Hi everyone! It’s time for week #2 recap of the Fall Fitness Challenge hosted by Nora at Adventures of a Mother-Daughter Running Duo! The following bloggers have joined up too:
Ariana at HappyLife.HealthyLife | Brandi at Noteworthy Running | Michelle at Fearless Beauty Fitness | Kathy at MamaMarathoner | Diane at Runnin Rocker | Alicia at NeverEverBeenSkinny | Kristin at Exploring Domesticity
Just to recap, we need to do some sort of active thing for at least 10 minutes a day. Here’s the weekly breakdown (with lots of moving-related workouts):
Last Friday and Saturday: We seriously worked our butts off to get everything finally moved in to the apartment! Between bringing the last big heavy boxes of stuff from the storage unit to bringing in boxes of shelving units and then building them, we were exhausted! And sweating, so I consider that a workout. You know it’s aerobic if you’re sweating in 35 degree weather!
Sunday: The super Alaskan run that I wrote about on Monday.
So excited about this sunset running shot!
Monday and Tuesday: We got snow on Monday which kind of messed with my outdoor-only running routine. And while I do have Yaktrax, parts of the trails here were clear right away and many parts were not, and Yaktrax will break if they’re not used on snow and ice at all times. So I made sure to do some relaxing yoga videos from Yoga With Adrienne indoors.
SNOW!!!! And I’m still not wearing a coat!
Wednesday: I decided to brave the trails for a run. Sadly, they were so icy that half the time I wasn’t even running anymore, just hopping around trying not to fall! I cut my run short at 2.5 miles and powered through the last minute of my run. As I was pressing the “stop” button on RunKeeper, I noticed to my horror that I was 3 feet away from two large moose that were hiding in the woods. If you’re wondering how I reacted to my first surprise close-range moose encounter, I immediately checked the other side of the trail for babies (which almost guarantees that I am going to get chased/stomped) and then I almost blacked out from shock and fear. I assumed they were going to murder me for literally running into their personal space, but they just kept eating leaves and ignored me. So I snapped a picture and got the heck out of there! It was kind of a frustrating run with all of the snow, ice, and moose heart attacks, so I’m hoping the trails clear up or I can get my shoes studded soon!
Thursday: Between late parent conferences at a charter school where I teach 2 groups, some errands at the bank, and stopping at the DMV to learn more about getting an Alaska license, I ran out of sunlight. And I saw moose while driving home so I decided not to attempt a workout in the dark (the trails are lighted here). So I figured I would work out after dinner – until my husband accidentally destroyed the small toe on my left foot! So Thursday was a no-official-workout day for me in an attempt to not make things worse. I did teach a high school session for an hour at work though, does that count?
And now for a quick look at my other goals:
1. Get completely moved in to our new place: We are SO CLOSE to being totally unpacked! Everything is organized and in the correct room, and our closets and cabinets look great! And we have all of our furniture built and in the right place! The boxes we have left are the decorative stuff and the random stuff that I never know where to put (paperwork? Is there ever a good spot for that?). I think we’re doing really well considering how much we had to do in the last 2 weeks!
2. Step up my running game: I ran twice this week again. Boo. Honestly, the snow threw me off and made me delay running until Thursday which was still super icy anyways. I really need to have my old running shoes studded because more snow is on the way!
3. Join a gym: Progress has been made! I’ve been looking into the very limited gym selections here, and narrowed it down to The Alaska Club (the giant gym monopoly up here) and Alaska Fitness based on their hours and their class schedules. I’d like to take classes if I’m paying for a gym, and since I’m not a morning person it’s important to find a place with good classes after work! I’m going to try to reach out to The Alaska Club to see about prices this week but I’m seriously dreading it because they are the most expensive gym up here for sure and I don’t even want to know what this is going to cost.
4. Start cooking more: We got dishes (and lots of other fun cooking stuff at Bed Bath and Beyond with our wedding gift cards!) and cooking has started! And my Kitchen Aid will officially be stored in the closet, but it’s within easy reach so I can use it whenever I want. SO EXCITED!
5. Go pumpkin crazy! I literally bought every single Oikos Pumpkin Pie yogurt at Walmart this week. There were only six, but still…all of them. I also searched for pumpkin bread mix at the store because I have no idea what baking supplies I have right now, and they didn’t have any at Carrs 😦 I will make sometime pumpkin related ASAP!
I own all of it. Mwhahahaha.
What was the scariest animal encounter you ever had on a run? Have you ever bought out your favorite food at the store?
Mom in the Mtns 
I got some of that yogurt this week and it’s AWESOME! Sad that it’s a seasonal flavor.
That moose encounter sounds scary as all heck! Glad you didn’t get stomped.
I am going to fill my entire refrigerator with it before they retire it for the season! I love it! And yes, I’m glad too. But it looks like this will be happening to me at least once a week so I’m sure it’s bound to get crazier at some point!
i can’t believe you ran into two moose! (who are now actually your running buddy in my head – which makes it much less scary,) glad you weren’t trampled!
-laura from http://scribblesandsass.com
Ugh they are not my buddies, especially if they start running! 🙂 I’m glad too! How am I so oblivious that I could miss two giant moose hiding in the woods?
Moose on the run?!? Ahh!! That’s nuts! And scarier to me than the gators I see lol. But the land looks so pretty. I want to visit Alaska so badly! Love the photos.
Yes it’s super scary! They are so huge. Although they don’t have teeth like gators do! And yes, everything is beautiful here! It’s such a pretty place!
Sounds like everything is going well! I can’t believe you already have snow up there! I’ve never seen a moose on a run but it sounds terrifyingly awesome. I have however come across an aligator at the beach while running before. We were running through a lagoon park and all of a sudden there was a big guy just layin in the middle of our path! We slowly snuck away and call the park rangers to help him get home. It was quite a thriller to come that close to a big animal like that. Glad you were ok!
I was surprised by the snow too! But when I lived in Pittsburgh we would get snow in October so it’s not too crazy I guess. Most of the snow melted by that night, except the stuff in the woods which of course is where I run. The alligator thing sounds so scary! They’re smaller than moose but have sharper teeth! Someone else mentioned gators too so that must be the other large animal to fear!
I really enjoyed reading about your running adventure and moose encounter! It’s so great to be connected with people from different areas. As you can imagine, my SoCal runs are not quite as exciting! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I’m glad you find the stories exciting, I just find them scary and it’s good to know they’re turning into good stories haha. I’m sure I’ll see more next week, hopefully they’re as calm as the ones I met this week!
Have you checked out http://www.theanchorageathleticclub.com yet? That’s where we used to go.
What a busy week for you!! And that is a total bummer about the snow. 😦 that sunset shot was AMAZING though! haha and I am so with you on the pumpkin craze, gotta make the most of it before all the pumpkin products disappear again!