Running, Trips, and Family Time

I’m back to running 10-mile long runs and feeling great! All my runs except for one this month have been done at an easy pace. I intended to continue building a solid base and have fun running. I did not intend, however, to sign up for a race, hire a running coach, and start marathon training. But I have this goal that I can’t give up on!

Laura Norris is my new coach. I first heard about her on her Tread Lightly running podcast. What I liked about her was her science-based approach to running. She hasn’t guaranteed me anything like other coaches who couldn’t deliver – such as running injury-free, claiming to get me to the marathon, or promising a BQ (Boston qualifier). What she has given me so far is a solid running and strengthening plan that is designed to increase my running volume at this stage of training.

At first, I was a little disappointed in the fact that all of my runs in this first month were going to be easy, aka conversational pace. I have been running easy miles for a while now and thought I would need speed work to improve my pace. But the plan she developed for me is working out great. I have felt really good on these runs and just as importantly, I am recovering well. I do not have any recent races (last race was in 2017) that she can use to assess where my training needs to be. So, she actually looks at my data and uses my input to determine if she needs to make any changes to the plan. And she has made changes that have worked out great.

I am just thrilled with how things are going. And I know I had sworn off coaches, but that was because they were giving me a plan and were not even looking at my data to see how it was going, much less considering my comments on the runs. During our initial phone conversation, I knew Laura was someone who could help me. Sometimes, finding a good running coach can be trial and error.

And the race is:

Training has been going great, as I mentioned. This past week was a recovery week, and I could not do my long run of 8 miles due to smoke in the area. The AQI (Air Quality Index) was in the 300s. It has dropped to the mid-150s but is still unhealthy. The smoke is coming from fires North of us and Canada. I will continue my training as weather permits and look forward to my long run of 11 miles (fingers crossed) this weekend.

Traveling and Family Fun

I mentioned in a previous post that we were planning a road trip. And that road trip took us from Eagle River, Alaska, to Sagle, Idaho. We decided to drive because of our pups. With the high temps across the country, we didn’t know if the pups could fly safely. If the temperature at the destination is too hot, the airlines will not let pets fly which means we could get stuck at some airport. And Raina gets so stressed that I worried she wouldn’t do well in flight. Turns out Thor was the one who doesn’t travel well. He was very stressed during the drive down – panting and trembling, which got progressively worse each day, so we knew we would need to find a vet who could prescribe medications to take the edge off so he could calm down. We felt so bad for him.

But Miss Raina and Demi didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Demi is used to traveling but Raina gets carsick very easily. She did great on this trip.

We had left a day later than planned but still wanted to get to Idaho on a specific date, so we didn’t exactly take our time. Because we had to stop frequently for the pups, we only made a few additional stops for photos. We just took in the sights during the drive, and they were amazing. I couldn’t have captured the magnificence of it all anyway.

Once we got to Idaho, we had a few days to rest before Matt, Sonja, and kiddos arrived. Having them here was so much fun.

Because of the warm Idaho temperatures this past month, the lake water was very warm, so almost everybody enjoyed being in the water. This is a rare photo of Tylor taking a swim. He is a lot like me in that he doesn’t enjoy being in the water that much. But Maddy and Charlie loved swimming. Maddy also learned to dive under the water, and she got a paddle board for her birthday (we had a little early birthday celebration for her) that she had fun with.

I need to get a real camera to take better photos.

Matt’s mother, Linda, and her husband, Doug, came out for the weekend, and we had a blast with them. We hope they can come again!

All the kids tried their luck at fishing. Both Maddy and Tylor caught fish. Charlie is still getting her technique down, but they all did awesome!

And Sonja and I had our annual lunch at Pend d’Oreille Winery.

We had some pretty amazing sunsets. And one night, there was quite a thunderstorm that kept us entertained. Tylor took some cool videos. Most nights, some family members stayed up late with Maddy to look at the stars. They saw lots of meteors. I am not one to stay up late, so I missed out.

The night before everyone left, we had dinner at the cabin with Scott’s brother, Mark, his wife, Sarah, and their son, Alden. Scott and I will probably see more of them in the next couple of weeks because we will be staying a while longer.

Some random photos – Thanks to Tylor for chopping and stacking wood (he enjoys doing things like that) and to Matt and Sonja for cooking most of the yummy meals. We did many things and took many pictures, but I can’t post them all here.

I was sad when everyone left. We had such a good time having family here and spending that time together. Scott and I missed them so much, but we tried to make the best of it once they were gone. One evening, we decided to take the pups out on a boat ride to see how they would do, and they did awesome, surprisingly.

We had a great time with our family and look forward to many more times like these. Stay tuned for our return trip, in which we hope to take a little more time and enjoy a little of Canada. I will also try to get my runs done en route, which should be interesting. Until next time…

Happy Running