Homecoming

Reality Check

 Chris on Church Rocks

 KC N Chris on Zen (photo by Karl)

 KC starting Church Rocks (photo by Karl)

 Chris atop Sidewinder, of course

Noah, Carson, Karl, and Chris making a decision

We spent the weekend in the glorious sunshine of St. George hitting most of the trails we wanted. (A few still seemed like they would be questionable mud wise). I pushed hard. We rode for a bit over eight hours in total. My average heart rate was 150-156 depending on the ride. In total I probably  average around 154 give or take a beat/minute. According to my VO2 max, I burn around 675-700 calories per hour at this rate. If I give myself the benefit of the doubt and call it 700 calories per hour for eight hours, that is a total of 5600 calories. That sounds pretty good until I stopped to think about it. To burn a pound of fat, it takes a 3500 caloric deficit! If I did not replace any of those calories (and I assure you I did), I would at best have lost 1.6 pounds.How do those contestants on the Biggest Loser drop weight the way they do!
While I likely did not lose much excess mass, I did have lots of fun.Thanks to Carson, Karl, Scott, and Noah for spending some pedal time with us. It is always a good time.

Back on the bike but off it too

Most of the gunk is out of my lungs, so I started riding again. Not so much outside though. The weather has been frigid, air quality is bad, and lots of snow makes it very difficult. And I don't like to ride on the road unless I have full access to the shoulder which is presently occupied with snow/ice.
We did try to ride above the inversion on snow pack. But Friday evening the Alpine Loop was not ridable for either Chris or myself. We pushed our bikes for about 20 minutes up, turned around and road maybe half of it back down.
Saturday we were back at Aspen Grove but this time for snow shoeing. (We saw Tim and Jen coming down the by Sundance. They had an experience similar to ours the night before.) Our goal Saturday was to "hike" to Stewart Falls. We never made it there, but got in 1:45 of physical activity.  I thought it was fun--not MTB fun but what is? I just enjoy being outside and moving around after being cooped up for such a long time.

 Somewhere up there, looking back

 A skier swishing down--Chris was missing his snow board.

 Above where we went

 Chris "waving" in his lobster gloves.

And being watching Erica and Heather's blogs. They both have some pretty exciting news coming.

Providential Living

I caught a super bug. Its resistance to antibiotics is not what is making me categorize it as a "super bug" but its intensity. In fact, antibiotics are working fairly well, but not before it took me out. It was in my throat and lungs. Though coughing was strictly forbidden out of fear--each needed cough was stifled as much as possible. While I was sure it was strep throat due to the INTENSE pain, my throat culture came back negative. The doctor took pity on me none the less and still gave me some antibiotics (my ears did not look good in his opinion) and more importantly at the time something for the pain.
Now I am feeling better but still have some gunk in the lungs. As I have always heard that one can exercise with a head cold but it is best to take it easy with a chest cold, I have been trying to avoid working out. This is always a struggle for me. So I have been trying to find things to do while taking it easy.
One thing we did was break out our new grain grinder my parents got us for Christmas. It went perfectly with the wheat, oats and rice that we received from Chris' dad.

The new grinder

I wanted a hand grinder because if things are supposed to get bad then we likely won't have electricity to grind said wheat, oats, etc. And I honestly like doing some things "the old fashion" way. I often will mix my cakes by hand--sans electric beater. One time I even tried to the do the same with whip cream. Chris laughed at me. Apparently that does not work. Who knew?

Chris after his ride.

 

Things to do when one can't or shouldn't ride her bike...grind wheat, oats, and rice.  Now I need to figure out something to make with all this new flour.