Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls...

But I just can't help it!

It's no secret that both Jeff and I LOVE waterfalls, as described here and here.

For me, it's almost even stronger than love. Is that possible? Is anything stronger than love? It is what binds us, after all.

For me, it's almost like a drug. If I'm out for a walk or in a park, and I hear the sound of rushing water, I can't help but go. chase. that. waterfall!! I keep listening and walking...and listening and walking...until I finally find it!

This past summer, I even convinced Jeff to make a pitstop on our road trip to check out the waterfalls in Sioux Falls, SD. You can read about that here.

A few weeks back, I took Sallie for a walk. I heard the unmistakably, wonderful sound of a waterfall, but I couldn't find it. anywhere.

Today, we went out again but this time hiked even closer to the river.

There it was again. An ever-so-slight, but deliciously exhilarating, sound of rushing water. It didn't take me too long to gasp at the beauty as I turned my head.

There it was!! Complete with icicles. Wow.

Now I didn't happen to have my camera with me - just my phone.

If you look real close, in the back center, you can see two streams of water going over the small cliff.

The camera on my phone doesn't have a zoom, so I knew that I needed to get closer.

Down we hiked. Sallie and I.

Closer. But still not good enough to satisfy my need.

Down. Down. Down.

Finally I could get a shot from the front.

This shot was difficult to get because Sallie, does not get my fascination with waterfalls. She was trying her darnedest to get back up the hill. Guess it reminds her too much of getting a bath. Something she does. not. enjoy.

Back at the top of the hill, I tried to capture one last shot of some icicles. Gorgeous!

I realize they are a little difficult to discern (darn no-zooming-camera-phone), but trust me. They are there. Kind of dead center, hanging from the blob of greenery.

We ♥ Tooshies

This is my 1st ever time entering an I ♥ Faces photography challenge. I've seen some friends enter on their blogs in the past but never attempted one myself.

This week's themes, We ♥ Tooshies, was really intriguing to me. I, immediately, thought of this great picture I have of me walking with one of my cousin's daughters. It's SO cute. However, it was taken before digital photography became so prevalent, so it's an actual photo, and not easily uploaded into blogger (as I'd need to find it and then upload it).

Instead, I sifted through my folders upon folders of digital photographs, and found this one.

This is my 13-year-old niece’s first soccer game. ever.

She was awesome, of course.

I love how this photo captures the motion of her run.

Pop on over to I ♥ Faces to find some other fun tooshies.

A New Start

One of the things that I've really enjoyed about being a student again was the flexibility that I have with my sleep. I don't have to set an alarm! I can get up whenever I wake up! I can stay up late and sleep in late!

This past weekend, I came to an epiphany that maybe this isn't the best thing in the world.

I have way too much studying and other things to do in a day that I rarely accomplish all of my goals. This does not lead to positive feelings of self-worth.

So...

This week, I decide to try out something new. My dog, Sallie, generally wakes me up several times throughout the night. I can't give in to her all the time, so I choose to ignore her until after 6am - breakfast time. I used to barely open my eyes, turn on as few lights as possible, quickly put her food in her dish, and crawl back into bed. This week, I decided I'd try staying up after I feed her. Today's my first day; I stayed up WAY too late Sunday night in order to start this new habit Monday morning. :-)

Right now, my eyes are feeling quite heavy, but I'm hopeful of my day. After doing a little blogging, I plan to get my exercising out of the way before Jeff wakes up. That should wake me up and give me the boost to do what I need to do today, right?!

Settling In...

We've moved into our new apartment, and it's slowly becoming our new home. I'll probably post more pictures later as our decorating progresses, but this one showcases my favorite new toy! I've wanted a piano for a very long time. Regular pianos are such a pain to move (and we move a lot), but I've really been enjoying this keyboard. It has weighted keys like a regular piano, plus I can plug in headphones, so my practicing doesn't bother anyone else in our building.

This isn't a very artistic photo, but it does provide a little glimpse into our new home...music and books. :-)

Walking Log

I don't have any stats for this post, but I certainly did A LOT of walking yesterday.

It was my dad's birthday, and we decided to take our annual pilgrimage to the Great MN Get Together. We are all day fair-goers. We arrived at the fair around 7am and left around 10pm.

It was non-stop walking all. day. long.

There were a few pauses here and there as we ate, decided what to do/where to go next, and there was quite a bit of standing.

What there wasn't much of was sitting.

It was still great fun! I LOVE the fair!!

Walking Log

Ok. So, I haven't been very good about updating my walking log.

Truth be told, I haven't been very going about walking either.

The week after my last walking log entry, my family took a trip to a lake up near Ely, MN. It was great fun! I went canoeing, and hiking, and swimming! There were also quite a few moments of relaxation enjoing the beauty of the outdoors.

Here's a few stats:

August 10th (my 32nd birthday)
I was hoping to go for a hike on my birthday, but the sky looked a little ominous. Jeff and I took out a canoe instead. The battery in my Garmin died a little less than half way, but here is what the canoe trip was like before that.

Canoe Time: 1:10:30
Canoe Distance: 3.06mi
Avg Pace: 23:01/mi
Calories: 416

Well, actually Jeff did most of the work; I'm not the greatest canoeist.

August 11
This was the first hike of the trip. I was accompanied by my sister and 3 nieces. We hiked the Bass Lake trail to the Dry Falls. It was very hilly! A great workout! It was quite a busy trail, and when we got to the end, there were quite a few people playing in the falls and swimming in the lake. Not quite what I was hoping for at the end of our hike. It was still great fun to spend time outside with the girls.

Run Time: 1:27:12
Run Distance: 3.01mi
Avg Pace: 43.26/mi
Calories: 139

August 13
This was the second hike of our trip. It was the same people with the addition of my dad. This time we hiked the trip to Big Moose Lake. It was so much fun! The trail was riddled with wild blueberry plants. There was no one else on the trail, and the lake at the end was absolutely gorgeous! So clear and still. We paused for a while at the lake--eating some snacks and dipping our feet in the lake. It was wonderful.

Run Time: 2:23:15
Run Distance: 4.40mi
Avg Pace: 32:32/mi
Calories: 628

Join me!

Dear Friends: I've started the Drop a Jeans Size challenge on FitnessMagazine.com. Please join me so we can be workout buddies and cheer each other on.

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/app/ycdi/?esrc=emycdifriend

P.S. Once you join the Drop a Jeans Size challenge, don't forget to add me as a buddy so we can keep track of each other's progress!

Walking Log: Day 9

Oops! Day 9 was back on July 23. I can't remember that long ago, so I can't tell you anything about my walk.

However, I can share my stats. Thank goodness my Garmin has good history record-keeping abilities.

Today's Stats (from 7/23):
Run Time: 35:45
Run Distance: 2.11mi
Avg Pace: 16:55/mi
Calories: 202

Walking Log: Day 8

Today's walk was really great. This time, I walked down to I-35E and walked along the bike path. I only wanted to do 3 miles today, so I turned around about halfway across the river.

I wanted to try to prevent any major shin pain, so I stopped to stretch at each mile.

Today's Stats:
Run Time: 50:15
Run Distance: 3.06mi
Avg Pace: 16:26/mi
Calories: 322

I also did some Wii Fit Yoga and Strength training today.

Walking Log: Day 7

I decided to supplement my walking regiment with some Wii Fit today. I warmed up with some yoga exercises that targeted my lower body. When I returned from my walk, I did a few lower body strength exercises.

Today, I decided to really push myself with my pace and not go as far of a distance. Normally I have the pace alert set on my Garmin at the walk setting, which is 20:00/mi, but today I set it at the speed walk setting, which is 16:00/mi. I could really feel the difference.

I decided I would only go for 2 miles today. It was tough! After the 1st mile, I had terrible shin pain (this is what keeps me from running), PLUS I was so hot and sweaty (and it's not even that hot this morning). I decided to stop and stretch a little before heading back home. This worked immensely. The shin pain was barely noticeable by the time I returned. I did have a little ankle pain, but no big deal!

Today's Stats
Run Time: 29:21
Run Distance: 1.95mi
Avg Pace: 15:01/mi
Calories: 200

Walking Log: Day 6

I tried to keep it a little slow today, to ease myself into the new week. I'm still working on exploring Crosby Farm Park. I believe I read somewhere that there is almost 7 miles of paved trails within this park, so it may take me awhile to fully explore. If I ever feel brave enough, I may explore the unpaved trails as well. There seem to be quite a few.

Today's Stats:
Run Time: 52:15
Run Distance: 3.05mi
Avg Pace: 17:08/mi
Calories: 291

Walking Log: Day 5

I'm still feeling the burn a little from Wednesday's walk, but I really wanted to see what walking through the park would really be like from one end to the other. I had to take yesterday off because I got a temp assignment for the day. Starting work at 8am just doesn't allow me enough time to go for a walk in the morning. Turns out, it was only 1 mile less than when I did the loop. I did it at a much slower pace today, though. Hopefully my rest tomorrow will rejuvenate my body to begin another week of good walking next week.

Today's Stats:
Run Time: 1:08:14
Run Distance: 3.85mi
Avg Pace: 17:45/mi
Best Pace: 11:35/mi
Calories: 391

Week's Stats:
Run Time: 4:45:37
Run Distance: 16.3
Calories: 1304

Walking Log: Day 4

I am so achy and sore from my LONG power walk yesterday. I could have easily justified taking a day off, but I know that would make it twice as difficult to motivate myself to go out tomorrow. Instead, I decided to try to slow down my pace a bit and only go for two miles.

It was still a tough workout for me! I know the benefits will be great in the long run--if I can stick to it. :-)

Today's Stats
Run Time: 34:42
Run Dist: 2.02mi
Avg Pace: 17:10/mi
Best Pace: 10:37/mi
Calories: 197

Walking Log: Day 3

WOW! My walk today did not turn out to be what I'd intended.

I wanted to walk somewhere different than yesterday. We live close to Lake Crosby, and Jeff and I walked to the lake and around the park a little back in April. That walk had ended with us scaling a wall. This time I wanted to walk from one end of the park to the other.

Here is a map of the park. I entered at the end opposite of where the marker is, and I wanted to come out where the A was.

View Larger Map

It seemed to be taking a LONG time, and I was getting a little frustrated. I hadn't intended on walking nearly 5 miles today! BUT, if you're lost in a park, you have no option but to keep on trekking.

When I finally got to what I thought was the end, I asked someone if I was at Shepherd Rd. He confirmed it, but as we talked, I was informed, that I was back at the point where I'd entered the park.

Somehow going straight (or what I'd supposed was straight) had brought me full circle!

I have now found a map online that shows the trails in this park. I'll need to study it before I attempt tackling this park again!

Today's Stats:
Run Time: 1:15:09
Run Dist: 4.88mi
Avg Pace: 15:24/mi
Best Pace: 8:51/mi
Calories: 428

I was surprised at how many wild rhubarb plants I saw in the park. It's out of season now, but do you think they'd mind if I helped myself next year? :-)

Part of the trail was in a marsh, so it wasn't paved but a boardwalk had been constructed. There were snakes everywhere! I tried to find out what kind they were, but it was too creepy for me to look through photos online to find one that looked that the ones in the park. Also, whenever I caught a glimpse of one, I usually averted my eyes as quickly as possible. I never really knew how icky I thought snakes were. At least I was relatively calm and didn't shriek or anything!

Walking Log: Day 2

Perhaps one day this will become a running log.

Yesterday morning, I decided I really needed to become more active. There are some pounds I'd definitely like to shed. Since I can't run (stupid shins!), I decided that I would begin taking Sallie for a nice long walk every morning.

Day 1 was yesterday. I didn't have any batteries for my Garmin, so I don't have any stats for yesterday's walk. I do know that my walk was nearly exactly 60 min.

Today, Day 2, my Garmin was all set. I went the exact same route, so I'd know how far I went yesterday.

Today's Stats:
Run Time: 47:32
Run Distance: 2.75mi
Avg Pace: 17:15/mi
Best Pace: 12:19/mi
Calories: 288