SnoFlake's Blog

Wow, I barely even remember how to log on. 

I finally decided to take drastic action to make myself go running, because I have a 5K in March.  I had to sleep in my running clothes and crank up the volume on my alarm clock to rouse myself.  I still have some training to do, but I've also been doing a lot of running around with my friends so I suppose that counts, even though it's mostly sprinting for a few feet, stopping,  panting, and repeating the process.  I am really not good at freeze tag. ;-)

I am thinking about starting to blog some of my other sports on here too like gymnastics and horseback riding.  At least now I know the trick to making myself go for a run.  Those shorts actually make pretty good PJ's.  ;-)  I will attempt to go running this weekend or maybe on Monday morning.  LOL  

By the way, this was a treadmill run with a movie, and I did a pattern where I ran .1 miles and then walked .1 miles, over and over and over again until I got to about 1 mile.   

This was not a run it was just a little bike ride with mom.  About 2 miles, down to the retail area near our house and back this afternoon.  I was going to blog it when I got home but I totally forgot to.  Thanks for reminding me, mom! :-D

This was not a run.  This was gymnastics.  I am actually posting it on Tuesday the  23rd, because I got back from gymnastics at approximately 9:15 pm last night.

Anyway, for some reason, the warm up was shorter than usual, but that's okay, because no push ups are fine with me. ;-)  Then we went to tumble track, and I did the world's worst dive roll.  Then we went to balance beam.  I don't usually go to balance beam, because (okay, this is going to sound utterly stupid: prepare yourself!!!!!) I am always afraid of whacking my feet on the beam next to me during the dismount.  Okay, there are a couple of other reasons too, but that's my main phobia.  And the end beam is about four and a half feet high, and it's the skinniest one.  The other end beam is always covered in little kids doing handsprings.  But I went to beam anyway, and surprised myself by, for the first time in my life, doing the routine perfectly!  Too bad the coaches didn't see any of it.  They didn't even know I was practicing it.  As long as the coaches say it's okay, you can pretty much do anything you want in this class.  

I also took one run on the vault and worked on the big trampolines.

They just got a new vault, and it's cushioned.  My friend and I were bouncing up and down on it yelling "Squishy!  Squishy!"  Mostly that was her, though.  I was trying to figure out why anyone would want to make a vault cushioned.  The big trampolines, (we call them the big tramps) are four or five feet off the ground, and super bouncy.  If you bounce hard enough, you can go fifteen feet up into the air.  My friends and I used to wonder what would happen to to you if you got stuck in the rafters.  It hasn't happened yet, though.  ;-)  Anyway, I practiced arials (still needs work), back flips (still needs work), seat drop turns (also called 'swivel hips' -- very easy for me, hard for literally everyone else in the class), and front flips (just mastered it).   If you don't know what any of those mean, just post a comment and I will let you know.  

Oh yeah, and I laughed a lot with my friends, but that's not really an event. ;-) 

Horseback Riding lesson today, so the horse did the running for me.

Okay so you know that horse that's in the picture of me in my profile?  That's Gatsby.  His full name is The Great Gatsby.  He's almost 33, in fact, his birthday is coming up within the next few weeks.  That's really, really, seriously old for a horse.  But he's still a great lesson horse, and he's very active.  He can canter to the left, but since he has arthritis in his back right leg, he can't canter to the right.  I have been riding him for four years, in other words, since I started.  We are very good friends and we get along very well together.  He's an American Saddlebred, and a formal world champion National Show Horse (but I didn't know him then -- I wasn't even born then).  Now he has retired to a quiet life with his girlfriend, Gracie, being a lesson horse.  I am hoping to show him later this year, maybe.  That's who I rode today.

 Gatsby was already in the cross ties when I arrived.  He was a little hot, but he didn't show it until he was walking to the arena.  I rode him English style today, with the Wintec all-purpose saddle (my favorite!) and his normal bridle.  I think it may have had the wrong cavason (that's the part of the bridle that goes over the nose), but he responded really well to it and he seemed to like it better than his normal one.  Of course, I couldn't have had his normal one if I had wanted to, because I couldn't find it.  If you don't understand what I mean, you've never seen the tack room.  Cleaning has absolutely no effect on that place, and apparently neither to labels, because you can never find anything in there unless you know it really well.    

In the arena, I thought I'd be riding with one other girl.  But people just kept on showing up.  Eventually, including me, there were five other girls on horses in the arena, and two of them were acting up, so that my riding teacher Tom had to get on the horses and get them to behave (which I've never seen him do before).  Gatsby was a little bit jumpy, and when I tried to canter him, he went into a perfect (except for the fact that it was extremely bumpy) slow gait, which is *supposed to be* a smooth running walk, about the same speed as a trot.  On Gatsby, it's better classified as a roller coaster ride with four legs and a tail.  Tom told me to ride him through it, and after about two times around the arena, he went back to a canter.  

That was about it.  I worked on the extended trot for a while, and did some leg exercises (my legs, not the horses'), cooled him down, took him back to the barn, untacked him, and put him back in his stall.

I haven't been training a lot, considering that I have a 5K in a few weeks, but I feel like I'm still going to be well trained because of the amount of leg exercises and running I've been doing in gymnastics and horseback riding.  I've also been playing in the yard a lot, so I guess that counts.  I'll try to get a couple more little runs in before race day, and if I can, at least one on or near the actual course so that I can get a feel for the terrain and stuff.

Bye! :-D 

Gymnastics.  Warm up, big trampoline, tumble track, plus a couple of passes on the vault.  Pretty uneventful.... :-D  

Horseback riding lesson.  Rode with my friend.  At first I was on Gatsby and she was on Joe, then we switched because Mr. G (Gatsby) wasn't cantering too well.  Joe cantered excellently in both directions.  I found the trick to making him keep going -- tap him with the riding crop as you're going around the corners.  You always have to use a riding crop with Joe, or he won't do anything you tell him to.  Tacked up Gatsby all by myself (well, except for my friend grooming him before I got there)!  Another big achievement -- I cleaned out Joe's back feet.  Very difficult, as a back leg is a lot heavier than a front one.  

My riding teacher says that they are going to have a horse show really soon that I can compete in!  I'm going to ride english in a walk-trot class (or, if I get Joe in REALLY good shape, a walk-trot-canter class) -- not sure who I'm riding yet.  I'm really excited, though!

Race on Sunday.... ;-)

:-D --Snoflake 

Well, not my best time ever, and certainly not my best race, but it was fun!  I have absolutely NO CLUE what my Race Overall Place or Race Division Place was, but I certainly didn't come in first.  

That had to be the coldest start line I've ever encountered.  It had to be at least 30 degrees.  Or at least, it felt like it.  But once I started running, it wasn't that bad.  I even took off my jacket and gloves.  

You know those hills that you don't really notice are hills until you're running on them?  Those places where you're like, "Oh, that's so flat!  So easy!  I'll be fine."  But when you're really running on them, all you're thinking is, "Uh, someone please remind me why I am a runner?"  Well, the ENTIRE RACE was full of them.  Except for one teeny tiny downhill, which was only a few yards long.  

The race itself was actually pretty uneventful.  It was a little bit too warm for my tastes, and I have never disliked hills more.  But the course was absolutely beautiful.  For some reason, there were hot air balloons everywhere, and on the drive to Napa, I actually saw them when they were still on the ground.  I've never seen that before, so that was pretty cool.  Anyway, the really weird thing happened after the race.

A bunch of people were walking around with medals after the race, and I was wondering if they were the age group winners or if everyone got a medal.  So we headed down to the little room where the medals seemed to be coming from.  I was talking to this lady in the room, and she was asking me about my name and my time and that kind of thing, and after I told her my time, she walked over to this other guy and said something, and they handed me a medal.  ?????  I'm QUITE sure I didn't win my age group, because number one, they would have told me, and number two, there were already people my age were hanging out in the chute and in the area where you go after the race when I got there.  I suspect they were just handing out medals to the kids, because I didn't see any grown ups who ran the 5K wandering about with medals.  

Anyway, I had a good race, finished fast, and I got to hang out with my aunt and uncle (and their REALLY cute dog) afterwards.  The dog was absolutely terrified by the high school brass band that was performing after the race, and quickly herded us away.  

This is a good race to run if you like hills.  But at least I had fun, and that was the goal!  By the way, congratulations to my wonderful mom, Snoqualmie, who ran the marathon, and to my dad, who is not on the blog, who ran the 5K with me.  Good job you guys, and thanks!!!!!

Yes, I know I haven't run in, like, six months, but for some crazy reason I decided to go for a run.  This was a treadmill run.  I didn't have to walk as much as I thought I would, so that was nice.  Now I'm really hot and sweaty and stinky, but at least I ran, right?  And I ran farther than I thought I would.  I'll probably go for another run later this week.

Happy running,

SnoFlake 

Running is fun while you're doing it, but right after and right before?  Not so much.  After horseback riding, I dragged myself down to the treadmill for a run, telling myself, "It's just two miles!  Get a grip!"  But once I got started, it wasn't so bad.  I'm going to try to run farther later this week, and gradually work back up to 5K distance.

Happy running,

Snoflake 

I was bored, so I decided to just do a short, slow treadmill run with lots of walk breaks.  Fun and easy. :-)  I'm signed up for the Issaquah Salmon Days 5K again (that was my first 5K ever -- I ran it last year).  That should be fun.  Can't wait!

Happy running, 

Snoflake 

I have a 5K on Sunday, and I just realized today that I should probably go for an itty bitty training run before the race. ;-)  Ran 1.12 on the treadmill, then ran around in the backyard for a few minutes.  I ran the first mile with no walk breaks, so I'm quite proud of myself for that.  Can't wait for race day!!!!  I'm not going for a PR or anything this time, I'm just focusing on having fun.  I sure had fun today! :-D

Snoflake