Summer Shenanigans

We've just returned from a two and a half week trip through BC, and I have to say, as simple as it was, it was one of the best vacations I've ever had!
We got to spend time with tons of our most favourite people, eat lots of junk and soak up the sun while we played, and played, and played...

This was our site at Martha Creek in Revelstoke.
Nice view, huh?

We all swam in the beautiful, mosquito-free
lakes and could hardly keep
Audrey OUT of the water!

Aaaaaaaand we also watched Frozen.

A.  Lot.
Oh, and believe it or not, Frozen is currently playing for Ellie.  On Shaw on Demand.
And she's lip syncing.  With serious emotion.
Eyes closed.  Arms upraised with crescendo.  Mouth open wide and chin tipped up to the sky.
To the opening scene of the men harvesting ice.
Yeah.

We had great weather, and mostly well behaved children and it was really nice to spend time together as a family of five!

I ate fruit.
Hoards of fruit.
Still am, actually...

It was also great to be able to do some running in the hilly areas we were staying.
I managed to get in a few upper body workouts and had a 24km week and a 26km week, and when we got home I pumped out a 5.5k with an average pace of 6:12.
Boo.  Yah.

Taking time off my
day-to-day runs
makes my sooooo happy!

I was aiming for 6:15s and I knew I was hitting most, but my silly Garmin doesn't give me a current pace - only my pace after every kilometre.
I do believe a Garmin 210 may be in my future.

I've been running for a really long time and it infuriates me when people use the word 'jog'.
Most runners are irked by this.
I feel like it implies that we're out there on a leisurely, lolly-gagging (is that a word?  Now it is...) jaunt through our neighbourhoods instead of slogging it out, mile after mile and all the while making it look effortless and even fun, pulling a smile out of our really hard-working arses.
We are not jogging.

Except for many years, I was.
I never really pushed myself, or tried to carry a faster pace for any sort of distance.
I was happy just to get across a finish line, upright and not tomato-faced, never having time goals.
It wasn't until a few years ago and a few pounds less on my body, that I needed more.
I wanted to be faster.
Needed to be a middle-of-the-packer and not a penguin back-of-the-packer.
Now, there's a very complicated formula for becoming a quicker runner.

Run.  Faster.

If you want to be faster, you have to train faster.

Now, at this point in my life a quality workout will always, always win out on a quantity one, even though once a week I have to carve out several hours for a long, slow run.
Like, really slow.
As in, feel like you're going backwards slow.

But once a week I can really own a run.  One where I push, and hurt and have a big, unintentional smile on my face because I really love the feeling of a run where I'm flying.
Really flying.

Sometimes I just feel, good.  GooOOooOOood, good.  And even though I'm running up a hill, I'm hitting sub 6 minute km's.  THAT'S a great tempo run.
Quick runs are very much quality runs and as a bonus, take less of my precious time!

OK, currently, Ellie is singing, er, excuse me, lip syncing to Love is an Open Door and just hit me accidentally because her arms are swinging out so fervently.
And then, at the end, she toothy-grinned and clasped her hands together when Anna says YES to Hans.
What.  A.  Ham.

SIDE NOTE:  If you haven't seen Frozen, stop whatever you're doing immediately and go watch it.
It's actually really good and not at all nauseating to watch four times a day!

Ogopogo pic, although we never
swam in Lake Okanagan!