Park City Girls Are Buff

Hey there people of Earth (a.k.a who ever is reading this) My goal was to post regularly, but this blog does count as a grade for my english class. So I am going to be posting this today so I can focus on quarter finals. Yippee (note sarcasm) Okay now we can get to what this post is actually about . . . CROSS COUNTRY! Don’t worry I'm not posting this to rub it that I'm athletic, but in case you're wondering. HA I'm athletic! (sorry I just had to.) The real reason I'm writing this because I've found something I love and am proud of myself for all I've done. I thought that by sharing about it I could encourage some people to get out and find something that they love to do. Now that we all understand, let's begin :).

Aysia holding up a broken fork at our
after practice snack.

I'm going to start this by saying I only started running about five months ago. It was the end of eighth grade and the cross country team was talking to students about joining. My friends talked me into going to the meeting at our school. After the meeting I decided I would join over the summer. And then the journey began.

The first xc practice was at the team captain, Claire Breiholtz, house. You could either go two or four miles. Being smart I chose to go two. This was a hard run for me and I was one of the slowest girls. I was self conscious, but everyone on the team was super supportive! I went home that night motivated to work hard. I started summer training the first Monday of summer. Here is a quick idea of the basic training schedule for cross country. Mondays are long runs, Wednesday are hard speed workouts, Fridays varied, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays were easy days. My long runs started out as four miles, easy days were two miles and I was slow at intervals. At the end of the summer my long runs were six miles, easy days were four miles and I was faster at intervals. It was unbelievable how much I'd improved.

Selfie after the first race. (I am a
little ashamed. . .)

My first race was on the first day of school. I know terrifying, right. I was horrified and was so worried that I would be the slowest. The race day came; I was petrified. I remember the start of the race in great detail. All the different teams gathered at the starting line. Our team did our cheer for the first time. We but all of our hands in and scream "PARK CITY GIRLS ARE BUFF HUH!" I saw the man with the gun walk out on to the field. I thought I might pee myself. (I almost did.) The man put his arm up slowly. I knew he was going to pull it any second. My heart was pounding in my chest. After what felt like forever, but was really only a matter of seconds, the man fired the gun and we were off. 

 

I could never describe to you the exact feeling of what it is like to run in a race. You feeling like you are going to die but you want to run super fast. You are mentally and physically tired. That first race was horrible. It was hot, there was a huge hill, and it felt like it went on forever. It was all a blur. I just remember seeing the finish line and I trying as hard as I could to sprint the last 100m. I remember crossing the finish line, my legs instantly felt like jello and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I got my time, 35:51 minutes. I was so happy! I thought I would get over forty minutes. It was one of the hardest but greatest days of my life. 

Park City Cross Country Freshman girls after Region race.
 From left to right: Hailee, Savannah, Chloe, Alana, Kirsten, 
Aysia, Claire, Maddie, Me, and River.

Getting to a more recent update on my racing career. The season is now over for me. I went to region and that is as far as I will get this year. (State is only for the top seven runners.) The last race was intense. I felt huge pressure to get a PR. I will not go into extreme detail about the race, but I will tell you that I did get my final PR for the season. I ran a 5k in 26:33 minutes. (Final times for all of PCXC) I dropped a total of nine minutes and eighteen seconds. This is a major improvement. I am very proud of this. Cross country has made me happier and has given me so many new opportunities. I've made new friends and they mean the world to me. I am so happy we are all friends! Overall cross country has completely changed my life for the better. I just felt the need to share my story and I hope you enjoyed. Until next time.

- Morgan <3 :)

Healthy Life = Happy Life

Why hello there, person reading my blog! I am going to let you know that it is ten o’clock and I am very tired but still writing this post. I made a goal to myself that I would try to post this today. Since I have been very busy I am just starting to write this post. But I do declare it will be published on Sunday, October 11th, 2015! (I like to follow through with my goals…) Speaking of goals one of my biggest goals in life is to try and stay healthy. It may seem crazy to think that a teenage girl wants to be healthy. I am not saying that I am the healthiest person alive but I do try my very best. Don’t worry I do break and eat ice cream once in a while, but I do see the importance of being healthy. Now I am going to tell you a little bit of my story and why I think it's so important.

Crazy early runs <3.

I will start my story by saying part of my “New Years Revolution” this year was to try to be healthier. You are all probably thinking “Ha no one ever follows through with those revolutions" but I did try. It started out slow. At first I used a 7 minute workout app.  I don’t think I even made it a month using that. Then I started going to yoga with my mom. My family starting eating salad and more vegetables. One day my mom wanted me to go with her to a yoga class but I just wasn’t feeling it, so I went for a run instead. This started my running career. I was very slow and didn’t do a whole lot in the began, but then I started to run more frequently. I decided to join cross country team. I worked hard and ate healthier. I didn't feel gross anymore. Making these life changes made me happier and healthier.

Recently I had to take some days off of running because of an injury. I went back to feeling how I used to feel almost instantly. I couldn't wait to start working out again. I went back on a workout day and it was hard! I never thought a couple of days could make it that hard. I then recognized how much the end of the xc season was going to effect me. I was terrified. Then I realized that there was still a lot activities I could do to remain active during my off season. Here is a list:

1. Start going to Hot Yoga again

7 minute workout picture guide.
Image courtesy of: The Weight Zone Factor

2. Run on the treadmill or get a bunch of warm clothes on and go run in the snow

3. Ski as often as I can

4. Follow along to workout tapes or workouts I have found online (I found a great youtube account for these. It's called Blogilates. Can't wait to try it!)

5. Go to fitness classes at my local gym

These are just some of the possibilities. I have thought of these new ideas and honestly they excites me. I realized that I can stay happy and healthy even without running after school every day. It will take some getting used to but I am sure I will figure it out. One thing that I hope you can take away from this is that trying to be healthy isn’t that hard. It makes you feel better. So set a goal for yourself try one new active activity. Find something you like to do then go for it. Being healthy is a guaranteed way to become happier. And I know that if you try you will feel healthier and happier. Until next time!

-Morgan <3 :)

Afternoon Tea With Grandma

Hey there people of earth! (a.k.a who ever is reading this) It has not been too long since my last post but I would like to think a lot has happened. First of all, I added a new widget to my blog. It is just a list of 5 things; I plan on changing it once a month or when ever I get bored with the current one. This month’s is 5 Reasons To Be Happy! I just thought this would be something amusing for you to look at! 

Lake Louise Banff, Canada

Ok good, now that we are all clear let’s talk about something else that has happened recently. My grandma is in town! (YAY!!!) My grandma lives in Arizona so I only see her once or twice a year. I have been super lucky to be able to have seen her multiple times this year! I love her and try to make the most of my time with her. Hint: She is probably going to be reading this so . . . HI GRANDMA!!! Anyway the reason my grandmother is town is that my parents decided to go to Italy without me or my sister! Like what the heck man. So while they are away in the land of purses and amazing food my grandmother is watching my sister and I. Since my grandma is here we try to make the most of it by going to high tea. Even if this was only my second time I loved it. The first time I went to tea was in Canada this summer at Lake Louise with family! (picture for reference) The Lake and tea was gorgeous there and super fancy! (Warning, I love taking photos of food and fancy things so, there will be a lot of pictures.)

Pretty table setting

So at one pm on October 4, 2015, we went to the Grand America for High Tea! It was incredible! Anyway we arrived at the hotel, and we sat down at a cute little table with a couch and chairs. The table was set beautifully. The first thing the waiter did was put a little jasmine flower bulb in a glass with hot water. She then explained that it would rise and then bloom.  This was one of the coolest/prettiest things I have ever seen. The flower was incredibly cool to watch bloom.

Jasmine Flower fully bloomed

Then we order our teas. I ordered the Organic Spiced Berry tea. This was amazing and one of the best teas I have ever had. Once we order our teas we started with the first dish.  Strawberries and creme chantilly, which basically is a fancy way of saying thick whipped with strawberries. This was truly simple and I do have to say not tremendously fancy. This does not make it bad because come on who doesn’t love thick whipped cream with berries? We were off to a great start.

Strawberries and creme chantilly

Then we got our second course. (I’m not quite sure if I should call it a course or not. Oh well!) The second course was mini sandwiches and scones. I forgot to take a picture of this because I was just to excited to eat them. There were five different types of mini sandwiches. A cucumber with cream cheese and an olive slice on a piece of bread. A small piece of bread with egg salad garnished with a mini slice of tomato and chives. Then there was a bun with steak and other yummy stuff (sorry I forgot what was on it, all I know was that it was really good.) There was also a mini ham sandwich with swiss cheese. And finally, a mini bread loaf stuffed with lobster salad. They were all extremely good.

Yummy sweet treats

After we all ate the mini sandwiches we ate our scones. These are my absolute favorite. When you have scones at high tea they typically bring you three different spreads. A vanilla clotted cream, strawberry jam and lemon cream. All I can say about the scones is that I would perfectly fine if I showed up to tea and they only gave me scones. They are just that good. After that they brought out the desserts. Yes, the main food at tea from my past experience is that it's all sweets. Now I am not complaining, but it can be a lot. And when they brought out the dessert tray I almost died. I mean look at this! On the top you have three different homemade gum. Then on the middle plate there were citrus madeleines and strawberry jam filled cookies. The cookies were one of my favorites. Finally, on the bottom plate was French vanilla macaroons, a vanilla tart with raspberries, and a white chocolate mouse in a chocolate shell. It was all so amazing! I didn’t even get a chance to try them all! Everything was all to good, so I decided to save the mouse for later! 

From left to right: My grandma (Maria), Me, and My sister (Madison)

Selfie!

In the end, Afternoon Tea will always be one of my favorite things to do! If you live in Utah I would definitely recommend going to the Grand American. Click here for more info Afternoon Tea at the Grand American. I really hope that this can become a tradition that I have with my grandma and that I can do with my kids when I am older. It is a fun way to get dressed up and eat awesome food while feeling super fancy. I hope I can do this again and encourage everyone to try and go! Until next time!

-Morgan <3 :)