February recap

Books read: 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe  - A childhood favorite of mine, this is the first time I've read it to one of my first grade classes. While it hasn't been quite as fun an experience to read it to them as Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, Swiss Family Robinson, or The Indian in the Cupboard, I've been amazed by the great predictions and connections they've made.

No books for myself. Sad, sad, but mostly a function of really full weekends and evenings.

New recipes: 

Ummmm...I kind of defaulted to my old reliables this month instead of meal prep. I think we were busy every single weekend, and if I was home on a Sunday evening it was mostly enough to throw my dirty clothes in the wash and go to bed.

Goals: This year I set several training goals for myself: 5000 miles (or 500 hours, since mountain biking for me yields way fewer miles for the time) on the bike, 500 miles on foot (running/walking/hiking/etc.), 52 hours of yoga, and 30 hours of strength training. Thank goodness for youtube; I can never manage to commit to a class, but I can usually fit in a 10+ minute yoga video.

Feb. foot miles 49.2
Feb. strength training 2:48
Feb. yoga 2:02
Feb. bike miles 263
Feb. volleyball hours: 7:30

Races/events:

• 2/19/17 Meramec O meet (SLOC orienteering meet). Cleared the course, felt pretty darn good, and other than a 20ish minute mistake had a clean run.

General fun:

• 2/4 Monster Jam - a first for me and a fun night with Jeff and Jacob

Female driver. :)

• 2/5 A fast (for me) pre-Super Bowl loop of the Berryman trail, getting me home just in time to make it to the party before kick-off and fall asleep before the half-time show.

Gorgeous day. SO much fun.

• 2/11 A sluggish (even for me) 84 miles of gravel. Not a good day, but it made me feel slightly better to not be going into Land Run on a long ride of 50 miles.

• 2/12 Family hike at Marquette Park. Largely unwilling 13 year old made this super fun.

• 2/18 Family/friend hike in Ste. Genevieve, MO. We'd switched plans to avoid hiking the Shawnee in the rain, only to get rained on in Missouri. 

Why our hikes are long on time but short on miles. I'm not complaining; I'm happy just to be outside.

• 2/19 Post-orienteering mountain bike ride at Forest City. Great trails, but with my confidence at an all-time low after smashing my hand into a tree, I spent most of the ride in the cycling equivalent of the fetal position.

Ample opportunities for me to take pictures of my bike not being ridden.

• 2/20 Much more fun MTB ride at Indian Camp Creek Park. :)

• 2/25 Much better 75 mile gravel ride, despite the seasonable (much colder than we've gotten used to this "winter") weather and wind.

20 mph wind out of WNW. That first 40 miles was rough.

• 2/26 Short family hike

What's up for March:  The LBL Challenge 24 hour in Kentucky on March 4, Land Run 100 mile gravel race on March 11, and tentatively the Beaumont O-meet on March 18. With Land Run out of the way, I'm hoping to get in way more mountain biking, but Tour of Hermann (another gravel race) looms in April, so it won't be all play.