Things I've done that the old me would have never tried (either because of inability or lack of confidence)
- running
- coaching softball
- roller skating
- crossing river by balancing on a fallen log
- hiking

and adding a new one to the list - self dense class :)

The class is so much fun. Last week was the first of a four week class- we practices wrist locks. Basically how to get out of an attacker grabbing your wrist by locking and twisting their wrist/arm in a way that will either A) make them fall, or B) break their wrist. We also practiced what to do if someone's choking you.
Tonight was the second class- kicking and hitting. TOO much fun. We learned how to palm hit to the face, round house kick to the knee, and of course how to get an attacker to open up and expose... ummm... the most sensitive area to kick. We started by working with the punching bag then we got to practice on our instructor so we could get a feel for kicking a moving object- no worries, he's a 5th degree black belt in taiquando and was holding a pad :)
This class felt like we got a little bit of a workout while learning how to beat the crap of something
To the ladies- if you've never taken a class like this, you should. Personally I've never been attacked, but I know gals that have... and you never know. You don't need fighting skills or even any strength. It's not teaching you how to fight or got toe to toe with some dude- it's teaching you how to quickly disable an attacker to give you time to get away. Good thing to know.

Other then that not too much new. Training is going great, especially now that it seems I've got my shin splints situation solved. I was feelin some pain in the shins for awhile- but after some advice from my 1/2 marathon spark team I discovered it was overuse from running Sunday/Monday back to back. So now I'm running only one of those days and on Wednesday and Friday and have been pain free. WooHoo for pain free! My half is in less then five weeks and I'm starting to feel the excitement now that I'm in the final stages of training. My runs are currently at 4, 6, and 8 miles a week. I figure I'll throw in a few 9 and 10 miles in the next few weeks and a 11 or 12 mile two weeks before race day- then taper a little for the final two weeks and I'll be good to go race day!

Also- I officially signed up for Oregon Warrior Dash in September. My heat is Sunday September 11 at 11:00. Here's a link to the course map
www.warriordash.com/regi
ster2011_oregon.php
The 3+ mile run I'm not worried about- but I'll definitely need to work on my strength for some of those obstacles! So I'm thinking about getting p90x. I'm thinking it'll be a good program for all around strength and will be good for cardio since I'll be scaling back on the running after the half to 3-6 miles a run. I'm a little nervous about committing to something as tough as p90x, but how cool will it be if after I do it I'm all buffed like the chicks in the commercial :D