Done!

CHEERS!

With my Birthday Challenge behind me, my focus now will be on fall climbing, racking up some running miles, and hot yoga - my newly discovered and now favorite release activity.  Soon school will start and so will a life of routines and schedules.  I'm going to have a challenging year, I can tell.  And I mean that in a good way.  Plus, I have the mental piece of my Birthday Challenge which is to document 48 posts of something new I learned so I have that to focus on too.  I'm learning all the time so that isn't the challenge.  It's getting it down on paper before or after or during or whenever I find that spare moment. 

So after a full day of rest, my body is still recovering.   Legs got a good enough workout and so did my cardio.  Really, I trained for a half marathon which is a comfortable distance for me.  It was the extra two miles that got to my head.  I was reminded to smile :) when I hit a hard spot, so that's what I did.  Thank you Lupe Fiasco - you turned me on and powered me up on that final leg of the 24k.  Quads were more sore yesterday than they are today - holding a slosh pipe while doing squats is not fun and that's what burned the most in my legs, but yesterday was worse than today and today isn't even that bad.  Shoulders and upper back feel worked but that is subsiding.  Rest is such an important part of recovery, and tomorrow's scheduled massage will feel sooooo good.  Thanks Brad!  

Big love to all my support company near and far, but especially Brad (my most loving and biggest fan), my kids, friends like Annie, Tom, Lily, and Jack, and a few spirited Boulders employees.  Those pillar laps were hard but attainable with your sympathy! It was a great celebration afterwards with Lisa, Molly and kids, Peter and Ruth, and Wendy, Mark, and their girls. I didn't drink 4.8 Sangrias but thanks to my family and friends, the vice was certainly met in solidarity.

Here are a few other pictures to share of the days leading up to my Birthday Challenge, and here's to another year of fitness and personal goals with family and friends.

Bouldering on my birthday at Devils Lake

My awesome sweet nephew, Bryon, here visiting last week.