My favorite active lunch break: Bodenburg Butte

Bodenburg Butte is weird. It's just outside downtown Palmer, a 10 minute drive at most.  It's perfectly situated so that if I have a court hearing or other work in Palmer, I can easily zip out there on my lunch break.

It is placed sort of between massive mountains on two sides, and a relatively flat valley on the other sides. It's a little lump of land that just sticks up like a wart or a blister.

There's two main access points, both with parking lots at the trailheads. The southern, and older, trail is all dirt, and fairly steep, with some rock scrambling at the top.  The parking lot for the trailhead on the northern side of the Butte is actually just down the street from the trailhead, so you have to park, and then walk/run past a few houses to get to the trailhead. The trail on the north side is much more developed than the south side, and in my opinion, a much funner (I'm not sure that's even really a word. Is it??) hike. That's the way I always go.

The first .85 mile or so of the northern trail is a fairly wide gravel path that seems to be pretty well maintained. Right now though,  in mid-January, it's icy and snowy. Last week, there were patches that were glare ice and very slippery. Even with my icebugs, it felt precarious and there were places I walked along the edge of the path where there were grasses and leaves frozen into the ice to give it some texture for my icebugs to grab. Today, it had an inch or so of new snow, which stuck to the ice, making it much less slippery.

At the top of the gravel path, which seems to me to be the psychological halfway point, although in distance it's more than half way, there are a couple of benches overlooking an amazing view of the valley. It's a nice spot to rest if you need to, but don't stop there!

Continue another 50 feet or so to the end of the trail, and you come to a flight of steps:

This is the beginning of what is for me, the real challenge. There are more than 400 stairs between here and the top of the Butte. The first time I climbed them, I thought I was going to pass out. For the past two summers, I've tried to do this climb about once a week, and I can now trudge all the way up without stopping, but I'm slow. The fastest I've made it up was in just over 25 minutes, from the parking lot to the very top. Last week, with all the ice, it took me 31 minutes.

Now I'm working on running them. Today I was able to run a few of the smaller groups of stairs, but only a tiny fraction of the whole. It took me 28:31 today, and I stopped to take a few pictures at the bottom of the stairs, something I don't usually do. But the snow was pretty:

There are cable handrails most of the way up, but not all of the posts are very stable, so don't completely depend on them.

This trail climbs from the valley floor to the top of the Butte in about 1.25 miles (counting from the parking lot, not the trailhead), with .85 of it being trail and .35 of it being the stairs. Overall, it gains about 900 feet in elevation, but the trail has some rolling hills, so you actually climb a little more than that.

The view from the top of the Butte is amazing. You can look directly across the valley to Pioneer Peak, which is always beautiful, no matter the season or the weather. Today it looked stunning and imposing:

To the left of Pioneer Peak is a glacier: 

and a bunch of mountains, including Lazy Mountain:

Turning to the left some more, the valley stretches out in front of you:

Every time I am up there the view is different. Even going up there once a week, I don't get bored with the view, because it's just never the same twice.

The Butte isn't tall enough to have its own weather like some mountains do, with one notable exception: the wind. Most of the time the wind is blowing up at the top. Sometimes it's hard enough I think it's going to blow me over. Often, dirt and dust is blowing around, and getting in my eyes. Be prepared for windy conditions even if it seems calm on the ground at the bottom.  Today, though, it was completely calm.

It was 9 degrees out. Cold enough that I had to dress carefully, and protect my face, throat, and lungs from the cold air. I wore running leggings, wind pants, a long sleeved Underarmour coldgear running shirt, a lightweight puffy jacket, a buff to cover my face, a hat, mittens, compression socks, and my icebugs. For once, I managed to dress perfectly and I wasn't cold, and I didn't get too hot. Sometimes trying to get the layers right in the cold is challenging, but today I got it just right:

a run on the coastal trail

Seriously, I think the best thing about Anchorage is the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.  It runs from downtown, past the airport, and all the way to Kincaid Park, along the edge of Cook Inlet, for a good 12 miles or more. The views of the inlet are fantastic, and the scenery is just beautiful any time of year.

So on Saturday, when I went in to Anchorage to pick up the bib for the Resolution Run 5k on New Year's Eve, I had to take the opportunity to go for a run on the coastal trail.

Of course, I took Daisy with me, and we started at Westchester Lagoon.

At first, I was only going to run 3 miles, but when I got to the planned turnaround point at mile 1.5, I just was not ready to turn around, so we went another half mile. When we got back to Westchester Lagoon (mile 4), I wasn't really ready to stop running yet, and I hadn't run over the new bridge yet, so we ran another half mile towards downtown, before heading back to Westchester Lagoon, for a just over 5 mile run.

As usual, it was absolutely beautiful:

There were huge blocks of ice along the shore, and although we don't have a lot of snow, we have enough to turn everything white:

Seriously, if you are visiting Anchorage and need someplace to run, walk, or bike (or cross-country ski most winters,  but not this one, not enough snow), you just can't go wrong with the coastal trail. Plus, it's easy to access from several points downtown.

When we were done running, we got back in the car to head home, and Daisy immediately laid down in the front passenger seat and fell asleep. I guess it was a good run for her too :)

Merry Christmas

Wow. I just looked at my blog and realized it's been a year and a half since I posted anything. What's up with that???

What's up with that is that I have been insanely busy, and kept putting blogging last. And what happens when you put blogging last is that it doesn't get done.

Last night I was thinking about New Year's resolutions and I realized that one of the things I really want to do this year is actually blog, as opposed to thinking about blogging. So here I am. I am still, and probably always will be, insanely busy, but I'm doing it anyway.

So... I've been knitting. Since I am so busy, I didn't do much Christmas knitting, to lessen the stress of deadlines. But I did knit two gifts, one for my mother, and one for someone else. The one for my mother is done and went out in the mail on Tuesday, just in time to arrive tomorrow, the day after Christmas. That's way closer to on time than my Christmas gifts some years.  I forgot to take any pictures of it before it left, so I can't show them to you.

The other gift, however, luckily doesn't have to be done until Tuesday. I say luckily, because it's Christmas Day already, and it's not done.  I'll try to attach a picture.  I hope it turns out to be the right colors.

And... I've been running. Last year, I tried to do a running streak from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, in which I ran every day. I didn't make it. I made it less than a week, I think.  This year is going better. I'm on day 30 today, and I'm determined to make it all the way through.

Yesterday, it was -6 when I was ready to run, so off I went to the gym, and ran 5k (3.1 miles) on the treadmill. I did it in 29:32, which happens to be my fastest 5k time ever. When I've had to use the treadmill instead of running outside, I've tried to focus on increasing my speed. I think it's working.

It was warmer today, about 20 degrees, so I took Daisy out on a short (1.24 miles) Christmas Day run.  I also got to test out my Christmas present from the hubby, a Garmin Vivosmart HR. I'll tell you more about that later, but have a look:

Merry Christmas!!!

Byer's Lake trail, or What To Do On Your Day Off

I had Monday off of work, so my husband and I decided to go hiking. The weather website said it was raining in Turnagain Arm, and raining in Palmer, but it looked pretty clear heading north, so after some searching online, we decided to try the Byer's Lake trail.

This trail is at approximately milepost 147 of the Parks Highway, on the east side of the road. It starts at the Byer's Lake campground and circles the lake in a complete loop, about 5 miles in length. 

Since we hadn't hiked this trail before, and the weather looked iffy, we DEET'ed ourselves up, stuffed hoodies and rain jackets into our Camelbaks, and strapped on bear protection. Mine was .45 caliber, and his was .44 Magnum, our standard bear repellent. And off we went.

This was a great little trail. Well maintained but not too smooth. There was a isolated little camping area on the far side of the lake with fire rings and elevated wooden tent sites. There were simply amazing views of Denali:

I love that mountain. 

There is an old falling down log cabin on the side of the trail that was pretty picturesque:

There are also two bridges to cross, one over the inlet stream, and one over the outlet stream. The one over the inlet stream is suspended on cables, and very swingy and springy. It is also fairly decrepit and leans pretty far to the right, so if the person crossing with you bounces (that would be my dear, sweet husband), you feel like you are at risk of sliding off into the water. 

The bridge over the outlet stream is on big rock pilings and is much more substantial and solid feeling. And it's quite pretty: 

All in all, it was a really nice hike. Very flat, with boardwalks over the most marshy areas. If the weather had been a little more stable (we did get rained on through the second half of the hike), and we had had more in the way of emergency supplies, we could have climbed up to the ridge and merged with a long trail there.

This is one we will probably do again and camp on the far side of the lake and hike the ridge. 

Midnight Sun Run 10K race report

I've really been enjoying running in races this summer. I'm not trying to win. I'm not even close to what you would call an elite runner... Anything under 10:00 miles are fast for me. The shirts and other swag is cool, but that's not it either. There's something about running with a whole bunch of people all striving for the same goal, that I have found I really enjoy. And running a race with a friend is even better. 

I live in Alaska, and one of the best things about living here is that it's always light in the summer. So when I heard that Fairbanks has a night run on the summer solstice, I was immediately interested. All I had to do was find someone else crazy enough to make a 5 hour drive there, and the same back. My friend Krista is just crazy enough. 

So at noon on the day of the race, Krista and I and her two little kids, and my teenage daughter as babysitter for said kids, loaded snacks and tents and sleeping bags and running gear into my little car and off we went.

It poured rain all the way to Fairbanks, plus there was tons of road construction, making the drive a little more than 5 hours. We got there around 7pm, with 3 hours to kill before the race. We checked in and picked up our bibs and shirts, and discovered the bibs each had coupons for free 6" subs at Subway. We didn't want to eat a lot before running, but it fed the kids well. Then we went to a random playground which luckily turned out to be only a block or so away from the finish line. We left the kids there and caught the shuttle to the start line.

The starting corral was divided according to the pace you thought you would run, so we dutifully stood by the sign that said "10:00 mile". 

There were a lot of people there, more than I thought there would be. There was a costume contest, a jazzercise warm-up and other festivities.  We didn't wear costumes, but we did get matching tank tops for the race.

The race started on the UAF campus, and ended at Pioneer Park, but the vast majority of the course wound through neighborhoods. This seemed to cause a miles-long block party, with people along the course sitting in lawn chairs, cheering, handing out water, and watching us run by. Teenaged boys wove in and out on skateboards, and one family was handing out cans of beer instead of water. One little girl had her hose out, and I ran through the spray, which after 4-ish miles of running, felt pretty good. 

The last little bit of the course was along a bike path beside the river. I gather that the course normally runs a little more along the river, but they had to change the course last minute due to flooding.

The entire course was essentially flat and paved. There was one short section of packed gravel where they were doing road construction. They did a good job of blocking off traffic to protect the runners. The race was 10K, so a little over 6 miles, and they had signs at each mile point. 

 For me, the first couple of miles are the hardest, and I ask myself over and over why the hell am I doing this??? Once I get past that point, though, I can usually just keep going, and that's what we did. Krista and I seem really well matched this year, and we stayed together throughout the race, and I think it challenged us both just enough, without making it a killer. I ran it a little faster than I usually do. Chronotrack results aren't out yet, but Runtastic said I averaged 10:13 a mile, which is about 15 seconds per mile faster than my last several runs. When we hit the 6 mile sign, I flashed Krista the "go" sign, she nodded, and we took off, practically sprinting to the finish line. I was thrilled to see the timer say just over 64 minutes when we crossed the line. 

We were worried that we would get rained on after driving the whole way in pouring rain, but we got only a few sprinkles. The finish line festivities included oranges, watermelon, protein shakes, baked potatoes, and mini cupcakes. If we didn't have to get back to the kids at the playground, we could have stuck around and really enjoyed it more. Maybe next year. This is definitely one we will do again.

A run along the inlet

Yesterday was a crazy busy day. I woke up, got my daughter off to school, woke my youngest up and got him off to school, then left myself and worked all day, without even a lunch break. Then rushed home and had to leave again about 10 minutes later to take my daughter to a youth activity at our church. It is about a 20 minute drive to the church, so if I had driven there and back again to drop her off, and there and back again to pick her up, it would have meant an hour and 20 minutes of driving back and forth. So I did what I usually do, which is drop her off and wait in the parking lot for a couple of hours, then drive her home. Then a late dinner, and off to bed. This is what happens every single Wednesday, week after week.

The problem is, I also wanted to get in a run yesterday. Then I realized I had the perfect opportunity: the time spent waiting in the parking lot. So when I got to the church, I changed into my running gear and headed out. 

I didn't have a super long run planned: a 5 minute warm up walk, 30 minutes of running, and a 5 minute cool down walk. 

The route I took led along the north-ish side of Cook Inlet and I was thrilled to enjoy periodic views of the inlet throughout my run. It was really beautiful, and much more enjoyable than staring at the TV in front of the treadmill at the gym. I like running outside much better. 

Wouldn't you, if this was the view??

Struggling...

So, I've lost all this weight, and I'm determined to keep it off. However, my mouth has different ideas. Lately I have been allowing myself a little more dietary "freedom" ... Which really means I have been eating a crapton of fast food, fatty food, high carbohydrate food... All the things that if I don't get a handle on, will lead me back to being fat.

And I so don't ever want to be fat again!!!!

I'd gained a total of 8 pounds back when I decided I simply wasn't going to let that happen. And since the diet I was on was so effective, I decided to go back to it long enough to lose those 8 pounds... And another 5. 

I've been hesitant to put numbers out there, but I'm gonna do it, because it will help me be accountable. I started this journey at 171.2 pounds. I got to "goal" at 128.4, a total of 42.8 pounds gone. When I decided I needed to stop the regain, I was at 136.2, up 7.8 pounds. Ever since I got to "goal", I've actually thought I would love to actually lose another 5 pounds, so my new goal is 123.

That was about a week ago. The last time I weighed myself was two days ago and I was back down to 132.4.

Since then, I've mostly been "on plan", with one major pizza incident... We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you posted...