Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge

A Texas winter day hike in Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Well marked trails, free entrance, friendly volunteer staff, canoes for rent.

The grounds are a bit unusual but once you get into the trails is majestic, the best hike I have had in Texas yet

Caddo lake is both in LA and TX and looks to have some fascinating areas, Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place to start!

Training for a century at home

Our gym pass expired and in our attempts to be thrifty we are trying to make it this month just working out at home. The bike is still out of commission but I am not defeated.

30 min of stretching continues
20 squats daily
3 sets of 10 second planks
2 miles of walking
100 crunches
20 knee ups
20 cross foot taps

Day one went awesome
Day two we had a dog follow us home
Day three, still success with the work out and the dog is still in our house. Bath given, food bought, collar on. I might be delving into Animal adoption blogging in the next few weeks. If i leave you hanging this adorable dog is at fault.

Tyler State Park

Continuing to cross train while I await the motivation to fix the brakes on the bike I headed to Tyler state park. Its a smallish state park with a nice selection of trails. I did the loop around the lake, about 3 miles and attempted to find loop C but ended up doing part of loop B. The A,B,C,D trails could use some better markings, however the park is small and you find yourself by the road frequently so no real worries of getting wicked lost. It was a fantastic Texas winter day, lows in the 40's and Highs in the mid 60's

Several of the trails are bike friendly, mountain bikes are a must on the trails. I have also seen many people riding road bike on the driving loop in the park. We are without a bike holder on our car, so I have not had the opportunity to take it out in the park yet.

 The park has an abundance of well maintained campground and cabins for rent. Next time we have friends come down for the weekend I think I will be suggesting that we stay in the cabins and spend the weekend, hiking, fishing, paddle boating and biking.

** on a side note getting photos off of my work blackberry and onto blogger was a huge pain. Blogger is too large of a forum for Blackberry browser to support so I had to load the photos to Facebook, download them on my laptop and than post them on this entry... uggg, I hate technology that can not cross communicate

just keep going

Back at the gym today, still feeling exhausted, but I did a nice
30 min warm up stretch.
9 10 sets leg presses starting at 50 working up to 100 lbs.
3 10 set thigh abductions.
3 10 set leg compression's.
4 10 sets Arnold press lbs.
5 min running machine 10 x 5


A hike is on my mind tomorrow.... i will keep you updated

Another Day, another cross training

after 3 days of feeling utter lack of motivation, mixed in with long days at work I finally convinced myself to get back to the gym. Everything feeling proper I was able to get a good mixed work out in. 20 min level 10 on the elliptical, as well as full sets on the leg and arm machines. Still along way from my goal but can feel the fitness level rising =)

Things to Do in East Texas

Part 1

Having been here for a few weeks I have come up with a few things to do that I wanted to share, I am sure more will come.

Jacks Natural Foods

Tyler State Park

Forth Worth Texas... about 2 hours drive, we went to the Kimbell Art Museum, The Stock Yards, Downtown, TCU and several restaurants... not the most amazing city ever but a nice weekend get away.

Cargill Long Trail

Downtown Kilgore - its just cute

Bike Under Repair

So the breaks on the bike are not working properly and it needs to get into the shop. I have not had an opportunity to take it yet and was out of town the past two days, however the trend of wanting to keep my training going regardless of obstacles continues.

Today work out was:

30 min of stretching
2 min of jumping
100 crunches
10 windmills
30 toe ups
10 knee to elbows
20 min house cleaning
30 min level 10 on a stationary bike
3 sets of 10 hip abduction
4 sets of 10 leg abduction
1 mile walking