...#septsmackdown....

I've been watching the exchange between irishgirleknits and knittinggolfer for the last couple of months regarding their "smackdown" and I decided that this would be a good thing for me to join. Basically, it's a competition between us to determine who puts in the most exercise time each month. The winner gets a skein of STR (like i need anymore of this) of their choice. It's an honor system competition so you keep track of your own points and report in to each other.

I decided that I would add some different things to my exercise routine. I have been walking 5 days a week for a long time and am frankly getting pretty bored with this. On the suggestion of my friend Etta Mae I decided to join a boot camp class at the Y. Holy Mother! This class is beyond anything I have ever done! After the first class I had a hard time even getting out of bed the next day! Katie, who is the trainer for the class, has a son that just finished Marine boot camp.......she trained him! Ack! Needless to say she has no mercy. She doesn't care if you are tired, sore, whatever. If you stop, you had better be having a stroke or have broken a bone. There are no other excuses accepted.

To offset this ass-kicking motivation, I decided to explore the walking trails at the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge.





It's really a beautiful area near where we live with lots of walking trails and great scenery. Here's one of my favorite views along the way....

The hiking trails meander through wooded areas along the Tualatin river and eventually circle the entire wildlife refuge. There are several view points along the trails......

It is the perfect place to do some much needed thinking and reflecting. Not to mention stretching the overworked muscles from boot camp.

I am lucky to live near this great place and even luckier that it is open year round.

I also added another type of exercise to my September Smackdown routine. We went to the coast this weekend and went salmon fishing. What a blast! But this is not a sport for wimps. This is a workout! This is the first fish I caught.

He's not very big, but a real fighter! I caught 3 more, 2 keepers and one native that we had to turn back. The last one took me 20 minutes to get into the boat. My arms are like hamburger today.
This week I racked up 12 point in the smackdown, but I have decided that this competition is not so much with my fellow smackdowners but more with myself. I think it's a challenage I can win....