toIn an effort to get out and exercise away from people during the pandemic, my fiance and I decided to explore the trails on the side of Mount Washington, just a short walk from our West End neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA. We never realized until recently that we had such a great trail, just a short walk from our house! The trail is on the side of "Coal Hill," once home to many of Pittsburgh's Coal miners during it's booming steel producing era in the 1700's. Along this challenging hiking trail, that winds it's way up the the side of Mount Washington and wraps around the hillside, you can find remnants of the miner's houses that used to fill the hillside. We accessed the trail from West End by going up Greenleaf Street up the side of Mount Washington and hiked around the side of the mountain until we eventually crossed the road at Shaler Street and continued the trail on the other side and eventually hiked back through the neighborhood on Mt. Washington and back down Shaler Street and back to West End on the streets. The trail does continue further on the other side from where we stopped and also has parking there, so we plan to explore the rest of the trail on another day. As a lesser known trail in the Pittsburgh area, I thought I'd share some of the highlights and scenery from it with a blog post. You can find more info about the trail here and here including parking info and access points. The second link here shows the park the trail connects to with the different parking and access points. It's worth noting that due to rennovations over recent years, the name of the trail seems to differ on some of the maps from the signs on the trail. While we did see a few runners out on the trail, it was quite a challenging trail with some steep accents and not the best footing in places, so I would recommend this more for hiking or more strength based, slower trail running. It can get quite muddy in places after it rains, so I would recommend wearing good hiking boots and going on a drier day. If you hike the other direction from where we started, the trail winds around the front side of Mount Washington with a great view of the city. Flip through the slide show below to see some views from the trail
So last month in an effort to find fitness activities I could do without aggravating my hip injury, I decided to check out a free month trial of Class Pass and got to check out a number of different fitness places in the Pittsburgh area. Class Pass is a cool app based fitness platform that allows users to pay for credits each month that can be redeemed at a large number of different fitness places around the country, including a large number in the Pittsburgh area. I really enjoyed the variety the Class Pass allowed for at an affordable price and the ability to check out several places before joining any one place as a member. Since I got to check out a bunch of cool new fitness places, I thought I'd share my experiences here! Ascend Climbing Gym and Yoga As a climber, this was probably my favorite place on Class Pass and one of the best deals. It has a little steeper price at 5 credits to try it out, but it offers a lot for those 5 credits. You sign up for a two hour time slot which dictates what time you arrive, but what you really get for it is a day pass that can be used any time for the entire day and allows you to come and go if you please. Ascend is mostly a large bouldering gym with three different large bouldering structures, including a top-out wall and some cool overhangs, but it also offers a small top rope area that has both top rope and auto-belays on it. In addition to climbing walls, Ascend also offers cardio, weight lifting, and recovery equipment along with climbing training walls/hang boards etc. The coolest part about this pass is that in addition to access to climbing and fitness equipment all day, you also can sign up for a yoga or fitness class as well for no additional charge. I tried a "restore" yoga class and also the Kin Stretch "Mobility" class. The "restore" class started with some guided tennis ball rolling to loosen up the back and then moved into holding long poses in relaxing positions for the remainder of the class. The class was more of a mental "restore" class and relaxing than anything, but was nice after a hard day of climbing. The Kin Stretch "mobility" class was excellent and one I highly recommend after a hard climbing session. The instructor led us through a series of active stretching that loosened up different muscles that are stressed during climbing and improved mobility in different ranges of motion. Mereki Studio: Bounce, Strengthen, and Tone Class This was my first ever class I took on Class Pass and boy did I work up a sweat here! Mereki Studio is a small, boutique fitness studio that uses mini trampolines for various cardio fitness classes. The interesting thing about the trampolines is that we didn't use them to jump up and down high into the air, like you probably did as a kid, instead, we tried to absorb the bounce with our legs and stay low which turned the trampoline into resistance and made it a tough workout! The workout was an hour long and was conducted to upbeat music and led us through a series of trampoline bouncing, dumbbell/band exercises, and core exercises using the trampoline to create instability. This class was fun and a good workout, but was a little intense for my bad hip and adductors, so I'm not sure this was the best class for me, but I would highly recommend it for those who are healthy with a baseline of fitness already established. Pittsburgh Circus Center: Adult Aerial Silks Newbie Class This is one of the more unique classes offered on Class Pass that I made sure to try. It's only offered twice per week and fills up quickly, so be sure to sign up in advance at the beginning of the week if you want to try this out. This class introduced us to aerial silks and took us through a variety of moves hanging from a silk cloth from the ceiling. This was fun to try, but I was surprised how uncomfortable the pressure from standing on the silks was on my feet. Since this was an intro class, it wasn't a super hard workout and was more just trying different moves, but it still worked my shoulders a lot and was a decent core and upper body strength exercise. If you're looking for a tough full body workout then this might not be the class for that, but it was fun and unique! A good amount of upper body and core strength is required to even do basic moves on silks, so I would recommend trying this after you've acquired a basic level of strength in those areas through regular working out first. Verdict: I probably won't be taking up aerial silks as a hobby anytime soon, but am glad I tried this at least once. Millenium Dance Complex: Beginning Hip Hop Class
So other than doing a one week dance day camp that sampled introduced a few different styles of dance and trying out a musical theater dance class in sixth grade, this was my first experience taking a dance class as an adult and my first ever in hip hop, so I had no idea what to expect. Those who know me can attest that I am not the greatest dancer, so I thought I'd try this to see if I could learn some moves to bust out next time we're at club and my favorite hip hop song comes on. I was a little nervous being the only new hip hop dancer in the class, but it turned out that everyone in the class was a beginner and majority of us all looked super dumb and awkward together (except for the instructor who was a very talented dancer and was very welcoming and encouraging to all!) Since we were learning everything as we went, the class had a lot of stop and go as we learned a routine and was only a moderate workout, but provided great skill instruction for those wanting to learn new hip hop moves. I have to say, I felt really awkward the whole class and decided this isn't really my thing, but it I was fun to try it out and I'm glad I tried it at least once. Pro tip if you go: wear tennis shoes (I wore jazz shoes and was the only one in real dance shoes) and dress "hip" so you can feel more like a hip hop dancer. I wore old shorts and a t-shirt with jazz shoes and felt like a dork. Next time, I'll throw on my longer basketball shorts and tank top and some cool shoes. Yoga Factory Pittsburgh: Fusion Class I originally signed up for this thinking it was a fusion of yoga and some type of cardio strength workout as was described in the class description, but it turned out to be a Bikhram yoga class instead, which I still very much enjoyed. The class was a hot yoga class with a good mix of strength and stability challenge combined with restoration and mobility. This was probably my favorite yoga class I've taken. The room this was in gets very hot, so I highly recommend wearing minimal clothing, preferably spandex shorts and a tighter fitting tank of breathable material or sports bra (or shirtless for men) or you will easily over heat. I would also recommend bringing your own yoga mat, yoga towel, and a water bottle. If you don't have those, you can rent them at the studio for a small fee. You can buy both at Five Below for only $5 each, so if you're going more than once then it's cheaper and cleaner to just get your own stuff and bring it with. They require the use of a yoga towel which is different from most places, so either bring your own or bring $2 to rent one. They also offer a locker room with showers and cubbies to leave your stuff in which is a nice perk if you're coming to class from somewhere else or want to wash off before going home. One Point Yoga: Ease I signed up for this class hoping to do some restorative yoga to stretch out my tight muscles, but it ended up being more of a relaxing guided mediation with some light stretching than regular yoga. Despite this being more restorative for the mind than the muscles, the class was extremely relaxing and I did really enjoy it. The instructor was very nice and welcoming and helped make adjustments for anyone who needed something a little different. If you need to clear your mind after a stressful day and just relax, this is the class for you. Go elsewhere if you're looking for something more physical or a workout. The one downside of this studio was that the air did not feel very clear and was kind of stuffy with a slightly toxic smell to it which was unpleasant to do breathing exercises with. Improved air ventilation would have been a nice improvement. If you come here, be sure to bring your own yoga mat or you will have to pay to rent on there. Also, be sure to arrive early so you have time to find street parking and get into class on time as they lock the doors once class starts, so late arrivals aren't permitted. Class pass charges you if you miss a class, so it's important to be early for this one! Umberger Performance: Fusion Fit Class I went here hoping for a strength training session and that is what I got. The class consisted of me and three other people being guided by a coach. We started off with a series of dynamic warm-up exercises, similar to those we do for track and field, on the turf. After warm-ups, the coach demonstrated the exercises we would be doing, then we partnered up and split stations to start at and started the routine with the coach supervising and stepping in to make adjustments or spot people as went went. While the workout we did lacked a clear training theme with a rather random assortment of exercises, it was still a good full body workout for those just trying to gain general strength and fitness. The instructor was very nice and accommodating to making adjustments for my injuries which I appreciated. This class is geared more towards beginner/intermediate level people looking to get in shape and rotates the type of training each day of the week. While I think I would have gotten more out of just lifting on my own and picking exercises that catered more towards my specific needs, I think this was good class for those who want more guidance with a coach guiding them through a group routine. The one downside to this gym was that a large dog and elementary aged child were running around the gym unsupervised in areas people were lifting heavy weights in which was very unsafe and disruptive. I believe both the child and the dog belonged to the owner, so I would guess this to be a common feature of this gym. The child was on a big wheel tricycle speeding around very fast near people lifting and his parents did nothing to stop him, even when he was running over people's clothes and clearly bothering people who were working out. For this reason alone, I will probably never join this gym, but if you don't mind dealing with that, it was a nice gym for serious lifters and offers a number of different group classes. It's been a while since I've last blogged, so I figured I am due for another entry (even though probably no one actually reads this. lol.) If you recall, last time I blogged, I talked about embracing winter. While I really embraced the winter season, sadly I cannot say I really embraced summer this year. I started the summer off, embracing it in full swing, with tons of action which included a family vacation to Arizona in late spring, a road trip to Kentucky in June for my friends' wedding which also included lots of rock climbing at Muir Valley, and giving zip line tours at Kerfoot Canopy Tours. I had a ton of fun giving zip line tours at Kerfoot, but unfortunately that didn't last too long. By beginning of July, my shoulders had become increasingly more sore each day after work. I didn't think much of it first and tried to suck it up and get through the week, because we were short-staffed the week of the Forth of July. Well, I ended up not even making it through the entire week, because it got to the point where it hurt to lift an empty pop can driving to work the last day I worked there. It ended up getting really bad during the day and got to the point where I had to use my left hand to brake on the last tour that day and was in a lot of pain driving home from work. I told the managers on staff after work and called the owner that night, and I am very thankful for how understanding both owners were who both told me to take some time off from work and recover. I was freaking out at first thinking I may have torn something, but luckily it turned out I just had impingement, bursitis, and tendonitis in both shoulders. While this condition really sucks, I am thankful it wasn't torn. I originally thought I would just need to take a week or so off and come back working less hours, but it turned out that it was so bad that I was unable to return to work at all during the summer and had to sit at home doing nothing all day letting it recover. I tried to get work done on the computer, but even that was painful as was running or doing any kind of physical activity. I hate sitting around doing nothing, so I kept myself sane by reorganizing cabinets/drawers, going on short walks, acting as a pinch runner for softball/cheering my team on, and running in the pool and doing leg-only exercises at Life Time Fitness. The owners at Kerfoot were also kind enough to hire me to work promotions for their zip line at the Classic Car Roll-ins in Henderson, MN which was a lot of fun. While this turned out to be one of the most boring summers of my life (I didn't even go to the cabin or a beach at all this summer...how un-summer-like is that?! lol), it gave me some time to reflect and learn a few things and opened the door for a new opportunity to coach college cross country and track out in Illinois.
One thing I learned was the importance of advocating for myself. Looking back on this experience, I now realize that I probably should have applied what I learned from running and injuries to work. If something starts to get sore when I'm training for track, I usually take a day off or cross train to rest it and ice it. I've learned that if you try to push through pains it normally comes back to bite you and you end up losing more days from an injury than the one day you would have lost from resting a soreness. I obviously did not follow my own knowledge with this injury at work and had to re-learn this lesson the hard way. I didn't say anything about the shoulder soreness initially, because it wasn't that bad, and I didn't want to disappoint the management by saying I needed a day off for "sore" shoulders when we were already short-staffed during a busy week. Now in hindsight, I probably should have advocated for myself sooner, because missing a day or two to let the sore shoulders recover would've been way better and less of an inconvenience than losing a staff member for the rest of the season (when only employees trained by the company that came in from North Carolina to train us can give tours.) I was once again was reminded of this theme as the summer went on and it turned to fall and my shoulders were making some progress, but really not getting that much better. I had been going to physical therapy and had been doing exercises they assigned me to do, because they thought I had a weakness in my shoulders causing the pain. When it turned to fall and I had used up my diagnosed PT sessions they told me to keep doing the exercises on my own. Well, needless to say, it did not get better and actually got worse after I stopped PT. I often felt like it got worse from doing the PT exercises. It was clear that I needed more then just ice and self exercises to get rid of this problem, so I did some research on alternative therapies for shoulder impingement. I found some research that had found active release therapy to help impingement. I had a lot of success with this treatment for a different previous injury, so I decided to advocate for myself and seek the help the treatment I thought I could benefit from since I felt my injury was largely related to a tightness issue. I found a sport chiropractor who does active release therapy, called to confirm it would be covered by workers comp, and have been going to him for the past couple of months and am happy to report that my shoulders have made much improvement since I started seeing him. It turns out that I was right about the problem being a tightness and it in fact was actually caused by overdeveloped lats from climbing that are super tight along with the joint capsule. The exercises the PT gave me were actually making the problem worse by strengthening muscles that were already too strong and problematic. This is the second injury I've had where I wasted a couple of months doing ineffective PT treatment only to have active release therapy help almost immediately...I'm starting to lose faith in physical therapists for this reason. =/ Another positive I took away from this experience is that I learned more about what kind of job settings are a good fit for me and which are not. While I had a lot of fun giving zip line tours, I learned that I do not really enjoy jobs that are extremely physically demanding and require me to stand all day. The zip line was 40 minutes away from my house, and I worked 10 hour days on my feet with little breaks. I would come home absolutely exhausted and would have little time nor energy to do the things I love such as running or climbing. I started to become rather unhappy, because I wasn't able to train the way I wanted to to run competitively, and it was hard to make sure I got off early enough to make it to softball games on time or had to request Mondays off to make it to a game. My shoulders often were too sore to climb like I wanted to as well. I am a very active person, so I am naturally drawn to really active jobs, because I can't imagine working a job where I have to sit all day at a desk. From this job and others though, I have discovered I need a mix of being active and sitting and engaging my brain at work. Since the purpose of taking a year to try all these different part time jobs was to figure out what I did and did not want to do for a career, I would say this job helped accomplish that goal. I like to believe that there is a reason for everything that happens, and when God shuts a door, he opens a window. After all, in Jeremiah 29:11 it says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." While I got a door shut on me with the shoulder injury (which by the way is still not fully recovered yet), I truly believe a window was opened as well. By August I had come to terms with the fact that I would not be returning as a zip line guide, so I started looking for other jobs I could do once my shoulders recovered (which I was told would likely be by beginning of September.) All my time off this summer gave me time to reflect on what I really wanted to do and what it came down to was that I really just want to coach. That is one job I have had that I have absolutely loved in multiple settings and one I seemed to have some success at as well. I have always thought about coaching college track/cc and have wanted to for a while, but didn't want to leave Minnesota, so I hadn't pursued it yet, because I did not even get interviews for the couple of college coaching jobs I applied for in Minnesota (mostly b/c I don't have a masters degree and lack experience.) Well, I started looking at coaching openings online and found an opening for a grad assistant position coaching cross country at Concordia University near Chicago, IL. This position would pay for grad school and offer cheap housing plus a stipend and would allow me to try out college coaching for two years. Concordia is a Lutheran school and Chicago isn't that hard to get to from Minnesota, so on a limb, I decided to apply. Well turns out I ended up getting a call a week or so later and a week after that was at Concordia visiting the school and was offered the position. I was kind of nervous about leaving my home state since everyone and everything I know is here, but decided to take a risk and go for it, so I took the job. I thought it would be a good experience to live away from home in another state for a while and try out college coaching to see if that's really what I want to do. To coach college you typically need to have a master's degree, so this is an opportunity to get one that will set me up for future coaching jobs, or with the MBA I am pursuing I can really do anything if I decide not to continue coaching after I'm done with this position. Well after a few months at Concordia, I can truly say this shoulder injury was a blessing in disguise, because I am loving coaching and had I not had the shoulder injury I would still be working part-time seasonal jobs at home with no real direction to a future career that I can live off of. While this injury is frustrating, because I still can't do all the sports I love, I have relied on my faith to get my through this, just as it guided me through struggles with track, and I keep remembering Jeremiah 29:11. I have been working hard to stretch my shoulders each day and be in-tune to how they feel as I have been slowly trying to get back into shape and return to working. While I would be lying if I said I loved everything about being away at Concordia in Illinois (I'm such a Minnesota girl), it has been a good learning experience and overall very positive. All the people there are really nice, and I love working with the athletes and staff on my team. I appreciate the opportunity to integrate faith into our practices and share my story, as our athletic department mission includes competing for Christ. The campus at Concordia is very diverse in a number of ways (other than religion) which I believe has added unique perspectives to my classes and experience there so far. All of us GA's that live in the dorms at Concordia are all from different parts of the US with a couple from other countries. It was been fun to experience and compare some of the cultural differences between different states and countries, particularly because most of my undergraduate teammates and classmates were all from MN or WI. Being away has also made me appreciate some of the things we have back home that I always thought was the norm everywhere. I did not realize before coming to Illinois, how lucky we are to have the large number of quality parks and trails everywhere in Minnesota to go along with our 12,000 lakes. I also have come to further appreciate the quality athletic programs I had the privilege to be a part of in high school and college. With this comes appreciation for the quality of talent in the MIAC and WIAC schools we often competed against locally. While I hate to admit it, the longer I am gone from college track, the more I realize how Coach Wilson was right about nearly everything. I guess with age comes wisdom ;-). I think sometimes we all need to take a step back in life in order to appreciate what we have and also see what else is out there. I believe this step back is necessary before we can continue to move forward in life. I think I've taken step forward this fall after my step back this summer, and I am excited to see what lies ahead as my journey continues! So I've been meaning to write this post for a while now since ski season ended back in April, but have been so busy that I am just getting to it now. Better late than never, right? Well winter just ended not too long ago (sad thought considering it ended only like two months ago and it's now July), and I am proud to say that I feel like I truly embraced winter this year making up for lost time running circles indoors the past five winters instead of enjoying the snow outside. I worked a number of part-time jobs over the winter and somehow all of them ended up being outside in the cold. Despite always being freezing cold (because I have no body fat), it really didn't seem to bother me, and I actually rather enjoyed it. Between teaching alpine ski lessons and coaching the seven-year-old boys' Junior Race team at Hyland, coaching Nordic skiing at Minnetonka Middle School East, promoting T-Mobile as part of their street team, and marketing Boundless at the University of Minnesota, I was outside nearly all day, every day this winter. When you're outside that much, your body seems to adapt, and you really don't even get the chills any more. When I wasn't working outside, I somehow still managed to find time to race with Ski Challenge and get in some free skiing and boarding which amounted to ninety days on skis (alpine & nordic combined) or my snowboard this winter...I'd say that makes up for lost time and lack of skiing the past five winters when I only got out a few times each season! A typical day for me would involve going right from coaching Nordic to teaching/coaching alpine or on Wednesdays from alpine ski racing right to coaching Nordic. I also got to learn how to ice climb, skate ski, and telemark ski this winter in addition to remastering my skills in the terrain park tackling some harder rails (compared to the really dinky ones...not the huge ones) on a snowboard after a four year hiatus. Thanks to the Flynns for some encouragement there! While some people may think this sounds like a drag working multiple part-time jobs (that don't require a college degree) out in the cold all winter when I have a newly earned degree fresh in hand, I can truly say I loved what I was doing all winter. I hardly felt like I worked a day. While I can't do this forever, (because I eventually need to start making a little more money than I was) I am blessed to have had the opportunity to embrace winter and enjoy the great outdoors while doing something I love all winter while gaining valuable experience in coaching and marketing and promotions. I know a lot of people think I'm crazy for loving Minnesota winters in the snow and cold, but my philosophy is you can either fight it or embrace it, so I figure why not embrace it since you can't control the weather. While it was a little frustrating to have a winter that lasted until May encroaching on the spring sports season (which people complained about daily), I continued to embrace it and took advantage of the extra snow days and got in a few more days on my cross country skis (photo below taken on April 16th) to give my shins a rest from the pounding of running. The team I coached at Southwest Christian High School kept a good attitude through a frustrating spring weather and had fun shoveling snow off the track (photo below) and pounding through hill workouts into mid-season. We even managed to get in some sledding in one of our hill workouts! (see photos below.) It paid off in the spring with many PR's. If you are one of those people who hates winter with the snow and cold, I would encourage you this next winter to get out and try one of the many fun snow sports winter has to offer. You are really missing out by sitting on the coach complaining all winter when there are so many great winter outdoor activities out there that I just don't have time to do all of them. One of the most rewarding stories from ski instructing this winter came from the mom of one of my ski racers. She told me when she lived in northern China she hated winter, because she didn't do any winter sports. When she came here and signed her son up for skiing she decided to take some lessons herself so she could ski with him. She had a good time and ended up out on the hill all the time with her son this past winter and says she enjoys winters now that she does a winter sport. I hope this inspires someone to get out there and embrace winter by trying one of the many fun sports it has to offer. In case you are looking for some ideas where to start enjoying winter, I thought I'd share short updates here on what I was up to all winter! Here it goes: This was my first winter working at Hyland teaching ski lessons and coaching, and I had a blast. The staff there was a really fun group of people, and I felt like a big family of instructors there. I can see why so many staff have been there so many years. It was very rewarding to see kids who could hardly stand at the beginning of a lesson progress to turning down the big hill having a blast after starting out terrified. Another highlight of the season came at the D Team Championships where one of our seven year old boys (happened to be the son of the previously mentioned mother from China) who had only placed once all season (7th) ended up winning the championship for his age group. The other coach said last year he could hardly stand on skis, let alone make it down the course! I also just discovered that our seven year old boys' team scored more points at the Sunday D Team championships than any other Hyland Sunday team. =) While the hills there are small, Hyland has its own unique charm and feels more like home than other ski areas. Since the hills are small and get old fast, I switched it up on occasion and gave telemarking a try and started to remaster the snowboard this year at the end of the season. I wished I had gotten out on my snowboard more earlier in the season, because I didn't start to feel comfortable on it again until the last couple weeks of the season when I was out there nearly every day on it playing around in the park. Telemarking was its own unique challenge. I was able to get down the hill and turn quite easily on them, but definitely have a long ways to go before I master tele turns. It's opposite from alpine skiing in the sense that you want to put more weight over your inside leg versus alpine where your outside leg is more dominant (although ideally you want equal leg pressure.) I have not been converted into a true tele-skier yet, but it was a fun challenge and a good workout, so I think I'll have to revisit it again next winter! After taking five years off from ski racing to run indoor track for the Gophers, I was excited to have the opportunity to return to the sport this winter. I thought I had lost some of my racing skills, but turns out they came back quite quickly! One of the guys I teach lessons with at Hyland invited me to join his Ski Challenge Team at Buck Hill on Wednesday afternoons, so I took him up on the invitation and has a blast despite being the youngest member on the team by about ten years with most of my teammates being my parents' age. There was a bit of a learning curve at first trying to transition to giant slalom racing from racing mostly slalom in high school, but I picked it up fairly quickly and managed to record a couple of top ten finishes for the women and usually finished in the top fifteen. I still have a lot to learn though as I routinely got schooled by women twice my age! lol. I think slalom is still my favorite, but I did enjoy the new challenge of learning G.S., and the speed of the event is fun. I finally bought G.S. skis this winter and learned they really do work better for G.S. than slalom skis (what a concept...lol.) I hope to be able to race again next winter and this time hopefully get my dad to join in on the fun! While I have been cross country skiing since age two, I have never actually raced before. That did not stop me, however, from applying for a job coaching a middle school Nordic team this winter at Minnetonka Middle School East. The school had so many kids sign up for the team that they had to hire another coach mid-season which was me! I wouldn't consider myself qualified to coach a competitive Nordic race team, but this turned out to be more of a developmental club with a few fun races, so it worked out just fine! It was great to see so many kids who normally wouldn't do a winter sport getting out there learning how to ski each day. I basically got hang out and ski with fun kids every day...not a bad gig (even if it was with our high school rival team, the Skippers. lol.) I even learned how to skate ski which I had been wanting to learn for a while. It was harder than it looked, but I picked it up pretty quickly and while I am not an expert at it by any means, it was a good workout and something I definitely want to try again next year (and hopefully get my own pair of skate skis!) While most people don't like middle school kids, they are actually one of my favorite age groups. They are so awkward and entertaining and old enough to talk to, but still young enough to still teach them and mold them a bit, and they still look up to you if they aren't too cool for you yet. There was never a dull moment with the middle schoolers at MME. Take for example, on a typical day walking through the halls after school I heard a kid walking down the hallway yelling, "MY NIPPLES ARE LACTATING!" While most places that would be weird, at a middle school it's the norm (yet still entertaining.) In all seriousness though, the kids and staff at MME were great and a lot of fun to work with! Not surprisingly to those who know me, my winter fun did not just stop with skiing this winter. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn how to ice climb this winter from my friend Jeff. While I can't say I liked it as much as rock climbing, it was fun to try and a new learning curve to overcome. Unlike rock climbing where you want to be close to the wall, in ice climbing you actually want your butt to stick out. You then use it to rock yourself up to the next spot. Another unusual thing about ice climbing I learned was that you can get the "screaming burpies." This is when your hands get so cold that you throw up! I had never heard of this phenomenon before, but luckily did not have to witness or experience it! Butts and barf aside, the cool thing about ice climbing is that the same spot can be different each year depending on how the ice forms, and there are tons of good ice climbing spots right in the middle of the Twin Cities, so you can go out for just a few hours without the long drive. The photo to the left here is me ice climbing at Franklin Ave bridge near the U. Well believe it or not, my winter did not only include winter sports. I also spent a lot of time outside working promotions. After Christmas, I spent a few weekends working for Ingster Marketing as part of the T-Mobile Street Team. While most people wouldn't consider walking around in the cold all day handing out free stuff to be a fun job, I actually quite enjoyed it. I basically got paid to drive around in a car all day chatting away with three other cool girls while giving people free stuff. I always thought everyone liked getting free stuff, but it was surprising how skeptical so many people were about taking free stuff with many refusing it. It's kind of sad that people have a hard time believing that you are actually giving them something for free. We quickly learned which demographics were all about the free stuff and which ones thought it was just extra extra junk they did not need: fur coats= no go, ghettos at the bus station=give me, give me! lol. We met some interesting people doing this including some gang members we took a photo with (didn't notice they were gang members until after we took the photo...oops), people in crazy WWE costumes, crazy drunken Vikings fans, and a dude trying to sell us "perfume" that he wanted us to smell which we refused (so he could drug us and rape us.) We also got hit on by lots of old men, particularly ones in the Vikings tailgating lots. Since we needed lots of photos, we made their day by asking them to take photos with us. Our days also included lots of Starbucks stops to keep us warm and sane. Shout out to our boss Todd for all the free coffee! Below are some photos from our street team. Well besides T-Mobile promotions, I also took a leadership role in promotions this past winter as the market manager for Boundless, a company that has a free online alternative to college text books. I got to recruit, interview, and hire my own team of student campus reps. I then assigned them schedules to go flyer outside targeted classes and also came up with new marketing ideas. This sounds like a desk job, but I actually spent a lot of time out on the field flyering outside which was actually my favorite part of the job. The photo on the left is one my reps, Than, hanging flyers outside in -15 below windchill with me...that's just how cool we think Boundless is! This was a pretty fun job and great learning experience despite being stressful at times with the number of classes we had to cover. If you are looking to save money on textbooks or for a great study tool, I would highly recommend checking out www.boundless.com! |
Megan Smith
Hi! I'm an athlete, coach, and outdoor enthusiast from Minnesota living in Pittsburgh, PA. I enjoy writing and photography, so I thought it would be fun to start a blog to share my all my amusing daily adventures and thoughts on life! Archives
July 2020
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