Fitness Updates

Martial Arts:

The kids are continuing to do very well in karate. Cooper is an orange belt and Charlotte is a yellow belt. Cooper LOVES it. He is highly motivated by learning new things and seeing a tangible reward for his efforts. Charlotte likes the social part of it, but doesn’t seem as interested as Cooper. I personally think she does it to be like her brother. We want to get her in soccer or t-ball, because she is a natural.

Chris will start a martial arts in October. I don’t think he’s decided what he wants to do yet. I will start Judo likely next fall.

Obstacle runs:

Chris and I have completed two obstacle runs this summer. We have one more at the end of September. We have loved putting our running and weight training efforts to work during these runs. The first one was the Survivor Mud Run in Berthoud in July. It was MUDDY. Every obstacle had mud. It was okay at first, then we got annoyed by it. Running and doing obstacles with 5-10 lbs of mud stuck to your body gets old quick. I think we finished in just over an hour and walked most of the course. The showers were FREEZING to rinse off and were not more than a trickle. Over all the race was well organized and attended – although we probably won’t do it again just because of the mud.

The second run was the Warrior Dash in Cooper in August. This was our big run that we both were really training for. We did the run with some friends and had a fantastic time!! The obstacles were a breeze for us and despite the extra 3000 ft in elevation, we run more than half of it. We finished in about 50 min, which was great time considering it’s about 3 miles. This was extremely well organizedWe will definitely do this race again and feel prepared to go do the Tough Mudder next year.

Our next obstacle run is in a few weeks – 5K Foam Fest. This one is more for fun/silly times and should be a great way to wrap up the summer. I am getting bored with running, so that’s probably a good thing. The kids, however, ask all the time if they can come with us to do the obstacle runs. We can’t wait until they are old enough. I did take them on a morning run with me and they did pretty good, running about 0.3-0.5 miles!

Ballet & Gymnastics:

Charlotte finished her second level of gymnastics. She has the perfect build for gymnastics and picks it up very easily. She loves showing us all her moves. We need to find a new gymnastics class for her though since the rec center doesn’t do higher level classes. She excelled at it and LOVED it.

I started ballet last April. I had only intended on doing it through the summer to increase my coordination and flexibility, as well as to try something new. I never expected to fall in love with it. It is very challenging, mentally and physically. I am basically learning a new language (French) and challenged with flexibility, coordination, and rhythm. I look forward to class every week (a 2.5 hr class) and I’ve now started practicing outside of class and doing a lot of reading about it. I have also purchased a barre for our workout room and appropriate clothing to wear to class, rather than attending in my workout gear.

The biggest step I’ve decided take is to actually perform! I have my first ballet recital in December. My teacher is choreographing the Nutcracker for all her various classes. I will be Mother Ginger (go youtube that part and prepare to laugh) dancing with the 3-5 yr olds. The mental image makes both Chris and I crack up, but considering I had only intended to do this for fitness, doing it for performance is a pretty big deal. So I’m an engineer turned ballerina at age 33!