Less Glamorous Things (+ Snacks)
Now for the less warm and fuzzy side of my ongoing recovery… I am scared of skiing. I eventually get into a rhythm of riding the waves of the snow after 1,000’ or so feet of descent but I make my first turns in fear, half-paralyzed that I’m going to spiral out of control and either hit something (again), or re-injure myself. It sucks. I haven’t ever been a big fan of the “extreme pizza” style of skiing but I’ve been pizza’ing like my life depends on it on a semi-regular basis. And my once-love, tree skiing, makes me break out in a cold sweat. I tentatively weave my way in between them, holding my breath, and trying desperately to stay in complete control of every millimeter of my skis’ edges. It’s exhausting.
After teaching so many kids to ride, I’ve learned that it’s not until the first fall, or the first wreck, that you can tell if a child is truly horse-crazy. It was my mission to keep the kids bubble-wrapped until they were brave and confident enough to come back from a fall without too much trauma following them around. There were, occasionally, kids that fell off and never came back. It was always sad to hear that they’d moved on to other activities but I understood. Rebuilding confidence in something that you never perceived as needing confidence for is daunting and it takes time. I’d never thought of skiing as dangerous until my wreck. I knew it was dangerous but aside from a few small(ish) incidents, I never felt the consequences of being reckless. Now, it's time to keep getting back on the horse, proving to my mind and body that I am capable of skiing (and even falling) without it ending in a disaster.
We went mountain biking last weekend. The weather has been pretty shit so far this month and I'm trying not to take offense when every objective is cancelled due to a torrential downpour or high winds. I had a few breakthroughs, riding the most technical trails I've ever been down in less-than-ideal conditions (aka sloppy mud) but I had a blast doing it. I almost went ass over tea kettle at one point when I tapped my front brake too aggressively but was, fortunately, able to recover before I became a muddy mess.
The silver lining to this recovery has been that I've been challenged to try new-to-me things that I would never take the time to try at any other point. Mountain biking, it turns out, is actually quite enjoyable and it will be fun to become more comfortable and more skilled on 2 wheels.
Here are a few things I'm psyched on right now (all ED-Friendly!):
- Skout Backcountry Bars. I particularly love the Washington Apple Cinnamon Energy Bar and the Dark Chocolate Cherry Protein Bar. How a company can make bars that are both delicious AND limited in their ingredients is beyond me. They remind me a bit of a more hearty Larabar... only with protein ;) I recently jumped onto their ambassador team and I'm pretty psyched on that!
- Sunwarrior Warrior Blend (Natural). This protein blend packs a punch with 19g of plant protein per scoop AND no added sugar. Plus, I can pronounce all of the ingredients. The Natural flavor doesn't rally have much of a flavor but the fact that it's friendly to my GI tract means that IDGAF if it tastes like chocolate or vanilla or an ice cream sandwich.
- Fruit-infused water! Since I can't have refined sugar right now and I'm trying to reduce the amount of fizzy water I drink, I've been adding frozen fruit to my water every evening after I do PT/run. My current favorite is Pineapple + Blueberries!
- This Avocado Mousse. No refined sugar means chocolate is hard to come by. I used dates to sweeten it and topped it with chunks of 100% cacao chocolate and fresh, organic raspberries. It's safe to say that I'll be making this a lot in the future.
- Arc'teryx Norvan SL Hoodie. I am obsessed with this thing. I ran in it last weekend during a downpour when it was 50 degrees and I got neither sweaty nor wet from the rain. I also mountain biked in it with Andy and had exactly the same experience. If you're serious about running in the rain and don't like being soaked, I highly recommend buying one.
I'm going to conclude this post with a family, post-run photo because I didn't realize how much I missed running with Cinder + Andy until I wasn't able to do so for 4 months <3
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