Catching Up

So now that summer is here and the snow is melting in the mountains that means two things for the Schankers’….Hiking and Camping.

Over July4th weekend, we went camping at Yellowstone National Park. We saw all the sites and spend a day hiking in Yellowstone Canyon. This hike was 10 miles round trip and we ended up at the Yellowstone river where we had lunch. It was a great time and as always we really enjoyed camping. The first night was rather cold and I was very thankful for my backpacking sleeping bag.  I do have to say camping just wasn’t the same without beer and wine by the campfire. Oh well, there is always next summer.

Last weekend, we decided to hike a local 14er. A little over an hour from our house is Mt Bierstadt with an elevation of just over 14,000 feet. The hike is 7 mile round trip and climbs up 2800 feet in elevation. We took our dog and he seemed to love it up there. This was only our 3rd Colorado 14er. But we have some more planned for this summer.

Right now I am at week 14! Still not really showing. I have a little bit of a bump but it hides in my normal clothes. I haven’t gained any weight either so if you haven’t heard the news then you probably don’t know yet just by looking at me. I have to say this is probably going to be one active kid as I am still running and biking and then there is the hiking as well. In fact this morning I ran 5 miles and felt great.

I’ll update this post shortly with photos from our trips.

A Little Schanker

Wow its been a LONG time since I have posted on here!

So If you have not heard….Dave and I are expecting a little schanker in January! Yup you read that right…a baby is on the way!

Dave and I have been married for 6.5 years, we’re settled in our favorite place ever, have good jobs and even got a dog. You know when we got married we both agreed that we didn’t want to rush into having kids. We wanted to enjoy a few years together, see California (which I think we did a great job of), and travel internationally. I wouldn’t change anything for the world….the last 6 years have been so great. In 2008 we hiked the grand canyon. I remember getting to the top and Dave said “now we can have a baby schanker?” and my answer was “yes”. We tried for close to a year with no success. It was a bummer at times and kind of depressing. Then Dave was showing that he was burnt out of his long commute and we both knew we didn’t want to raise a kid in Palmdale, CA. So we started talking about moving to our dream location…Colorado. As soon as it looked like it was going to be a reality we knew that starting a family just didn’t make sense. So everything got put on hold. It took me about 8 months to move to Colorado and it was HARD spending all that time apart.  People kept telling me they could never do that…my thoughts…why not? I’ll take a little bit of stress to live out my dreams. Once Dave and I were reunited in CO we knew it was time to refocus on the family thing. Another 6 months went by and no luck…so off to the doctor we went. No major issues were found…whew! But a small one made the Doctor recommend us for an IUI. I was kind of down about that cause I was not looking forward to fertility drugs, etc…So Dave and I filled out our 30 pages of paperwork and made the appointment. The night before, I said to dave  “I should probably take a test cause it would be quite awkward to go to the fertility doctors if we didn’t need to”. Guess what….Positive!!!! No way! I remember just putting my hand up to my mouth and staring at the test.  It was like we scared our bodies with the threat of a fertility doctor. So here we are…I am 8 weeks prego. I know its still early but we’ve been trying to get here for so long and we are excited!

The first ultrsound was yesterday  and everything looked great. Saw the little bean and heard a nice strong heartbeat.

So I’ll plan on doing a better job of posting here and keeping everyone informed of the Schanker happenings.

Hope everyone is doing great!

My 1st Triathlon!

I woke up this morning feeling very anxious and nervous. Why? Cause I knew I would swimming in a lake. I’m actually a pretty good swimmer (in a pool) but I have a pretty bad fear of swimming in oceans, lakes, etc..

We left at around 11:30am to head to Boulder, which gave me plenty of time to get situated. About 40 minutes prior to my wave I hear an announcement saying to carry your bikes and check your tires. I decided to go back and look at my bike. When I get there, there are some girls picking these spurry things out of my tires! Yup I had 2 flat tires! So I rushed the bike to the Trek tent to get my tubes fixed. Then I carry the bike back to the rack.

I decided I need to focus on the swim, so I put on my wetsuit (water temp was 62) and head down to the lake. Once at the lake, I get in and swim a little. What a horrible feeling! As soon as I put my face in the water I was breathing so heavy and didn’t know how I was going to make it through the swim. After calming down some I swam out to a floating platform. I started to calm down and figured I’d be okay.

Now its 2:30 and the guys are starting, I have 5 minutes left and head over to the start. The gun goes off and I go for it. After about 100m of freestyle I realize I’m wasting to much energy cuase I’m breathing so hard. I can’t see anything and I’m totally freaked out. I actually thought I might have to wave one of the boats over and quit. But I’m not a quitter. Then I realized I just needed to calm down and flipped over on my back. After a few minutes more of trying to do freestyle I remebered swimming as a kid on swim team and backstroke was my best stroke. So I proceeded to do the backstroke! I would get off course at times, but I think it was actually the best thing I could have done, given my situation. Its crazy that I know I can swim 2000m straight in a pool, but the lake really freaked me out. I was so happy to get out of the lake!

I ran up the beach to the transition area, took of my wetusit, washed and dried my feet, put on my socks and biking shoes and carried my bike off the parking lot (cause of the spurry things). I got out of the transition and decided to check my tires. This is when I found out that I had another flat. I didn’t know what to do and wasn’t thinking clearly at all.  A guy on the sidelines helped me change it since I had a tube and CO2 with me. So that killed about 3-4 minutes of my bike time. Then it off I went and had it in my head that I was going to bike hard to try and make up some time, which I probably would have done anyway. I was also worried about another flat and just wanted to get the bike over with. I must have passed about 30 people out on the course. I was so happy to get done with 2 fully inflated tires!

Now it was time for the run, the area I should really excel at. I headed back into the transition area and changed to my running shoes. Unfortunately it was about 85 degrees out…which slowed me down. I hate heat!!!! I crossed the finish line in about 1 hour and 52 minutes, which put me at 7th in my age group. If I didn’t have that flat I think I would have been about 4th in my age group. It was just unfortunate timing!

The one thing I learned today was that I am a pretty strong biker. Once I got out there I only got passed by a few people and they were primarily guys. I think 2 girls passed me at the end.

The second thing I learned was I truly am scared of swimming in open water! And I don’t know how to get over it.

Grays and Torreys

Our first Colorado 14′er was Grays Peak! For the folks reading this not from CO or not into hiking…a 14′er is a mountain that summits at over 14,000 feet! This hike meant having to drive up a dirt road that was very interesting. We got a late start and were not on that trail until 9:45am. Crazy thing is our car said it was 38 degrees at that time at the trailhead. The nice thing about this hike is  you can bag 2-14ers in one trip. The weather was much better than labor day wekeend and managed to summit both mountains. The views were amazing!  You could see Denver, I-70, the ski resorts, and lots of the Rockies! I love 14-ers cause they feel like such an accomplishment and you feel like your on top of the world. These mountains are apparently the 12 and 14th highest in the lower 48. SO now we have hiked the highest (#1), #12, and #14 highest mountains in the lower 48. That’s a cool accomplishment.

RMNP

For labor day wekeend we spent 3 nights camping in the mountains near Estes Park. Our whole goal…hike Longs Peak!!!!

We arrived on Friday and enjoyed a campfire and dinner on the grill. Saturday we got up early (6:30) so that we would be tired enough to go to bed early that night. Our whole plan for Saturday was to be tourists and go through Rocky Mountain National Park. After getting coffee and going to the park we learned that an annual pass was only $40 and the normal entry is $20…so we are now annual pass holders to RMNP! The morning was fabulous, cause there was no one in the park. We drove all the way through to Grand Lake and enjoyed some time there too. Did you know that lake was formed by a glacier and is as much as 300feet deep! That depth blows my mind! We then drove back through the park making a few more stops then had dinner at Estes Park at an Italian restaurant. We figured loading up on carbs before  a huge hike was a good thing! Then it was off to bed at 8pm! How come…cause we had to get up at 3am to hike Longs Peak.

3am seemed to come quickly, but we got up and were surprised to find that it wasn’t all that cold out. We got dressed and got in the car to head to the trailhead. It was amazing how parked up the parking lot was at 3:30am! We were on the trail at 3:45 with our headlamps on. About an hour or so into the hike we started seeing people coming down and I wasn’t quite getting it. I kept thinking, did they do that entire hike in the dark! Once we got above the tree line, I soon understood. The wind was steady at about 35-40mph and gusting to more. We soon realized that the summit was just not in our future that day. Instead we decided to keep going to reach a spot to watch the sunrise. I got some great photos of Longs peak as the sun came up and then we headed back down.  It was 9am when we reached the trailhead, and we had no idea what to do.  So we grabbed some coffee and headed back to RMNP to do some smaller hiking. We ended up hiking to a lake and having lunch there. Amazingly it was still pretty windy there too. We also did some wine tasting then had diner at the campground, along with acampfire, and smores!

It was pretty disappointing to not summit Long Peak, but we had a great weekend anyway.

My 1st Triathlon

So for about 7 years I have been saying…”i want to do a triathlon”.

It only makes sense…I’m a runner, I love to bike, and I was on swim team (kid and masters).

Why haven’t I done it…I have a pretty big fear of open water and deep water. That is the very simple reason that has kept me from doing the tri.

I was pretty set on not swimming in the ocean.

Upon moving to Colorado I decided that a lake might be better than the ocean for me and if I signed up I’d have to do it.

So here I am, 10 days until my first tri. I think I’m ready as long as I don’t hyperventilate in the lake! I’ve been the pool a few times. The first time was the hardest. For one the pool goes from 4 feet to 12 feet and that 12 foot end scares me so much initially. I have no idea why since I know I can swim. Its more of a height thing or something. The other reason it was so hard was I felt like I had no endurance. It seemed like it took me 3 days to get back into swimming. But last night I swam 32 continuous laps. So I’m not longer afraid of the distance I have to swim. Now I just need to endure the lake for the entire swim without freaking. I have no expectations except to finish. No time goal, and not place goal. Just to do my best. I’m sure it will be a huge learning experience. I’ve been through a duathlon so I know some about transitions, but not from a swim to a bike.

I’m excited and nervous all at once.

Hiking Bison Peak

We spent this weekend camping in the middle of nowhere Colorado. Literally..we drove 2 hours into nowhereville. There was a very small town called Jefferson. That is where we made a left on a county road. We continued down for about 25 miles on a road that was paved but full of potholes. Hoping that we would make it before it got totally dark. At around 8:15pm we pulled up to our campsite and set up. The first thing I noticed…it was much colder. I was so glad I brought my backpacking sleeping bag which is rated to 20  degrees. We cooked dinner, made a campfire, had some smores and went to bed. To my surprise I stayed pretty warm despite the 40 degree temps. We got up  and hit the road just before 8am to hike what we new would be a difficult hike. It started at 8700 feet and our final destination was over 12000 feet in the air. Yup, a total of 4300 feet elevation gain over 6 miles.

After our hike, we did our favorite thing. We took our camping chairs ot the nearby river and sat with our feet in the river!  SO RELAXING!  THen it was back to camp for burgers and more campfire time. What a great weekend!

This was my 3rd colorado Summit and I can’t wait to do more.

Next…Longs Peak. Elevation 14100 feet!!!

A Touristy Weekend in Colorado

So my parents were here for a long weekend. We took them all over the place to give them a good taste of colorado.

Friday – Estes Park, CO

Saturday – Colorado Springs (Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the Cliff Dwellings)

Sunday – Georgetown, CO

Simple Weekend in Denver

What a simple and very fun wekeend in Colorado.

Friday I came home from work and headed out for a bike ride through the city….it was 71 degrees in July!!!!

Saturday we got up and I went for a 6mile run. When I got back we rode our bikes into the city and then went to the Cherry creek farmers market to buy produce for the week and lunch too. I got a crepe with strawberries and chocolate. So good! Then it was off to go look at the neighborhood that we are thinking about buying a house in.

Sunday we had to run some errands but then we took off to boulder to try out White Water tubing! So much fun. The water is cold and my fingers went numb, but the rapids are a ton of fun in a tube. We went down a second time, but this time a kid in front of me got stuck in a rapid, I went down, hit him and flipped over. Not so bad, except I slammed my knee into a rock. After that we went to the Walnut Brewery for pretzels and beer.

Overall a very simple weekend but tons of fun.

Denver Rocks!

Now that Dave and I are living in Denver I thought I’d start a new blog to cover our Colorado adventures! So welcome to the new and improved “Adventures of the Schankers” Blog.

I’ll start off by sharing some photos that I took on a hike the other weekend. This hike was awesome. I had to actually traverse over a half mile long glacier to even start to the summit. This peak was what us Colorado folks call a 13′er. Enjoy the views!