Fuel Your Fire!!

Throughout my Masters program the instructors have pointed out on numerous occasions that we need to make sure we are incorporating some type of self care into our lives in order to avoid burnout.  This has been emphasized several times this week as we have begun our 11 week practicum.  I wanted to see how the first week went in order to see how best to fit in my self care.

The first week went well overall.  Lots of long days, lots of hours to keep track of, lots of extra things to do and organize on top of the regular stuff I have to do and organize.  But it was a good week and I accomplished a lot and managed to keep a good attitude, even though I was butt dragging by Friday night.

This week I decided I was going to go for a hike.  Two girlfriends are out of the state in warmer climates and one had a commitment this morning.  I just realized that I forgot to ask another one who has been wanting to go along with me, darn it!!  But my beautiful girl and my sweet puppy came along with me and we had a great day.

It was terribly foggy in the valley when I got up.  I decided to wait a bit so that the fog would burn off.  The day was supposed to eventually be sunny and where I wanted to hike has an awesome view on clear days.  We left the house around 9:45 a.m. and I wasn't very hopeful that we were going to get out of the fog.  It was pea soup out there!!  But as we made our way up to the Saddle where we start we could see some blue sky filtering through the trees.

The view from the Saddle.

We headed up the road and got out of the mist very quickly.  I always wait until we get a bit up the trail before I let Bailey off the leash.  She was so excited to run and play!

Filtered Sunshine

It didn't take long to get warm.  I wished I had left one layer back in the car.  :-)  That's a great problem to have in January!  There is a bench on this hike and Meighan always likes to stop and get a picture here.  There are steps going up to it and a embankment right in front of it.  Bailey had a great time leaping off the embankment.

My two cuties!

LOVE that smile!!

We saw many hikers, runners and bikers heading down the hill.  Bailey did a great job of coming to me when I called and then staying in a heel position off leash.  I'm super proud of how her training has gone.  She loves people and dogs and it is hard to stay by mom when she wants to say hi.  But if she is going to be on the trail she has to behave properly so she doesn't hurt someone!  By the end of the hike she was starting to head to me the moment we saw someone up ahead.  We did get a chance to play with two pretty golden retrievers a couple of times with two nice women who were running.

When we were almost to the top we realized we could see the Sisters through the trees.  It picture doesn't do it justice but it was so beautiful!

The Sisters

When we got to the top of Dimple Hill and came around the trees to where you can see the view it was Ah-May-Zing!!!  Wow!!  All the fog that we had driven through was still in the valley and we were high above it.  It looked like a fluffy lake.  Meighan said that it looked like Crater Lake with the small hill poking up the same way Wizard Island does at the lake.

We then walked down the slope a ways in order to see if we could get view of the Sisters without the trees in the way.

A sea of fog with the Cascade foothills and the Sisters in the background.

No hike is compete without some selfies.

So thankful that this beautiful young lady likes to hang with her Momma!! <3<3<3

We decided that we would run the entire way back down the hill.  It was fun to get moving.  We had gotten warm between the hike up and then all the beautiful sunshine.  So we stripped down to our shirts and headed back down the hill.  I was concentrating on making sure Bailey was behaving properly that I didn't even realize that I knew one of the runners that was coming up the hill.  I hope Jeff and his friend went to the top of Dimple and enjoyed the view as much as we did!!  Hi Jeff.  :-)

We had a nice little run down the hill and made it back to the car in pretty good time.  It was easy to see that the fog hadn't really cleared off any below the saddle.  I cleaned off the dog as best I could and we loaded up to come home.

All done and still smiling! :-)

A couple of weeks ago we went shopping at Old Navy to get Meighan some new pants.  Low and behold they were having a sale on athletic clothes, up to 40% off!  Of course we had to get a few things.  My favorite purchase was a new pair of running tights.  I wear my running skirts over them but I love the way they keep my legs warm.  I particularly like this pair because of what is printed on them.

I'm working on having fun and enjoying where I am at.  I'm also working at being proud of what I have accomplished.  I have some thoughts going around in my head about what types of things I want to do on my continued fitness journey.  Things that are fun for ME, things that challenge ME, things that will make me HAPPY!  And when I'm not working on the things for me I'm going to have a blast cheering on all my crazy friends that are doing their ME things.  For whatever reason these pants said exactly what I wanted to express.  I'm fueling my fire.  Right now it is in slow ember mode but once April gets here and grad school is done I'm going to start fanning the flames.

Today was a good day.  Back to reality tonight with some grad school obligations.  But I think my day of self care has been fabulous!

I hope you are fueling your fire and that you remember to take care of yourself!