Cue the song from every kids favorite show about dinosaurs and trains…Get outside, get into nature! (Or, I love to run when I'm camping)

This past week was much better training-wise after my insight and change in goals the previous weekend. I refocused on running, which for me meant returning to the gym for hip/glute strength and core work. That was Monday. Tuesday after getting my bike back (got the front brakes fixed) I had my usual Tuesday ride. It was a little shorter than usual (only 25 km), but I discovered a new connecting route that will enable me to up my bike mileage easily. Then Weds was a planned rest day, which is good, because I had a migraine on Tuesday evening. Thursday I hit the gym for some bike time (it was raining) plus another core workout. I haven’t worked that hard on a spin bike in a while, and I really really didn’t want to finish my 40 mins. At around 35 mins I started thinking how I’d already done enough, and so I could just quit. But I reminded myself that you can’t just stop a race when you feel like it (well, you can, but not if you want to actually finish) and kept going. I so didn’t want to, and every second of that last 5 minutes was a physical and mental effort. But I felt so good mentally for having stuck it out. It was a good reminder that, no matter how good quitting might feel in the moment, finishing feels much better in the end. (Baring a real reason to stop, like injury of course.)

Friday was another planned rest day. The family took off early for a maybe camping trip. We didn’t have reservations, and so we were either going to drive for 2.5 hours to spend the day at a lake, or to spend the weekend camping. We left the city early enough that we got lucky and got a spot, and it was right next to another family with a 5 year old boy, so my little guy had a new best bud for the weekend. Saturday I went for a 70 min run on a dirt road. I’m starting to up my mileage slowly, building up for the half marathon in October. I figure I did about 11 km, but really, I don’t know. I ran out for 35 mins and then back to the campsite. It was a beautiful rutted hilly logging road that had two long hills on the way back. They were very challenging, but in a great way. The views of the lake and mountains were stunning, and the sound of several creek waterfalls invigorating at just the right spots in the road. Mentally and physically it was a fantastic way to spend a bit of the afternoon. Then it was off to the very cold Chilliwack Lake for a bit of a clean-up (I was really sweaty after the run, and thanks to the fire ban having been lifted for the weekend, was carrying quite a bit of ‘eau de campfire’ too). Then on Sunday I spent an hour playing support car for my husband while he did a ‘time trial’ around a little town called Yarrow. All in all, a good week for my training, and for my family.