Climbing Update and MAC

Hey, this past week was my second week of my rock climbing course for second semester. Monday's class was full of relearning belay techniques, practicing knots, and boldering. I feel like I'm starting to get better at boldering again, some parts are difficult because you can only go so far up the wall when bouldering but otherwise it's still pretty fun and good practice for working on holds and moving your hands and feet together.
For those of you who don't know, bouldering is a style of climbing that requires two people, a climber and spotter, where no ropes are used where the climber will climb up to about their spotter's shoulder height and then climb horizontally. When inside, this is usually done over a mat ("bouldering mat") in order to soften the fall. Most new climbers will start with bouldering in order to get the hang of holding onto rocks before climbing a wall. Now, don't get me wrong, bouldering isn't always easy! It can always be made more difficult and in some cases it's harder than actually climbing due to limited holds. Give it a shot! :D
Anyways, on Wednesday, I finally got recertified to belay, so I can climb with friends whenever now which makes me quite happy I'm not going to lie. I get a sort of feeling of freedom when I have this certification, I'm not exactly sure why, but it's still a super nice feeling. For the test, three people are required: a climber, a spotter (someone already certified), and the "belayer" (the person who wants to get certified). The spotter holds the end of the rope that is normally on the ground for a belayer in case they need to help hold the climber when they fall. The test here involves the "belayer" explaining everything to the climber (all the commands and such) and then tying the climber in and getting themselves attached to the belay device and the floor (if need be and the climber is heavier than they are, so they don't shoot up into the air), while climbing the climber does three falls and the "belayer" has to catch each one properly, then lower the climber back to the ground safely. The three falls include: an announced fall, an unannounced fall, and an unannounced fall where the "belayer" doesn't look at the climber but feels them fall. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it's really to make sure that the "belayer" knows what they are doing for safety's sake.  So, yea, that's that :P

Onto another subject, I joined a club this week! The Martial Arts Club (or MAC), which is a really relaxed club on campus run by students where we learn the basics of martial arts. Yesterday (Thursday) was the first time that I went and we did kicks and shoulder pushes. It was quite fun, I need to get used to kicking at the right height because I did over stretch my iliac muscle so that's one thing I need to work on. I do plan on going back next week, so that's something to look forward to :)

What other activities would you guys do in college? Happy Friday!
Love,
Sara :)

Sickness :( and Climbing Update (finally)

I seem to be getting sick quite a bit this year :( It's only February and already I've been sick twice! That's my issue currently, I've had a headache that's been come and go for a while now, a sore throat, and ears that won't stop popping, plus it snowed (YAY!!) so I also have a runny and stuffy nose :P I guess it's just not really my time of year :P
Sorry for the lame excuse and for not doing a music post yesterday :( I think yesterday was probably the first time I have missed a Musica Monday!! I don't like that idea, I'd rather I never missed it! I promise that I will try and get better at doing this, I mean I was on a roll for a while, but kinda lost it.

Also, I have a quick climbing update (haven't had one of those in a while :P). I started my rock climbing class yesterday, and though we didn't do too much yet, we did bolder and I found that I have forgotten what it is like to start from the very beginning and to not understand the basics of rock climbing. We talked about the proper gear for climbing, and I'm actually thinking about doing my seminar paper (pretty much a senior thesis) on the varying injuries between beginning and advanced climbers. I haven't decided yet, but right now I think that might be where I am going :)

Anyways, I hope that you are all not sick, because that would suck :( If you are, feel better! I will attempt to do the same thing myself, and have a great week!
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

Alright so today's climbing update is a bit more than just a quick update on my climbing stats, I'm also going to share and "if only..." that has to do with climbing gear. Here goes!
This past week-ish (yea a while ago, oops!), I was back home for Thanksgiving Break. So, while I was there, on Friday, Matt and I decided to go rock climbing, because we obviously haven't gone together in a long while. We went down there and found that they had put up some new routes (apparently they try to put up and new route or two every month) down at Turner Hall, meaning of course we had to try at least a few of them. We did, and it was pretty fun! I got a little lazy at one point but we continued to climb about 4 or 5 times up the wall (which is like half the size of the wall here at Olaf, but still functional and pretty fun) and did several boldering challenges. We ended up climbing alone, a little sad, but friends were able to stop by which was nice. I feel like I'm finally getting better at climbing!
After climbing, we talked for a while about the different equipment and looked at what Turner Hall had for sale. We learned that harnesses cost between $65-$95 and that doesn't include shoes, chalk bags, chalk, or a belay device. We did a little research when we got home and found that there is a place at Bayshore Mall (the closest mall to us) that had a store called Erehwon, which carried climbing gear! This was news to us and so we decided to investigate later on.
On Saturday, we headed down to Erehwon (nowhere spelled backwards) and talked to someone about the harnesses they had there. We learned that one big difference between harnesses was the leg straps; meaning some harnesses had adjustable ones while others didn't. We definitely decided that we would want the adjustable ones (you never know! we might grow!). The other difference was the double backing loops, these were I believe all automatically double backed now, which is pretty nice! It save a lot of hassle and extra work when putting on the harness.
Unfortunately I can't show any pictures because the website is a little lacking in the accuracy area (at least when we first checked it). But if me or Matt gets one for Christmas or at any point, I will be sure to post some pictures for you to see.
Have an great Tuesday :D
Love,
Sara :)

Break Update

Hey guys!
So as you may have learned/guessed, it's Thanksgiving Break currently (yay!!), which means I'm home for the first time this school year :). I do enjoy being home, but unfortunately, being in the middle of a busy and slightly stressful semester of college, I have homework to do over break as well. I will give you a quick little run down of what has been happening so far during my break.
To start off with, I got home late Tuesday night (meaning a bit after 10 pm). I got to say hi to my family and meet our new cat, Dorito (I will have some pictures up of Dorito in a later post, probably tomorrow), and try out a new coffee machine that we have (pretty snazy!). On Wednesday, we cleaned the entire house, which really took most of a day, we also got food ready for the family that was coming up for Thanksgiving on Thursday (yesterday). I got to cut up the cheese and sausage and arrange them on the plate. That night I visited Matt for a while and we talked about Thanksgiving, school, made some plans for Friday, and just enjoyed each other's company.
Thanksgiving day (happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!) was a very busy day that included lots of food preparation and I was placed in charge of the stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, and sweet potatoes. Also, I was by the microwave, so when relatives brought in mashed potatoes and rolls, I heated them up. We had many people at our house yesterday for thanksgiving, I believe it was around 16-20 people, it was nice to be able to catch up with the family and to see them again. We haven't all been able to get together in several months, I believe the last time was June and before that was last December! While not everyone was able to make it, the majority was and that was very nice to have :)
Today is a homework day. I'm hoping to get most, if not all of my outline done for my history research paper done. The outline itself is due on Monday, and is a big part of our grade for the paper. I'm going to be working on that until around 4, when I'm heading out to dinner with Matt, and then we are going rock climbing with his sister and her boyfriend. I hope to get a majority of this (if not all!) outline done before 4 pm, and then to have a good time tonight! :)
How was everyone's Thanksgiving? What are some of your plans for the rest of the week? Did anyne go to Black Friday?
Have a great day!
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

All I really should say about my climbing from Saturday is that I made it up the wall twice. And I did! I failed however to follow any sort of route and I have discovered that I really need to workout more if I want to improve! I'm hoping to go climbing again this Friday when I head back home for thanksgiving this Tuesday through Sunday :) what are your thanksgiving plans?
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

Alright, a little late, but sadly I haven't been climbing a lot lately. I did however, climb this past Sunday with my friend from here. We both have officially mastered all the routes rated a 7, even though this is one of the lowest levels for climbing, the wall here is 3 stories tall or so. This does make it a pretty difficult climb the whole way up! But we both made it up two of them and then got part way up a level 8, which was pretty difficult. This weekend we hope to go back and try to get farther up the level 8, and since we are both certified it makes it easier to climb continuously.
That's all for now! Hope you have a great day!
Love,
Sara :)
P.S. I think Matt is posting this week? I'm not positive though :P

Climbing Update

Hey guys!
So I haven't had one of these climbing update in a while, so I figured I should even though I haven't been climbing nearly as much as I would have liked lately. I did finally get belay certified here at Olaf, which is pretty awesome!! Now, when my friend (who is also certified) and I want to climb we don't have to wait for a worker to belay us because we can now do it ourselves! :D This is super exciting because it means more climbing time for us as well as meaning that we don't have to worry about how busy the wall is at the time, as long as there is a rope open and we can try and climb.
Sadly, because I have not been climbing regularly for the past month because of school and break, I do feel I bit like a newbie because I find some of the routes that were much easier last semester and even last month to be really difficult right now. This makes me sad and as such I hope to start climbing more often, making it regular like once or twice a week!
I also have added something to my Bucket List that has to do with climbing. I was watching an old episode of the Amazing Race when one of the tasks that groups could do was either white-water rapids or rick climb 60 feet in Chile. I have now decided that I want to go rock climbing in Chile at some point after college. I looked on YouTube and I mean seriously, does this not look like fun?! Haha

Alright all, I hope that you are having a wonderful start to your weekend! You should really look at some of the things out there and try something new! I know that I repeat this over and over again, but trying something new can lead to wonderful consequences and you can learn a lot about yourself and the people around you! So, I leave you with the infamous words of a crazy but creative teacher I used to know from television:

"Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" -Ms Frizzle

Thanks for reading all!

Love,

Sara :)

Things to Take Advantage of for a Workout

1- There's a workout facility. This can be the trail through the woods, a sidewalk in a busy city, a quiet country road, or an actual gym. You can find a gym anywhere if you just lace up your shoes and step out that door.

2- Women's workout shorts don't tend to have pockets. Take advantage of that, don't bring your phone if you are going in a group unless you can use it for timing or to track your mileage. If you don't need it for your run font being it, it's amazing how much stress can go away if you leave the electronics at home!

3- There's no service if you run outside. Seriously, if there is it probly won't be as good, so use your iphone or whatnot to track your running or listen to music/books-on-tape/whatever keeps you going, but don't do any more than that! If you do it's just a waste of time I think.

4- Make it a group activity. Running with friends will encourage you to keep going and can actually increase your speed/distance over time. I find that talking every once in a while with the person/people I am running with helps both me and them to keep their minds off any hard work.

5- There's always inspiration. I've heard so many times from people who are lacking in motivation to find a reason to workout, or a reason to get up and do something. Just look pretty much anywhere and you can see inspiration for getting a fit body, not skinny as in skin and bones, but healthy and fit, which I have heard is the new skinny.

Alright, that's what I have for you for today. More will come later, I apologize for the slow and lack of posts currently, it has been my busiest week/weekend at school yet and it will only get more busy :P but I will do my best to keep the posts coming! I promise!

I also didn't get the chance to climb this weekend :( due to working for 6 hours straight instead, which sadly took up the time I usually spend climbing to get food and go to work. Hopefully that will start again this weekend or sometime soon!

I do have a bike ride coming up next weekend: The Apple Affair, in Galesville, WI. My grandparents are from there and we try and head up there for this big bike ride every fall that we get the chance to! This will be my first time going in quite some time, so I will update on how that goes this Saturday. The ride is Saturday, starting between 8-9am. Wish me luck!

Have a great week! October starts tomorrow!!! Crazy how fast this year has gone...
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

Alright so this past Saturday I went climbing again (yay!!), it was pretty neat cause I was able to climb up the wall the first time pretty quickly, granted the second time was a struggle and I didn't make it all the way up. I was sad the second time :( However the first time was pretty fun! I went with one friend, since it is the first weekend after a full week of school people were kind of freaking out about the amount of homework they had, which makes sense, but I find that an hour long break or so is always helpful especially when you have a lot of reading to do (particularly ethics). Between me and my friend, we were able to make it up the wall our two times in under a half hour, which is a lot of progress from the last time we went climbing when it took us an hour to climb three times. We are pretty proud!
That's all for now :)
Have a great day my friends!
Love,
Sara :)

A Climbing Update and Apologies

Hey guys, so in case you missed out school started again, this past week. I'm currently on my 4th day of classes, and things are going pretty awesomely! I'm excited for all my classes and I look forward to learning more about each of my topics! This is my excuse for why I'm a bit slow on the uptake of blogging consistently....sorry! School does tend to get in the way.
Anyways! This past Saturday I went climbing for the first time in a while (yay!!). I climbed here at school (cause we are awesome and have a climbing wall!), and I'm proud to say that after going up the wall all the way (about 2.5-3 stories high) two times, I was not sore, or at least not really that I noticed, the next day! This is an awesome feeling, since when I started I would be so sore for the next few days. I guess I getting stronger :)
Regularly climbing can really help you to get a full body workout so I encourage everyone to do this! We will be going weekly (or as much as we can to keep a regular schedule) on Saturdays, as long as the wall is open this year. I also now have friends who work at the wall and can help when I need help. I'm also planning on getting certified as a belayer myself here, since each time you go to a different wall you have to get re-certified, which is slightly annoying, but it works and that's how things go, so I am willing to do it! I will keep on updating throughout the year (I hope!) so stay tuned if you wanna hear!
I recommend for people again to try this whole rock climbing thing out! It doesn't matter if you get all the way to the top or not because it's a full body workout plus it's a great way to meet mew people. You can actually see your progress as you continue, until you are able to reach the middle or 3/4 of the way up, eventually you will get to the top if you keep trying and learn to push yourself a bit. There's a reason rock climbers are some of the most ripped people, it's hard work to get yourself up a wall! I'm working on getting there, but I'm not quite there yet.
Try something new, be it rock climbing, swimming, running, biking, walking, whatever! Try something and then stick with it, you aren't going to become a pro in just one day, it will take time, but I promise it will be worth it!

Have an awesome week guys!
Love,
Sara :)

P.S. sorry about missing my music yesterday (Monday)....I have no legitimate excuse except I forgot :P

Quick Update

Sorry to say folks, but I don't believe that I will be going climbing this weekend, instead me and a few friends are heading to Six Flags to relax and get our minds off of work and school to have some fun. So, there won't be another climbing update until the following week. Once I get back to school I'm not sure when the climbing updates will continue since I will also have school work to do. But I will do my best to continue with that, since we do have a climbing wall at school I plan to take full advantage of that.
I was talking to my climbing partner and if we both live in the same area next summer/year we hopefully will be getting memberships at some climbing place, in hopes of someday getting our own climbing gear and climbing real rocks instead of just the walls inside.
That's all for now!
Love,
Sara :)

Update on Climbing

Alright, so I went climbing with a few friends this past Friday and it was such a blast! Seriously! We were four people total who went. For the first time, we had enough time to take a break between climbs but were still able to be social while this was all going on :). Even though one person was on her first time belaying, she did an awesome job and belayed me 4 or 5 times in a row! We had a small bonfire after with s'mores which were delicious, the bugs weren't even too bad which made it even better.
We won't be going climbing this Friday, or at least I won't be because I will be meeting up with my boyfriend in the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend :D I am super excited to finally get to spend some time with him! It's been a long summer not seeing him for very long each month, but we have been going strong for over a year, so I hope things continue going well :)
Anyways, no more climbing until the weekend after, which may also include a trip the Six Flags Great America in Gernee!!! I'm excited to find out if this will happen or not!
Alright, now I am going to bed :P
Have a restful night all and I hope to hear from you guys some time :P
Love,
Sara :)

Weekend Climbing

Climbing is enjoyable, what can I say? I really enjoy climbing with friends. This upcoming Friday I am off to climb again downtown Milwaukee. The difference this time is there will be more people. I guess my friend's sister and their friend is also coming, so it'll be nice :)

What I forgot to add in my rock climbing update was that after we were finished climbing, we saw a music boat on the Milwaukee River!! It was pretty awesome! Not to mention all the spiders there were ginormous!!! :( I hate spiders! haha :P

I am super excited to climb again, hopefully I've gotten better, and now that I can actually belay I feel more comfortable climbing and belaying in general. I am super excited for this! Not to mention downtown Milwaukee is really quite beautiful at night! Maybe we can add dinner too because it is gorgeous and there are some really good restaurants downtown. But I'm not sure, I mean I will be hungry cause we leave like right after I get off work and last time I didn't get food first :( So, this time I will be eating first!

Alright, well, updates will follow about how things go, I really encourage all of you to go out a climb at some point! It is really a lot of fun :D It doesn't even have to be climbing, go try something new, keep your workouts interesting and keep them going so that you stay interested and retain the desire to workout! I know that going to different classes at the local YMCA as well as climbing has rekindled my interest in different forms of exercise other than running.

Have a good night folks!
Love,
Sara :)

Update on Climbing

Alright, so I went climbing on friday and it went well! I was able to become belay certified so that both me and my friend could climb. The place we went was pretty awesome, not extravagant but nice! This is probably going to be a short post cause i'm also watching the Olympics right now. Upset with tennis!! That was pretty awesome! :D

Also, in less than 2 weeks I'm going to the Dells with my wonderful boyfriend :D I'm super excited! It's going to be a wonderful weekend!

Alright, lata you all!
Love,
Sara :)

Something that I Started Long ago...

So, I used to rock climb like every weekend when I was back at school. However, since finals I haven't climbed at all and I find myself missing the feeling of being a monkey. One of my friends from home climbs and is belay certified. We decided (last night) that we are going to go climbing together over this weekend at some point. I will try to get pictures from then but we shall see what happens, plans do tend to change quite a bit when I'm supposed to be "in charge" (meaning I'm driving).
If you are from the Milwaukee area and are interested in rock climbing or any otehr activity they have here is the website. It's called Turner Hall, and it's pretty awesome and offers courses for beginners and then on up from there. This will be my first time going there for rock climbing, but I've heard good things! Also a fact: children have to be 8 years old in order to climb and must be accompanied by children when under 14 years. They also do groups and parties.
Rock climbing (I'm gonna be excited for a bit :P) is really quite awesome! I mean it is a work out and your arms and legs (and core) should feel well worked after you finish a few climbs. I really look forward to rock climbing when I do cause it's always a lot of fun, not only that but you get to meet so many interesting people, some who have never rock climbed before and others who are pros and will go out ot actual rocks to climb instead of just the plastic ones in the gyms, then there are the people like me who are somewhere in between. I would love to be able to go out and have the confidence to climb actual rock walls, but for now I will just stick with learning how to belay and climbing on the plastic walls. Whatever works for each person though.

Thats all for now,
Go out and try to climb something, even if it is just running around on a playground and jumping over the fences and playing on all the monkey bars! Whatever it is it's exercise and you feel like a freakin monkey!
Do it!!
Love,
Sara :)