Yellowstone Bison Bonanza

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Coco

I’ve got so much to share about our recent vacation hiking in Yellowstone National Park, but thought the Yellowstone bison would be a good topic for the Friday Five link up hosted by Rachel at Running on Happy and Lacey and Miranda at Fairytales and Fitness.

Yellowstone Bison

Several thousand bison roam free in Yellowstone —we saw quite a few of them!

One of the first things we learned about bison is that “bison” (actually, Bison bison) is the scientific name for what we also call buffalo. “Oh give me a home where the Bison bison roam” doesn’t have quite the same meter ….

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Hiking In Yellowstone National Park

Posted on July 29, 2018 by Coco

It would not be possible to capture an amazing week of hiking in Yellowstone National Park in a weekly wrap post. It’s hard to believe how much we saw and learned in just five days. As our guide promised at the beginning of the week, our first trip to Yellowstone would whet our appetite to come back for more. Hopefully this post will have the same effect, and entice you to come back and read more about the wonders of Yellowstone over the next few weeks.

Hiking In Yellowstone

Our Trails Through Yellowstone program started and ended at Mammoth Hot Springs, where I had no cell phone service whatsoever and the Visitor Center was the only place with free wi-fi. I logged on long enough to tell my kids, my mom, and my secretary that I really would not be able to check in, and put my iPhone on airplane mode to save its battery for picture-taking.

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Mystery Ankle Injury Anxiety

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Coco

I am officially on vacation and getting ready for what I hope will be an epic week of hiking in Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately, I had to put “ankle brace” on my pre-vacation shopping list. Adding to my ankle injury anxiety is that I really don’t know what I’ve done to it–or even when. I just hope it gets better in the next 24 hours, or at least stays tolerable with ibuprofen and one of these.

Which one will work with my hiking shoes?

I packed a brace when we went hiking in the Grand Canyon three years ago because I was just recovering from my broken foot. Maybe my national park vacations are jinxed.
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Appreciate The Struggle That Makes You Stronger

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Coco

One of my favorite fitness mantras is Hard Is Where It Happens. It’s a reminder that when a workout gets hard is when pushing through will make me stronger. (Technically, you get stronger when your muscles recover and rebuild afterwards, but you need to challenge them to trigger that process.)  It encourages me to not quit at hard, but keep going so I can get stronger. Another way to look at is to learn to appreciate the struggle, vbecause it’s what makes you stronger.

Appreciate The Struggle That Makes You Stronger

Frederick Douglass put it more eloquently.

Embrace The Suck is another mantra that helps me adjust my attitude for a workout that could be miserable–whether it’s windy, rainy, too hot or too cold, involves steep hills or tough intervals.
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Sweaty Summer Workouts

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Coco

No matter how you measure summer, we are in the midst of it. While I always enjoy a good sweaty workout, I prefer to earn my sweat–and not from just taking a step outside. That’s why I spent the first week of July trying to hide from the oppressive humidity, and took my sweaty summer workouts inside.


Then the humidity broke and I couldn’t resist the cooler running weather–even though I still got sweat in my eyes.
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