Meditation

Meditation 5:30am in the midst of a thunderstorm. Silence and calm other than thunder/lighting and the pouring rain, what a wonderful back drop to a nice meditation. After which came a short yoga stretch session. A few minutes is all it takes to feel a nice burn and to realize just how long it has been since I was in shape. I will get there.

Then for the morning smoothie.... mangos, banana and orange. This smoothie, add pineapple or strawberries, is our favorite. It is so good. Today I will be picking at apples and bananas. Maybe a salad for lunch, we shall see. Snacking will be more apples and some nuts. Not many, just a few for the crunch factor.

Martha and I are working very hard. Our business has picked up and is getting down right crazy. In a good way mind you. The way the world is today it is good to have the work and income rather than not. Both of us continue to sneak exercise in to our day. That is a must in order to maintain our physical and mental health. We are both feeling great even though it is crazy.

Life is good.

Nice day for a bike ride…

We have both been working like crazy these last few weeks. Biking has become something we both really look forward to. This morning was no exception. We only did a little over 20 miles, but the first 10 miles was up hill. Not a steep grade, but up hill none the less.

We started in Confluence and biked to the Pinkerton tunnel. This section of the trail is almost all under canopy. Very pretty riding with some very cool bridges. To bad I forgot the dang camera! Here is the GPS data from this ride….

I am trying to get all the sections under my belt that I will ride in one day. I think I have 2 or so sections to go. And then my fall ride will be 80 miles in a day. Should work out good. And really be fairly easy. Famous last words. lol

46 Miles!! Are you insane!!

It would appear that way. Martha’s niece Emily is here for the weekend with us and we decided to go for a nice bike ride on the trail. We figured 24 miles, from Rockwood to Meyersdale and back.

When we arrived at Meyersdale and had a little rest, and some water, it was determined that we all felt pretty good! So hey, let’s show Em the Big Savage tunnel. It’s only 9.6 miles further.

When we got to Big Savage we figured it would be dumb not to ride through it to the other side. So through the tunnel we rode.

Once on the other side I remembered that the Maryland state line was only another mile, or so.

So there we were, Maryland! And need I say, 23 miles from the truck! Yikes!

Here is the trip data. Not bad considering we were pretty kicked in the butt when we got back to Rockwood. We figured we spent about an hour total in stops. So actual biking time was about 5 hours.

Feeling Tired While Eating Raw Foods?

I have been feeling pretty wiped out in the afternoons lately and think I have a solution to the issue.  (at first I thought napping was the answer:)......however, I am now supplementing with B12 and I noticed when I start to feel tired I am also feeling hungry.  So, I am adding in another smoothie in the afternoon and when I feel super tired, I am going to either walk a little or ride my bike.

Today for lunch I am having frozen wild strawberries, fresh picked blueberries and banana as a smoothie.  I also picked up 5 bags of ripe bananas that I will peel, slice and freeze this afternoon.  All in all I am having a really good day and feel very energetic, even after mowing our lawn that was like mowing a field!

Summer time foods

Although it is discouraging to see that the summer light is changing and it is getting darker earlier, we are still having summer!  Our garden is like a jungle and slow to ripen tomatoes because of the recent rains.  However, we have new snow peas coming in, some tomatoes, beans, peppers, cukes and eggplant.  I am hoping that the butternut squash that is taking over the lawn will actually produce. 

Tonight dinner is mixed greens with red grapes, walnuts, peppers, yellow tomatoes, celery and cucumber.  I have also made some sun dried tomato hummus as a side.  Rick forgot his smoothie this am so it will be our beverage with dinner.

I hope to borrow Rick's truck tomorrow as I am headed to the bike trail on my own.  The weather is finally changing again so it looks like I will be working in metal, riding horses and bikes!

Cycling more of the trail.

This past weekend we cycled another section of the Great Allegheny Passage. This time it is the section from Meyersdale to the Big Savage tunnel. 9.6 miles to the tunnel, and .6 miles through. So in total 20.4 miles round trip give or take .5 miles.


This is the south side of the tunnel. Was amazing the air pumping from the tunnel. Being over 3000 feet long it acts like a cave, it pumps or sucks air as the tunnel tries to equailize with the outside air. Was pumping huge volumes of cold air.

Here we are just inside the entrance on the north end. You can see it is lighted the whole way. Super nice ride as well!

Wow look at the white legs on that guy! I must say that cycling and kayaking is really helping both of us become more fit.

 Now this is either an underpass or a tunnel. Guess it depends on how you look at it. This one is super nice and sports some nice murals.

Last 5 miles was in the rain. And I do mean a  torrential down pour! We has a blast even with the rain. Can not wait to get out there again!

Keep on eating RAW!

Exercise and the RAW lifestyle continues

We have been doing a lot of exercising in the last few weeks. Our weapons of choice, cycling and flat water kayaking. Both are great workouts and we have great local locations to do both. For cycling we have the Great Allegheny Passage. 141 miles of trail from Cumberland, MD to Pittsburgh, PA. Check out their website for more details.

For kayaking we have many lake options. One of the best local lakes is the Quemahoning Dam. There are many other nearby lakes for us to paddle. And Martha has started to use a sup paddle board (stand up paddling). Great workout! Plus our dog Foxxy loves to sail on that ship. Check her out...

We continue to eat mostly RAW. I am guessing 85-90% and we both continue to feel great. The other 10% (cheat times) have proven interesting. One of those “other” times we had chocolate covered pretzels. Ah so what you say… well, eat RAW the better part of four or five months and then eat them. They put you in a coma. We were both so freaking tired it was amazing. Anyway, RAW is the way for us. Funny thing is we are actually having fun eating this way.