Beautiful Bay Area Fall

Hello, friends!

What a glorious, sunny, crisp, clear fall day!  I feel so lucky to live here and have such great skating trails at my doorstep.  

Today my husband Marty and I slept in a bit while both our kids got up early and went off to work.  There's something that feels so delicious about that!  With fewer hours of daylight, often wet trails, and a deficit of skating time over the last month, I'm hot to go whenever I can fit it in, but I did need to at least wait until the sun was up enough to dry off the trails a bit and to begin shrinking the puddles and patches of wet leaves.  

Marty dropped me off on his way to the gym and I got right to skating.  Because I had a good chunk of skating time to fill until he had finished his workout, I set out from the Commons Park in Moraga towards the Lafayette Community Center.  At my usual turn-around point, I kept going.  I ended up skating further than I have ever skated before (at least since keeping track with my Nike + Running app on my phone).  I ended up skating a 10k.  Yay me!

Did the trail have acorns, leaves, sticks, and puddles for me to deal with?  Yes, yes it did.  Here is a picture of one of the challenges.

The Lafayette-Moraga trail near the Lafayette Community Center

As I skated past the Lafayette Community Center, I came across this sign:

Have you ever seen such a thing?  Well, you can't say they didn't warn us!

Years ago when our extended family took our annual ski trips together, my kickass-skiing cousin Suzi used to tell us that you need to push yourself when you ski.  She thought that a good measure of pushing yourself enough is to fall down every so often.  That way you would continue to improve as a skier.  I think of her advice often when I skate.  Not that I am okay with falling while skating…I try to avoid that if possible.  But I do make sure I keep pushing myself so that I keep improving.  

I consider it a successful skate if I have at least one bobble…an almost-fall-but-not-quite moment...every time I skate.  That way I know I'm pushing my limits...getting better and better with each passing week.  

The funny thing I've noticed…the more I'm comfortable pushing my limits skating, the more I'm comfortable pushing myself into other uncomfortable areas in my life.

How do you like to push yourself?

Keep skating...or whatever you like to do!

Nancie ♥ 

My last skate:

11/25/12 

Skate #160

Lafayette-Moraga Trail 6.85 mi

Too busy to blog, but not too busy to skate...

Hello, friends!

I've been so busy getting ready for Liz and my 8th annual Holiday Boutique that I've barely had time to write, but I have made time to skate.  Our boutique:

  Friday, November 30           9 AM - 8 PM

 Saturday, December 1         9 AM - 2 PM     

370 Redfield Pl, Moraga, CA

We are so excited about the many wonderful gift items we're busy making...jewelry, scarves, food gifts, baby gifts, holiday decor, and paperwhites ready to bloom in your home or for a friend.  We're serving food, drinks, champagne in the evening, we're having a drawing for prizes such as jewelry and other gifts, and giving a free gift to everyone that attends.  It's a fun event and part of our proceeds will benefit Friends of Faith, a local non-profit, in memory of Faith Fancher, which supports underserved women battling breast cancer.  Bring a friend for a special 20% off incentive on one regularly priced item in our boutique.

(Shameless boutique plug done!)

Despite how busy I've been, I've used managed to skate 11 of the last 13 days and that makes me a happy camper.    I passed my personal goal of 150 skates in 2012.  So great!  I haven't had much time to write about skating though, so I thought I'd share a hilarious commercial of babies skating that my friend Joan sent to me.  Check it out for just 10 seconds and I think you won't be able to stop watching.

If only I had started skating at such a young age!

Click here for how I wish I could skate!

Keep skating (or whatever it is that YOU like to do)!

Nancie ♥ 

My last skate:

11/14/12 

Skate #154

Lafayette-Moraga Trail 5.25 mi

Signs of Fall: Acorns and Sticks and Leaves...Oh My!

Hello, friends!

Due to my mom's open heart surgery and a trip back east that was extended due to Hurricane Sandy, I found myself unable to skate for 2 full weeks!  By the time I returned to the bay area last week and my mom was released from rehab and home with my sister and stepdad to help out, I was climbing the walls with a desire to get back on the trails with my rollerblades. 

And skate I have!  I have skated every day over the last week, racking up over 30 miles altogether.  It felt so great!  At the same time, I've resumed my yoga practice, another critical piece of my well being.  My yoga instructor, Howard VanEs, is just a fantastic teacher and I find myself enjoying yoga more and more.  Click here to check out his series of books.

As I've been busy preparing for increased holiday sales of my jewelry and the extra demands of the holidays, I've needed the intense exercise even more than usual to keep my brain clear and happy and my energy level high.  The weird thing is that until this year, I had never been that consistent with my exercise routine except for short periods of time.  Now I'm at the point where I can no longer envision my life without yoga and without skating.

Fall skating is beautiful and here's why I love living in Northern California:

But it does have its challenges:

Acorns, Sticks and Leaves

Some sections of the trail are just covered with the litter from the trees.  My rear wheels scoop up the leaves and the brake on my right skate traps them.  I'm toying with the idea of removing my brake, but I still have the occasional time when I am very happy for that brake...especially on the downhills!  

Lesson for handling the extra detritus on the trail...keep light on my feet, pay attention, relax, be prepared to make a quick correction when one of my wheels suddenly completely stops turning.  All part of the excitement!

Darkness Descends

The end of daylight savings time found me on the trail one evening this week as the daylight was fading quickly.  I skated as fast as I could racing the sun, trying to finish up before darkness really set in.  Alas, the sun was much faster than I was and I found myself returning to my car in almost complete darkness for the last 5 minutes.  The plus side: since I couldn't see the leaves, sticks, and acorns, they didn't really even bother me. 

Maybe I need to get one of those miner's headlights.  I think my cousin Suzi has one I can borrow.  Can you help me out, Suzi?

Rain!

Okay, here's the one obstacle I can't figure a way around.  It started raining today before I got a chance to skate.  Bummer!  It was to be my 150th skate of 2012...an arbitrary milestone but still one I was looking forward to.  Not only do I need to wait till it stops raining, but I'll also need to wait till those leaves are dry enough to stop being a slimy, slippery accident waiting to happen.

Here's a quote I love that helps me face obstacles such as acorns, sticks, leaves, errant shoelaces, darkness and rain:

The universe provides obstacles to see how much you really want something.

I think it's a great way of looking at all the obstacles that might otherwise derail us from what we really want to accomplish.

What goals do you have and how badly do you really want them?  Do you want them enough to push past the figurative acorns that might get in your way?  

Here's my 88-year-old mom, Jane, showing me how to overcome an obstacle such as a torn aortic valve.  She's walking every day with my 90-year-old stepdad around a track near their house,  building her stamina back up after her valve replacement 3 weeks ago.  You go, Mom! 

Keep skating! 

Nancie ♥ 

My last skate:

11/7/12 

Skate #149

Iron Horse Trail 5.08 mi