Weekly Mileage #67 and Fourth of July 5k

Tuesday I got my hair cut! Chopped off and thinned is a better description. My head feels so much lighter, and no more migraines! Yay! My curl is settling into being shorter and it’s bouncier than I expected. Last time it was this short it just did this weird uneven wavy thing. But in the years since then I’ve been encouraging the curls and they’ve gotten stronger and they’re doing better than anticipated. Still straighter on the left side than I’d like, but I think that’s because I sleep on that side, and even pulling my hair up into a topknot isn’t enough to counteract the flattening action going on. Curly hair problems :)

Sunshine had nature camp all week- it was the fort themed week, so even though it straddled the holiday, we went with it. It's nice to be done with all her camp stuff this early in the summer.  She won't be doing Irish music camp this year since she wants to do nature class in the fall and we can’t afford to do both. 

Wednesday I ran the 4^thof July 5k while Mr M took Sunshine to camp with the boys. We were out of town last year on the 4^th, and there was a baby sitter snafu the year before, but this is the race I ran in 2015 to kick off my 40 by 40. Ok, I didn’t run it, I walked it, since I was 38 weeks pregnant with Ocean. 

It’s a different race now, because it’s grown and they had to move it to a different location that could handle the larger numbers of people and cars. So it was a whole new race for me- still hilly, since it's in the same neighborhood as before, though parts of it are run on some trails through the woods, which was nice. It was a hot and sweaty day- I checked my phone at the beginning of the race and it said 96% humidity, with only a 10% chance of rain. So gross.

after just a week, the water was a lot lower and River was able to jump from rock to rock on the first crossing

Thursday after dropping Sunshine off at camp, the boys and I repeated our hike from the previous week, deteremined to reach the waterfall. Spoiler: we totally did. 

the steep, final portion of the trail after that cement marker

the falls!

I carried Ocean all the way up, and most of the way down. I’d like to let him walk more, but there’s two things holding me back right now. One, he’s really, really slow. He stops to pick up ALL the rocks and ALL the sticks. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, and I just don’t have time to let him stop every five seconds on a hike that's already three hours long without his added delays. Two, he’s an impulsive two year old (almost 3!), and he isn’t always as good at minding as he should be. In the case of this hike, there were parts were he needed to hold my hand so he didn’t hurt himself, and he didn’t want to do that. So back on my back he went, where he could be safe.

 

love Ocean's face here- he's ridiculously excited about that rock he found, just like he is with all rocks and sticks

River trying to negotiate for "this many" more minutes playing in the water at the base of the falls

Friday we tried to go on a hike before picking Sunshine up from camp at noon, but it started pouring rain right before we got to the parking lot. Since there was no sign that it would let up, we ran some errands, and then picked up Sunshine. When we got home, I started working after lunch and completely forgot to hop on my bike until 9:15pm, when I was starting to get ready for bed. It was too late to be exercising, so that was a wash.

Saturday I went for an early morning run with C, and the weather was perfect. It’s been so hot and muggy lately, but it was cool, a bit breezy, and not humid. It felt wonderful. We were both creaking a bit- she’d just gotten back from a week in Germany visiting friends, and I was coming off two days of hilling running and hiking. But we did it and were glad we did. It’ll be a few more weeks before our shedules align again, so it was good to squeeze this run in.

 

running on back roads give you some scenic picture opportunities

The rest of the day was spent doggedly working our way through our to-do list. We managed most of the items, including kayaking on the reservoir as a family. We’d wanted to do it the week before, but stump grinding and mulch moving took too long and we were too wiped out. This time we made it happen, and we had a good time. River even tried out Sunshine’s kayak, and we’ll need to get one for him soon.

Ocean is getting too brave- several times I had to tell him to sit on his bum and keep his hands out of the water

River helped daddy paddle their kayak

then he took a turn in Sunshine's kayak

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 5.00 miles on the bike
1.00 miles walked on the treadmill
Wednesday- 4.13 miles walked and run- 4th of July 5k + cool down
Thursday- 4.65 miles hiked with boys
Saturday- 3.10 miles walked and run outside with C
1.04 miles kayaked
    total- 18.92 miles

10 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

115.76 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
195.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
312.90 miles total