Midnight Hike

I really like hiking. A lot. And this year wasn't the super-best for snow shoeing, so I have been excited for the weather to be nice so I can go back to the mountains, my favorite place to be.

Anyway, we had a semi-not-too-cold day a week or two ago and my friend Tosh and I were trying to figure out what to do one night. It was a clear night, and so I insisted we go hiking, and he was cool with that. So we went up Mill Creek Canyon to Church Fork and hiked up Grandeur Peak at like 10ish or something. I have never been hiking at night before, (unless you count snow shoeing) but I found it to be quite enjoyable. Near the top we did hit some snow, but it wasn't too bad, and the view was great.

I never seem to learn my lesson about bringing water because I think I won't be gone long, but often end up quite thirsty. Oh well, it all worked out.

I feel like this post is missing something. Meaning? Depth? Purpose? All of the above, perhaps? Oh well, it's a post, and who really cares if it is funny, clever, or meaningful. Just be grateful there's pictures for this one!

The point is: Hiking is fun, and is better at night if there is a lot of moonlight.
Me, AT THE TOP!!! With city light coming out of my stomach...
This one we were trying to look "manly." Did it work?

I moved before the picture was done, so the lights ended up on my face, obviously...

What not to do the night before a 5k...

Salt Lake Running company just opened up a new store in my area, or rather, moved a location... But the point is they were having a grand opening celebration, which included a free 5k. I am all about racing, and I am even more excited when they are free because the only thing that keeps me from racing every other week is a lack of excess money.

Anyway, I digress. This particular race (like most of them) was on a Saturday morning, and I had a date Friday night. I was not thinking about what I had the next morning when I decided it would be fun to go Ice Skating for my date. I have only been ice skating once in my life, and I thought it was fun, and it was out of the ordinary enough that I thought it would make a good date, and I was right. We had lots of fun, in spite of the fact that the skating place opened later than usual because of an event they had there. We just went to CostCo and ate samples, then played Rock Band at Best Buy. When I got on the ice, it felt just like it was my first time all over again. And I was all wibbly and wobbly, and so was my date. It was so uncomfortable that she decided to switch from hockey to figure skates. I was too nervous to make the same switch, since I thought figure skates were only for girls, but I eventually gave in and I must say... I like figure skates way better, I was faster and had better balance, and dare I say it? Much more graceful.

The point of this whole story is, ice skating makes your ankles, knees, and legs overall pretty sore, and you shouldn't do it the night before a race, it will make it that much harder. The good news is: I still managed to finish in 25ish minutes, which isn't too bad considering...

Book Review: "Nephi's Isaiah"

As was my goal, I finished a book this week to report on. "Nephi's Isaiah" by Denver Snuffer Jr. was a fabulous commentary and explanation of Nephi's intentions behind quoting the ancient prophet in his own record. For such a difficult task as engraving characters on gold plates, Nephi certainly thought it worth the effort to inscribe a sizable portion of Isaiah's words. I never took the perspective of reading these words as if Nephi may have had different intentions in writing them than Isaiah's.

Nephi knew we would have access to the bible, and could have just said, "read Isaiah, chapters..." Just as we often use the words of others to get a point of our own across, so does Nephi, and this book, while not intended to be an exhaustive work on the subject, opens up new ways of thinking and reading the words of both of these great ancient prophets.

Namaste

Photo Credit Here

I really enjoy reading articles on Active.com and USATriathlon.com, they often include tips and information that are quite handy for training and racing. It wasn't too long ago that I read one about the benefits of doing Yoga, for triathletes in particular.

I thought about it quite a bit, and talked to my some people about it, and decided there would be no harm in trying it in the comfort of my own basement. So I got "AM/PM yoga for beginners" from Wal Mart and tried doing both AM and PM every day for a week. (This was back when school was in) Let me just say, it may be quite entertaining and even comical to watch ( and listen to...) from an outsiders perspective. But in doing it myself, I have noticed that it is quite relaxing and helps you to focus and concentrate better. I would say it is almost... empowering.

My point is... It is always a good idea to try new things, and if you haven't tried it yet, I recommend Yoga as one of those things. Variety is the spice of life! There are many activities I have seen others do and be curious and desirous to try myself, but never had the nerve to try. But when I did, it turned out quite fun, and occasionally, I don't care for whatever it is I tried, but at least I know now.

Who knows, I may even try a water aerobics class one of these days... But probably not.

Success!

This is just a short post in response to the one on Accountability. It is quite true that being accountable to a deadline gave me the motivation I needed to get my product packaged, letter written, and delivered to the owner of Good Earth Natural Foods. Sweet! I also bought my domain name, so even though there is nothing on there yet, my business has officially launched! ( Or does that happen when I sell something... I'm not sure to be honest, either way, I am making big progress. This week, I want to get my website all set up nice. :)
www.sosimpleessentials.com

What I've been up to...

So during the last couple of weeks I have found myself at work a little more than usual, which is not really what I feel super good about. There are other things that I think would be better uses of my time that I have not been doing as much as I should. Not that I have given up on my higher pursuits, but I find it amazing that I get almost the same amount of stuff done when I am in school vs. being out of school. Surely the principle discussed in my last post applies.

I have been dating a little bit. That's progress. And I am slowly making headway on one of my business ideas. But I think I need some accountability to get things moving so here's the deal. By the end of this week (it's Friday) I will have petitioned Good Earth Natural Foods to sell some of my products. That's my goal.

Wait, I never discussed my latest idea did I? I have been doing some research and experimenting with Essential Oils lately, and I think they are amazing! I have used them for several purposes and have had great success. So, naturally, my entrepreneurial mind is determined to market these wonderful products. Don't worry. I'll soon have a link that you can buy them from on this blog ;) . As a matter of fact, I think I will start working on a website too. See, it is great to blog about this stuff, it gets me really motivated.

In other news, I have decided to do the Rock Cliff Olympic Triathlon in June. This is twice as long as the last one I did, and the swim is open water, which I am actually pretty enthused about. So, hopefully the weather will warm up past 60 degrees and I can be more motivated to go out in it. I did a brick workout a couple days ago, a bike up the canyon followed by a 5k. Man, it was cold coming down the mountainside I tell you, and I got a flat tire. Oh! the bane of my existence. Flat tires... Oh well.

Accountability

A good friend of mine recently started his own blog, and one of his first posts really described how I feel a lot of the time. You can read it here. He talks about how he tends to get more done when he has more scheduled. Which seems contradictory, but it is so true. When I have a bunch of free time, things seem so much less urgent, because there are no deadlines. In "The 4-hour Work Week" (a fantastic book, by the way) the author, Tim Ferriss talks about this same principle. And how productivity increases exponentially as deadlines draw nearer. That may be over simplifying it, but I'm sure you get the idea.

I suppose the point I'm trying to make here is that I have no posting deadlines for this blog, therefore I end up putting off posting until something really exciting happens. And then I still end up waiting. So, I am going to try to post at least once every week, just to keep myself motivated, since that is one of the main purposes of this blog, and every other week I will do a short book review on a book I read during those two weeks. I am trying to give myself some deadlines and make myself accountable and therefore more productive.

There you have it. I am now accountable to the three or four people who ever read my blog, the pressure is on.