Saturday, April 19, 2014

Greyrock Mnt Trail and the Coop

A few things on our "Colorado bucket list" were:
growing Hops (check)
having a huge above the ground garden (check)
having edible things all throughout the yard (check)
...and getting organic chickens (as of today: check)

We found this adoption program, where 2 year old chickens, who no longer produce at a 100 % rate, get retired from this organic farm and you can adopt them. So we adopted 3. Brunhilde, Gertrud and one that still needs a name :-)


 Catching the chickens was fun. I have never attempted to catch one. Those little creatures are fast!!! Luckily I found some gloves from nursing school in the truck to catch them and hold onto them better.
 I knew that I would need these someday. 
 Bringing the chickens home was very exciting for Jack. 
 He wasn't sure if they were playmates, so he stared at them and barked a little.
 He loves sticking his nose in the coop...off course only with supervision.
 Their temporary home...
 Jack is making sure his new friends don't go anywhere...
 We connected the chicken coop to a space behind our garden house...they seem to love it as they explored the area all day. 
 They already laid two eggs, I am guessing it is a thank you for the new home (that's at least what I tell myself).
 In the afternoon it was time to explore. My friend Pam gave me an incredible book for christmas and I have the goal of hiking (or running) all the Northern Colorado Trails from the book and writing feedback and taking pics. 
 Today's run was Greyrock Mountain. It is just about 20 min outside of Ft Collins up the Poudre Canyon. The trailhead is easy to find and great for dogs and hikers. The loop is about 6 miles long (we skipped running up Greyrock, that this is STEEEEEEP). The trail was very very rocky and very steep. The first two miles were so steep that we had to walk some. Our average pace was 12 min/miles, little did we know that the elevation gain was 1500 ft on the way up and another 1500 ft on the way down. Yikes. We will be sore tomorrow. 
 This is the picture from the book. That was the flattest and least rocky part of the trails. I would recommend the trail for day hikes, overnight hikes, dog hikes (multiple streams available) and especially for practice if you plan on hiking the Grand Canyon!!! We will need to come back and hike this trail with backpacks!!! 
Tomorrow's adventure: Bacon Loop 10 miler and Carter Lake bike ride :-) 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Off to a fresh start...

I struggled to leave Ft Collins after Christmas...1 more semester had to be done. I thought it would be fun to take my snow shoes and XC skis, but Flagstaff was pretty much winter-less, except for one day (and it melted the next day again). My friend Amber had just won the National Snowshoe title and I was super motivated to go out and try it out...


 It absolutely kicked my butt. She is an animal on those things, I don't know how she can run that fast on these things :-) It was a great workout and I can't wait for more snow shoe snow. 

The semester ended up going by faster then expected and once we hit spring break we started having the "DONE" mentality.
I had to come back to AZ for my capstone in the Emergency room in Show Low, but I came back with scrubs only. 
Good bye Flagstaff, it was nice, but I am so happy to go to Colorado.
 It was nice to get a warm welcome in Colorado with our great friends. We "cruisered" around town and celebrated being reunited (and St Patties day ;-).


 The week went by way too fast. I got a lot of yard work done, a lot of running, no riding or swimming...
 Then I was off to Show Low, AZ. The drive was loooong, but I was lucky and only had 11 days in Show Low. One more time driving through an AZ sand storm:


 I worked the night shift, but had the goal of still running 2 times a day. I would get off work at 6:30 am, run, sleep 8-12, eat, sleep 1-4, run, go to work. It was fantastic. My times got slower with the lack of sleep, so halfway through I decided to leave the Garmin at home :-) Happy running only. 
 I had a fantastic experience in the ER. The high paced environment was exactly what I wanted. I met so many people and it was great to see people get better and even go home after spending time in the ER. 
My shift was done Tuesday morning at 6:30 am and I sat in the car and drove for 11 hrs to Ft Collins. Finally home. 
Since then I have been doing the following:

Enjoy watching JR become a hunter...


 Building a 12 ft by 12 ft organic garden...
Get a job (YAY)...

And sign up for a triathlon...

Yep, training started today. I have 6 weeks to get my butt in shape for the return to triathlon. Today I went swimming. It wasn't petty. The nice thing is that I can take the cruiser and be at Mulberry pool in 1 minute. No excuses. Tomorrow I will join the CSU triathlon team for track practice and on Wednesday I will join the weekly group ride. I will most likely get dropped like a hot potato, but I am excited. 

After taking one year off from swim and bike training (or actually even more), it is fun to look forward to a race. Without limits made it possible for me to race Xterra's and Triathlons that they put on in Northern Colorado and I can't wait. Just pure fun and exhaustion. Since I am starting from scratch, I am totally looking forward to wobbly legs coming out of the water, forgetting where my bike is and how to take off the wetsuit, and simply pure exhaustion during the race.