The Prairie Sun Life

Weekly Review through February 24!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 23:13:00 +0000

Another awesome week in Fitness, Farm, and Life! Read on for more!

Fitness
This week started off strong, but we were really busy over the weekend, so I really tapered off on Friday-Sunday.
February 18- 30 minute dance workout on YouTube
February 19- 35 Minutes virtual ride on Rouvy!
February 20- 30 minutes dance routine for Shape Up Montana challenge!
February 21- 45 minutes treadmill walking. Sometimes I watch movies or tv shows. I have to say that the climax of Thelma and Louise really kept me walking! Such a great movie!

Recognize this unforgettable scene?!

February 22- Rest.
February 23- Drive to Bozeman. Rest day.
February 24- Drive from Bozeman. Rest day.

This week for Shape Up Montana, our weekly challenge was to complete the "Shape Up Jam" dance and submit a video of the dance. I did it. My video is ridiculously bad, as are my dancing skills. If you want a laugh, here it is:

Farm-
We are nearly ready to start calving season. Our "due date" is March 1, so we could actually start any day. Jeff spent the week preparing the corrals and doing other chores in advance of calving. Then on Friday, he and a friend of ours sorted our animals into groups: older cows, young cows/heifers, and late-calvers. We also have a separate pen for our bulls, and another for the yearlings. It remains frigidly cold with highs in the single digits below zero and lows in the -20s or worse. Horrible weather for calving. We are hoping the cows will hold off until it warms up even a little bit!

Hello, girls!
This is the yearling pen.

Life
We took a quick overnight trip to Bozeman for a family gathering. It was nice to get together, even if it was brief. It was a lot of car time for Genevieve, but overall, she handled it pretty well!

Traveling to Bozeman!
She's just too much with those pigtails!

I also just finished reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I don't normally read a lot of biographies/autobiographies, but I really enjoyed this book. She is someone I think we can all learn from in terms of making the best out of every situation, positive mindset, encouraging others, and much more. If you haven't read this book, I would highly recommend it, regardless of your politics. To be honest, it's much more about her as a person than it is about politics anyway. It is especially eye opening to read about life from the viewpoint of an African-American woman, as her experience was vastly different from mine.

That's all for this week! Have a great week, everyone!

Weekly Review Through Feb. 17

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:48:00 +0000

Another week in Fitness, Farm, and Life! I just realized I never did my weekly review post for last week. Oops! Oh well. It was a relatively quiet week for us anyway. Here's a look at this most recent week

Fitness:
February 11- rest. Daily #RLYCORE challenge pose.

Executing a side plank!

February 12- rest, again. Daily #RLYCORE challenge pose.
February 13- Evening treadmill hike, 30 minutes. Daily #RLYCORE challenge pose.
February 14- Rest. I had planned to exercise when I got home, but Jeff surprised Genevieve and I with a surf and turf dinner! Daily #RLYCORE challenge pose.

This was such a fun surprise and Jeff executed it all PERFECTLY! SOOOO GOOD!

February 15- Treadmill hike, 45 minutes.
February 16- Indoor cycling via Rouvy for 50 minutes, covering 11.3 virtual miles in Kona!
February 17- 45 minutes of snowshoeing outside with Harvey!

This week, I did a one-week-long challenge from @runnersloveyoga (find her on Instagram!) called #RLYCORE, with a new pose each day focusing on core strength. It was a lot of planks and plank variations. I am proud of myself for sticking with it and doing each pose each day!

This was a fun, quick challenge. Can't wait to see what she does in March!

Even though I didn't have a ton of dedicated workouts this week, I was still happy with my overall step counts. I've been working hard to walk more while at school, breaking up the time I'm at my desk. I actually had a great week in our Shape Up Montana team, too, and I'm on my way to reaching my goal of scoring 600 points overall throughout the three month duration.

Farm:
Wow- thanks to everyone who checked out Jeff's guest post on Country of Origin Labeling for beef and meat products! It had a great response! Jeff actually went to Helena to testify on Tuesday in front of the Ag committee. He said it was a great experience and that he learned a lot. He has also done a few radio interviews, which were aired on AM radio ag stations this week. Did anyone happen to catch any of them? We'll keep you posted on how the bill ends up, but either way, I'm really proud of Jeff for his hard work on this!

Life:
Temps have been very frigid outside! It hasn't been above zero for a week at least, with no end to the freeze in sight! We are doing our best to entertain ourselves indoors, but we are also all getting a little cabin fever! Yesterday (Sunday) it was one whole degree above zero, so I bundled up and took Harvey outside for a snowshoe hike in our field. The windchill was still -20 or so, but we hiked right along the shelter belt and honestly, I didn't feel the wind at all! I was actually OVER dressed!

Harvey and me, enjoying some chilly sunshine!

He has the sweetest face! He was so happy to be outside!

I also attempted some yeast baking, and I'm happy to say it turned out great! I've always been pretty intimidated by baking with yeast, and yet it's something I'd like to get better at. I love the concept of possibly grinding our own flower from the wheat and grains we grow, and then baking them into bread and other treats, right here on the farm. So, this being a very simple recipe from Bettie Baker, I thought it would be a good one to try. Jeff, Genevieve and I all gave it a thumbs up! I'm definitely going to check out more recipes from her website.

That's all for this week! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, we'll catch up again soon!

The Scoop on COOL

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 03:46:00 +0000

Today I have a special guest blog post from my husband Jeff! As I've mentioned in my weekly reviews, he is now on the Board of Directors for Montana Farmers Union, and is working on MFU's legislative efforts for the current Montana session. One of the issues he's become particularly endeared to is Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, especially as it pertains to beef. Jeff is actually headed to Helena today to lobby and testify on behalf of Montana ranchers, in favor of better labeling for our beef. Please read on for more information!

Hi folks, this will be either a rare treat or a fiasco, as I attempt a guest blog for the first time. I know Katie has built a substantial and discerning readership, so I’ll do my best to live up to that!

As you no doubt know from reading this blog over the years, we’re cattle producers in addition to being grain farmers. We are proud of the way our animals are raised, and proud of the product they ultimately turn out to be: US Beef. Born, Raised, and Processed in the United States.

As you also may remember, Katie and I have been active members of Montana Farmers Union for the last 7 or 8 years. One of the issues we became most engaged with, due to our pride as Montana cattle producers, is Country-Of-Origin Labeling of meat products. National Farmers Union fought alongside several other industry groups for years to label meat, both to give consumers a choice in what they purchased at the meat counter, and to aid US producers, because when given the choice, consumers in this country will buy US Beef and not think twice.

However, the meat packing industry has always fought against COOL, stating basically that consumers didn’t really NEED to know what country their meat came from, and that it was just too hard to keep all those animals separate anyway, and we should just forget the whole thing. Quite a bunch of nonsense, but nonsense backed by a ton of lobbying clout and $$$$. We finally prevailed, and we had national COOL as law in 2013, 2014, and 2015, but other countries were battling the law at the World Trade Organization (WTO), on the grounds that our product being labeled and differentiated from theirs was negatively impacting their producers, violating the provisions of various free trade agreements. The law was tweaked twice and re-submitted to the WTO, but in 2015 Congress decided to give up on that fight and repealed COOL.

Here’s the thing, though: Those meat packing companies, the ones who always said COOL was an impossible, over-bearing regulation, never stopped labeling meat when the law was repealed! But, the law was gone, and replaced by a Food Safety Information Service rule. That rule says basically: Any meat product that comes into a USDA-inspected processing facility and undergoes a change in its structure can be labeled “Product of the USA.” Key word: any. A box of side of beef cutouts from Brazil, Australia, Mexico, or anywhere else can come into the country, be processed into your chuck roasts, rib steaks, sirloins, etc., and be labeled “Product of the USA.” They’ve taken all the work that those of us in the industry did on behalf of US producers and consumers, and basically turned it into a method to mislead consumers. Why? $$$.

So, you ask, what can be done? Several states have tried to create state-level COOL, by passing laws that require a placard in the grocery store to accurately describe a meat product’s origin, either by saying Product of the USA, or Country of Origin Unknown, processed in the USA (or some variation of that language). This year, there are a couple of attempts to create a law like this in Montana, and MFU is monitoring them closely, so stay tuned.

So why is it important? Well, for one, consumers want to know what they’re buying and eating, and the current rule is an active impediment to that pursuit. Certainly most beef consumed in this country is domestically produced, but that’s the point, isn’t it? You, Joe and Jane Consumer, want to know what you’re getting, and you currently don’t know.

Second, the beef industry is consolidating and globalizing to the point where producers are at risk of losing their independence, and their ability to discover a fair price for their product. The US hog and chicken industries are basically run by the meat-packing industry, with no competitive marketing available to producers even if they want any. The largest meat company in the world, JBS, is now Brazilian-owned. You can see how this system could lead both to producers being squeezed into a system of dependence on the packers, and to consumers being sold product which has no verifiable information about where it may have come from.

Whew, that was long. I guess that’s why she keeps me away from here most of the time! I hope you learned a little something, anyway, and that it kept your interest. Thanks for reading, talk to you again sometime!

Wow! Thanks Jeff for that super informative post! I hope everyone learned something. What can you do as an individual consumer who cares about where their meat and food comes from?

Buy and eat locally, especially in places that work with local and small scale producers.
Get to know some farmers. You may be able to purchase beef or other food directly from them. If nothing else, you'll learn a whole lot more about food production!
Join farm/food advocacy groups, such as Montana Farmers Union. You don't have to be a farmer to care about where your food comes from and groups like MFU are working to keep farmers on the farm and keep good information in the hands of consumers.
Contact your local representative and let them know your thoughts on COOL or any other issues you may have a "beef" with! (See what I did there?!?! haha!)

Product of the USA! (Or should we say Siberia?!?!)

Oh, Canada!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 22:58:00 +0000

I've lived near the Canadian border for 8 years now. Really near. Only ten miles from the line. Despite living so close, I had actually never been to Canada. I've had my passport the entire time, and we often entertained ideas and thoughts of going to Canada, but never took any action.

That all changed last weekend when Jeff, Genevieve, and I took a quick family getaway to the great and enchanting land of Canada!

We had researched and planned a ski weekend at Fernie Mountain Resort, in Fernie, BC, which is about a 5 hour drive from our house. It's actually fewer miles than a trip to Bozeman for us, which is a trip we do all the time. It's funny how being in a different country makes it seem like it should be farther away!

I took a day off of work and we left on a Thursday morning, crossing the border at a teeny tiny border crossing in the rural countryside near our farm- at Whitlash, MT. The border agent was nearly in disbelief that anyone would be crossing at this location. I think he was grumpy that we woke him up from his nap. Needless to say, it went smoothly and we proceeded on to Lethbridge, where we stopped for lunch.

We crossed at the Whitlash/Aden border crossing, which is just to the upper left of the M of Montana on this map.
Our house is between the T and the A of Montana.
It was interesting to enter a foreign country without leaving a gravel road!

Approaching the border crossing at Whitlash. No lines!

It was really interesting to see the Sweetgrass Hills from a different vantage point.
Our house is directly east of the Hills. This is a view looking back from the northwest, from the border crossing.

We made it to Fernie mid-afternoon, checked into our hotel to get organized and unwind for a bit, then we decided to head downtown Fernie and walk around for a while before grabbing some dinner.

Approaching Fernie. You can see the ski slopes in the background!

If you never traveled with a one year old, let me fill you in on something-- they really aren't big fans of shopping and store-hopping. Genevieve was largely unimpressed with our efforts to walk around.
Until we found a children's store that had toys she could play with, then she didn't want to leave! haha She wasn't the best dinner guest, either, but we did enjoy the food and atmosphere at a fun little restaurant called The Bridge, which was recommended to us by the proprietor of the toy store.

Walking around downtown Fernie. Super cute downtown!

Sign for The Bridge Bistro, complete with ski chairs.
Quintessential ski town vibe!

Obviously, I had the poutine for dinner because, well, when in Canada, eh?

Poutine is fries with cheese curds and gravy. Mine had bison brisket and mushrooms, too! Yum!

Trying to keep Genevieve entertained any way possible!

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge. It wasn't right on the mountain, but it really wasn't far, either. It was a very kid-friendly hotel, with a great complimentary breakfast, too.

The next morning, it was time to head to the slopes!

We checked Genevieve into daycare first thing when we got there. The daycare at Fernie was EXCELLENT. It was pretty much one-on-one adult to child ratio. Genevieve's adult friend/caretaker for the day was Ellie and she was fantastic! I was super impressed with her caring nature and her attentiveness to Genevieve. I also loved that they took the kids outside to play during the day, instead of just being cooped up indoors.

While Genevieve was playing the day away with Ellie at daycare, we were out checking out the sweet slopes on Fernie Mountain!

Chair-lift selfie!

We saw a pretty good sampler of the mountain as the day went on. We could tell that it's a really great mountain with lots of interesting and varied terrain and tons of powder traps. The biggest issue with our day was that it was really warm and the mountain hadn't had any new snow in quite some time. This meant that it was pretty icy in a lot of places and slushy on the lower mountain. Skiing on ice is challenging and can be dangerous, so we basically kept to groomed trails.

Jeff is actually in this picture, near the center top, right in the middle of that little gulley.

We did find a few places where the wind had blown some snow and made it a little softer, but about mid-afternoon, it started pouring rain. Rain and skiing don't mix, sadly. Unfortunately, our day of skiing ended a little early. We picked up Genevieve and headed back to hotel. After some swimming in the hotel pool for me and G, we ordered in pizza from the hotel restaurant, ate in our rooms, and went to bed early. We were all exhausted!

With the weather in Fernie being warm and rainy and therefore the skiing conditions being terrible, Jeff and I decided that instead of skiing our second day there, we'd just head south, back to the States, to Whitefish. We had packed all our suitcases the night before and laid out our clothes so that when we woke up in the morning, we could just get dressed and take off for the roughly 2 hour drive south to Whitefish.

One last purely Canadian experience before leaving though. A trip to Tim Hortons!

Tim Hortons is like Dunkin Donuts, but Canadian, and super prevalent. They're known for their coffee, donuts, and pastries. We stopped in for a quick breakfast and coffee to go, and a box of Tim Bits for the road. Tim Bits are donut holes with a dubious name. (Right?!?!)

The drive to Whitefish was uneventful and passed by quickly. We were again the only car at the border crossing, this time crossing at Roosville, and on to Eureka. Genevieve slept pretty much the entire drive. Once we got to Whitefish, we got her settled in their daycare, then headed up the mountain!

NOT RAINING in Whitefish!

The bottom half of the mountain was a little slushy because it was warm here, too, and the top half was pretty foggy. We decided to head to the back side and thankfully it wasn't as foggy and it was actually SNOWING!!! The morning of skiing at Whitefish was outstanding, on fresh snow, and not too cold. We had a blast!

We breaked for a quick lunch at the Summit, and back out we went. Unfortunately, the fog had consumed the backside by now, too. We only took one run back there, and then decided to head down to the front.

Here's a view from about 2/3 of the way down the mountain, finally below the fog.

We did find some non-foggy areas to ski, but by this time of the afternoon, they had become slushy. Then it started to rain. So, we called it a day at about 2:00, got organized, and picked up Genevieve to head home.

It wasn't a bad thing that we left early in the end, because the weather changed very abruptly on our drive home. It plummeted from temps in the mid 40s down to single digits! A winter storm was blowing in and we ended up being very glad we were home on Saturday night rather than staying overnight somewhere and leaving on Sunday morning, which had been our original plan.

All in all, we had a really great trip and made the best of the conditions on both mountains. Genevieve and I experienced Canada for the first time together, and it was a fun memory made as a family!

Weekly Review through February 3

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 20:59:00 +0000

Here's my weekly review of last week, recapping fitness, farm, and life!

This week was full of excitement as we took a weekend getaway to Canada (sort of!) and also began Shape Up Montana! Read on!

Fitness
Jeff and I have made a commitment to trying to get in a bunch of days on skis this year. We don't live super close to any ski resorts, so it takes some effort. This week, we notched two more days on skis!

One nice thing about skiing, is that it seems to be having a positive impact on my injuries. My hip has been feeling better and better, which I'm grateful for! I *may* even start trying out some light jogging again soon! Here's the lowdown. I'm planning a separate post with more info and pictures from our weekend trip, so stay tuned for that soon!

Check out this awesome Bird Mail package I received from a Montana Volee friend!
Flyte Gaiter, chapstick, and a sweet custom travel mug/wine cup!

January 28- Rest. Received a sweet Bird Mail package today!!!
January 29- 30 minutes treadmill walking with some incline
January 30- 20 minutes early morning yoga before school
January 31- Rest. Drive to Canada!
February 1- Skiing at Fernie Mountain Resort in Fernie, BC!

Selfie in Fernie!

February 2- Skiing at Whitefish! (yes, back in the states!)
February 3- Superbowl Workout/Treadmill crossfit activity from Shape Up Montana

February 1 also marked the first day of Shape Up Montana. I think this is the 5th year or so that we have done Shape Up Montana. We really like it for setting up and reinforcing healthy habits! I'm a team captain again this year, but our team makeup is a little different from years past. This year, we have a little bit bigger team including a few family members and lots of friends. Most of our team lives nearby, so we're hoping to have a few get-togethers throughout the entire 3-month program, too.

Farm
Jeff continues to feed cows and do chores daily. As I mentioned last week, he is on the Board of Directors for Montana Farmers Union. As part of that, he is on the Legislative Committee, which helps steer the lobbying efforts of MFU, particularly during the Montana legislative session, which is happening right now. One of the specific legislative efforts Jeff has been spending a lot of time on is COOL, or Country of Origin Labeling for beef and meat products. I'd love to convince him to do a guest post about this, because it's really interesting and affects everyone who raises or eats meat! The big idea of the bill Jeff and others are supporting is to legislate how meat is labeled, and that it should be labeled in a more transparent way so that consumers know where their meat is coming from. I think it's really great that he is so passionate about these things, and he's incredibly knowledgeable on policy. It's a great fit for him, and I think it's meaningful work for the people of Montana!

Life
Our trip to Canada was brief but really fun! I'll write up a separate post about that soon.

Did anyone watch the Superbowl? I sort of watched it, but not with my full attention. Honestly, it was a pretty boring game. Jeff told me it had some of the lowest viewership in years. Even the commercials weren't very exciting. Snoozefest all the way around. If you watched it, what did you think?

I redid my big bulletin board in the foyer at school:

Lastly, an update on Genevieve's transition to toddler bed. For the past three nights now, we've put her to bed and she hasn't gotten up at all. She's rolled around some, or talked to herself a bit, things like that, but she hasn't gotten out of bed, and she's put herself to sleep all on her own. Granted, she's had a bit of a cold and has been really tired, so it's hard to say if that trend will continue going forward, but we're hopeful!

Two Novels

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 23:10:00 +0000

Do you ever read a book that just stays with you? You've finished the book, but it almost feels sad to be done because it feels like you're leaving your friends behind?

That's how I felt about a pair of books I finished recently: Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, and True Places by Sonja Yoerg. Both books were featured consecutively in my local book club. Both featured female central characters who lived outside the mainstream in rural midAtlantic states. Both cause the reader to examine just what it is we need to feel fulfilled in our lives, right along with the protagonists of each book.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, the book, set in the mid 1900s, takes off with young Kya's mom walking down the road and away from their North Carolina coastal marshland shack, fleeing an abusive marriage. One by one, every member of Kya's family leaves her, until at last she is the only one who remains. Kya turns to the marsh itself for solace: ""The sun, warm as a blanket, wrapped Kya's shoulders, coaxing her deeper into the marsh. ...whenever she stumbled, it was the land that caught her. Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother." p. 34

But even the marsh can't protect her from natural human longing for companionship, as she grows up alone, living out her days with gulls and tides as friends. The dual storyline in this book follows a murder investigation and trial of surrounding the death of a prominent young man from the local community, found dead not far from the marsh Kya calls home. Was Kya, the "Marsh Girl," involved somehow?

True Places brings a character very similar to Kya, a young girl named Iris, into our lives, yet in a modern-day setting. This book begins very similarly to Where the Crawdads Sing; Iris has been living alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surviving off the land, her father has left the family and her mother has died. Iris is picked up along the roadside by the mom of a quintessential modern family, Suzanne. Suzanne's own two teenage children, Brynn and Reid, are nearly estranged as they are caught up in their own struggles with modern life in the Instagram and Snapchat era. Will Iris' pure innocence make or break this family as they navigate through the mess of possessions, appearances, and relationships that have come to define their lives?

There are many common themes and motifs between these two books, and both are written very well. I especially loved the nature writing in Where the Crawdads Sing, which was beautiful and yet not superfluous. It always seemed to serve the plot or the setting of the story, and in that way, reminded me of some of Barbara Kingsolver's work. In True Places, I loved how the narration slipped between each of the different characters and did so convincingly. I found myself somewhat fatally attracted to the teenage daughter, Brynn, and thought the writing on that character in particular was spot on. She was a perfect representation of a modern teenage girl--you could feel the sarcasm oozing and practically felt spurned yourself through her many perceived eyerolls.

Overall, while both books were really great and kept me completely absorbed, I liked Where the Crawdads Sing a little bit better. The main character was so compelling, and I just found myself completely cheering for her until the very end. In that sense, it reminded me of another great book, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which I also highly recommend. In comparing those two books, they both feature women who are stronger than they first realize, who have been through trauma, and who have been marginalized from mainstream society, in one way or another.

Lastly, if you take Crawdads as an ovearching metaphor for the sort of struggle between human-kind and nature, I think it's comparable to A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. Both could be considered allegory for mankind taking advantage of, or manipulating, nature. In one, the ending is very satisfying, while in the other, it feels very pessimistic. I'll let you read either or both books, and tell me what you think.

If you're looking for a great piece of writing with compelling characters and great plot, and you're willing to give yourself completely to a book, try either Where the Crawdads Sing, or True Places. You might find a new favorite that you can't put down and you'll certainly welcome a few unforgettable new fictional friends into your life!

Check out these two books on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36809135-where-the-crawdads-sing

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39904267-true-places

Weekly Review through January 27

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 16:47:00 +0000

Another quick week flew by! After spending a long weekend and MLK day at the cabin, my normal four-day school week was shifted to a Tuesday-Friday week, followed by a short two-day weekend. I know that's what normal people have- a short two day weekend- but when you're used to having 3 days off, two days really does feel short! And, to be fair, my four days of work are really long. We leave the house around 6:30 a.m. and get home by 5:30 p.m. Bleh. Those three day weekends are WELL. DESERVED.

Anyway, here's the rundown on fitness, farm, and life for this past week!

Fitness:
Monday, January 21- This was the day we drove home from the cabin, so I didn't get anything in for today. THIS POST has a lot more about our trip to the cabin!
January 22- Took Tuesday off as well.
January 23- Short evening ride on our indoor cycling bike trainer, via Rouvy!

Post-ride on Wednesday!

January 24- Rest
January 25- Woke up early for just an easy walk at a slow pace on the Treadmill. Nice to start the day with some steps!
January 26- Stroller walk outside with Genevieve and Harvey.
January 27- 40 minutes of indoor cycling on Rouvy

Another post-ride pic!

I was pleased with myself for fitting in two Rouvy rides this week! What is Rouvy, you ask? Well, we bought a smart trainer that works with our bike so we can bike indoors. This was our Christmas present to ourselves this year. You can use an app like Rouvy or Zwift to communicate with the smart trainer via bluetooth and control the resistance it applies to the back tire of the bike. We decided, after trying both those apps, that we like Rouvy a little better, and it was less expensive of a paid subscription. With Rouvy, I can select a "ride" from a massive list available on their app and ride it virtually. This week, I rode in Phoenix, Arizona and a route called North Applegate in California! It's really great. I love it as an alternative to running, especially while my ankle and hip are continuing to rehab.

I like using Rouvy on the iPad and either playing music or watching TV while I ride.
This is what it looks like in-app on a Rouvy ride.

Farm
The biggest news on the farm this week was Jeff's attendance at the Montana Farmers Union Producer Conference in Havre. Jeff is now an elected Board Member for Montana Farmers Union. It's a great fit for him as he's very thoughtful about giving farmers voice and representation, and he's extremely knowledgeable on farm policy. He's making a ton of connections across the state and even nationally as he gets involved in policy and procedures of MFU and more. It sounds like some of the speakers at the Producer Conference were really great. I didn't attend because I had school on Friday, which was day one of the conference, and I chose to stay home with Genevieve on Saturday and catch up on laundry and housework. (What fun!)

Life
The biggest event of the week was Genevieve's transition from crib to toddler bed! Luckily, our crib was convertible, so it was an easy switch--just changing the railings out. Jeff waited until Genevieve and I were home in the evening, so she could "help" with that. I also had her pick out a new sheet for her mattress and make her bed. We were hoping that if she felt involved in the process, she might be invested in staying in bed at bedtime. She actually seemed pretty excited about the change! Of course, when it came time to actually lay down and go to sleep, we had many several encores of mom or dad going back into her bedroom to help get her settled.

How about this cute photo of our little girl in her toddler bed! From Jeff's insta.

At first, we were watching her on the monitor and going back into her room, picking her up every single time she climbed out, putting her back in her bed, and asking her to stay there. She clearly decided it was fun to get this sort of cause and effect reaction from mom and dad, and it wasn't productive for anyone. Now, we are trying a new tactic. We do our whole bedtime routine, encourage her to climb into bed on her own, say goodnight, leave, and shut the door completely.We are giving her about 20 minutes to do whatever in her dark bedroom, and then going in and putting her back in bed. So far, this seems to be working better as it's less of a game to her. We're hoping that she'll get to a point where she'll realize that it's really not that exciting to play alone in her dark bedroom and she'll crawl back into bed on her own to go to sleep. So far, this approach is working better for everyone.

In other news...I've been reading some great books lately, and actually finishing up a blog post book review of sorts, so stay tuned for that really soon! Also, this upcoming weekend we are headed to the exotic land of Canada for a weekend getaway to ski. I've never actually been to Canada, despite living only 10 miles from the border fence! I'm super excited for international travel!

Weekly Review through 1/20

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:50:00 +0000

Hey Everyone!

Hope you had an awesome weekend!

I'm here with my weekly review of last week in all the Fitness, Farm, and Life news!

We had a great week, which included some awesome family time and winter recreation!

Fitness
Reviewing a bit longer "week" this time, since my last post for week-in-review was on a Thursday. This week was filled with varied adventures, as the weather at home started off in the upper 40s and nearing 50 degrees on Friday through Monday! It was great to get outside. Genevieve loved it, too! Then, this past Friday we packed up for our annual trip to the Cabin near West Glacier, for some fun winter activities!

My ankle continues to feel better, but my hip is sort of staying the same. I think I injured it in overcompensating in my running gait while my ankle was sore. I should have taken time off sooner, rather than letting my hip get so out of whack! I'm continuing to take it really easy on running, and trying to work in yoga and strength activities to get my hip back on line.

Friday 1/11 ~ Stroller Walk/Jog outside! About 2 miles.
Saturday 1/12 ~ Virtual Ride on Rouvy in Lava Beds National Monument, CA. Great ride for my current fitness level.
Sunday 1/13 ~ Fun family pasture hike outside! Nearly 50 degrees!!! If you missed it, I did an entire post last week with pics from the hike. So much fun!
Monday 1/14 ~ 20 minutes "Flow for Balance" Yoga
Tuesday 1/15 ~ 35 minutes treadmill hike with minimal jogging
Wednesday 1/16 ~ Rest!
Thursday 1/17 ~ Rest. Hosted a Harry Potter themed baby shower for a dear friend! So fun!

Isn't this cake amazing?!

Friday 1/18 ~ 30 min treadmill incline walk in the morning.
Saturday 1/19 ~ Downhill skiing at Whitefish all day!
Sunday 1/20 ~ about 2 hours of Nordic skiing at Izaak Walton in Essex!

In sum, I did about 10 miles of walk/slowjog/hiking this week, one ride on Rouvy, 20 minutes of yoga, one full day of downhill skiing, and about 2 hours on my Nordic skis. A pretty varied and FUN week!

We have a "big" ski trip planned to Canada in a couple weeks ("big" meaning just a long weekend), and Jeff and I are very motivated to be in good shape for that so we can really make the most of our time on the mountain! My goals are to do more strength workouts and some more biking in the next few weeks to try to get my legs in better shape, especially my quads, for skiing!

Farm
This was a slow week of farm-related happenings. Jeff had spent the previous two weeks hauling a lot of wheat, and took this week "off" to work on processing some of his wild game harvest. He made tons of jerky and summer sausage! This year, Jeff tried a bunch of new recipes and techniques and I think overall was very happy with the end results. My favorites are the maple-bourbon jerky and the Jalapeno-Cheddar summer sausage.

Life
The major highlight of this past week was the time spent at the cabin! Jeff's parents have a timeshare near Glacier National Park and were gracious enough to share their week with us! We stayed three nights at the cabin, and satellited our activities from there.

Our Home for the Weekend!

Jeff and I went downhill skiing at Whitefish on Saturday and had one of the best days of skiing we've ever had together! We are both challenging ourselves and improving a lot. We skied a lot more technical runs than we have in the past, and it was really fun! The most satisfying part of the day was ending on a run called "Mully's Moguls," which is an advanced blue (intermediate) with moguls basically from top to bottom. A few years ago, we spent the better part of a day skiing that run over and over, just trying to get better at attacking moguls. This time, we just zipped right down like it was nothing. It was very illustrative of the advancement in skill for both of us!

This doesn't show all of Whitefish by any means, but gives you an idea. We skiedmost of the day off the Great Northern Chair, skiing on the black diamonds near the chair-- Langley, Friends of Langley, Powder Trap, etc.

On Sunday, Jeff's parents joined us for some Nordic skiing at Izaak Walton in Essex. We always love this little cross country ski resort tucked into the side of a mountain, at an historic train stop and inn. We took one outing as a group and Jeff wore Genevieve in the backpack carrier. She liked it for the most part-- as long as she could see where everyone in our group was! After a warm up in the lodge bar, Tom and Carol took Genevieve back to the cabin for a nap, while Jeff and I took another loop. It was a perfect afternoon!

We took allllllll the winter gear with us!

I didn't take any pictures of our ski activities. Call me a bad blogger, but I guess we were just too busy having fun! I did take a few photos right around the cabin, literally as we were packing up to leave...

In a completely different vein, Genevieve has figured out how to climb out of her pack-n-play at nap time within the past few weeks and this has lead her to also teach herself how to climb out of her crib, which she did for the first time at home last night. Needless to say, our evening routine is about to change! Stay tuned...

Family Pasture Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 16:36:00 +0000

The weather here lately has been really nice, as in, not at all wintery! This past weekend, it felt downright Spring-like, so we tried to get outside and take advantage. It wasn't even windy! Sunday was nearly 50 degrees, so Jeff, Genevieve, and I packed up for a hike through our pastures. We really enjoyed ourselves and took a bunch of pictures!

Starting off!

Genevieve spent most of the hike in the backpack carrier, with Jeff. This was an old hand-me-down from a friend and, while it's probably on it's last legs at this point, it still gets the job done. I think Genevieve enjoys the vantage point for the most part, although she would really rather be walking on her on volition. Sometimes it takes a few distractions to keep her interested. She "helps" us look for deer and bunnies, or we sing songs, or encourage her one-year-old babbling. It's just great to get outside as a family!

Snake Grass in Sage Creek.

Despite the warm weather, Sage Creek is still iced over. This is near the natural spring, to the south of our house and yard.

Views!

Genevieve and me with the Sweetgrass Hills in the background.

Little Miss Independent and Mama! Genevieve got out for a little hiking on her own. She was thrilled! What a lucky girl to get to have such a wide open space to grow up in!

Her very own Pride Rock!

Don't worry- Harvey came too! He was just as thrilled as the rest of us to take a hike!

Harvey entertains Genevieve while we adjust her pack a bit.

Seriously, what a nice day!

Cow paths make great running and hiking trails!

That may be the end of our pasture hikes for a while. I think the weather is supposed to turn colder and possibly snowy later this week! If I'm being honest, I love snow, so I'm kind of excited! Plus, I really like my seasons to be how they're "supposed" to be!!! It's supposed to be cold and snowy in January, darn it! Stay tuned...

Hope you enjoyed this photo post from our hike!

New Year's Resolution: Write More

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 20:45:00 +0000

Hello Everyone!

I don't know if you could really say this is a resolution or not, but I am interested in writing more again in the new year. So, I thought it was maybe time to dig up the old blog again. I've been on hiatus for about two years. My last post was in January of 2017. At the time, I probably had a similar thought "I'm going to write more in the blog this year!" but alas... here we are. In the past two years, we welcomed our daughter, who is now 18 months old and full of vim. And, well, she keep us pretty busy, so finding time to write has been difficult. But I do miss writing, so I'm going to give it another go!

18 months old and ready to ROCK ON!

Here's how I see this going. At a minimum, one post per week. Just one per week! Totally doable, right? I think that one-post minimum will be something like the Fitness, Farm, and Life posts I've done in the past, with brief updates in each of those realms. Anything else is bonus! Some thoughts I've had, though, are a simple 5 pictures from my week post, or even a completing a weekly writing prompt. Just something to get the words flowing. Perhaps reinstating the Thankful Thursday posts? Who doesn't need a bit more focus on gratitude?!?! We'll just see what I can keep up with. If you're reading this now, what would you like to see or read about?

So, I guess to kick things off, here's what's happening in Fitness, Farm, and Life right now!

Fitness-
New Years Resolutions really are in full swing, huh? Right now, I'm dealing with some injuries, so I'm not running much. Like pretty much not at all. Instead, i'm focusing on yoga, strength training, walking on the treadmill, and using the new bike trainer we set up. We have a smart trainer and we're using it with the Rouvy app to "Virtually" ride routes all over the world! It's a lot of fun. :) We're also really hoping to get in a lot of ski days this winter (a lot for us would be a number greater than 2) since last year we had an infant and the year before that I was pregnant.

This was a ride I did on Rouvy in Germany!

Farm--
With it being winter, there's not a ton going on with the farm. The cows are staying up close to the house and Jeff feeds them hay daily. He's also been spending long days hauling wheat to the elevator in town. We've had a pretty open winter, which is to say it has been mild, with little snow. It's great for hauling wheat and feeding cows, but not great for moisture prospects for the crops we'll be seeding in a few short months. Honestly, a little snow wouldn't be a bad thing.

This picture was taken before Christmas when we were still grazing cattle on crop stubble.

Life-
Not a ton to report! I'm still working as the secretary at our local Elementary. This year, I'm also the P.E. instructor, which is a fun challenge and gets me out of the office for an hour each day. Right now, the kids are doing their mid-year check-in fitness testing. They are doing great!

In the spirit of the New Year, here's my Best Nine from 2018:

Well, I guess that's all for today! Stay tuned as I hope to keep up with writing regularly!

What Can You Learn from a Vizsla in the Winter?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 15:27:00 +0000

What Can You Learn from a Vizsla in the Winter?

Lately, it’s been frigid cold in north-central Montana. We haven’t been above a HIGH of five degrees in over a week now, with the cold temps expected to last through this coming Sunday. As a farmer, my husband follows weather like it’s religion, and he said the cold air is literally air that has come from Siberia.

Needless to say, we’ve been spending most of our time indoors. At school, the kids have had indoor recess for a week now, and my treadmill has been seeing a lot of love at home. Waaaay too cold to run outside with windchills in the -20s or worse.

Harvey, our short-haired Vizsla dog has been surviving the cold as well. Vizslas are definitely NOT an outside breed in the winter. They have no undercoat and their hair is short. Harvey spends most of his time inside anyway, but even moreso when it’s this cold. I started thinking about what Harvey does to “survive” the coldest days of winter, and thought it would make a fun post! There may be a few tips for humans in there, too!

Bundle Up!

Even though he wears a fur coat at all times (ha!) Harvey wears extra layers when it’s this cold outside. Even if he’s only going out for a short time, he wears at least a hoodie or his wool coat. Sometimes he even wears both! He’s not a huge fan of putting on the layers, but once he has them on, they don’t seem to bother him.

Frankly, I tend to agree. It can be cumbersome to bundle up and pile on the scarves, hats, mittens, coats, boots, etc. BUT I also like to be WARM! Bundle up out there, people!

Harvey wears his wool coat. Actually sort of like a cape.

Harvey also has two different hoodies just like this one. One red, and one black.
Sometimes we layer his wool cape over a hoodie for extra warmth.

Fortify Yourself

When Harvey comes in from outside, he almost always hits his food dish first. Something about the cold seems to make him extra hungry. Even if it’s just one or two kibbles, he pretty much always gets a snack. I’d recommend the same for we humans! There’s nothing better than a warm hot chocolate, cider, or cup of tea after coming in from the cold.

Harvey was extra spoiled this past weekend, though, as Jeff and I were working on processing deer meat into jerky. Harvey was very interested in what we were doing, and in waiting for the odd piece of ground venison to drop!

Jeff is loading a jerky gun and is about to squeeze it out onto the dehydrator tray.
Harvey is VERY interested in these proceedings.

Find a Warm Place to Lie

Harvey excels at finding the warmest places to lay down. Whether bundled up on “his chair,” or curled up on the rug in front of the kitchen sink… which is conveniently located right under a warm air vent… Harvey knows just where to go to warm up!

Seriously... look at that face!

He also has already claimed this old quilt I was finishing up as his own. He likes blankets and furniture that are the same color family as his coat, I think!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been keeping blankets in heavy rotation during these cold days. Harvey is onto something yet again!

Exercise Indoors

When temps are sub-zero and wind chills are dangerously low, it’s time to take the exercise regimen indoors. On a typical nice day, Harvey gets at least 30-60 minutes of off-leash exercise pretty much daily, whether running or walking with us outside. Vizslas need A LOT of exercise, and this gets challenging when it’s so cold outside. Harvey will typically go out and “help” Jeff with some farm chores, and romp in the snow while doing so, but this doesn’t really cut a dent in his energy level. We have to get a little creative with keeping him entertained and helping him burn off steam inside.

Harvey does have his toy crate, but frankly prefers plastic water bottles over just about any dog toy you could buy. We’ll toss some of these around the room for him to pounce on and tackle.

Another favorite activity of Harvey’s is wrestling with Jeff, and something we call “back and forth,” which is where Jeff and I each go to different places in the house, and then call Harvey to us. He’ll go tearing at full speed from one of us, back to the other, and back and forth again and again. Preferably, one of us will be upstairs in the living room and the other downstairs somewhere in the basement. Those stairs really tire him out after several trips at full speed!

Once again, Harvey is on to something. Jeff and I have both been exercising indoors lately. In between games of Back and Forth with Harvey, which is in itself fairly tiring, we’re using our treadmill or elliptical and doing other things inside. You can always get creative and find ways to stay in shape, even if it means staying inside.

Distractions

Even Harvey can be distracted from the cold outside by things like Christmas decorating and wrapping presents.

Ok… he was definitely more interested in attacking the wrapping paper tube than in wrapping presents! People can definitely stay busy with all the trappings of Christmas, too, and maybe even forget that it’s too cold outside to do anything fun anyway… right?

Settle In for the Night

At the end of the day, it’s always nice to snuggle in to a warm, soft dog bed…

Who am I kidding?! Harvey sleeps in the people bed! It works out great for us, too, because he’s like a little space heater!

Stay warm out there, people! And learn from a Vizsla that the coldest days of winter are survivable with a little creativity!

Five Recent Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:41:00 +0000

Well, it’s been months and months since I’ve written any blog posts.

I started a new job in August as the Secretary at our local elementary school. My commute is easy, but lengthy, and my job is busier than my previous job, which means overall, I have much less free time! Also, I spend pretty much my whole day at work staring at a computer screen, and I don’t really want to add more screen time when I get home. So, motivating myself to blog has been tough! But, as always, I’ve come back around because I do miss the outlet of writing.

I thought I’d start with a simple post. My idea was to post the last five photos I took on my phone, and write a bit about them. Here goes!

Above is a photo from a run I went on with Abby and Harvey. I’m not training for anything specific these days, but still getting out for short runs of 3-4 miles. The dogs always love to go!

The angle of this photo is kind of weird, but this was our Thanksgiving feast!

We hosted my parents for Thanksgiving, who were visiting from Iowa. They were here for about a week, and it while it was a pretty low-key visit, it was nice to catch up and spend time together. I don’t see my family very often, since I live in Montana and they live in Iowa.

Jeff and I cooked the Thanksgiving meal. We were pretty traditional for the most part, but we spatchcocked and grilled our turkey with southwest seasoning and wood chips. It took some time, but it was DELICIOUS! We used THIS RECIPE for Smokey Spatchcocked Turkey from Cooking Light. Actually, the November Issue of CL was more or less our Thanksgiving Bible/Menu. We also served mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted brussels sprouts with cranberries and walnuts, homemade stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, and crusty bread. I was really excited about cooking the meal. Everything was from scratch, except for the bread. I probably should be embarrassed to admit that I have never actually made mashed potatoes, gravy, or stuffing before, so that was all new to me and I was really happy with how they turned out!

We also had (unpictured) pumpkin pie, which I also made from scratch. So satisfying to bake a pie from scratch! I use THIS CLASSIC PUMPKIN PIE recipe from Bon Appetit, and a standby crust recipe that I use a lot. Seriously, if you’ve never made a pie, start with pumpkin because it is truly very easy. You can purchase a ready-made crust if you’re not confident in your abilities to make one from scratch, or if you don’t have time.

We went for a run on Thanksgiving morning, too! It was me, all three dogs, and Jeff. You can see in this and the earlier photo that I got to sport my blaze orange vest… During hunting season, I wear one every time I run. There are enough extra people around that it just feels safer to wear one even if I’m not hunting.

Ok, so I didn’t take this photo… I downloaded it from a friend’s facebook post. I’ve been thinking a

lot lately about the diversity of the town I grew up in, Ames, IA. You wouldn’t think of central Iowa

as being a very diverse place, but as a university town, there were people from all over the world

living in Ames. The university family housing was within my elementary school district, too, so I had

many classmates of a wide variety of ethnicities and religions in my classes. I feel tremendously

lucky for the perspective on world cultures and people that having such diversity in my school gave

me.

When I was in Elementary School, our school district decided that the break from school that

happened in the winter between the Christian holiday of Christmas and New Years would no longer

be called “Christmas Break,” but would be renamed “Winter Break.” I distinctly remember one of my

friends, who was Jewish, saying that she felt happier and more included at school just because of a

simple name change.

When I saw this post on my friend’s FB feed, I remembered that time in Elementary school when a

simple name change made a lot of people feel more welcome at school. I couldn’t agree more with

the bottom line, referring to the thought that, while I believe in and celebrate Christmas, I recognize

that there are a great many people in the world who celebrate other holidays in the winter, or none at

all, and I respect them, too, and wish them warm greetings regardless of their religion.

Finally, this photo is from the day the Bobcats beat the Grizzlies in football. Many of you know that

my Montana family are big Bobcat fans. The Cats were definitely the underdogs in this game, so it

was a big surprise to all of us that they won. A few of my family members decided to drive the flag

around town in celebration. All in good fun!

If I’m being honest, this is my least favorite game of the entire football season. I just don’t like how

people can become so antagonistic, on both sides. To me, even as a football fan and a Bobcat fan, the

best part is just spending time with family. Nevertheless, I’m glad that the Bobcats, who have had

dismal season, will have something positive to take into the off season and hang their hats on.

How have the rest of you been? Hopefully you’re all in good health and happiness!

Weekly Review through August 6

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 21:14:00 +0000

Reviewing fitness, farm, and life on the blog!

View of one of our pastures with that big Montana sky! Also, can you spot Harvey? :)

Fitness
Now that the triathlon is behind me, it's time to focus on running again. I have a goal 10K race coming up at the end of August, and I'm shooting for a PR. This year, I'm adding a little mileage to my training leading up to the race as compared to past races. I found a training plan that encompasses long runs of 7 and 8 miles as part of a "Run Your Fastest" 10K plan, and also mixes in speedwork. I think this will help me feel less fatigued at the end of the race. Plus, by the time I get in a pre-race warmup and a cooldown afterwards, I'm usually up to 8 miles or so anyway, so it makes sense to train with that distance a few times to get my body used to it. I'm also doing more yoga again, which I love!

July 24-30
Sunday- rest.
Monday- 30 minutes yoga
Tuesday- 5.3 miles running

This run started with me hitching a ride with my husband in a semi truck!
I ran the 5.3 miles back to our house from here.

Wednesday- 30 min yoga
Thursday- 5.7 miles treadmill interval run
Friday- rest
Saturday- 30 minutes yoga

July 31-August 6
Sunday- 6.3 mile run

Many of my runs are starting or ending at the harvest field lately.

Monday- rest
Tuesday- 4.2 mile treadmill speedwork
Wednesday- 30 minutes yoga
Thursday- rest
Friday- 45 minutes elliptical
Saturday- 7 mile run! Longest run I've ever done in my life!

Year-to-Date through August 6
Running: 358.15
Walking/Hiking: 93.6 miles
Yoga: 1310 min
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 174.6
Swimming: 11500 yards

Farm
We have started harvest, which is our busiest time of the year on the farm. Looooong days are spent in the field. This year, Jeff and Tom started the harvest season out by helping some of our heighbors cut their winter wheat. Then, we began cutting our peas and barley. We should be done with barley tomorrow. Then, it seems like we might have a bit of a break before our spring wheat, which is the bulk of our crop, will be ready. Some of the specific tasks I have been helping with have included helping Jeff move and set up the auger, moving vehicles from one field to another, cleaning out grain bins, preparing lunches and dinners...other duties as assigned... I'm also continuing to try to keep the garden going. Right now, I'm harvesting zucchini, carrots and cucumbers while tomatoes and green beans are just coming on.

Barley is unloaded from the truck into the auger, and goes up into a grain bin.
#futurebeer

Life
I have some great news in this department- I have a job! I am going to be starting as the Elementary Secretary at North Star this school year! I'm so, so happy to be working at the school. I applied for the job in July, followed up on my application, and interviewed shortly after that. After the interview, I was offered the job and accepted. (Some people have asked me if I was just given the job- and that's not the case. I applied, just like anyone else would.) One thing I know is that I'm grateful and honored to officially join the North Star staff. In my previous job, I worked in the school, but I wasn't actually employed by the school. So, this will feel different. I'm most excited about interacting with students and staff on a daily basis. We have the BEST kids and staff at our school!

This is our cat, Quincy, who felt the need to "help" me repaint this table. One of my "holy crap summer is almost over!" projects. :)

What this means is that my summer is going to be over very shortly as I will be reporting to school on August 15! We will definitely still have harvest happening on our farm at that time, so it could be a little crazy/stressful at first balancing a new job with on-farm obligations. It will certainly be fun, though! Wish me luck! :)

It's Raspberry Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 16:44:00 +0000

Our raspberry patch on the farm is on strong right now. I suit up in long pants and a long sleeve shirt every third day or so to walk among the bramble and pick ripe berries.

My dog, Harvey, usually likes to stop by for visits while I'm picking- he loves to eat fresh raspberries! He has figured out that the red ones are the ripe ones and will walk along and snack on them right off the cane...

when he's not getting them from me, that is!

Raspberries are, of course, delicious eaten plan or on cereal or with ice cream. I've also been trying to incorporate them into some cooking. One evening I made a delicious salad inspired by THIS ONE from Cooking Light Magazine. It's called "Grilled Balsamic Chicken Chicken Salad with Spiced Pecans." I changed the recipe by marinating the chicken breasts in raspberry vinaigrette and some fresh berries, then grilling them. I served it on a bed of fresh greens from our garden, rather than arugula. I did use the spiced pecans the recipe called for. I also added fresh raspberries and feta crumbles to the finished salad. We just used more raspberry vinaigrette rather than mixing up the dressing that the recipe called for, too. End result was really good! Jeff and I both really liked it.

Raspberries are delicious showcased in baked goods, too. Carol made a raspberry jello pie in a graham cracker crust that we all enjoyed. I made lemon pound cake and threw some berries in the batter before baking. I also made a traditional raspberry pie...

The recipe is from Jenna Weber, who used to host a lovely blog called Eat, Live, Run. I found her recipe for raspberry pie on the PBS website (via Pinterest). It was the perfect recipe and a fitting showcase for raspberries! Here's a link to the recipe I used: FRESH RASPBERRY PIE.

The crust was exactly how a pie crust should be. If you're a pie baker, you likely have a preference as to the ratio of butter to shortening-- this one was all shortening, but I used butter flavored shortening, which seemed like a nice compromise. I loved how this crust turned out! Might become my new go-to crust.

The filling recipe was great, too. Fairly simple- just berries, sugar, lemon juice, and a bit of cornstarch to thicken. Again, the end result was lovely. I was happy that the filling wasn't runny but the sugar and cornstarch didn't overpower the raspberry flavor. Definitely a winner. I have been trying to practice my pie baking over the last few years and I feel like this one was a home run, so I'm happy! Credit the good recipe from Jenna!

Plus, the berries were picked the morning I made the pie. From on the plant to in the pie in only a few hours. Can't beat the freshness and use of local ingredients here on the farm! Delish!

What are your favorite ways to eat, cook, or bake with raspberries? Let me know if there's something I should try!

Weekly Review through July 23

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:08:00 +0000

Apparently, for the summer I'm adopting an every-other week schedule to post a weekly review... no matter! Enjoy the happenings in fitness, farm, and life!!

Fitness
The biggest fitness accomplishment of the past two weeks (and the summer, and the year...) is the completion of my first traithlon, on the 17th. The week leading up to the race was a taper week, and I took it easy for a few days after the race, too, before starting to ease gently into running. Even so, I kept it pretty light with just some short runs at an easy pace. I'm planning on a 10K at the end of August, so I'll be ramping up a bit again, soon.

Also, even though the triathlon training is done, I don't want to completely forego my swimming and biking. Swimming especially is something I really love and didn't realize how much I missed it until I started doing it again with my tri training. I'd like to continue to sneak over to the pool when I can, although I probably wouldn't go completely out of my way for it. Hard to justify the drive. Anyway, check out how the weeks went and how the year is adding up!

July 10-16
Sunday- complete rest.
Monday- 2000 yards swimming in Havre
Tuesday- 4.2 mile easy run.

Harvey after our run on Tuesday.

Wednesday- 8.2 mile bike, 2 mile hike
Thursday- rest.
Friday- 3 mile easy run.
Saturday- Complete rest. Day before triathlon!

July 17-23
Sunday- Montana Women's Triathlon! 500 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run. Read Full Race Review HERE!

Monday- Rest. Obviously.
Tuesday- 4.4 mile hike with Jeff most of the way up Mount Helena.

Wednesday- Rest.
Thursday- 3.2 mile run.
Friday- 30 minutes HIIT and elliptical machine
Saturday- 3.1 mile easy run.

Year to Date:
Running: 329.65
Walking/Hiking: 93.6 miles
Yoga: 1190 min
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 174.6
Swimming: 11500 yards

Our Golden Retriever, Abby, out in the pasture.

Farm-
We continue to be very busy on the farm. It is summer, to that's sort of how this works! The biggest projects have been baling hay, and a mix of weed control methods in our farm fields including both spray and cultivating. Wheat prices are terrible right now, so it's hard to justify spraying weeds when the product doesn't work anyway. We've been doing a lot more summer-fallowing this year, which is basically just plowing our fallow fields. That's not completely ideal either because we lose moisture when we break ground, and in this high plains desert, we can't always recoup that moisture.

A few days ago, we also brought our cow herd in from pasture and separated the bulls out from the cows. Party's over, men! ;) We also treated them all for flies, and then we drove them back out to pasture. I helped with this process when we worked them in the corrals. I'm happy to report that there were no incidents with gates this time! The cows and calves look really good. Validation of this came yesterday, actually, when our cows sold in a video auction. Cattle prices aren't great, either, but our calves sold for higher than many other groups in the sale and they looked great in the video. The sale is an auction, but the buyer was the same person who bought our calves last year. Repeat business is as pretty good sign that you're raising your calves right, so that felt pretty good.

The herd returns to pasture after the bulls were separated and they were treated for flies.

You can see the video of our calves that was used in the sale by CLICKING HERE. We will continue to keep and feed the calves, in other words they'll stay with their mamas, until mid October when they are shipped.

Lastly, harvest is nearing closer and closer on our farm. Jeff and Tom are helping some of our neighbors cut their winter wheat right now because we don't have anything ripe yet. Soon we will, though, and the craziness will begin!

Life-
I have been working a bit on starting to promote the race we hold on our farm, called 5K On The Farm. You can find more info on the website, on our RunSignUp page, and on our Facebook Page.

Otherwise, I stay busy with keeping the garden alive in this dry heat! haha. Right now our raspberries are on, so I've been out to pick raspberries every other day or every third day or so. Such a fun summer treat! I've also been prepping some freezer meals for the busy days of harvest.

Chicken enchiladas, white chicken lasagna, and beef and cheese manicotti. It's a start, anyway!

How has your summer been going?! I can't believe it's almost August...

Race Review- Montana Women's Triathon, OR: I Can Now Say That I Am A TRIATHLETE!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 16:54:00 +0000

Wow, guys... it's been a long road, but I can now say that I AM A TRIATHLETE!

www.mtwomenstri.com

It felt like I trained for a long time for this race. I mean, I think I signed up back in March or April. Even though I signed up pretty early, I really didn't start training hard until after School/Track ended Memorial Day weekend.

Today, I'm finally going to write about how the race went. It's taken me a while to sort of wrap my head around having done it, hence the delay in getting this post up! Buckle in and grab a cup of coffee, because this is likely to be a lengthy post and with lots of photos!

First of all, let me just acknowledge that I probably wouldn't have done the race at all without the support of my husband, Jeff. I talked about it with him very early on, before signing up, because I was nervous about the potential cost of gear and training adding up. Right from the start, he said that if it was something I'd always wanted to do, then I should probably do it. He was beyond flexible with my training schedule and workouts and never stopped telling me that he was proud of what I was doing. That kind of support and encouragement shows the type of caring spouse that he is! He was there every step of the way and I can't say how much I appreciate it!

Many of you have been following along since the get-go, but just a refresher for those who maybe haven't been--- Montana Women's Triathlon is a women-only race held in Helena, MT. It was a 500 meter swim (in a pool), 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. The race was held on Sunday, July 17 near downtown Helena.

Jeff and I drove down the afternoon before the race. My parent's planned their summer Montana visit to be here to watch and cheer at my race, so they were with us, too. Packet pick up was from 2-4 p.m. in Memorial Park. We got there right away and I was one of the first people to pick up my packet. The nice person at the table handed me my swag bag and race bib, directed me to where I could pick up the bike stand I had ordered, and gave me a black band with another number on it...

Cute bright green race bag filled with stickers and other swag, and both my race numbers.

Ok, question number one: What the heck is this thing?!?!
Hard to tell in the photo, but it's about 1/4 inch thick and about 2.5 inches wide foam band that's sticky on one end. It reminded me of those wristbands you get when you go to events where there's alcohol, to show that you're 21-- only bigger and thicker. I had never seen anything like this in a race before, so I quickly messaged my friend Tammy with my question.

Tammy and her husband Mark live in Helena, but they have a Hi-Line connection. Mark grew up on a farm north of Rudyard, pretty close to where our farm is. They have been fixing up the old farm house and spending weekends there, and have been getting involved in the community here a bit, too. They both did 5K On the Farm last fall. Tammy also attended the Montana Farmers Union Women's Conference this past February. I believe she was on the planning committee for Montana Women's Tri. She had done the race last year, and Mark has also done two Ironmans! From the moment I started sharing I had signed up for this race (not knowing their involvement in it at the time) they were both so, so supportive and helpful! They had both answered many of my questions already, and I knew Tammy would be able to tell me what this crazy band was for!

Tammy told me it was my timing band, and that I'd wear it around my ankle for the race. So, the timing chip was embedded somewhere in that band. Just like in any chip timed race, it would ping whenever I crossed a magic carpet timing strip. Ok- got it!

The night before the race, we had a low-key evening with my parents. We were staying in a VRBO house together and cooked a simple meal of spaghetti and meat sauce with salad. We played cards for a while and went to bed early.

I laid out everything I'd need for the race the night before. The only things not pictured are my bike and bike stand.

Even though we went to bed early, and I was feeling pretty confident in the race by this point, I still slept poorly. I wasn't nervous for the race- I really felt like I had trained right and trained smart and felt like I was prepared. It was more like I was just excited to get to the race and start. More of an adrenaline feeling than nerves, really. So, the combination of that and sleeping in a new place wasn't great. But, I've raced after poor nights of sleep before and it was fine. Sometimes I think it's more important to have good sleep in the nights leading up to the night before the race, and even just laying in bed is restful.

Anyway. Race day morning I was up and at 'em at 5:30 a.m. I wanted to have plenty of time to eat breakfast, have a cup of coffee, and digest before the race. The transition area opened at 6:30 and the race was supposed to start at 8:00. Jeff drove me over to the race at about 6:30 and helped me unload my gear before heading back to the house. He'd bring my parents over closer to the actual start time of the race.

This is how I set up my transition area:

The nice thing about being one of the first people to the race was that I had lots of space to choose from for where to set up my stuff. I chose a spot right on the end of a row. Easy to find and not boxed in. I got all my stuff laid out the way I thought I wanted it and filled up my water bottle on my bike. During this time, I ran into Tammy and she insisted that I borrow her extra race band for my bib number. She was amazing on race morning! She helped a lot of people get their bearings and also helped with some of the jobs of the race, like marking numbers on people's skin. Always with a smile on her face! I told her and Mark, who was volunteering, that I felt like I was at Triathlon Camp and they were my Den-mother and Den-father! So great.

The race organizers had a little technical difficulty getting people entered into the computer, so we all had to line up in order of our bib numbers, file past the computer and tell them our names, to make sure they had everything correctly. This delayed the start of the race, but it did do a good thing...

Coincidentally, my number 154, was right next to another Oiselle Volee team member, number 153! I almost never meet other Oiselle girls, so it was such a great surprise! She instantly recognized my jersey and said hello. We spent a lot of time chatting before the race, and of course, were lined up next to each other to start the swim, since it went by number. Mary Beth was so nice and great to meet! It was her first time racing in her new singlet, since she just joined this spring. I explained that it's "the magic of the singlet" how when you race in it the first time, you get a PR. She had done some tri's before, so I really appreciated her insight throughout our conversation, too.

Both of us looking at different cameras, but still so fun to see another Oiselle girl!

The transition area was all full by 8:00 a.m. Again, I can't overstate how fun the vibe was and how friendly and encouraging all the women were. There was a great number of us who were there for our first triathlon and the returners were beyond helpful. It was just the best, most positive environment.

Transition area, all full, but with a pretty excellent sign!

Due to the computer issue I mentioned earlier, the start of the race ended up getting pushed back to about 8:45. We did the National Anthem at 8:30, then it was time to line up and get ready for the swim. I also had a last-minute Honey Stinger waffle at this time.

We were lined up by bib number, which was basically in reverse age order. The first heat in the pool was Elites, then it went oldest to youngest. As we were lining up and getting organized, I noticed that Jeff had disappeared. My parents were there, but he was gone... I didn't think much of it. Just thought he had gone to Starbucks or something and that he'd be back.

All of a sudden, I looked over to the side and saw Jeff walking toward me with my nephew Brandon! Then I saw Tom and Carol and Katie and Josh behind him! My family had organized a surprise-- they were all there to cheer me on! To have everyone there, my parents, and Jeff, and his (our) family, was the best surprise. My heart was definitely full!! Also, Katie and Brandon made signs:

This photo was taken after the race. Love it!

My only regret from the entire race day was that I thought later it would have been great to have a big group photo with the entire Adam and Bangs family cheering squad!

As the swim line inched closer to the pool, I tried to do some stretching and warming up. I noticed that at first when we got in line, the girls around me were really chatty and excited but as we neared the pool, people quieted down. Nerves, adrenaline, focus were kicking in. One of the best things about the swim line, though, was that we could cheer on others as they exited the pool and made their way to transition. Again, such a positive environment! I gave a lot of high fives to people as they ran from pool to bike.

My mom snapped this photo while I was waiting in line for the swim.
You can see the race band on my ankle.

All of a sudden, I was the next person in line. Again, I didn't feel nervous- but I definitely felt focused and ready. My training had gotten me to this point. A woman exited the pool in the far lane, right by the wall, and before I had time to think, it was Go Time. I ran toward my lane, high fived the woman who had exited the pool, and to the sound of my family cheering me on, I entered the pool and began my swim.

Right away, I realized that my lane was a disadvantage. It was on the end of the pool and was extra, extra wide. They had it set up that way so that people who were less comfortable swimming could select a lane by the wall so they could rest if they needed to. The extra space itself was not the problem exactly, but the issue was that I was far away from the line and the T along the bottom of the pool. So, it was really difficult to swim in a straight line and also very hard to judge my distance from the wall to do a flip turn. I decided to try to swim right next to the line, but still on my "half" of the lane, so I could see where I was going. This helped, but the problem was that the person I was sharing my lane with was swimming right on top of the line, and was I think doing backstroke. Plus, my goggles started fogging up about two laps into the swim, so I couldn't see very well, either. All of this meant that we kept running into each other. I think we hit each other three times. Even when I was on the line, I missed the wall completely on two flip turns, which is like putting on the breaks. You just come to a complete stop.

Even so, I exited the pool relatively quickly and feeling good. The race volunteers who were counting my laps told me that I was "really fast," but who knows what that means, really. I hurried over to my bike and started my transition. I felt like I was hurrying, but I also knew that I hadn't practiced transition much and that I was probably losing time. It seemed like it took forever to get my shoes tied. I wished in my mind for a bungee lace system instead. Next time. Finally, I was off on my bike!

I don't have any photos from this part of the race. I do have a Strava map to give an idea of the course:

As you can see, it was an out and back course. There were relatively few twists and turns, thankfully, and it was mostly on roads. There were two little loops toward the beginning that were on bike path and were a little more narrow.

When I left the transition on my bike, I was passed right away by someone I knew was in my age group. She had an actual road bike, while I was racing on my mountain bike which I had equipped with skinnier tires. I got stuck in behind a few people who were going slower than I wanted to go in one of the areas where I didn't think we were supposed to pass, so I lost a little time there, but as soon as I could, i passed them. Then about a third of the way into the course, I got passed by someone else in my age group. I was pretty sure at this point I was in fourth place for my age group. But I didn't care too much, really. After all, my goal was to finish and to smile. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.

The ride was actually pretty fun. Each time someone passed me or I passed someone else, people said "Good Job," or cheered one another on. So many good vibes out there! I looked for Mark, who was volunteering on the bike course, but never saw him. I never saw Tammy again, either, although I knew she was ahead of me because she started her swim like 20 minutes before I did. I didn't think much of it and knew I'd see them after the race.

The whole first half of the bike was a net downhill, so that meant the turnaround was coming back uphill. Nevertheless, it was mostly pretty gentle uphill- nothing too strenuous. I stayed in the top gear range of my bike the whole time and really pedaled hard on the bike course. I really wanted to feel like I hadn't given anything up out there, and knew I was at a slight disadvantage with my bike not being as fast as others.

About 45 minutes later, the transition area was back in view. I dismounted my bike and ran it to my spot. This transition was horrible for me. I knocked down someone else's bike by accident, and my own bike fell over twice and a race volunteer had to help me out. I lost a lot of time in what was supposed to be a very quick transition. All I really had to do was drop my bike off, switch my helmet for my hat, and snap on my race belt. Should have taken less than a minute, but it took quite a bit more. My clumsiness and inexperience definitely cost me some time, but again, I was here to smile and to finish the race. I looked over at Jeff and said, "Is it my first time or what?!" and then took off on the run.

Here's an image of the route. We sort of ran a little lap around the park/transition area to start off the run.

My mom snapped this image of me about 300 meters or so into the run-

At this point, I was still feeling pretty good. I was experiencing the normal bike to run leg feelings- it almost feels like your legs aren't even there. It's an odd sensation. But overall, I still felt pretty good and adrenaline was still hanging on. My first mile was an 8:04.

Then I totally hit the wall. The last two miles were a struggle for me, definitely. My second mile was an 8:40. What really helped was seeing others on the course, and again, all the cheers and high fives people gave one another while running. Several people told me that I "looked strong" on the run. I certainly didn't feel strong at that point, but it still felt good to hear it! I passed a lot of people on the run. I felt really validated for all the speed work I'd done in my training. I passed one of the people in my age group who had passed me on the bike, so I now felt like I may be in third place again in my age group. I also saw Mary Beth flying fierce in her singlet and gave her a big high five. On the run, I also saw Molly, the 84 year old woman competing in the race, and the wheelchair racer. All of this really helped give me the mental boost I needed to not let my pace go completely. My last mile was 8:29.

The woman in blue is named Molly. She is 84 years old and regarded as the Queen of Montana Triathlons. Incredible.

Finally the park was in view and I tried to give everything I had left in the tank in the last few hundred meters before finally finishing. All my family was there to cheer me to the finish. Such a great feeling. I remember turning around to look back at the finish arch I had just run through, and then it hit me what I had done and I got pretty choked up. Jeff was there and we walked into some shade together. I was still catching my breath from the run and also my body was trying to cry, so it looked like I was dry heaving and my chest was tight, but in actuality I was overcome with emotion. I had just completed my first triathlon, with most of my closest family members there to support me and cheer me on.

After the race, I talked to my family quite a bit and thanked everyone for being there. Then, we took my transition area down and I checked my results on the computer they had set up. It looked like I had actually taken third place in my age group, so I changed clothes and stuck around for the awards. They had food for race participants and volunteers- pizza, melon, oranges, water, and desserts. I didn't feel hungry, but I made myself eat anyway while waiting for awards.

You can see full race results on the Competitive Timing website. I couldn't be happier with my results. I was 3 out of 7 in my age group and 21 out of 78 overall participants. My total time was 1:26.09-- way under what my goal of 1:45 was. My overall splits are as follows:

Swim: 11:32.56, 2:19 per 100 meters

T1: 3:11.97

Bike: 44:21.24, 16.2 mph

T2: 1:52.39

Run: 25:11.03, 8:24 pace

I do feel like I left time on the table in the swim, with running into the other women so many times and my turns being pretty poor. Plus, there was a bit of a walk from where the timing mat was to where the actual entrance into my lane was, so that accounts for a bit more time. Whatever. Also, obviously, my transitions were really slow. I can definitely improve there, but I don't feel bad about it at all, either. I really didn't practice transitions and I went into the race knowing I'd be OK with having slow transitions and just being there for the experience and learning. I felt like the bike and the run, both, were where I left nothing on the table.

Compared to others, the swim and run were my strongest legs. I was 15 out of 78 on swim and 14 out of 78 on run. The bike I was 27. My transitions killed me- T1 was 56 of 78, and T2 was 53 of 78. Turns out I was only about two minutes behind the second place person in my age group, so maybe with faster transitions I could have snuck up to second. I was six minutes behind first place in my age group, but I had a faster swim and run than she did. Evidence that a faster bike makes a big difference, too. Oh well. Live and learn.

The truth is, I had a good training plan and I stuck with it. I trained my ass off to prepare for this race, and I thought it paid off on race day. Yes, my goal was to finish and to smile, and I definitely did that, but I wanted to know that I had worked hard and given it everything I had, too. There were moments in the run that I considered walking, but I didn't. I hadn't come this far to walk in the last two miles. I thought of my family, and all the support I'd had, and everything crazy that has happened this year, and I ran.

The first thing people have asked me after completing this is, "was it hard?" Damn right it was hard, but I worked for it, and I think I earned the result that I got. The best result was ultimately being there and completing it with my husband and family by my side. No better feeling than that.

I saw this little image on my Facebook in the week after the race and it perfectly sums up my thoughts. If you want something, work for it. Don't wait around for someone else to make an easy path for you. Maybe it's a race, or maybe it's something bigger like a job or a relationship. You have the power to make your dreams a reality. No one can do it but you.

Awards were really cool- they were necklaces in the shape of Montana with MTWomen's Tri 2016 etched into them.

I was really happy I finished fast enough to win an award. It was surprise, but I also felt like I had earned it.

One of the most inspiring aspects of this race was the wide age range, in addition to the positivity of all involved. I was blown away by Molly and LizAnn, and it was so, so cool to hear them talk about their experiences competing in triathlons.

Molly, in green, accepts her medal. She was first place in the 80-85 age group, at age 84. #lifegoals

Molly, a finisher at age 84, and Liz Ann, a finisher in a wheelchair. Amazing.

There were girls as young as 12 and 13 competing in this race, along with women in their 70s and 80s. There were several teams comprised of three generations of women of the same family. So amazing and awe-inspiring. I just couldn't get enough of the positive vibes.

This race was the PERFECT race for a first time triathlon. It couldn't have been any better than it was. I'm beyond happy with my results and I feel really proud of my accomplishment. I learned that I am stronger than I knew was possible, I felt the love from my family, and I felt fierce and proud to be a woman. I would definitely do this race again, or would consider a different race. I definitely caught the triathlon bug!

Post- race photo with finisher t-shirt and medal/necklace.

What's next? I actually feel like I have more to say about the race (amazing, after this saga of a post, I know!) so there may be one or two more Tri Tuesday posts on the blog. Stay tuned for that!

Tri Tuesday- MTWomen's Tri is THIS SUNDAY! EEP!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:30:00 +0000

Hey, hey, everyone! MTWomen's Tri is almost here- it's THIS SUNDAY!

That's right, race week is upon us! I'm in the middle of my taper, which is about a two-week taper. This week, I'm not hitting anything too hard and keeping my brick workouts pretty minimal. I'm also focusing on short distances but working on speed, especially for my run. I've been doing a ton of speed-builder interval and tempo workouts lately specifically to work on cutting time in my 5K run and it's been going well, so I'm hopeful that it will pay off!

Now is the time to reassess my goals for the race. My number one goal has always been, and continues to be: To finish and to smile! I feel very confident in nailing that one!

Of course, I've thought about time goals, too. I've cut a lot of time off my 500 swim, so I think I can complete that in around ten minutes. I think it will take me about 45-50 minutes to bike 12 miles on the road (on my mountain bike). My 5K PR is 25:00 (unofficial) but after swimming and biking, I'm aiming for about 27:00 and would be really happy with anything close to that. So, as far as actual physical activity goes, I think it will take me between 80 and 95 minutes to complete the triathlon.

But then there are the transitions. I've practiced transitions only very minimally, so that's likely to kick me in the arse on race day. My biggest time deterrent will likely be that I seem to have to go to the bathroom a lot! ha! I guess that means I must be on-track with my hydration. :) Other than that, I expect my swim to bike transition to take the most time-- putting on shoes and socks, and helmet... etc. I think the bike to run transition will be pretty quick. Just take off the helmet and replace it with a hat and go. We'll see.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to race day. I've actually moved past the nervous feeling, for the most part, and I'm confident that I'll do well. I'm not in it to win it, but just to do it for me. I've had a lot of things going on in my life in the first half of 2016, and one of the main reasons in deciding to do this was simply to do it for myself. I'll be channeling a lot of emotions into this race and I know the accomplishment will feel good. Then, it'll be on to the beer tent! :)

I'll be back next week with the full recap! Wish me luck!

Weekly Review through July 9

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 23:19:00 +0000

Whew! It's been a while since I've done a Weekly Review post! Time to get caught up. :)

Fitness
The bulk of my fitness has centered on training for my upcoming Triathlon on July 17. It will be here very soon! This most recent week, I began my official taper for the triathlon. Here's a breakdown of the past few weeks, since I haven't done a review since June 18.

June 19-25
Sunday- 10 mile hike in Refrigerator Canyon near Helena. READ HERE!

Monday- rest
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT: 14 mile bike, 3.2 mile run
Wednesday- 4.1 mile treadmill interval workout
Thursday- 2000 yards of swimming laps
Friday- rest/Drive to Red Lodge
Saturday- 5 mile hike in Custer National Forest. READ HERE!

This photo isn't from the hike, but Jeff, Tom and I drove to the top of Beartooth Pass and this photo was taken there.

June 26-July 2
Sunday- 3.5 mile run in Red Lodge
Monday- 7 mile mountain bike ride in Red Lodge
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT: 10 mile bike, 3 mile run
Wednesday- I did a TON of yardwork outside today, and 30 minutes of yoga
Thursday- 3.75 mile treadmill tempo run
Friday- 1500 yards swimming, AND 12 mile bike ride

Saturday- rest.

July 3-9
Sunday- 4.7 mile run

Abby joined me on my run while Harvey chose to stay home.

Monday- BRICK WORKOUT: 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run
Tuesday- 8 mile bike, 1500 yard swim
Wednesday- 60 Minutes of yoga-- loved it!
Thursday- 4.3 mile run outside with Harvey! ICYMI, Harvey wrote all about this run and you can read his recap HERE!

Friday- 7.5 mile bike ride
Saturday- 4.6 mile interval run on treadmill

Year To Date:
Running: 313.15
Walking/Hiking: 87.2 miles
Yoga: 1190 min
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 156.2
Swimming: 9000 yards

Spring wheat heads are filling.

Farm
Things have been very busy on the farm, which is partly why I haven't written a Weekly Review post in a while! We've been busy cutting and baling hay, spraying our conventional farm fields, plowing up the rest of our organic land, and cultivating some of our fallow fields. We also moved some of our cows to different pastures, and had a cattle rep out to work out a deal for our calves to be presented for sale in a video auction. It really just seems like it's been a blur.

This is a picture of Jeff driving the tractor and breaking up ground that will be seeded as organic fields.

Life
I can officially say now that I am part of the unemployment ranks. I got laid off from my job in June and my official last day (even though I hadn't worked since school got out) was June 30. The whole situation was a really big mess and I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that I've never worked for such a poorly managed, dishonest company in my life. Frustrating. But, as I've written about before, the school where I worked (the school contracted with my former company and was simply the site of my job)-- the school was fantastic. I'll really miss working there and seeing those kids every day, and the teachers and staff, who were also amazing. I still have my track coaching position in the Spring, so I'll continue to be involved that way.

In the meantime, I've applied for unemployment, which is a hard thing to rationalize in my mind. I've been working steadily since I was fourteen years old. I remind myself that it wasn't my fault that my job ended, I'm a good worker, and I'm simply taking part in a system that was set up for situations exactly like this. It won't be permanent. On the other hand, I'm thankful that this system does exist!

So, I have been looking for work locally and applying for jobs. There isn't a glutton of jobs in Almost-Canada, MT, so there's not a lot to choose from, but I'm hopeful that something will work out. On the other hand, as I've said, summer on the farm is extremely busy and I've found that I actually haven't missed working over the summer so far. I've had plenty to do to stay busy and feel productive around home.

This upcoming week my parents will be here for a visit from Iowa. Jeff and I are looking forward to hosting them on the farm, and they'll also be joining us in Helena to spectate my triathlon. It'll be a great visit!

This is some of our neighbor's winter wheat-- feels like harvest is right around the corner!

Guest Post by Harvey: Running with Mom

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 23:51:00 +0000

It's been a while since Harvey has done a guest post on the blog, and after our run yesterday, he thought it was time he share his point of view again. Harvey is getting to be a middle-aged dog-- he'll be six in August. He's getting a little more particular about things as he ages, but he still loves to run. I hope you enjoy this post from Harvey!

Hi Everyone! It's Harvey, here! Harvey T. Dog. Mom says the "T" stands for "the," which is kind of boring. Why didn't they give me an actual middle name? I'm a person, after all! I suppose it's OK though because I also have some cool nicknames. My people sometimes call me Harvinator, and Red Rocket, and Harv McGarv, and lots of times they just call me Buddy. I like all my names and I love my people. They can call me whatever I want, I just want to be with them.

One thing I love about my people is that they take me on a lot of runs and walks out on the farm where we live. Yesterday, my mom took me on a run and I had so much fun, I wanted to share it with you and tell you all about it, from my perspective! I love to run.

I knew we were going for a run before Mom even said the word run. I knew it because she had her special shoes on that means we're going for a run. When Mom or Dad put their shoes on, I know it's almost time to go and I like to try to help them get ready faster by doing my happy dance and jumping on them and putting my head right where their hands are. I just get SO EXCITED to run!

Mom takes forevvvvver to get ready to run. She likes to stretch and do other silly exercises before she runs. Not me. I'm ready to go all the time. I am always ready to run. When Mom was finally ready, she said "Let's go!" and I ran out ahead. I like to be first. I have to be first.

Mom says I should tell you that I don't wear a leash or collar when we run. I almost never wear my leash or collar except when we go to town. Honestly, I don't really like going to town that much. I like my farm where I can run free. I would never, ever leave my people and we barely ever see any other cars when we run, so Mom says she's not worried about me out in the country. That's good because I hate wearing a leash. This Vizsla cannot be contained!

Lately, I've been becoming more choosy about when I like to run with my Mom. If it's too dark, or if it's too hot, or if it's the same old boring route she almost always runs, I don't like to go as much. Also if it's too windy. Unless I'm really, really excited and it's been a long time since I've had a run, I'm getting a bit more picky. This time was one of those times. I was excited at first, but then Mom was headed down the same old boring path. Ugh. Why doesn't she just run out in the fields and grass like me? Who needs roads?! I decided to tell her how displeased I was with her route selection by stopping in the middle of the road and sitting down. Mom seemed nonplussed. She acted like she really wanted to run. Uh... Mom? This road is the same as it's ALWAYS been! Chill out!

I was just about ready to just turn around and go home when Mom said that maybe I could "Get the bird!" Oh boy! Oh boy! I LOVE to get the bird! Getting the bird is one of my most favorite things in the whole world! Mom pointed a little ways up the road, and I began to sniff... and she was RIGHT! There WAS a bird there! I could smell him with my nose and I knew it was the bird that Mom and Dad call a Hun (Hungarian Partridge). I showed her where they were by giving my special point, and then she told me to "Get 'em!" and I pounced and not just one bird, but a whole big bunch of birds flew up and I got to chase them and it was so, so fun! Guys, I got the birds! I was so happy! I was so proud of myself. Mom seemed happy too, especially because after that I was excited about running again, even on this boring old road. Mom kept going and I stayed right with her because clearly she knows where the birds are at and maybe she could find me another bird.

Then Mom did something that surprised me. Instead of going straight down the road like she always does almost every single time we run this way, she did something that I wasn't expecting and she TURNED and started running along in the grass! Mom said it was because the farmers who own this field mowed the grass next to the field so it was short enough for her to run there. Me, I don't care how tall the grass is, I just run. I was so excited that Mom turned here that I sprinted way ahead!

The short grass in the middle is where my Mom ran. I ran all around. On the right side is a field of winter wheat. It's almost ripe and it kind of rattles when I run through it. I have to run/jump when the wheat is high because it's taller than I am! Mom says I look like a mule deer when I do that. We didn't see any deer on this run, though, but sometimes we do.

Just a little bit after my mom stopped to puparazzi my picture (again!) she asked me if I knew where the bird was. So, I began to use my nose again and sniff around, and there they were right there in the wheat! Guys, I got the bird AGAIN! Two times in one run I got to point a bird and then flush him and then chase him! Mom likes it when I chase the birds because she says it gets me really tired out. She's probably right, but it's just so, so, so much fun. I am pretty much the best hunter that I know.

I don't know why Mom took this picture of the alfalfa. I guess she thought it was pretty. I don't know why she wasn't taking a picture of me. I'm the star of the show, after all. I'm not even in this picture!

Moving on to my favorite part of the run. Guys, I don't know if you know this, but we dogs really love to roll in things that smell good to us. My nose told me that something dead was laying in the alfalfa field next to the road where my mom was running, so I took off and found it and I rolled and rolled and rolled all over the dead thing! I was so happy to roll on it! I was overjoyed! Guys, it smelled so good to me! My Mom said it smelled horrible and she could smell it from the road, but, oh man, guys, I thought it smelled amazing! Plus, if I roll all around in something that smells great like that, then it covers up my normal dog smell and I can hunt better without my prey knowing that I'm coming! After rolling on the dead thing, I could be even better than the best hunter!

I ran off ahead again, but Mom had stopped to wait for Abby, my dog friend, who also was rolling on the dead thing. I decided to head back and make sure Mom was OK. She didn't pet me when I got there, though, and she called me "Stinky," which isn't one of my usual nicknames.

Mom took us on a little further, right up to this creek. She told me to go down and get some water. She said she hoped it would make my dead thing smell go away. Whatever, Mom. I was thirsty and hot, so the water looked good. I decided all on my own that I wanted to wade into the water. I don't like to swim because I like my paws to be on solid ground, but I had a good drink and I got all wet and I felt so good! Mom says this is one of her favorite views on the farm.

After I got out of the water, I was all wet and it felt so good! I think Mom was disappointed though because now I smelled like dead thing AND yucky creek water. That's just her opinion though. Obviously, I smelled great! And, I'm so handsome. I'm pretty much the best that I know.

Finally, Mom said "Let's go home to our house," and I knew the way, so I decided to lead. There were a lot of hills, so I stayed on the road because it's the easiest path. I wanted to make sure Mom could see me. She seemed like she was really struggling. I'm faster than she is, but I looked back to check and make sure she was OK and to see if she was still coming. Even though my Mom is slower than me, she's getting faster.

Finally, we made it home and Mom gave me some pets behind my hears, even though she was still calling me Stinky. She said it didn't matter because she was going to shower anyway and then she said that I was going to have a bath. I hate baths. The best part of having a bath is when it is over. Usually I get a treat after I have a bath. I guess that's one downside of living on the farm- I have a lot of baths.

Guys, I just want you to know that I love to run and get the birds and go places on the farm with my people. Even though I wasn't too sure about this run at first, I made the right decision to stick it out. I got to get the bird twice, and I got to roll in a dead thing, and I got to cool off in the creek. This was pretty much an epic run for me! I'm so glad my people take me running and hunting and that we live in the country so I don't have to wear my leash and I can go wherever I want!

Also, I wanted to show you this picture my Mom took of me in my little pickup. Mom and Dad call it the Ranger, but it's actually my little pickup. If my little pickup is going somewhere, I'm going too. And I'm sitting in the front, because I'm a person, and I'm important. I love my little pickup.

After our run and after my bath (ugh!) I was so happy to just lay down on the porch in the sunshine. Mom says a tired Vizsla is a happy Vizsla-- she's probably right. :) Catch you later, everyone! Harvey T. Dog, signing out!

I hope you enjoyed Harvey's guest post about running on the farm! If you'd like to read the other post he did, you can find it by CLICKING HERE! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hiking Near Red Lodge, MT

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 18:19:00 +0000

A little over a week ago, Jeff and I were in Red Lodge, MT for a family reunion. We had a fantastic time in Red Lodge, which is a quaint mountain town near Yellowstone Park. We really enjoyed spending time with family and exploring the great outdoors.

A major highlight for me was the big group hike we took on the West Fork Trail in Custer National Forest, near Red Lodge. If you liked my post from a few weeks ago about hiking in Refrigerator Canyon, this one will be right up your alley, too. Lots of photos! Enjoy!

The above photo is of our group gathering in the parking lot of the trailhead. We had 22 people in our hiking party, all family! I like the contrast in scale of seeing the people in the foreground as compared to the surrounding mountains.

The hike was interesting and fun. It was a fairly gentle uphill, nothing strenuous, and started off through an area that appeared to be recently burned in a forest fire. All the old treas were dead (which meant limited shade! Thankfully it wasn't hot that day!), but the forest floor was covered with tiny baby pine trees, and also lots of raspberry bushes. We were actually a little glad that we were there early in the season before the raspberry bushes were bearing- this place will be Bear Central when those berries are ripe!

With so many people in our hiking party, the group strung out rather quickly as people adjusted to the pace they were comfortable with and grouped up accordingly. It was neat to look back and see the family along the trail.

After a while, we reached the first waterfall/rapids of the creek that the trail followed. We stopped for a while and took a bunch of pictures. Jeff snapped this one of me:

Photos of waterfalls never come close to doing justice to the real thing! It was really pretty.

After this first waterfall site, more than half of our group had decided to turn back and head to the car. A few of us decided to go a little further and see what else we could see. The trail itself went for over twenty miles, and we didn't plan to go that far but just to go for a while and then turn around. Soon, we were rewarded with a view of a nice wide spot in the creek. Very peaceful and idyllic as the water pooled up here. It would have been a nice spot for backcountry camping.

After stopping briefly here, we decided again to go just a little further and see what we could find. At this point, Jeff and I were hiking with his cousin and her husband. The four of us had a great time hiking together and catching up.

Again, we were rewarded for hiking onward. This time, with an even bigger waterfall!

We stopped here for a while and took a ton of photos and had a snack. Soon we were joined by another group of our family members who had also decided to press on. We had no idea there was anyone left but us, so it was nice to see them. After a rest, we decided to head back to the car. In all, we guessed we had hiked about five miles. It was great to be active in the outdoors and reconnect with family. Jeff and I both agreed that this hike was really nice. It was cool to see a wide variety of cool natural features, including the creek, forest burn, waterfalls, mountain forest, and, of course, wildflowers! We did also see a mama moose and her calf, but didn't linger as moose can be aggressive, especially when they have a calf nearby.

If you're ever in Red Lodge, you won't have any trouble finding things to do, but definitely consider the West Fork Trail as you explore the area!

COMING SOON! Harvey, our Vizsla, wants everyone to know that he is working on a guest blog post about going for a run in the country with me. Obviously, I'm helping him out with that. Should be ready to go this weekend! :)

Tri Tuesday- Only 2 Weeks Until MTWomensTri!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:09:00 +0000

Wow, you guys... the race is coming up FAST!

www.mtwomenstri.com

I missed last week's Tri Tuesday post (and failed to do any other posts, besides!) but I'm here today with an update on my training. I've been sticking pretty close to my training plan, which included its toughest week of training last week and the week before. Now, I'm already beginning my taper as I lead up to Race Day on July 17!

Brick workouts continue to be the most physically demanding. Yesterday, I had a really great confidence-boosting bike/run combo, however. Jeff had asked me to ride my bike over to our other farm yard to pick up a vehicle we had over there and drive it back home. Excited about the prospect of a not-often-used training route, I planned my brick to workout so that it would end at that yard. I biked ten miles of net uphill, trying to work my legs really hard, actually, so that I'd get the feeling of what it might be like on race day. Then, I stashed my bike by the side of the road and ran the last 2.5 miles to the yard to collect the vehicle.

Again, I tried to push it pretty hard on the run. Typically, I ease up a bit on the run portion of a brick workout, but I wanted to see what my legs had in them. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my Strava when I finished up and saw that my pace was very close to my normal 5K pace. I had expected it to be much slower. I am really happy with how I felt throughout the whole workout and how it seemed like my legs knew what to do and were flying on the run.

The best part of this brick workout? Running by this patriotic barn on the 4th of July!

I came back later, after retrieving the pickup and loading up my bike, for some photos...

Swimming workouts continue to go well, too. I've been working on increasing my yardage, and also on decreasing my 500 swim time. The first timed 500 I swam earlier this summer was 11:40 or so. Now, I'm down to 10:15. So, I've cut a lot of time, and I'm really happy with my progress there. I'd really like to be under 10 minutes on race day, but we'll see. I don't really know what to expect because the pool itself is completely different from any pool I've swam in before. All the same, the time estimate I entered for myself was 12 minutes, so I feel pretty confident I can be under that on race day.

As far as gear goes, I'm pretty close to set. At a recent Bangs family reunion, one of Jeff's family members (who bikes A LOT) suggested I look into getting some skinnier tires for my mountain bike for race day. Great idea, and waaaaaay cheaper than buying a road bike or tri bike. Also, I had asked around and posted on Facebook looking for a road bike I could borrow and had no luck. So, the narrow tires mounted on my current bike might be the way to go. I could shave a little time off, anyway. I know my bike is a good bike, but it's not made for competitive road racing, and I think at this point the bike will be my weakest leg of the race because of this. So anyway, I should be able to take my bike in to the local bike shop in Havre and get this done later this week. Exciting!

At this point, I'm starting to get pretty excited about the race. I'm actually feeling less nervous now than I did a few weeks ago, and I think that's because I've felt strong during and after tough workouts, and it's building my confidence for race day.

Hiking in Refrigerator Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 16:43:00 +0000

One thing I really love about Montana is the access we have to the great outdoors. All across the state, there is excellent hiking and outdoor recreation. Jeff and I decided to take advantage of this access with a nice hike last Sunday to celebrate our anniversary weekend. We did about 10 miles on the Refrigerator Canyon Trail near Helena. This post contains a lot of photos, and I hope you'll enjoy looking through them.

Within about a quarter mile, you find yourself hiking through a slot canyon. This is the actual Refrigerator Canyon and it was easy to understand why it was so-named. The canyon was much cooler than the surrounding environs, and a cool breeze was whipping through as well. I imagine it would feel very refreshing on a hot day.

Here's a photo looking back toward the slot canyon once we had left it--

The wildflowers were blooming in great abundance along the trail. One of my favorites, Indian Paintbrush is below. There were many other flowers all along the trail as we hiked. And interesting to notice different flowers and plants as we climbed in elevation.

The trail was a gentle uphill climb, mostly through forrest. Nothing too strenuous, but work nonetheless.

At about two miles, there's a nice overlook with a rail fence. It would be a great spot for a picnic and a good turnaround spot for a shorter hike. Also nice for photo ops!

We decided to press on and go a little further.

After a while, we entered the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area, which is different from National Forrest in that no motorized vehicles are allowed in Wilderness Areas in Montana. There are a few more protections to preserve the land as it occurs.

We kept trucking along and came to another scenic vista. Neat to see how far we had come!

When we planned our hike and left the car, we intended to do between 6 and 8 miles of hiking. We had read about a trail junction that we thought was about three miles in, and decided that would be our decision point. Turns out, the trail sign was actually four miles in, not three. At this point, we thought we were close to cresting the ridgeline and wanted to try to go for that accomplishment, so we went on, still uphill.

After continuing on switchbacks for a another half hour or so, we started to feel like we would never reach the top of the ridge in a timely manner, and we'd already done more than we had planned. We decided to go back to the trail junction sign and stop for a snack. The downhill effort to get back to the trailhead took about half the time as the uphill climb, not surprisingly, but our legs were completely shot by the time we got there. Thankfully the wildflowers kept our spirits high!

This is a plant that I was told is called "Mountain Sunflower," but I'm not sure what it's official name is. It's cheery and so pretty.

We encountered very few people on the trail on the way up. We did see one older gentleman with his dog at the trailhead as we headed out and spoke to him a bit. He was planning a multi-day hiking and backcountry camping excursion and was getting his gear organized as we struck out. He said he had hiked the trail "probably fifty times," and knew it very well. We didn't see another person until we had turned around and started heading down. Then, the closer we got to the trailhead, the busier the trail became. We did run into the older gentleman again and he asked how our hike was. We described how we had turned around at a point that we thought was just below the ridgeline and he confirmed that we were close, but also said that once you get to the top, there isn't a good view of anything anyway, and that we had already seen the best views by that point. That made us feel better about turning around a little early. Then he asked us, "Are you going to the York Bar for a burger?" In my mind, I thought, "Yes, Definitely!" even though we hadn't planned on it at all. At that point, a hamburger sounded too good to pass up. The man said they were really good. We thanked him and wished him well on his hike.

We made it back to our car about four hours after we had left, and were pretty tired and hungry from our effort on the trail. Jeff and I deliberated if we should stop and have a hamburger in York, which is a tiny, tiny town that you drive through between the trailhead and Helena/Interstate, or if we wanted to just get gas station snacks and get on the road for home. As we drove back down the canyon and hunger set in strong, we decided we had better stop. Plus, it's probably bad karma to ignore on-trail advice from a seasoned veteran, right?

Pulling in at the bar, the patio was full of people. A good sign that this was the place to be. Then we walked around to the front and were greeted with this-- absolutely classic small-town Montana, right here. It's not just the York Bar, it's "The Friendly York Bar." We instantly knew we had made the right decision to stop.

The atmosphere inside was very much a friendly, small-town Montana rustic bar. It was just perfect. The hamburger and onion rings tasted pretty good after our efforts on the trail, too. If you're ever in the area, definitely stop at the York Bar. It's definitely a slice of good old Montana Americana.

And if you're in the Helena area, the Refrigerator Canyon trail is a good one to consider hiking. We really enjoyed our hike and would definitely plan to do it again and recommend it to others. Gotta love Montana!

Dawson's Run 2016 Race Review

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:26:00 +0000

On Saturday, Jeff and I participated in Dawson's Run! It's a local 5K fun run held in Joplin, MT in conjunction with the Joplin Car Show activities. The race was started to commemorate the passing of a local boy and money raised goes to fund a scholarship awarded in his name. This is the fifth anniversary of the race being held, and the fourth time Jeff and I have participated, and we were celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary on the same day as the run. If you're interested in reading my review from last year, you can find it HERE.

This race is very no-frills and a great community building event. To sign up, you just message their organizer on Facebook and they reserve a t-shirt for you. You pay on race day when you pick up your shirt, and it's only $15.

There was a great turnout for the race this year, and the weather was pretty much perfect 65 degrees, partly cloudy, and not much wind. As the race was about to start, everyone gathered at the start line and the Jada, who is Dawson's mother, addressed the crowd. As in previous years, listening to her speak, and the emotion in her voice as she thanks everyone for coming and honoring Dawson, gets me a little choked up, too.

This is a flat and fast course, and I knew my triathlon training has put me in pretty good shape, so I went into this race focused on wanting a PR. As the race began, I gave myself a goal to try to come as close as possible to 8:00 miles. Fueled by Jada's emotional send off, I was off quickly right as the race started. After weaving around a lot of little kids in the first quarter mile or so, I was in some space and settled in to a pace. I kept the race leaders in my sights as motivation. When I looked at my Strava app at the first mile, I was right at 8:00. So far, so good.

I just tried to keep slowly catching up to the leaders ahead of me, including two kids that I coach at North Star in our track program, and another good friend of ours. I never did catch any of them, but it really helped my pacing and motivation to think about trying. At mile 2, I saw I had slowed a bit, down to 8:12, but I was still definitely on track for a PR. I made myself hold on to what was for me a faster speed.

When I crossed the finish line, I stopped my Strava, and saw that my time was 25:00.00, but my distance was only 3.0 miles-- not 3.1. Jeff and I measured the course with our car last year (and it was the same this year) and we had exactly 3.1. He said that he looked at his Strava and it showed that 3 miles was just ahead of the finish line, so he thought the course was probably three miles and like fifty meters or so. In other words, it may be just short of 5K, but it's pretty close. Even if it is short, I would have still had a PR for a 5K distance. My old PR was 26:10. Overall, a drop of about a minute. Official or not, I'm going to claim it! I'm pretty excited! One of my big goals for 2016 was to be under 25:00 in 5K, so i'm SOOOOO CLOSE! Better find another 5K to sign up for! :)

I ended up the second-place female after one of my young track and field athletes- an incoming seventh grader. I am so proud of her for running and finishing a strong race! She definitely has a big future in longer-distance track. The young man that I coach was the second place male, and again, has a bright future in distance running. Both are really great kids, too! Jeff was also happy with his time, which was very close to what he ran at Governor's Cup the previous weekend.

They did a great job with the t-shirt design again this year. I like the color of red shirt this one is printed on. The football logo is on the front, and the "Running with Buddy" script is on the back at the hem.

Overall, as always, Dawson's Run was a great success. It is one of my very favorite runs because so many local people come out to do it and it's just a really great time. It was also a nice way to start our Anniversary Weekend! Already looking forward to next year's run! :)

Tri Tuesday~ FOUR WEEKS until MTWomensTri!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:42:00 +0000

You guys... it's only ONE MONTH until my Triathlon!!! I'm already getting excited and NERVOUS! But, I continue have solid training and to stick to my plan, and that is definitely building confidence. Read on!

www.Mtwomenstri.com

Training
As far as training goes, I have been really good about sticking to my training plan. I've been doing one swim per week and one brick of bike/run, in addition to just running and just biking. I've definitely noticed myself feeling pretty tired in general, and I'm attributing that to just the overall load of training. With a few races in the mix over the past few weeks, including a 10K and a 5K, that has caused me to make a few adaptations as well, and probably contributed to the overall feeling of fatigue. I don't think what I'm doing compares apples to apples with half marathon or full marathon training, but I imagine the feeling of tiredness/fatigue is similar to what you'd get if you were training for a big race like that.

The bike/run workouts continue to be a the most challenging, yet the biggest confidence booster toward my overall training. I've got some doozies left yet in my schedule, so I know I'll be prepared well on race day.

My toughest workout so far was a brick where I did a twelve mile ride followed by a two mile run. The ride was very challenging. Remember that I do all my rides on gravel roads on a mountain bike. The route I had planned included a one mile section that I thought had a trail, but turns out, it did not. So even though it was only one mile, powering through clumpy grass was very tiring. The route also had a lot of hills and loose rocks, and on that day it was pretty windy. Normally, I do 12 miles on flat road in just under an hour, but this took me almost an hour and a half! I was exhausted for the start of my two mile run, which felt like about six miles! ha! I was very thankful for my hydration and fuel during this workout, which you can read more about later!

Gear
Last time I wrote a Tri Tuesday post, I had given myself an assignment to buy a 5-gallon bucket, and a bike helmet. Well, I did both! Hooray! I will be using the bucket in my transition area, as suggested on the Montana Women's Triathlon website. It was inexpensive at about $5 from the local farm and feed supply store. Way cheaper than a fancy triathlon bag. And, when I'm not doing a triathlon, I can use it on the farm! lol

I also bought a bike helmet. I didn't get the cheapest one that Scheels had to offer, but not the most expensive one, either. I felt a little out of my element trying to pick one out. I really wasn't sure how they were supposed to fit, and felt like I was in between sizes. I went with the larger size of the women's specific helmet and was able to tighten it up to fit my noggin. It's comfortable overall, and when I ride, I forget that I'm wearing it, so that's good. The only thing I don't like is that I have to adjust where I sit my ponytail to be able to fit with the helmet. Annoying, but only a minor inconvenience.

Fuel and Hydration
Something I've been aiming toward working on for weeks, and finally got to in the past week or two. I had a scary moment and learned the hard way after Governor's Cup that I'm not superhuman and need to be smart about fueling and hydration. I barely had anything after that race, and became extremely dehydrated later in the day, to the point where I had vertigo and nausea, and even threw up several times, on the way home from Helena. Stupid, and probably could have been avoided.

Since then, I've been much more deliberate about staying hydrated and fueling for long workouts, and even shorter runs. What I've been using and really liking is Nuun and Honey Stinger products. I also read a great tip on a Dietition/Runner blog that I follow, Fannetastic Food, about a natural fuel source for running. She likes to use dates or figs rolled in sea salt for a pick me up on long training runs. I like dried apricots better, so I am experimenting with that. So far, I've been very happy with these products, and I've been able to score some very good sales and discounts on ordering both Nuun and Honey Stinger.

On that tough 12 mile bike ride/brick workout I mentioned, I made sure to plan out my hydration and fuel so that I'd stay strong through the workout. My strategy was 5-6 swallows of Nuun (tropical flavor!) as I get on the bike, then drink every four miles. Fuel strategy was have a snack at six miles and then at twelve as I transitioned to run. I ate salted apricot pieces and one or two Honey Stinger gummies. I felt like it did make a difference in my energy level, and I noticed after I finished the workout that I didn't feel as dead as I thought I might.

New-to-me Swimming Pool and Clothing Choices
I also had my first pool/bike combo workout last week. For this one, I tried out the Chester swimming pool, an outdoor pool. Chester is a little closer to my house than Havre and I thought it would just work better to bike in this town than around Havre. I was really impressed with their pool- it's pretty new and just overall better than I expected for a small town pool. Plus, I had lap swim all to myself, which was kind of nice!

For the bike portion of the workout, I just left from the pool and went for about forty minutes. I didn't rush through my "transition," just wanted to see what it was like for the first time through without any added stress of trying to be fast.

The biggest test for this whole workout was actually my clothing choices. For the first time in my life, I swam in shorts and a sports bra. My tri shorts, which I've written about before, were excellent. I also wore my Oiselle Runway Sports Bra, which also performed very well in the water. Both pieces dried out quickly on the bike ride, and by the time I was done, there wasn't a drop of moisture left. Perfect. You can see in the picture that I also threw on a tank top for the ride- Oiselle O Snap top. So soft. Loved it. :) I was really, really happy with the way everything worked out-- this whole ensemble will likely be my raceday combo.

Budget
I have done a bit more spending over the past two weeks. The helmet was $40, the bucket was $5, and I spent about $40 total on Honey Stinger and Nuun (but bought enough to last for well beyond the triathlon!). My total has now reached about $435. It's adding up, even with offsetting some of the purchases with sales of old workout clothes. Time to sell more stuff!

Stay tuned for next week's Tri Tuesday post! I'm in the midst of my biggest two weeks of training. :)

Weekly Review June 5-18

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Renee) — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:23:00 +0000

I missed last week's Weekly Review post, so you get two weeks for the price of one this week! Lucky You! Read on to find out what's been going on in the world of fitness, farm, and life!

After a short interval run with the dogs.

Fitness
I continue to progress in my triathlon training and i'm having a lot of fun with it, while also working through some tough workouts. Jeff and I also did Governor's Cup in Helena (Race Review HERE!) and Dawson's Run 5K in Joplin (Race Review is forthcoming). June is a good month for fitness around here because it's not as busy as other summer months are in terms of farming, and the weather is nice. Here's the breakdown of the past two weeks:

From a pasture hike. Harvey likes to make sure you can always see how handsome he is!

June 5-11
Sunday- Rest/yard work
Monday- Brick workout: 6 mile ride, 3.2 mile run
Tuesday- 3 mile easy treadmill run
Wednesday- 1500 yards of swimming (40 minutes)
Thursday- 2.3 mile interval run, 30 min yoga
Friday- complete rest.
Saturday- Governor's Cup 10K Race!

June 12-18
Sunday- complete rest. I was tired after Governor's Cup!!!
Monday- 4 mile easy run
Tuesday- Brick workout: 12 mile bike, 2 mile run. VERY windy, and hilly!
Wednesday- 2 mile pasture hike, 45 minutes of yoga
Thursday- 4.1 mile treadmill run interval/speedbuilder workout, 1 mile walk
Friday- Brick: 1400 yards swimming, followed by 40 minutes (8.5 miles) on the bike
Saturday- Dawson's Run 5K Race!

Year to Date:
Running: 277.85
Walking/Hiking: 72.2 miles
Yoga: 1100 min
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 95.7
Swimming: 4100 yards

Farm
The biggest news on the farm the past two weeks has been the purchase and arrival of our new tractor, which you can READ ABOUT HERE. We also continue to work on spraying. All of our crop has been sprayed for weeds, and now we are chipping away at spraying the chem fallow. Chem fallow is unplanted fields of conventional farmground where weeds are controlled by spray. We call it summer fallow if the unplanted fields are weed-controlled mechanically, using a plow. Sometimes we use this method even on our conventional fields. This will be the only method of weed control we use on our organic fields.

I saw this on my Facebook. I'm not sure the source... It's pretty accurate about describing our farm this time of year!
Seeding, then spraying, then swathing and baling hay, then...harvest!

With the new tractor, we are preparing to break the remaining ground on our organic fields. I'm working up to a new post explaining the organic land in greater detail, so that will be along sometime in the next few weeks. I helped Jeff and Tom hook up the plow and get it ready to go.

I helped attach the chisel points to the plow, then Jeff came along behind and tightened the bolts.

Also, all of our cows are out at pasture in their respective breeding groups. The grass is hardening off a bit, which is actually ideal because it's higher protein. The pastures look great and our calf crop looks really strong, too.

This is why we call it the Big Sky State.

Life
I am enjoying a break from school/work this summer and have been busy keeping our garden watered and yard maintained. I'm getting more comfortable with the riding lawn mower all the time. Our garden is coming along nicely. Right now, we are enjoying a bumper crop of radishes. The spinach and asparagus have phased out. Our lettuces will be really bursting forth soon, and I expect we'll have peas within a few weeks.

Jeff and I celebrated our Anniversary on Saturday- five years! We started the day with Dawson's Run and the Joplin Car Show/Art in the Park event, then we went back to Helena where we took in a Helena Brewers baseball game. Montana has a small "bus league" of professional baseball in the summer and we love going to games in Great Falls when we can. The Great Falls team was out of town, so we decided to drive to Helena to catch a game and celebrate our anniversary. The next day, we went for a hike in the mountains on the way home. It was a really great weekend and a nice way to celebrate our life together in Montana. Cheers to 5 years!

Jeff and I started our Anniversary celebration on Saturday with a 5K race in Joplin!
(We didn't win; all finishers received medals!)