Driving Routes Zion National Park and Weekend Itinerary

Hello world! On our way to Zion National Park! 

Some funny facts: getting our time zones straight....

Weekend itinerary:

Friday:  4+ hours from Salt Lake City to Zion National Park

Hiking all day in Zion and camping in Zion Friday Night

Both routes clock at 308 miles.  

4 h 19 m or 4 h 34 m

Friday morning, we packed up the car around 5:30 am and were out the door by 6 am.  The plan was to head South down I-15 and in Southern Utah cut East and come into the park from the opposite end.  This was a good way to drive a “loop” around Zion instead of heading straight down 15,up the Canyon road, and back the way we came. 

(Take the route not highlighted- coming into Zion from the east and through the tunnel). 

This allowed us to come through the Zion/Mount Carmel Tunnel, drive up and down the National Park Canyon Road, and then out a different way we came.  I think the mileage is pretty similar for both routes and may add a little extra time (worth it!).  We got to Zion around 11:00 am after a stop or two along the route.  It was a gorgeous sunny day in Southern Utah.

Source

Saturday:  Morning in Zion

and head south to Vegas. 

Head to Lake Las Vegas-  

Check in at the Westin.

Spend the day by the pool!

Night in Vegas? 

Sunday:  Hang around Vegas, slowly head back up to Utah

Long run 11 miles somewhere along the way home 

Motivational Monday 3/30 - 4/5 and how to prevent side stitches/cramps

Happy Monday friends!  

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter with friends, family, and a ton of chocolate.  One thing about moving 2,200 miles away from your friends and families, is that on the holidays, you sort of get to make.. new traditions.  Instead of an Easter dinner at my parents, or a trip to Massachusetts to see the whole family, this Easter was a little different. 

I met my friend Lauren, and we set out for a 14 mile run.  It was a gorgeous spring day in Salt Lake City with temperatures in the high 60's to 70's (the weather in Utah is amazing friends).  I am not a religious person so instead of celebrating Easter for its "true meaning" I sort of embrace it as the official sign of spring, and a time to appreciate the outdoors, all the gorgeous flowers, warm weather, and lots of chocolate.  I did this with a 14 mile run through this beautiful city, and then a BBQ at the park with friends.

I'll recap my 14 mile run at a later date, 

and dedicate Tuesday's post to gorgeous pictures of Spring in the Salty City.

I shall leave you with a teaser

Weekly Recap 3/30 to 4/5: 

Monday:             3 miles with Rachel and Tabata

Tuesday:            45 minute Spin class

Wednesday:      3 miles with Rachel and Tabata 

Thursday:          30 minute Tabata practice teach

Friday:               Off

Saturday:          Mountain Biking Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Sunday:             14 mile run.  

TOTAL:  20 miles 

My mid week mileage was pretty weak and I didn't get to do my Friday run in the trails (I had to work 9-7:30 that day).  That aside, I did get a lot of cross training in including my normal strength training, spin class, and some time on my mountain bike.  

For my weekly dose of running advice, I am going to talk about to prevent side stitches.  I have been getting a ton of them lately, and they really turned my 12 mile run into a miserable one.  Feeling like someone is stabbing you in your side is not an enjoyable way to spend your weekend.  Then again some may argue neither is running.  I digress.  If you find yourself running on the weekends and want to find out how to prevent side stitches, read on. 

There are all sort of methods.  I did a ton of research and found a ton of causes for this inconvenient pain.  They ranged form dehydration, stretching, breathing, eating, you name it.  Everyone had a reason and everyone had a different strategy on how to deal. 

Source

According to Libby Birk at SkinnyMom.Com:  "A side stitch or cramp is a muscle spasm of the diaphragm, which is instrumental in breathing and can get fatigued. The cramp affects the diaphragm muscle, the supporting ligaments, tendons and surrounding connective tissue. According to WebMD, side cramps are a result of shallow breathing, and are a little alarm letting you know that you’re not taking deep enough breaths. It could also be the result of an imbalance of blood electrolytes (mainly calcium, potassium and sodium)"

To avoid side stitches, first put your hands on your stomach and take deep breaths. If you’re breathing from your lower lungs, your stomach should rise and fall. After a while, if that doesn’t work, stop running and press two fingers in and slightly upward directly where you feel the pain. Hold that for about ten seconds while breathing deeply. Move your fingers all around the edge of your ribs up to the sternum. You could also try stretching to relieve the cramp. If the cramp is on your right side, raise your right hand and lean to your left. Do the opposite if the cramp is on your left side. When the pain subsides, slowly begin to run again and gradually pick up the pace. Side stitches often originate because your running pace is too fast in the beginning of your run.

Another helpful tip to remember is to avoid eating one to two hours before running. You’ll also want to increase your water intake throughout the day to ensure that your body is properly hydrated, and don’t forget about warming up and stretching! A good warmup could separate a solid run from a solid waste of time and energy".

There were some great tips, but in case that doesn't work, here is a collection I put together of Real Runners with real solutions.  I pulled these off a Running World thread -- There are some simple ones, and some whacky ones, and my advice is to just keep going through them until you find one that works for you. 

These are in no particular order, but solutions by real runners on how they deal with the problem. 

• Ab twists before you run 

• Exhale when the foot on the opposite side of the cramp lands (my track coach also suggested this, never works for me)-  Not every step, but every exhale. 

• Switch your stride pattern to the opposite side your stitch is on, a quick foot shuffle does this

• I find being properly hydrated really helps, I always try drink at least 2 pints of water before setting off, if I do get one on a run I find deep breaths through the nose and slowly out through the mouth really help! But I always run through them!

• The one thing that always works for me is visualizing breathing through the spot that has the stitch. Somehow your brain knows that's were the O2 needs to go.

• Here is a quick, easy way to make a stitch go away that I learned from my track coach 30 years ago and it works for everyone I have ever used it on. Find a tree, fence or a friend and do a head or hand stand for 20 to 30 seconds. It goes away almost immediately and doesn't come back for the rest of your race. It is amazing!

• Exhale and empty your lungs as much as possible. Really push that exhale as long as you can. I usually have to do this twice and the pain is 100% gone.

• If I get a side stitch, I force myself to belch and it seems to go away....odd but it works.

• I've gotten them during races several times due to eating too close to race time. jabbing and holding my fingers underneath and up into my ribs where the pain is has almost always helped. Holding it there for a while has helped me get over it fairly quickly without having to slow down my pace by much.

Well folks, there you have it.  Real runners with real solutions.  Belching, headstands, and ab work.  What has been working for me is better hydration and more focused breathing (fully exhaling and fully inhaling a few deep breaths also helped).   I hope one of these tricks works for you or if you have your own trick, please share!

The Happiness Factor

At the end of the day, we all really want one thing.  

To be happy.  

You know how the saying goes... Happiness is a choice.  I always envy the individuals who are always able to see the glass as half full, and I always strive to see things that way.  Sometimes I just need to stop, sit down, and remind myself happiness is a choice.  It is a choice, it is so beneficial for our health and well being, and guess what, you can practice and teach yourself to be well... happier. 

(Source)

I really love listening to Ted Talks in my free time and I really enjoyed some main points from Shawn Achor's talk "The Happy Secret to Better Work "

(You can watch them on Netflix!)

Watch the full video here or below 

Achor discusses the Happiness Advantage 

and I pulled some of my favorite excerpts out below. 

" If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present,then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, we've found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed.

We've found there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive. In just a two-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully. We've done these things in research now in every company that I've worked with, getting them to write down three new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.

11:31Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it.Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. We find that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness.We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in their support network.

11:58And by doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we've found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but a real revolution".
So to recap from Shawn's speech, I urge you all to start and train your brain to be more positive.Set yourself up to be happy.  

How to train your brain to be more positive 

Gratitude  (write down three things you are grateful for every day) 

Meditation (focus on the task at hand)

Journaling (relive positive experiences)

Exercise (teaches your brain that behavior matters)

Random acts of kindness (as simple as a praising or positive email)

source

Happy weekend friends and I hope you all have the happiness advantage this weekend

Tabata Thursday: 30 minute Workout 1

Hey friends

I am teaching my first tabata class in a few weeks and will be sharing my workouts and planning here for you all to use as well.  

SO- Thursday is now Tabata Thurdays
Oot Oot! 

If you didn't read my last tabata post, here is a recap of what Tabata is:

Tabata is a timing scheme for a high intensity interval workout (HIIT). Traditional HIIT classes I have taken use two exercises back to back, at 30 second intervals, repeated for a total of three intervals. Tabata is a little different as intervals are 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for a total of 8 intervals. 

Why this crazy combo?

Tabata is said to be a combination of Cross Fit and Circuit Training and was developed by Dr.Izumi Tabata, a Japanese researcher and physician. 

"Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate immediately. Since you are performing these exercises at a very high intensity, your body will have to work much harder to keep it up. This will cause your heart to pump fast and your metabolism to jump, which you want if you are planning on losing fat. Your metabolism will stay at that high not only during the workout, but after the workout as well. This means that your body will be burning fat for hours after".  Information is from this article- for more details click here!

Tabata timing can be applied to any workout, running sprint, cycling sprints, etc. 

Pairing it with these moves will provide an amazing full body workout.  And yes, you are working so hard you can get it all done in 30 minute! 

There are a bunch of apps you can download to get the timing down for you.  
Click here for a free tabata timer online!

~30 Minute Tabata Blast Workout 

What You Need: 

Medium to Heavy Weights

A Bench/Step

(if you don't have the bench just do the exercises without it!) 

Each round is 8 sets of 20 seconds work 10 seconds rest = 4 minutes each round

1 minute rest between rounds 

Warm Up:  3 minutes 

2 rounds of 

30 seconds Air Squats 

30 second Step Run

30 second Bench Push Ups 

(1 minute rest)

Round 1:  Cardio/Squats 

Weighted straddle run 

(Put benches away
during 1 minute rest )

Round 2:  Abs 

Mountain Climbers 

alternate with Traveling Plank 

(1 minute rest)

Round 3:  Upper Body

Upright Row 

Alternate with Bicep Curl 

(1 minute rest)

Round 4:  Cardio/Lower Body

Burpees (First 4 Rounds)

Goblet squats (4 Rounds)   

(1 minute rest)

Round 5:  Abs 

Full Range Sit ups  

Stretch 2 minutes 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some graphics of some of the less popular moves

 in case you are wondering what these silly names mean: 

Straddle run (while holding a weight over head)

Fast pace, bend in the knee- up up down down

Pump your arms, gaze up, light on your feet

www.womenshealthmag.com

Mountain Climbers:

Plank position, straight line down your back, 

bringing in one knee to your chest at a time 

Hold abs tight and keep that straight line. 

 www.zbsource.com 

Traveling plank: 

Hold a forearm plank

One arm at a time, move up to normal plank, 

and then back down to a forearm plank

Keep your core tight and body straight 

Bodybybetablogspot.com

Upright row:

Legs shoulder width apart
Dumbbell in each hand, start at thigh height

Bring weights up parallel to ground 

Slow controlled movements (up 2 beats, down 2 beats)

All while squeezing back and shoulder muscles

 www.workoutlabs.com

Burpee (add jump beginning and end)

Arms up jump up,

 jump down to frog position, 

jump your legs back into a plank, 

do a push up (optional),

 jump legs back in to frog position,

arms up jump up

www.slimtea.com

Goblet squat:

Hold weight vertically (or kettle bell handle facing up).  Feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart with toes pointed out.  Deep squat, weight in your heels, tracking elbows to your inner knees.  Rise up keeping weight in your heels, abs tights, head up. 

 www.oprah.com

Full sit up: 

Legs in butterfly position. 

Lay down with arms straight

Holding your abs tight, crunch up and touch your toes

Weight optional 

Fitbie.com

Pallet, Salt Lake City, Utah

There are many advantages to living in a city.  My favorite?

The food. All of the amazing food.

 So many different restaurants to try, all within walking distance. 

When our friends from NYC were in town and wanted to try Pallet, I was quite excited.

Pallet has been on my list for a while, and this was the perfect reason to schedule dinner. 

The building is next door/shared with my beloved Rose Establishment, a darling little coffee shop I talked about in this post.  It is in a beautiful older brick building.  What I loved the most about this spot was the history of the building, and the vibe the restaurant had.  

Pallet really took its atmosphere to represent the building and its history and charm.  Pallet was constructed in the early 1900's and was formerly a busy loading dock for Salt Lake Valleys first creamery.  While the building has been updated, the design and vibe of the space works to keep that charm. The artwork, the reclaimed wood, all the details from construction to the borax hand soap dispenser in the bathrooms (for real!) and the antique type writer in the back speak to this era. 

I ordered a drink at the bar while waiting for friends to show for our 8:45 reservation.  My ONE complaint about Pallet was that at 8:47, two minutes past our reservation, the hostest came over to ask again where our party was.  It was only 2 minutes past our reservation and this sort of left a bad taste in my mouth (they showed up a minute later). 

 The bar had a lovely atmosphere and an amazing cocktail menu full of unique signature drinks.  The thai daiquiri was spicy, delicious, and highly recommended. These are high quality cocktails my friends.  

Salt Lake Magazine

The typewriter was such an adorable and fitting touch to the restaurant.  I loved reading all of the adorable/strange messages on the wall that had been typed up at the restaurant.  

My favorite line was the message was still on the typewriter when I walked over. 

"This is the best gift you could give her

A lifetime of adventure". 

This line really stuck with me and made me smile.

I am a sucker for good quotes. 

And then I left my words of wisdom

"Meatballs are amazing" 

Not profound, but the truth. 

;) 

 

I just loved the details in this place.  Even the silverware made my heart smile.  The atmosphere, the vibe, the drinks, the menu.  This is such an amazing spot. 

It was so much fun having dinner with friends, and this was not the type of place you obnoxiously snap food photos.  The restaurant has shared long "family style" tables, dim lighting, and a wonderful mood.  While there are no pictures of our meal, trust me when I say it was amazing. 

Those meatballs.  Best meatballs I have ever had.  You must order this as an appetizer.  The kale salad was also simple, delicious, and made for a great starter.  "New American" food with trendy twists. Smaller portions but high quality and plenty of food.  I suggest ordering an appetizer because A- they are amazing and B- the portions for dinner are smaller than some restaurants.   For dinner, I had the lamb and it was so flavorful, fell right off the bone with this amazing sauce and herbs.  Thatcher had the trout which looked lovely as well.  The perfect portion and for a fair price. Everyone really loved their meals and we all left full and happy. 

We all really loved that our the checks were brought over to the table in a unique way. 

Not in a check holder but in old books. 

          

Cutest little detail ever.  

Pallet, you impressed me. 
 I had high expectations and you met them.  I can't wait to be back.
  Friends who come visit, you can expect that this place is going to the top of our list!

River Tavern is my east coast love and Pallet is a happy "west coast substitute". 

Salt Lake City has some wonderful food and is winning me over, 
meal by meal.