Things that make ya go ...

This last week has been a ton of fun for me! Busy, but fun. Definitely addicted to my Lakers games! Also pretty much seven out of the last seven mornings I have seen a sunrise on my morning run, and am confident I can have a great racing season in 2012. On Saturday Jesse and I decided to put in some solid power hiking miles up on the Angeles Crest 100 mile course. He is still recovering from Bandera, and I needed the rest day from my high mileage week. We set out for Crystal Lake Campground in the back country of the San Gabriel's, and had planned to get in two-three hours of solid time on our feet. Above is a fun video of us at the beginning of our hike...and below are a bunch of amazing pics from the day early on.

The plan was to reach the summit of Mt.Islip from the campground, and then turn around and head back down the way we came. The problem is we are Ultra Runners. Translation: Kids in a candy store. After two hours of solid high altitude climbing Jesse pulled out his map of old trails up near the base of Mt.Islip, and asked if I wanted to try and make our way back down a different way, and in the end we could do a huge loop and see trails we have never seen before. Ya so here's the thing: What Ultra Runner on the planet that you know would take the "road more traveled"? I quickly agreed we should go on an adventure hike, and see what the other side of the mountain looked like. Yes. Definitely. This was such a good idea. Lets head directly into closed back country burned out non existent trails just for fun. So began our 7.5 hour journey. What was meant to be a fun hike turned into a very long day. It ended up being one of those times when you get yourself into something risky, but going back the other way would be just as worse. God how that life lesson seems to constantly smack me in the face! We knew we needed to just keep moving forward, and occasionally would see the old trails that used to exist before the devastating fires of 2009. Eventually we made our way down the backside of the mountain, and then on and back down to the campground. On return to the campground we found this hidden back in the trails and trees, and honestly I was a little speechlees...I never even knew this lake existed!!

Once back at the car we drank a crap load of water, ate and collapsed in the car. As fun as most of the day was at points the adventure quickly turned a bit scary. We had gone to far to turn back the other way, and had to push forward through trails that were overgrown, non existent, and extremely steep. Sunday I was happy to go out and run a mellow 25 miles on the trails in Laguna Coast near my house. As much as I LOVE to play in the mountains all day this definitely had it's *not so fun* moments! LOL..

I spent Saturday night cooking. I love to cook. I think in a lot of ways it's a huge stress reliever for me, and in the last year and a half I have dove head first into perfecting my cooking and baking. It truly is a deep rooted passion for me, and instead of watching hours of TV, or shopping I would just rather cook. I am a huge advocate of healthy eating. I don't drink except for an occasional celebration glass of wine or beer, and my health is my #1 priority and focus in my life. I also believe it's a great way to share love with those that are important in your life. One of the things I love the most is cooking amazing food for Jesse. He seems to love it to! We have a blast cooking all kinds of amazing stuff together, and my son eats it all up to! I never tell him all the ways I sneak in veggies ;o)

Keep your eyes out on my blog for an INKnBURN give away in my next blog post. Looking to give away a cool pair of shin skins or arm sleeves...hmmm..have not decided yet. We are just about ready to launch our Women's Camisole Tanks(so cute!!), and next will be our running skirts! We are excited as we will have a booth at the Tinker Bell Disney Half Marathon expo at the end of this month, and cannot wait to see so many of our loyal friends and family who love to run in our stuff! The expo's are always such a blast!

One of the other things I am always trying to do is send out good vibes, and positive words to anyone who reads my blog. I believe that if you are given the opportunity in life to have a forum where your voice can be heard it should be for good reason. I am a huge lover of life, living, and just being the absolute best you can be. I also believe we are exactly the choices we make, and putting toxic or negative things out in the public for others to see does not help anyone. It's kind of like posting pictures of you on Face Book while intoxicated. Remember everything you do publicly is forever. Once you put it out there...well it's out there. You are exactly what you project publicly, and I believe people that have the golden opportunity to have a public voice should inspire. I love to find cool stuff like the list below! So here's my go at it, and I wish you all an amazing and wonderful week!!!!

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never get it.  If you don’t ask the right questions, you’ll always get the wrong answers.  If you don’t take a step forward, you’re always going to be in the same place.  Life is a journey full of choices.  Here are some wasteful choices to avoid.

1. Spend time regretting the past 
2. Complain about problems and do nothing to solve them.
3. Follow the path of least resistance and quit when the going gets tough.
4. Ignore your passions and follow your heart
5. Setup your lifestyle so it’s dependant on your next paycheck.
6. Spend more than you earn and rack up tons of financial debt.
7. Try to control everything 
8. Focus on what you don’t want to happen.
9. Fear the things you don’t fully understand.
10. Let everyone else make decisions for you.  Let your partner decide on your happiness
11. Let small issues snowball into big problems.
12. Be jealous of everyone else.
13. Hold onto anger.  Never forgive anyone.
14. Always be right.  Never let anyone be more right than you.
15. Seek external validation before you consider yourself good enough.
16. Make sure everything you do impresses someone else.
17. Lie to yourself and pretend you are happy
18. Keep doing the same thing over and over again until the day you die even though you are not truly happy
19. Never finish what you start.
20. Stay in the same place forever.  
21. Compare yourself to those who you feel are more successful.
22. Belittle yourself 
23. Never learn anything new.
24. Never take responsibility for your own actions.  
25. Don’t let anyone help you.
26. Be suspicious.  Trust no one.
27. Multitask, multitask, multitask!  Do everything at once.
28. Fill every waking moment of your life with commitments.
29. Don’t help others unless you have to.  
30. Think about all the things you don’t have 
31. Never exercise.  
32. Don’t say what you mean.  Don’t mean what you say.
33. Never tell anyone how you feel or what you’re thinking.
34. Never say, “I’m sorry.”  
35. Get involved in other people’s problems and make them your own.
36. Always put your own needs on the back burner.
37. Make others feel bad about themselves.
38. Watch TV for several hours every day.
39. Do lots of drugs.  Drink lots of alcohol. Smoke!! 
40. Don’t play, just work.
41. Let your hobbies go.
42. Let your close relationships go.
43. Take everyone seriously and everything personally.
44. Remember the insults, forget the compliments.
45. Fail to plan.  Always wait until the last minute.
46. Let it all bottle up inside.
47. Always disregard other people’s opinions and suggestions.
48. Dream about your future goals and never take action to achieve them.
49. Fear change and resist it.
50. Work hard, do your best, and then condemn yourself for not achieving perfection.

If you’re guilty of some of the bullet points above, remember, no matter how long you have traveled in the wrong direction you always have the choice to turn around.

On, on, on with life my friends! ;o)