Finally Burned Some Calories

No, I still haven't ran.  Not sure where my mojo has gone for that, or when it will come back.  I haven't ran since Feb 9th.  Yikes ... I didn't realize it had been quite that long.

In complete honesty I had EVERY intention of running this weekend.  Kinda had to as I was signed up for an 8K race on Sunday, which my friend (who has been sick for a good 6 weeks and is finally recovering) was going to meet me at.  I couldn't really bail on this one ... however I did - but with a good excuse (which I will get to in a minute).

Backing it up a bit .....

Sunday was my daughter's 15th birthday, though somehow she doesn't seem only 15.  We had made plans over a month ago to celebrate her birthday on the Saturday and go out quadding on the ATVs.  February is not exactly the best time of year for outdoor activities, but she had every intention of getting as muddy as possible and didn't mind the fact that it would probably be cold & wet.  We didn't however count on snow.

All last week was COLD here.  Cold like we don't typically get (windchills of -17).  And, of course, on Saturday the warm front moved in which brought us snow.  It started, lightly, in the morning while we were having breakfast.

My husband's company does snow removal, so potential snow is kind of a big deal.  We have to be ready to go at a moments notice if it starts to accumulate.  But, on the same hand, if you sit and wait for it and are prepared to go .... often it doesn't happen and you've cancelled plans unnecessarily.  This has happened too many times.  So we packed up to go out and play and hoped that it wouldn't build up while we were gone.

The quadding was OK.  It was a location we hadn't been to before and it really wasn't the greatest.  Lots of soft spots.  Her boyfriend's quad wasn't suitable for this type of riding (which we knew going out) and he got stuck alot.  Then I, stupidly, tried to take a different route through one area and first I nearly flipped the machine and then got it stuck so deep I wasn't sure if we could get it out.  After we winched it out we decided to scratch those plans and went and made a fire and had hotdogs.  It was so great to be outdoors like that, even if things didn't work out quite how we wanted them to.  I just love being outdoors and hanging out with my family like that.

When we got home the snow had started to accumulate, but not enough for clearing yet.  We all settled in to watch the UFC fight.  But my husband was on edge, wondering if we needed to gear up.  Eventually he decided to get ready, and shortly after that we got the call that we were to be on site at 11 .... PM!  It was gonna be a late night and a long day.

I had the option of driving the quad with a snow plow ... or shovelling.  This time I opted for shovelling.  It's been so long since I exercised that I wanted to burn some calories.  Plus you stay SO much warmer shovelling.  Driving the quad is COLD and wet!  Within about 15 minutes us shovellers were stripping off layers, and we were still hot.  My poor son (who has a pretty bad cold) had to drive a quad and he was frozen all night.  He was so sick, but he kept going until he literally fell asleep on his quad at one point (while stopped of course).  At that point we took him off shift.

It was actually great exercise and I kinda enjoyed myself.  You get into a rhythym and somehow you forget that it's 2 or 3 in the morning.  My daughter & her boyfriend also came along and they shovelled with me.  I almost couldn't keep up with them.

I'm so, so, SO proud of those kids.  All 3 of them worked hard all night.  They were dedicated and did a fantastic job.  I don't have one single complaint.  Plus, it was so great to have our whole family working together like that.

So, it wasn't a typical "workout", but let me tell you ... I was DRENCHED in sweat.  My arms ache today.  Yesterday was a write off, slept off and on most of the day - hopefully enough that the fatigue doesn't drag on all week. 

I now have 2 weeks until my half marathon and I'm NOT .. AT ... ALL trained for it.  But I'll still do it, if only for the experience.  It's paid for and there's no refunds, so may as well do it.  Somehow though I do HAVE to get some runs in between now and then.

Heidi

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