

Amy, from WANDERLUST HOSTEL, was our guide. She's great!

Lan up above Leadville, CO. Our singletrack was closed to bikes so we rode in the road. It was a couple miles uphill without any breaks and I did it all, yay me. Lan sis it twice, he had to keep coming back for me.



Lan in the Utah Desert. We camped out here and I didn't sleep most of the night, scared of bad guys shooting us or UFO's picking us up.



Early morning desert ride

It was raining pretty hard out there in the desert

We went out of our way to explore this ghost town



Finally, Las Vegas



Can you tell Lan loves this stuff?

Lazy river at our resort in Vegas

Todays workout was much easier, in parts.

 I caught the entire spin/strength/core workout today, the spin portion was great, legs were a little sore at first.  But the second half of the class was painful. Squats for 30 seconds at a time then repeat, ouch. The crunches weren't any better but all of the chest and arm work we did felt good to me. I wonder if I need to use a little heavier weights? I use my arms a lot at home, cleaning in the barn, grooming horses, heaving big bags of grain around in the feed room. I'll go up a bit next week.
 Now every time I move, some part of my body is in pain.  But I am looking forward to the day when I won't be in pain and then I'll be much happier.
 My official half marathon training starts next week and I have a dilemma; I'm supposed to start out on Tuesday running 3 miles then do cross/strength on Wednesday but these classes are on Tuesdays & Thursdays and I work Wednesdays. I don't want to be doing my 2 weekly runs with just 1 day in between them, I want to have other workouts in there. I'm either going to have to get up even earlier or run after work in the dark, which I really do not want to do.
 Joey is out in the arena for a few hours, I want everyone to have as much turn out time as I can give them and I'd prefer to have 2 horses out at once but he is mean to Handy and I'm sure he would not like The Pie at all. Too bad Patti is a mare because they are both so mean that they might like each other. Jandy & The Pie can go out together and Sunshower & Wifi go out together. Patti is mean to both my girls.
 I need to get on The Pie, quit screwing around. But I'm not doing it alone, there has been such crappy weather, holidays and short daylight hours. Sigh.
 In another month it will be light out till 6pm and I will be so happy at that time.  :)

I hurt

 Remember I told you about the strength/core class I took yesterday, even though I had missed the spin part of it? I HURT from the stuff I did. My legs are KILLING me!!  I didn't know I wasn't using those muscles or something but they were screaming at me this morning and all day. Wow.
 Tomorrow I am getting up at 6:30, eating a quick breakfast, feeding the horses and getting out of here really early. I'm going to make it to that class and getting on one of those bikes before the losers can get on them. But with the pain I'm in I doubt there will be many people there today that were there yesterday, they will all be at home in bed crying.
 I'm not being very nice but I can say anything I want on my blog. So there.

I gotta get up earlier

 I got to the Y this morning for the 7:30 spin class and all the damn bikes were taken by the New Year Resolutionists. Those losers! The class went for an hour, half was spin and half was strength/core and I can't believe how many of those losers left the room when the hard part began. I ran while they were spinning but joined alongside Lan for the second part.
 It was a hard workout but if I can make it to the classes its really going to help my legs and arms. There were a few times where my legs were shaking from the strain and a couple more where I just couldn't do it any longer but this was my first strength portion, usually I just get the spin class.
 Now I sound like a New Year Resolutionist BUT I actually started working out a long time ago, not 4 days ago. I began my triathlete training 2 years ago and except for taking time off in October & November of this year I've been at it non-stop. I didn't sit on my fat ass all last summer and get 50 lbs over weight and just now decide that I should go to the gym a few times.
 After the class was over I ran another mile.

No exercise again today

I got called in to work today and got no exercise. I hate it when this happens but they need the help and its really easy money. I actually get to take a nap when I'm there if I want.
I had been planning on catching a spin class at the Y this morning with Lan, guess I'll have to do the 7:30am one tomorrow.

Zumba Gold at the Y today

I went to the YMCA for the 1:15-1:45 Zumba Gold class today, expected to see a huge mass of women in there trying to loose weight for their new year resolutions. But there were only about a dozen women, including my & H. This was only my second class and I think I'm getting it a bit more. I do need different shoes, these running shoes have great stability that I need for running but I trip over them if I try moving fast.
 I am so uncoordinated though that its funny. I'm just catching on to the moves and the leader is going on to the next. But I just keep moving and waving my arms, & shuffling my feet and I get there. I think I'll need to do a few more of the Gold classes before I can even try to do a regular one. I have the stamina but I don't have the moves.

 Lucky horses have the day off, again. Its still all sunny and warm in the sunshine but the temps were 28 when I fed this morning and in an hour it had warmed up to 34. The ground is frozen but I put the horses out into the arena anyway, they need to be able to move around more than they have been.

 H and B took horses out for a ride yesterday and B had an accident. I hear shes OK but its still scary. She was riding Taz and ponying Stewart the mule when Taz hit ice and went down. Stewart wasn't able to stop and he walked right on top of B while she was on the ground laying on her belly on the ice, Stewart stepped on her back and one of her hands. B wasn't able to ride back but it was only about 10 minutes to the trail head and she could walk so they walked all the animals back and ended up still riding but at Banner Forest instead. I want to see bruises, they need to be documented & she could get BEST BRUISE OF 2011. I think Meghan won 2010 with her horse head bruise. If you look carefully you can see the horse head in the middle of it!   This is way better than my bruise from December 30th and I think B's horse shoe bruise could be hard to beat.

It's been a good year so far.