My labor of love is finally done… the Epic Road Trip v3 recap! I think it took me as many hours to type up the blog posts as it did for us to take the vacation. LOL! But seriously, if you’d like to see a bunch of pictures and read about our trip, it’s live now! The highlights of the trip? Angels Landing hike in Zion, the Narrows in Zion, and the hike to Sky Pond in RMNP.
So, what “countdown” is on? The one where I send my daughter off to college. Boooooooooo! I mean, yay, so excited for her to start on this new journey, but I’m so stinking bummed about her not being around every day. It’s going to be a very emotional week for me. No joke, my Mom still gets choked up whenever I say goodbye before I go on a trip, or give her a hug goodbye. How could I not have inherited those genes?? But first, let’s discuss this past week. Running = 27 miles, biking = 76 miles (and one BIG achievement!).
Rollback to last Sunday – my son indulged me (or maybe just “shut me up”) and agreed to go kayaking with me. He enjoyed it, but prior to it he was a little whiny about going out in the “hot weather”. Little does he know he will be getting suckered into lots of these things when his sister leaves for college and it’s just me and him 😉
Mon – 5 miles, speedwork, treadmill. I haven’t entered the training plan into my calendar yet, but I figured if I do plan on running a half this fall (could be Columbus or Churchills), I should try to get some structure in my week. I’m not ready to commit to actual “hard effort” speedwork, but I’ll try to pick up the pace a bit. I did some random ¼ mile and ½ mile intervals. It was a good enough effort because I was sweating hard afterwards!
Tues – 4 miles easy, running. The temps were deceptive this morning. 68 degrees but with a lot of humidity. This quickly became a sports bra run!
Tuesday night is Ladies Ride Night! It was fun to get back with my group of ladies for this ride (and drinks and snacks afterwards is always the best). I rode almost 20 miles tonight, doing a few miles before we rode together.
Weds – Botanical Gardens walk, 1.5 miles. Doing some family stuff together, checking out a botanical park.
Speedy ride night!!! 25 miles, 19.7 mph average! When we arrived at the ride night my friend said she was going in the 19-20 mph group. I’ve been wanting to give the faster group a try, so I figured this was my chance. Everything went really well with this group until around mile 16 and I couldn’t quite keep pace. I fell back a little with my husband and was taunted by their tail lights! We thought we might be able to catch back up with them, so my husband did an amazing job of kicking a$$ and pulling me along. He was going 21.5 mph and really pushing it! We never did catch up to them, but ended the ride with 19.7 mph average. That’s my fastest ride ever!! I was hoping to hit 20 mph, and maybe next time I will. It was a fun ride night!
Thurs – 6 miles, speedwork. This was a tempo workout and I talked my daughter into joining me. And promised some ice coffee afterwards. I was so sweaty by the end of this workout I hopped in the pool for a cooldown swim. I haven’t done that in a long time! (oh, did I mention I will really miss my daughter when she moves out soon? 😢 )
Oh wait, my son had a big day too. First day of being a junior at high school! He was less than excited about going back I think. I do enjoy our morning drives to school though.
Fri – 1.5 mile run. Just a shortie run this morning before we went to Cedar Point. We took my daughter and a group of her friends. My husband and I rode rides together and had fun going on rides we haven’t been on in a long time. We even went on the giant ferris wheel for a sunset ride.
Sat – 9.1 miles, long run. Phew, another humid day! It actually wasn’t too bad because I was on a shaded route. My abs felt mostly ok, but I did have to cough on the run and that tugged at my muscles a bit uncomfortably.
In the afternoon we went to see the marching band play. We didn’t realize they were the last group in the parade and the parade took 90 mins! Luckily we were in the shade (but should have packed some food).
Sun – 31 miles biking. A beautiful Sunday morning ride along the river! I do love this route. Very few cars out on Sunday.
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Q: Wish me luck this week as the big send off occurs. Anyone else sending a kid off to college (maybe for the first time)?
Awh, that first send-off is tough! Our son is prepping for a cross-country move next weekend (#boo). We just got the daughter (and now husband) back in Iowa, and the son is vacating. It is such an exciting time for him (as it is for your daughter), so it’s hard to feel too bad about it. Gosh, I love all my evening bike rides (often times with a couple of friends), but a group ride would be SO fun!
I always get nervous about joining the group rides, but they always end up being so much fun. The power of drafting and working together is amazing! There’s a lot of energy and encouragement in the groups too. I’m glad I took the leap to join them!
I hope the send off to college goes well! I imagine that’s a very emotional time. Great job with your workouts this week!
I swear we were dropping her off at daycare just the other day. Ugh, it’s gone by too fast. But I’m so glad we were able to spend all of the time together on that vacation this summer. It was time well spent.
What a fun week! That picture of Cedar Point is so cool. I love that your daughter joined you for speed work and am jealous of jumping into the pool after…That sounds incredible 🙂
I was surprised that my cross country star couldn’t keep up with me and decided to walk during my speedwork (so I ran more than she did) 🙂 But I was also impressed that she ran 7 miles on her own earlier in the week, which was her farthest run. Hopefully she will keep up with running while in college too!
Great week!
We have the big send-off this week too – I’m both excited and sad. I hope everything goes smoothly!
College send off is a lot to handle emotionally!! I hope everything goes well for your family too.
My kids are grown. Good luck with the send off. The first one is the hardest.
I have a feeling my son will end up going out of town, or possibly out of state, so maybe that will be even harder? He tells me he is going wherever he gets a full ride. Sounds good to me! 🙂
Those college send offs are really tough. I cried so much when my daughter first went. It is good for them and for you. You will be ok! Way to have a kick ass workout week!
I will have to keep remembering that it’s good for all of us, and the next big step. And, we already have Taco Tuesday planned after we drop her off, so maybe that margarita will help soften the blow – at least for that night!
Okay Lisa, I’m not gonna lie… it’s heartbreaking. I did really well throughout the move in, but then when it came time to say goodbye I totally broke down. And my son cried too. That was on Thursday and I’m still sad- these first few days have been tough. But… we’ll get used to it! I’ll be sending you good vibes and wishes this week because I know what you’ll be going though.
On the bright side, i’m proud of our kids for being independent and taking this step! This is what we want for them, right? Good luck.
Oh no, your son cried too? I’m committed to wearing waterproof mascara all week, just in case. It’s going to be tough.
LOL on warning your son! Our nest has been empty for a while now — except for the rare holiday overnights — but the transition was gradual — there are a lot of school breaks ahead. 😉 Love your lady’s night bike rides!
The Ladies Ride night is so fun. A great relationship builder for the bike shop for sure. I do look forward to it!
All the best with the sendoff. It’s a huge milestone and I think that’s what makes me cry. They grow up so fast. Thing 1 headed off for Junior year last weekend and I’m 90% positive she won’t even be home for summers anymore. Sigh. There’s a whole lotta Face Time and Snap Chatting going on. Way to book it on that group ride!
I seriously have to wonder where did the summer go? I keep reading about kids going back to school and then realizing that September starts next week! Best of luck with the upcoming drop off for your daughter.
Oh gosh! I hope the send off goes well! A is in 8th grade this year and I realize we only have four years until it’s his turn. It’s so exciting, but so hard, too. l
Good luck with the send-off to college! This is reminding me I need to be there for my best friend (who had her children as twins so had to send them both off the same week!!) as it’s a difficult time for her. And well done on all the epic biking and workouts. I need to do some varied efforts and have already started doing squat sessions during the day as our practice run on the route for our half in October did NOT go well this last weekend …
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Sorry, no kids here. Bandit gets really sad when we drop him off at the pet sitter — like we’ll be doing today. He always knows when something is up. My mom still gets sad when I leave her — it never goes away. Hugs!
Cool on your fastest ride!
This humidity. Seriously, why didn’t it go away with Henri?
I hope the send off goes well! That is exciting about your son going into his junior year. I also hope he has a great year.
I hope all went well with your daughter’s move in and that your son is up for the challenge of filling the shoes of two kids. 🙂
Congrats on the speedy ride!
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