Tough Mudder Colorado Part 1

Some of you may recall that there was this tiny little event on September 6th called Tough Mudder that I hadn't been very excited about at all, haha! Yeah, right! It was a huge event and something that I had been looking forward to for months. And when that day finally came and it was time to run, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning!

We left Colorado Springs the Friday night before and made the four hour trip to Aspen, CO where our hotel was. We didn't get there until pretty late, but we got checked into our rooms and tried to get some sleep. I didn't sleep very well. I think it was the nerves and excitement of what the next day had in store. I finally fell asleep and got maybe 6 hours of sleep before I started hearing everyone and their brother running up and down the hotel stairs. It seriously sounded like a heard of elephants was roaming the place. So after many failed attempts to try and fall back asleep, I decided it was time to get up. 

We went and got some breakfast at the hotels little restaurant. Best part about the breakfast is that it was included for free with our stay. And it was bomb! Banana pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon. I am going to have to try and find a good banana pancake recipe now. After breakfast we headed back to our rooms to start getting ready to head out.

We left the hotel at about 10 am and arrived at the event at around 10:20ish. We got checked in, got our wrist bands, our numbers and all that good stuff and then headed to the warm up area. After a brief and hilarious warm up with Coach T Mud and a hell of a pep talk from the Tough Mudder motivational speaker, it was time to head to the start line.

The before picture.

Coach T Mud

This guy was one hell of a motivational speaker

 Our wave was at 11:40 and right off the bat was a wall that we had to get over just to get to the start line. And I don't remember if I told any of you this, but the walls were the one thing that I was worried about more than anything. I knew they would be taller than me and that I would need a boost, but luckily it wasn't too tall and with a little bit of help from my trainer, I was up and over and we were ready to go. 

The first two miles of the course were all flat and down hill and went by pretty quickly. There was even a sign at one point that stated that we were at the lowest part of the course elevation wise and that it would only be going up from there. I remember when we hit the first mile sign we both looked at each other and were pretty impressed with how quickly the first mile went by.  After about another half mile, we hit our first obstacle, Glory Blades, which were walls. Walls, again! These walls were actually pretty short, but they were at an angle which made it more difficult. But again, a boost from my trainer and I was able to pull myself up and over and we were off running again.

At about two and a half miles we hit our second obstacle. This one was one that I had heard horror stories about. It's called Arctic Enema. And if you can't tell by the name of the obstacle, it is freezing cold. It's essentially a huge dumpster that is lined with plastic and filled with freezing cold water and ice. You have to jump in, swim underneath this small wall in the middle and then swim out to the other side. Here's the kicker, it is so cold that your body kind of goes into shock, so the more you think about it, the better the chance that you won't get through it. So we got to it, didn't think, just jumped and got through it as quickly as possible. They weren't lying when they said it would be cold. It was freezing. I was just glad that it was at the beginning and that we could move on from it quickly! But guess what, we did get through it and that was a feat in itself.

About another quarter mile and we hit Hold Your Wood, which was a log carry. This really wasn't that bad and got your body moving a bit more which helped warm us back up.

Mile 3 came and went and shortly before we hit mile 4 it was time to do the Warrior Carry. As we were approaching this my trainer and I were arguing about who would carry who. I told him I was absolutely fine with carrying him and that I could handle it. He then told me that there was no way in hell that he was going to let me carry him because he weighs more than me. We argued for a bit more about it, but he won and we decided he would carry me. 

These pictures above crack me up because this was about the half way point of the carry when we saw a sign that stated that we had to switch who was carrying who. I laughed. He was a bit nervous. He really was worried that I wasn't going to be able to carry him. I showed him!

And I didn't even drop him. Psshh! Can't carry you my ass! Ha!

Almost all of mile 4 and 5 were running back through these trails. It was awesome. I love trail running, so I was in my comfort zone on this part. And it was absolutely gorgeous back in there. All the trees were starting to change and it was just a really beautiful view. We flew through this part and were surprised again at how quickly we were getting through the course. 

Right after mile 5 we hit an obstacle called Balls to the Wall. This was another one that I was nervous about. 

It's hard to tell from the picture but each side of the wall has a rope hanging down and you have to use the rope and the wall to climb over and lower yourself down. They did have some foot holds which helped, but I was still nervous. But apparently I didn't need to be. I grabbed the rope and used the foot holds and pulled myself up and over the wall and lowered myself down on the other side. The funny part was that my trainer got up and over pretty quickly and was waiting for me on the other side and he was just watching me come down  because he knew that I could do it on my own. But apparently this other guy didn't think I could get down on my own, so he comes over and stands underneath me as I was lowering myself down the other side of the wall. He was trying to be nice and help me, but he kept saying things like "Don't worry sweetie, I'll catch you if you fall" all while my trainer just stood back and was probably laughing at him. Dude?! I was doing just fine. If I needed some help, I would say something. I mean I appreciate the gesture, but I could have done without your comments.

Shortly after Balls to the Wall we got our first taste of mud. Kiss of Mud was just there waiting for us. This obstacle is where you have to crawl on your stomach underneath barb wire through mud and water. And they don't call it Kiss of mud for no reason. You get mud everywhere. All over your hands, arms, legs, feet, boobs, face and lots of other places you would rather it not even be. But you get through it, and with a smile on your mud covered face! Unfortunately they didn't have any pictures of us doing this one. I was bummed because I just remember how muddy we were. It was insane. My trainers beard looked double the size because of how much mud was in it. I just remember looking over at him while we were crawling through and laughing so hard because of how it looked on his beard.

After finishing Kiss of Mud, we were about 5.5 miles in and half way done with the course. We were pretty stoked with how well we were doing at this point. But we knew that it was getting ready to get tougher. But we were ready to charge the mountain and finish strong.

To be continued...

Weekend Recap

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here's a little bit of what went down in my neck of the woods this weekend. 

My weekend actually started on Friday. I took the day off. I had some errands and some running around that I needed to do, so it was perfect. First thing I did was take the dogs to the Vet. They were both due for a second set of shots. Bentley is growing like a weed. He is up to 28 lbs! He is going to be a monster, haha! And Louie is apparently overweight, so they are having us cut his food back. I don't think he's over weight, he's just fluffy!

After I was done at the Vet I went and paid some bills and then did our grocery shopping for the week and then went home and made these delicious Pumpkin Butterscotch Bars that I found on the Skinnytaste website. They were amazing! You can find that recipe here. After cleaning up the kitchen a bit, it was time to get ready to head out. I had a session with my trainer at 5:30 so I made my way across town to his studio. 

He absolutely killed my legs. I'm talking I could barely walk down the stairs to get to my car afterwards killed me. I thought I was going to fall over. But I always know that I worked hard when I feel that way. And to top it off, I squatted a new personal best of 185 lbs!!! Whoop whoop! I am pretty damn proud of that and pretty much telling everyone that I know, haha! 

After my session I called the Hubs to see where he was at. He was on his way to Best Buy so I met him there. We looked around for a bit and then headed to Kneader's to get some food. After we ate, we went to the AT&T store to talk to them about getting our contract upgraded and all that good stuff. After waiting for 45 minutes, we finally got to talk to someone. Hubs was able to get his phone on the spot. He got a HTC One. I unfortunately have to wait for my phone. We ordered it, but because it is in such high demand, I don't exactly know when I will get it. I'm sure you have guessed it by now, but I ordered the new iPhone 6 plus. And I CAN'T WAIT to get it! Eeekk! It only took us about two and a half hours, but we left with a new plan and new phones, well at least one of us did. 

Saturday morning I was up by 6 and out the door to the gym before 7 am. Got my workout in and then headed to Target to peruse the clothes section. I needed some new jeans and was looking for a few new tops! I was ready to scream from the mountain tops when the pair of size 6 skinny jeans fit me! Size 6!!!!!!!!! I have never ever fit into a size 6 before, well until now! And I found some great shirts in the clearance section! Score!! After finding some great stuff I headed home to get ready. 

My new jeans and one of the tops I found in the clearance section.

My High School's Homecoming Football game was this past Saturday and they asked for all Alumni to come back and watch the game. I was a little reluctant to go at first, but decided I would. I am glad that I did because one of my friends that I haven't talked to in almost five years was there and I got to see him and catch up with him. It's a long story why we haven't talked or seen each other in five years, but that is in the past and I was just happy that I got to see him. He was my best friend in High School and not having  him around the last five years has been hard. But I think we are going to start hanging out more again and hopefully we can re-build our friendship. I hope anyways. 

After the game I headed home and picked up the Hubs and we went and got dinner. We then made a stop at Kirkland's to pick up a few Halloween decorations. I was looking for a few specific things to complete my decorations on our buffet and I found them. It looks awesome now. But of course I didn't take a picture. 

After Kirklands we headed over to our friends house for game night. We played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity. And it was hilarious as usual. We even had a new expansion pack to add in this time, so it was nice to see some new cards that we hadn't seen before. It was a fun night, that is for sure. 

Sunday I got up early and took Bentley on a hike through Red Rocks Canyon Open Space. We went for about an hour. I worked with him off leash and he is doing amazing. He listens so well and doesn't wander too far away. I think he is going to be a great dog for hiking, which is good because that is why I wanted him in the first place. 

After our hike I headed home and dropped him off and then ran to Sam's and the grocery store again to pick up a few things I forgot to grab on Friday. Then I went home and got dinner going in the crock pot, this really good Pumpkin Chili, yum! You can find that recipe here.  I then proceeded to sit my butt on the couch the rest of the day and did nothing but watch Football. It was amazing. The Broncos won and that is really the only game that mattered to me, but I enjoyed watching the others. I did spend a good part of Sunday evening reading my book for class on Wednesday, but other than that it was all Football. Just the way it should be. 

How was your weekend?

Sooooooooo, I Apparently Suck At This...

whole blogging thing. Yeah, that's right, I said it. I am sucking it up with blogging. I can't ever seem to find the time to just sit down and blog. I don't even know where my days go most of the time. And to add to my already crazy schedule, I am taking a 10 week class on Wednesday's after work to help prepare me for the PHR exam. More on that in another post that I will make time to write about later. 

But I think I just need to get over the time constraints and start planning time in my day for me to blog. I feel better when I blog. I feel like I am able to get the bagillion thoughts out of my head and out there for probably no one to read, but I don't care. It's an outlet. Simple as that. And one that I need to start making time for and utilizing more often. 

The funny part is that everytime I have an idea for a blog post, I write it down so that when I do get back at this, I can actually have some things to write about. They might be hella delayed, but hey, I will have something to write about. 

Okay everyone, I will be back within a few days with some posts! I am going to make sure that I make time for it!!! Help keep me accountable! If you see that I haven't posted anything in a few days, call me out on Twitter. Be nice about it, but yeah, call me out! 

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday! 

It's Wednesday Already?!

Uhhh, not that I am complaining, but holy crap! What has happened to this week already. It's already Wednesday and I feel like I have not gotten anything done that I wanted to. And with a short work week because of Tough Mudder this weekend, everything seems to be piling up. There is just not enough time in the day!

Today's post is going to be a hodge podge of things. Weekend recap, Weigh-In Wednesday and just some other things going on. So I apologize in advance if this get's long. Don't say I didn't warn you either. 

This past weekend was crazy!! Between workouts, training/trying to keep track of the new puppy, a Birthday party, and the Balloon Classic, it was just non-stop!

Friday I had a training session and then I went home and made dinner and relaxed. It was probably the least busy of the three day weekend. 

Saturday I was up early because of the puppy. I have given up on the idea that I will ever get to sleep in again. I got some breakfast, played with the puppy and then headed out to Zumba. I got all the way to the gym just to find out that Zumba had been cancelled. Awesome. So instead of Zumba I headed to Target to get my Niece's Birthday present. 

Birthday present shopping is always fun. I found some great stuff that I knew she would love and then headed home. Once I got home I did some yard work, mostly pulling weeds while the Husband mowed the front and back yards. The weeds were getting out of control. I couldn't believe how bad we had let it get. 

After we were done in the yard, I was pretty tired. I sat down on the couch and may have fallen asleep for a few minutes. Yeah, I was tired. After I woke up I decided to head down to the my SIL's house with the puppy so that everyone could meet him. He did so good with all of my Niece's and was super good with my baby Nephew Hunter too. 

While I was down visiting we decided to head out to the Balloon Glow that night since this was the last year that they would be doing the Balloon Classic here in Colorado Springs. It's really sad that city politics is forcing out an event that has been here forever. I grew up going to the Balloon Classic every year, and now I won't get to take my future kids to it. All because our city is greedy and wants to charge the event more and more money. Ridiculous!

The Balloon Glow was fun. It was good to see it one last time. And I got to spend some great quality time with my family and got some extra steps in from all the walking we had to do! It was a win win!

Sunday morning I was up early again because of the puppy. So we got up, had some breakfast and then I took him on his first hike. He did awesome. He loved every bit of it. Especially all the people. He just wanted to say hi to everyone! 

After our hike we went home and I immediately grabbed my list and my bags and went and got my grocery shopping done for the week. When I came back, I got ready really quickly and then we had to head out once again so that we could go to my Niece's 2nd Birthday party. 

Miss Rylei was just adorable as always. She loved opening all of her presents. She would get so excited over the gift that she just opened that she would forget that she had other ones to open. It was adorable.  She however was not a fan of us singing Happy Birthday to her. She got pretty bashful, but it was still cute. After resisting what looked like some delicious cake, we headed home to let the dogs out. 

We made some dinner, watched some more of The Office and then I got ready for my Fantasy Football draft. It was quite possibly the longest draft ever on the face of this planet. But I got through it and I think I have a pretty good team. I guess we will see here in a few short days! Eeek!!!!

Monday I was once again up early but only because I wanted to go see the Balloons lift off at the park. So I got myself out of bed hella early, and busted my ass to get down there. Got there, found somewhere to sit and then waited and waited and waited to find out that they weren't going up that morning because it was too windy. Really? Damn it! They were at least still pretty to see while they were inflating. 

After the disappointment of no balloons, I headed home. We then got ready to go up and visit the In-Laws and go to the Lego store. We stopped at the Lego store first so that the Husband could buy his Batmobile Lego set. This thing is ridiculous. It has like 2000 pieces and it wasn't cheap either. But he was happy and it is his play money that he spent, so I can't really be too upset about it. 

After the Lego store we went and visited with the Husbands parents for a few hours and then went and grabbed some lunch. On our way back down to the Springs we stopped at the Under Armour outlet in Castle Rock so I could get a few new things. I am constantly needing new workout clothes and I needed a pair of capris that actually fit for Tough Mudder this weekend. I was pretty excited about my new purchases. But then again, I am that weird person that is obsessed with workout clothes. 

I ended the day with another session with my personal trainer at 6:30 and then went home and went for a run real quick and then made some dinner and just relaxed the rest of the night. Like I said, crazy busy weekend. 

As far as Weigh-In Wednesday goes, nothing really to report. I am up a few lbs on the scale, but I am honestly not too worried about it. 

I am however getting pretty excited/extremely nervous for Tough Mudder this weekend! Eeeekkk!! I am bound and determined to give it my absolute all and finish it knowing that I did as well as I possibly could. I think that is all that I can really ask of myself. Well that and to make sure that I have fun while doing it. 

Okay guys, that is the end of this big long post. It may be my last for the week. I am not sure yet. It will depend on how everything else plays out the rest of the week. If it is, I will see you guys next week and hopefully will have all kinds of fun stories from Tough Mudder to tell you about. Have a great rest of the week and have a great weekend!

Meet Bentley

We have a very exciting announcement to make. We have a new family member! And before everyone starts freaking out, no I am not pregnant. We welcomed a new fur baby to our family on Tuesday. Everyone, meet Bentley!

Bentley is a German Shepherd mix and he is about three months old. We adopted him from the Humane Society and we are so excited to welcome him to our family.

We have been looking for a German Shepherd puppy for about a month or so now. We haven't been looking very hard, but figured if something came along then we would go from there. Oddly enough I was on Facebook and saw an ad for the Humane Society here in town and decided to look and see what they had. I had been checking it every so often just to see if they had any German Shepherd puppies, but wasn't expecting to find anything. 

Well low and behold, they had three!!!! They had two males and a female. And although I wanted a female, she didn't look like a German Shepherd so we visited with both of the males that they had and I fell in love with Bentley. He was just so cute and he was a sweetheart. The Husband wasn't too sure that we were ready for another dog but after some convincing we decided to adopt him. 

One of the main reasons we have been wanting another dog is because I have been wanting a dog that I can take hiking and running with me. Although Louie likes to go do those things 1) he can't always keep up and I have to end up putting him in my backpack and 2) he can't really protect me because he is so little. So we wanted a bigger dog that I could take with me when I go out and do the hiking and running on my own. 

So far things are going pretty well with Bentley. He listens very well. And of course we are working on the potty training, but he is very affectionate, which I love. And you can tell by the way that he acts already that he knows that he is my dog, which is good since I am the one that will be taking him places. We were told that German Shepherds are usually loyal to one person more than the other in a home, so we were told that if it was going to be my dog for hiking and stuff like that, that I needed to assert my dominance early on. So far it seems to be working. 

He isn't sure about the leash yet, but we are working on that too. And Louie isn't sure about him being here. He doesn't really want anything to do with him right now, but from everything that I have read, this is normal. Hopefully he comes around and they become great friends. 

Welcome to the family Bentley! We are very excited that you are now ours!

Weigh-In Wednesday

It's Wednesday! Time for this week's Weigh-In Wednesday post. Whoop whoop!

I am full of energy this morning as I have already been to the gym and got my workout in for the day. And it isn't even 9 am yet! Yesss!!!!!! 

Not a whole lot of change going on from last week's post. I am still on the 10 day low carb plan. I believe today is my last day if I counted correctly. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich here I come tomorrow! Haha! And possibly a Pumpkin Spice Latte if I can fit it into my calories! I definitely didn't struggle with the low carb eating as much this time around. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. And I feel like it really got me back on track. I could feel myself slipping more and more and this has kind of snapped me out of that. 

I have some exciting progress to share! As of this morning I am officially down to 155 lbs! And I have stayed there consistently for a few days. So this low carb thing again, really did help the scale move and now I am only 15 lbs away from my goal weight of 140. It is crazy to me how close I am to reaching that goal. Especially if you consider how much I have already lost, 15 lbs doesn't seem like a lot! And I love that feeling. 

The other exciting progress that I have to share with you guys is that I have officially fallen into the Athlete range as far as my body fat percentage is concerned. Athlete for my age and height is 21%. Last month I was at 22.6%, so I was so close. When we did measurements on Friday I was at 19.9%!!!!!!!! AAGGHHHHH!!! I was so excited. And so proud of myself all at the same time. My trainer couldn't believe how much I dropped in just a month. But you could tell that he was excited too. He kept re-doing the measurements to make sure that he did them correctly. It was funny. 

Tough Mudder is only a week and a half away. And with each day my excitement is growing, but so are my nerves. I keep asking myself if I am doing enough to get ready for it and I feel like the answer is always no. But seeing as I have never done one of these ,I am not really quite sure what to expect. So I have a feeling that I won't feel prepared at all. And hopefully when I get out there, I will feel better about it. I guess we will see next weekend. 

Okay, that is all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my progress! Everyone's support has been amazing and I am so glad that I have all of you out there. Thank you again and have a great Hump Day!

Weekend Recap

Once again I suck at blogging and couldn't get my weekend recap up for you guys yesterday. Sorry about that. I started it and then got busy with work. I hate being a grown up some days. Sigh. 

This weekend was insanely busy. But once again in a great way. Friday started with an after work personal training session like it always does. From there I headed home and waited on the Husband to get home because I was challenged to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge like I am sure most of you have been. So I had to wait for him to get home so that I could do it. It was absolutely freezing. You can check it out below. 

After I was done with that I dried off real quick, got changed and then headed out to dinner with my friends. After dinner I headed home and decided it was time for bed. I was tired. It had been a long day and I was ready for some sleep. 

Saturday I got up early and made my way to the gym. I did yoga and then stayed for Zumba. It was only the second time that I had been to yoga and I am still not sure how I feel about it. I think my problem with it is that I just feel so lost. Haha! I have no clue what I am doing, but I think if I keep going it will get better. 

After getting my workouts in, I ran a few errands, did our grocery shopping for the week and then ran home to get ready to go out. I headed to my friend Megan's house where I met her and her Husband and then we picked up her Mom and stopped and had dinner on our way to the State Fair. We went to the rodeo and then stayed to watch the Chris Young concert afterwards. He was once again amazing. It was a great show and a good night. We had a lot of fun. 

Sunday I was up hella early. I'm talking 5 am. I had to be up in Denver by 8 am for the Reebok Spartan Workout. Which was awesome! It was a great two hour workout and a great way to start my day. We did lots of burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, and no big deal or anything, but we pulled a Jeep, haha! And they happen to put a video up of my group doing the Jeep pull. You can see me for like a split second. I am on the left side and I have on teal shorts and a black top. 

After the workout was done I headed home. I did some cleaning, made dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the day. It was a busy day. Heck, it was a busy weekend, but it was also a lot of fun. 

Hope you guys had a great weekend!