Not much rest....

It is summer vacation for Alex which means it's sort of a summer vacation for me too. I don't HAVE to get up at my usual 5:15 in the morning and can plan my day without regard for school activities. Besides my lazy sleeping in I have managed to fill the day with so many activities I feel like I am on the run more than normal. I have been taking full advantage of sleeping in which is usually hard for me but I been able to milk it for all it's worth sometimes not getting up until 7:30! It has been nice but all of that laziness is over it's time to rise and shine.

Last week it was back to training. This was the first week of a so called schedule and it was light. But instead of taking it easy and getting rested for the next big block of training I booked a lot of weight training, 2 big hikes, my runs and some practice on my mountain bike. All of that left my body completely worked by Friday before any weekend running. On Monday I did a good run lasting no more than an hour but hit the gym with Alex in the afternoon. He has decided to join me at the gym which is awesome! He is just at the age where he can roam around unassisted. I keep a close eye on him and it's super cute to watch his tall skinny body working out. He acts so grown up, like he owns the place and is completely confident just doing his thing. He doesn't want me working out with him and seems to crave a bit more Independence. That's tough for a mom but I am trying. :) On Tuesday I took Alex and two of his friends on a hike up Dog Mountain. When we were getting it all organized both Susan and Karen (mom's of the other boys) decided to join in. We met the Beast and Tom at the trail head all of us began our 2,900 foot climb to the top. I was fully expecting the boys to do a bit of complaining and I thought they would want some breaks. This climb is pretty steep gaining all the elevation in 3.2 miles but they all did awesome. There was very little complaining and no need for rest as they hoofed it up. I did threaten to lead their boy scout hikes if I heard much whining. Alex surely did not want that so he was quiet. We reached the top and had lunch before we took the longer trail down to the car. It was really fun to see them tackle the climb and enjoy the outdoors.

On Wednesday I did it up good destroying my mid-section so much that I need to brace myself to sneeze, laugh or cough. After my tempo run where my paces stunk I headed straight to the gym for a hour long weight session on my upper body. Marlin (trainer) tried to break me and he almost did. I needed to take a moment during our non-stop, no rest session so I wouldn't throw up. Each circuit consisted of 6 different moves all without any rest. It started with hanging pull-ups where I held myself suspended then brought my knees to my chest in a fetal position. He then would yank on me trying to pull me down and I had to hold myself up there until failure then right back up for 5. After that we went right into other heavy weighted exercises then repeated it all without rest. This left me so exhausted that Alex had to unlock the car door, I knew I was in trouble. I had to go home and pull myself together for a leg workout that afternoon. Totally fried I mustered up enough umph to do the leg workout and actually did a pretty good job. That night I was toast! At about 3 a.m. I was woken up by the pain in my mid-section and upper back. Total rigamortis! Thank God I had Thursday off.

Friday Tom wanted to hike up Mt. Defiance which is the highest peak in the Gorge. It climbs nearly 5,000 feet in 6 miles. We arrived in the morning and I was in a lot of pain....good pain but still pain. My mid-section was actually swollen and hurt so bad I couldn't strap my backpack around it. The hike went well but I was definitely fatigued and hiking with an ultra runner is more like a death march. Tom of course had us doing our standard push-ups on any flat section and critiqued them like any good friend would. I stood to the side quiet hoping he would focus solely on Kris because I wasn't sure my mid-section would even suspend me in plank. We continued on and was soon caught by the Beast, Anna and Stan. I was a fun time catching up and laughing our heads off. At the top we encountered snow and lost the trail for a bit but we knew the summit was just ahead. I tried to make a snow angel but the snow was more like ice so my angel was weak.

Saturday Stacey and I did a girls run in the gorge. Our schedules both called for 2.5 hours of running with some threshold work on a couple of the climbs. Despite my mid-section hurting and cramping this was the first run since Bighorn where I felt back in action! I was pumped to be able to prance around the Gorge in what seemed like an effortless fashion. Things are coming back. The weather was another story. It had rained all night long leaving the bushes soaked and falling over the trail plus it misted the entire run. CRAZY! I was July 5th. I was soaked and my clothes were dripping from all the mist and dew.....yuk.

Sunday I ran for 1.5 hours of recovery then met Trisha for a mountain bike ride. We rode for about 1.5 hours. Trisha gave me a few pointers on how to maneuver on the bike. We climbed a bit over 1,400 feet on our bikes and descended a lot. She was a crazy person on the downhills but she says otherwise. I lagged behind and on the single track steep sections with lots of obstacles I was not confident. I was great fun and got my adrenaline flowing from pure fear! I wore my HR monitor just to see how high it would climb but was surprised to only hit high Z2 on the climbs. My legs felt like they were screaming and my heart seemed to be pumping like crazy but not fast. Both of us were able to climb the whole way on our bikes but it was hard. I was super fun and I see many more outings in the future. Steve came over to paint some at our house and we saw my bike he got all excited because apparently he mountain bikes. He told me about a ton of trails he used to ride on and wants to go as soon as he gets back from Hardrock. I had no idea he mountain biked and I am thrilled to find so many game partners. Between Kris, Trisha, Steve and who ever else we can con into joining along there will be a mountain bike race in our future! Tonight will be more short track racing and I think I might jump to the sport class because they get to ride for 30 minutes.....more of a workout.

So to summarize....summer vacation has been BUSY and fun so far. Alex is complaining about all the workouts but he's smiling when he gives me grief so I will assume he likes it. Next hike for the boys will be Hamilton Mountain. This week is a Build 1 week and the SOB 50K race in Ashland. Trisha and I are heading down to do the race. This will be her 2nd 50K and much easier than Chuckanut. I am looking forward to a nice long run with no need to race. :)