Spin class and an 8 mile mountain hike!!

This morning while my husband went off to work for just a few hours, I went to the gym and did a spin class.  Spin class with my favorite instructor, Misty, is an instant mood-booster for me.  I'm not sure what it is exactly about the way she teaches, probably a combination of the music she chooses, the way she gives the instructions and the fact that she pushes us hard from the minute the class starts, right up until the end of a full hour, that I always feel like I've had the BEST workout at the end of her class.  Last night my husband and I went to the gym before doing the weekly grocery shopping, and we took a spin class with an instructor we hadn't had before.  She didn't get the class going until 15 minutes past when it was supposed to start, then I could barely understand anything she was saying into the microphone.  I still got a decent enough workout, just because I've learned how to make it harder for myself, but she ended the class 10 minutes early so we could do some ab-work.  Don't get me wrong, it's always good to get in a little core strengthening, but when I go for a cardiovascular workout, that's what I'm looking for.

Anyway, today's class was great, and I came home in a good mood and excited for my husband to return home so we could go out for a hike.  As you can see in the above photo, there were storm clouds hovering and we had a few intermittent sprinkles off and on, but the temperatures stayed in the 50's and every once in a while the sun even peeked through the clouds for a moment.  We hiked a trail called the Valvehouse Trail, and we went out and back for a total of about 8 miles, which took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  On the way up, I could tell the steady incline was giving me a great workout.  On the way back down, we even ran parts of the trail.  It made me realize that if I was to get into trail running, or if I wanted to do any trail races in the future, I'm definitely going to need to spend lots more time running trails.  It's tough!  I was afraid of losing my footing, there were pretty decent sized rocks all along the way, not to mention mud and even some snow up at the higher elevations.  This trail is part of the route that makes up a race called the Pocatello 50, a 50 mile trail race.  It was gorgeous up there, so peaceful and serene.  We saw lots of animal tracks and scat, including deer, moose and even mountain lion, eek.  Sometimes I get a little nervous about traversing these remote types of areas, but I'm not too worried with my husband there leading the way, and pepper spray and a gun in our backpack...just in case. :)