Another week down, I do feel like the weeks are flying by! I am still playing it safe with my long runs so I did my “long run” for the week on the treadmill of six miles. I was pleased that my knee did not hurt at all while running (win)! As the day wore on I could tell it was stressed so I am not completely out of the woods yet.

This is how the week went down:

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Monday:  3.3 mile steady run on the treadmill.

Tuesday: Rest day

Wednesday: Two easy miles before strength training.

Thursday: 1.75 miles pushing the double (so it counts for double right?)

Friday:  Fiveish miles with some strides in the middle.

Saturday: Two miles with the family.

Sunday: Six miles on the treadmill, with progression along the way and a fast finish.

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Totals: 20 miles and really excited to be adding on the miles. Can’t wait until this is closer to 50 miles a week. Slow and steady, hopefully we will be closer to that total by November.

Cory took the kids out for a run while I stuck to the treadmill. While out they ran across (not over!) a tarantula.

It’s crazy the wildlife we see in this neighborhood!

Don’t worry they didn’t touch it.

Emmy’s head is so much better today, it’s amazing to me how quickly kids can heal!

For the afternoon we watched Cannon’s soccer game and he scored his first goal.

So proud of our little guy. I don’t care if he is great, or what sport he ends up playing I just hope he learns to love moving his body and being active.

For dinner we had salmon and broccoli. Cory found this amazing recipe:

It’s so good, the kids love it too, we just leave the chili flakes off for them!

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How was your week?

Found any great recipes lately?

This morning we woke up to glorious cool weather. It was perfect for a family run together. In the spring I was really wishing that we could all run together when we were all stuck in quarantine but Cory had an injured knee. Finally now we are able to get out together.

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The kids love to go with us and run the last bit home with us.

Emmy is now old enough to run in kids races, Cannon was younger than her when he did his first race. I am a little sad that she won’t get to do that for awhile longer.

Today is the first day of Le Tour de France I really missed watching it in July, but I am glad it’s on now.

I just hope everyone involved stays healthy.

We spent some time with my parents, so nice to be hanging out with them again! and then made some dinner.

As we were getting ready for bed Emmy was twirling, and twirled herself right into her bookshelf. She got a nasty looking goose egg and black line on her forehead.

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We called her pedestrian (so glad they have doctors on call 24/7). They thought she would be fine as long as she didn’t start throwing up. Poor girl barley cried, she is so tough. I will probably be up all night watching her. Grateful we aren’t making an ER run!

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Anyone else watching the tour? I guess our crash was fitting since the day in France was FULL of crashes!

The day started with a 4:15 alarm, and even though I got up quickly I still didn’t start running until 5 am. I really need to tighten up my morning routine. Less time sitting around drinking coffee more time warming up and actually getting to it.

Five miles on the treadmill and still loving it, but I have been thinking about running outside more. The smoke is clearing some so the air is better and the weather has taken a big turn today. Everyday has been in the 90s and not getting below 70 at night. Now we are looking at much cooler temperatures and it feels just a bit like fall.

I noticed a Halloween virtual half marathon advertised on instagram and I think it could be really fun.

The proceeds go to support the Special Olympics and the trails in Boulder are still beautiful and runnable in October.

After my run it was time to get the kids going and ready to go to school.

It’s so nice to be back to the routine of walking the kiddos to school in the double.

Emmy helped me get a menu and list together before heading to Costco. We will pick up the groceries later. Anyone else always go to two or more stores a week? We consistently go to the grocery store and Costco, thank goodness for grocery pick-up. So much easier with the littles in tow.

My mom made this board for Cannon’s back to school. I am always so impressed with her talent.

In the evening we were treated to a rainstorm that cooled things off, gave us some much needed moisture. The storm also cleared out a lot of the smoke and treated us to a nice sunset.

Anyone else thinking of doing a virtual race this fall?

Today was Cannon’s first day back to school. He is in his second year of preschool. He has the same teacher and a couple of the same kids from last year. He marched into class like such a big boy knowing exactly what to do. I am so so proud of him, while I miss the little baby he was he is such a cool little boy now.

We took the required first day pictures with his board. I love this board from Chalk Designs by Me.

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Cory joined us for our walk to school. Things are a little different this year that the kids don’t get to play together on the playground before or after school. It’s a bummer for Emmy who LOVED playing with her friends there every day. The classes are also split in half so there is only six kiddos in Cannon’s class and they are all boys!

He looks so different than last year!

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Drop off was very weird and quiet since preschoolers are the only students going to school, all the other students are remote learning for now.

Emmy walked all the way home and then we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Most of our friends have older kids home distance learning, we can’t go to museums or libraries or gyms so I am going to have to get creative on how to keep Emmy entertained and socialized.

After picking up Cannon from school the kids got a treat for both rocking their first day.

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They both love these Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches (they split one).

For the rest of the day we played outside and even prepped dinner on the deck.

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I had a class to teach so after dinner I tucked myself away in the office while Cory got the kids ready for bed.

During my classes break I got to come up and say goodnight to Cannon. Cory was reading him the Giving Tree. I avoid reading that book because I can’t get through it without crying.

Any books make you cry?

Read any great books lately?

I got up with my alarm at 4:30 am excited to run 5 miles on the treadmill while watching the Netflix documentary The Least Expected Day about the Movistar cycling team.

As I was just about to head downstairs to the home gym, Emmy started crying. She had been sleeping pretty well lately so I am not sure what caused her to wake up. Morning run foiled, but I did get some extra time cuddling Emmy. She will only be this little and want to cuddle me at all for a short time.

I was paying attention to the morning and it really does take us too long in the morning. We are in trouble tomorrow when we all need to be ready to leave the house for school at 7:30 am. It’s going to be really weird to drop Cannon off at school when the preschool is really the only kids attending. 2020 is just nuts, I am ready for some good news and normality.

We met a couple friends at the park to get some playtime in on this last day of summer. It makes me a little sad to think of Cannon starting school tomorrow and I am not so secretly glad it’s only two days a week.

We were able to score a great deal on some Kelty Little Dipper sleeping bags. They are so cute!

Can’t wait to take them camping!

The afternoon was spent getting last minute things done for school, like Cannon’s immunization records and a few more things from his supply list. I have no idea what Emerald and I will do tomorrow after dropping Cannon off. We have been so busy getting him ready that we won’y know what to do with just the two of us!

I used to love to take Emmy to the gym, get my run in while she had time to play with other kids. Obviously that isn’t happening this year and even when this is “over” I don’t know how that will go. Being together 24/7 has really increased Emmy’s seperation anxiety. I don’t know how we are going to deal with that :/

A storm rolled in for the evening and Cannon decided he wanted to eat dinner in the trailer.

The kids think the camper is their playhouse.

Then it was off to get ready for bed and everything packed up for school.

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Are your kiddos excited for school this year?

What foils your running plans?

I took a rest day today as my legs were not feeling good last night and I want to be very careful.

As with many days recently it was hot and smoky.

I really hope those 70 degree happen, that would be so nice!

We stayed home to try to get things a little in order. My parents did come over with their dogs for a bit for a play date. Their puppy is pretty timid and it’s really hard to get her socialized with Covid.

During nap time Cannon and I ran out to get his hair cut. His last cut was in February, we decided to just let it grow.

I love it long and floppy but it makes him touch his face all the time and it’s hard for him to put his mask on with all that hair over his ears. So for safety sake we decided it needed a cut.

Then we ran to the store to pick out a first day of school outfit and drop some things off at the post office. It’s really nice being able to leave Emmy home napping while Cory works. We made it home before she woke up.

Cannon’s school was having a fundraiser at a local pizza shop so it was pizza and a movie for dinner. It was nice to cuddle and celebrate the end of summer.

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Is your state on fire? It’s so sad to see so much beautiful land on fire.

Week one is done and I am not *thrilled* with how it went but I am going to try to remember that this is the time to build a base slowly and more importantly that it is time to build habits that will help me get into marathon and ultra shape.

This popped up in my feed today and I am really hopeful that I will be able to participate!

This is how the week went down:

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Monday:  1.8 easy miles with the kids in the stroller, there may have been a park break as well.

Tuesday: Three treadmill miles with some strides at the end.

Wednesday: Two easy miles before strength training.

Thursday: 4.2 miles on the treadmill.

Friday:  A quick two miles because I accidentally overslept, still getting used to alarms in the 4 am hour.

Saturday: Rest day, lots of family things going on.

Sunday: Five miles as my “long run” for the week.

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Totals: 18ish miles for my first week base training, my knee is still feeling sore at times and weak so I am really trying to be patient.

As for the start of week 2 I started the day with a 3.2 mile progression run on the treadmill.

Then we hit the running with lots to get done.

Today’s smoothie was banana, blue berry and spinach. Cannon aproves!

Then we hit the playground early before it got really hot.

It hasn’t been getting very cool overnight, I think it might be all the smoke in the air trapping in the heat. I am really ready for some cooler weather.

After playing we went to Target to get Cannon’s school supplies. He needs much more this year because he has to have all his own supplies instead of sharing. I wasn’t able to find everything we needed but had to head home for Emmy’s nap.

On the way home there was a board with nails on the road. There was a ditch to the right and oncoming traffic to the left so all I could do was grit my teeth and run it over. We thought we had run-flat tires on the car so I figured it would be fine and we might need a repair but that was all. Turns out the ties were NOT run-flats and when we went out to look at them the back tire was completely flat. We don’t have a spare in the van because it’s all wheel drive so there isn’t a place to store it under the car (hence why it should have run-flat tires). So four hours and much more money than I like to think about we have four new run-flat tires on the car.

We did have time to run around and get the rest of Cannon’s school supplies. Sometimes bad things happen for good reasons. While it was a pain to deal with this tire issue I am so grateful that it happened while we were close to home. I can just imagine this happening in the middle of nowhere Wyoming where we would have to get towed because we don’t have a spare!

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How is your week shaping up?

It was a wonderful weekend! It started out with a big purchase for us to upgrade to a travel trailer.

We were so excited to find a little trailer that we could haul with our mini-van. She needs just a little work (very brown inside) and cleaning up but it has a bunk house and everything we need for our little family.

Emmy and Cannon love it, they have already each claimed a bunk and have started to move in.

Our hope is this little trailer will be the host to many family adventures in the future. We have a long list of must see locations like the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, the Florida Keys, Glacier National Park and many more.

I am also VERY excited to bring the trailer (she needs a name!) to destination races! having my own ned, a shower and somewhere for the kids to hang out will be amazing!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with family. Cory’s cousins came up and played. It was a great excuse to get out Cannon’s water slide.

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We made the Soba Noodle Salad from Run Fast Eat Slow.

It was a huge hit with everyone, if you haven’t tried it you really should.

We took it a little easy today cleaned a little and headed out to Cannon’s first soccer game.

He was supposed to play in the spring but that had to be cancelled for quarantine, so I am just so excited that he gets to play now.

Cheers to the coaches who volunteer to coach four year olds and wear masks in 96 degree heat!

Cannon loved playing and did such a good job. We were so so proud of him. It was also nice that he had a couple friends on his team.

He was wiped out after an hour. Emmy even had friends to play with so she loved coming along to play and cheer for Cannon.

This coming week is a big week as Cannon starts school on Thursday. We have a lot to get ready as well as trying to pack in as much summer fun as possible before school starts. Anyone feel like school should not start until September? I grew up in Oregon and we never started before Labor Day, I am still trying to get used to this schedule even though I moved 15 years ago!

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Are you getting ready to go back to school, already going?

We have been going back and forth so much about Cannon going back to school but because I was already an online teacher before this pandemic my own back to school is a given and fall quarter starts today.

It is odd to start “fall quarter” when it’s in the 90s and feels like mid summer but I am trying to get used to it.

I started the day with a 3.5 mile progression run on the treadmill. I miss running outside but I am enjoying the simplicity of just running inside and avoiding the smoke.

After my run we headed out to one of the few open splash pads.

We are trying to soak in as much summer as we can.

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I am going to cry when the splash pads and pools close for the season.

After playing the kids talked me into going to Starbucks (it’s not hard). They are obsessed with cake pops.

I thought this quote was funny.

This was Cory’s order, it was GOOD! One of the benefits for Cory working from home is that we grab him coffee when we go to Starbucks.

We spent the afternoon making a fun new purchase, more info on that soon! Then we raced home so I wouldn’t be late to teaching class.

I have been spending my evenings watching the Criterium du Dauphine. I haven’t followed this race in the past but with the Tour de France and Olympics postponed it been fun to follow ( I am about a week behind, if you are a cycling fan, don’t tell me who won!)

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Are you enjoying watching any sports right now?

TGIF friends!

The big news for us for the day was that I actually went outside to run. The air was a little smoky but not too bad. The kids and Cory came with me, when we all run together Cory pushes the stroller so it’s a win, win, win for me.

Cannon and Emerald love to get out and run with us, they have started racing each other.

Todays smoothie was banana and peanut butter, so good!

we spent the rest of the day playing with friends and spending family time at our neighborhood pool.

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How are you enjoying the last bit of summer?