A's, D's, and Hearts

I've been fairly concerned about my heart lately . . . when it comes to riding bikes. It seems like my heart rate is significantly higher than anyone I'm riding with. I've been wearing a heart rate monitor for a couple years now, and I've watched my heart consistently beat at about 180 to 190 every time I go mountain biking and whenever I'm climbing a decent, long hill on my road bike. One of my mountain bike racing teammates has been getting after me to have it checked out. I finally visited the doctor for a routine physical and asked her about it. She took my blood and ordered a stress test for me to see if my heart was normal.

I'm happy to report that the stress test went well. They hooked me up to a bunch of electrodes and put me on a treadmill. While I was waiting for the doctor to come in, I watched my heart rate drop down as low as 54 beats per minute! Then I watched it get as high as 185 while on the treadmill. The doctor said that wasn't bad. My EKG was normal and everything looked fine. He just said that some people have higher heart rates than others and max out earlier than others. Not everyone can be a super-athlete just because they are limited by their bodies, and in my case, my heart (I think). So at least I can rest well, now that I know my heart is normal and healthy.

However, my blood work discovered something interesting: I'm quite low on Vitamin D! I didn't know what that meant when she told me, all I knew is that it must be somewhat serious since they were wanting to put me on a prescription-strength Vitamin D supplement. The doctor's office said the deficiency could cause low energy and fatigue. As soon as she said that, I felt tired and I've felt tired the rest of the day! (Kind of funny how that works - ignorance truly is bliss.) I googled it and also found that Vitamin D deficiency can be a contributing factor for a weakened immune system (hello! how sick have I been over the past year?) and that it can inhibit weight-loss (dang! I don't need any more inhibitors). And those are just the ones I honed in on. So I'm taking this prescription Vitamin D supplement for eight weeks that has 50,000 IUs of Vitamin D in it. 50,000!!! (Of course, I only take one pill per week.) And then after that she wants me to take a 2,000-IU Vitamin D supplement daily . . . forever preferably.

While I was at Walgreen's picking up my prescription, I looked into their multivitamins. I might finally start consistently taking a multivitamin after all this business. I had been taking a generic version of One-a-Day Women's multivitamin, but I didn't notice any difference, it looked like a horse-pill, and tasted terrible. So . . . I discovered something fabulous: gummy multivitamins for ADULTS!!! It's VitaFusion's MultiVites. I've already taken the daily dose tonight and they are super good!! They taste just like fruit snacks. And I noticed that they have a pre-natal version too . . . oh yeah! I already scoped that out for the future . . . :)

And then lastly, I finally know my blood type! I've never known it for all these years. Ever since my traumatic first and only attempt at donating blood, I've never tried again even though I've been dying to know what my blood type is. So when my doctor took my blood, I asked if she could test for my blood type and tell me what it is. I'm A+. So cool!

P.S. I had Martha Stewart's No-Bake Summer Lasagna for dinner tonight. Quite delicious. I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta, whole wheat lasagna, and added a pinch of mozzarella on top.

Painted, Empty Frames

I finally painted and hung up my empty frames. And I painted my magnet board that I keep over my quilting table. It feels so good to finally have those two, home-improvement projects done! And to finally have something hung on the walls in my guest room.

The painted, empty frames in my guest room.

The painted magnet board over my quilting table.

Bite-Sized Adventure in Little Wild Horse

Lindsey and Rob invited me to join them for a big adventure: go canyoneering through Zion's Mystery Canyon. Unfortunately, the Virgin River is running too high and too fast. So, we went to plan B, which consisted of the Bell Canyon and Little Wild Horse Canyon loop by Goblin Valley here in Utah. It was super fun! Little Wild Horse Canyon was as stunning of a canyon as any I've canyoneered/rappelled through. And the best part is that it is totally hike-able and perfect for a family to do. Anyways, the trip was short but sweet - hence the bite-sized post title. I'll let the pictures speak for the rest of our trip.

Sally, Lindsey, and Rob at the beginning of Bell Canyon

Doorway to the Uranium Mine Cabin that was used up until the 1950s!

Check out the tricycle! This miner had a little hermit family.

Hitching a ride on the hermit truck. (I might be a little obsessed with hermits right now.)

I thought these big boulders were super-cool.

Rob, me, and Sally in the beginnings of Little Wild Horse Canyon

Sally, Lindsey, and me

Lindsey and Rob - see how narrow the canyon got?!

Of Grades & Hermit Phases

#1.
So, I rocked my first year of grad school. Rocked. It. Actually,  . . . ROCKED IT (in all caps). As in 4.0 rocked it. The entire year! Yeah. I'll enjoy the 4.0 (Four. Point. O.) while I can. (And I'll say it as many times as I can - until it changes.)

#2
In a fit to finally leave a relationship in the past, I dove out of my hermit phase into a wild and woolly, deep-end-of-the-pool social weekend. But I didn't think it was the deep end, I had hoped I was just wading into the shallow end. That weekend consisted of a singles BBQ immediately resulting in a date (which I didn't really want because I just wanted to practice talking to people again, but the date ended up being very nice, relaxed, and casual and actually renewed my faith that dates can be all of those things and not lead directly to a roller-coaster relationship).
Then I went to the Utah Valley Single Adult Conference fireside with my neighbor. Big mistake. Two reasons why it was a big mistake. Actually three reasons. 1) Nearly everyone there was at least 45 and 50 years old. 2) My neighbor found the most ridiculous and most flattery/gag-inducing guy there for us to sit by. 3) Santa Claus, with a long pony tail, accosted me when he said, "You look stunning, girl." as I was bolting out of the fireside. All of this temporarily threw me back into my hermit phase. But I'm out of it again. And I've been to two more singles activities and have had much better experiences with them.

A Little Strawberry Days with my Little Roommate

To celebrate the last few days before my little roommate, Jen, moved out and left for London, I took her out on a date to the Strawberry Days Rodeo - my favorite ever rodeo. We missed the mutton bustin! We got in line for food 10 minutes before they were supposed to start and they started 5 minutes early and we were in a line with an incompetent server. :( Not only was she uber-slow with all the people before us, but she also wrote down our order and still forgot 2 of the 5 things we ordered - I had to remind her before she got too far into calculating the total cost. We eventually got our food and went back to our crowded seats to watch the rodeo and eat our dinner. We went with Lindsey and Rob and Lindsey's entire family! Jen and I were sitting right smack in the middle of her family. We felt bad, but they told us not to move. This year they set off fireworks! That was kind of new and exciting.

My Little Town's Art City Days

Jenny and I at the carnival & concert

I love my little town. We just wrapped up Art City Days. Thursday morning, Michele, her baby, and I walked to the fire station at 6:45 am to have a little - uh, correction: big - Fireman's Breakfast to celebrate and support our town. Then last night, I met up with a couple girlfriends and we went to the carnival, ate scones and homemade root beer, listened to an awesome concert, and then watched some fireworks. I think this could be the actual beginning of summer now - especially since school will be out after this coming Tuesday. Let summer vacation begin!

I {Heart} Deer Valley!

Can I just say how much I love riding at Deer Valley? Kendra and I pre-rode the race course Wednesday evening and then Saturday was the race. The pre-ride course had us riding through a couple snowfields .... uh. CRAZY. I walked my bike through them. But that was only at the beginning of the course ... after that is heaven. HEAVEN. I love the fun little turns, ups, and downs through the forests of pine trees. The trees smell so good!! As soon as we hit the first tree section I yelled, "This is my favorite part!"

Pre-riding DV. See the smile on my face? I just came out of a little bit of heaven.

The actual race course didn't make us go through the snowfields, but we did have to climb a hill with a 23% grade. Ha! Yeah right! I walked it. I was practically parallel to the hill side while pushing my bike up it. Initially we were suppose to do one and a half laps, but since none of us my category (a whopping 3 people including myself) were trying to qualify for USA Cycling, the race organizers let us change to our normal one lap. Now, I'm kind of sad I didn't do the extra half lap. I would have had to climb the hill at the beginning, but I would have been able to ride through the trees again! Oh well. Live and learn. Oh. And I got 3rd place - aka last place. But it came with a $15 certificate to Cole Sports in Park City - which I already spent. :)