On Friday, March 13, I attended the Walking and Biking Summit in Grand Junction.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that if I weren’t a trail advocate I would have had any interest in attending. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you know I’m kind of a dirt junky. And from the looks of the agenda, the summit was to be all about pavement.

But you know what? I have to ride pavement to get to dirt. I have to ride pavement to get my kids to school.

Frequently, I need to think. Like, THINK. Ideas need to be generated, worked out, designed, before they can be implemented. Sometimes, this thinking is just an emotional need - how to get through the mess my life feels it has become. I have discovered that if I turn off my sub-conscious mind and go into the “Alpha State,” these answers come. Easily and accurately. Comfortably.

Last year, when I was 34, I started a new website: trails365.com. Through this website, I tracked more than 365 experiences I had on trails - a year or mores worth. It was a goal I set for myself at a time I was feeling particularly - let’s say - ambitious. At the time, I didn’t realize how truly far-fetched this concept was. It wasn’t until I started telling people about it, and attempting to actually do it, that it sank in: This would be a life-altering experience.

It got me thinking about my own fears. What are they, and why do I have them? Do they stem from historical events in my own life, from my own insecurities, or something beyond, inherent within this life, this person, that is "me?" 

I’m starting to really like the Riverfront Trail. I didn’t think this would ever be the case because of my experience with the Provo River trail in my hometown in Utah.  

But I've started making the Riverfront Trail mine. And I'm starting to love it. 

On my first day of student teaching way back in January 2004, the principal sat me and the two other student-teachers down for a chat. We thought it was just an orientation to the school, but it ended up being more of an indoctrination, which was fine. 

I was scared. Visibly.

Sure, I'd been in the classroom lots of times. I was a darn good teacher and I knew it. But it's one thing to get up and teach and a whole other thing to be a teacher.

I sucked more water, and felt the sun burning on my arms, leaving a line where my team racing jersey crested my arm. And for these moments I was content.

It was maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again anytime soon. It was a 24-hour mountain bike race held just outside of Tucson, Ariz., in mid-February.

May I suggest that there is more to good health than not being sick? That there is more to wellness than just being… well… WELL? Check out my six tips for a happy winter.

I’m a mother of three elementary-age children. I’ve been married to my husband for 13 years. I’ve never smoked. I’ve tasted alcohol but have never been “drunk.” I’m vegetarian but eat fish on occasion (but I’m very picky about the quality). I practice yoga. I race triathlons and took 1st overall at a couple of multi-sport races this year. I can’t tell you which discipline I like best because I have become passionate about them all. I build recreational trail maps. I sing and play the guitar (at the SAME TIME!), though I can claim no prowess. I have played the French Horn for more than 20 years, and I can’t even count the number of performing ensembles I’ve been in. I used to be fat. I am horribly addicted to sugar. And the chai at Roasted. I can quilt but not sew. I can research family history, but please don’t ask me to read it. I find art soothing and would love to get a tattoo. I have a serious crush on Adam Levine.