Suburban Bike Safety

One of the things I love the most about our small town is its bike-friendliness.  We can bike from "the suburbs" to downtown, and even to the Washington state line (and from there into Spokane - I've also noticed a bike lane at the airport!) all on paved biking trails that are separate from the road.

Biker Gang of 2

Our town seems like a bike-friendly community, and there are efforts to increase awareness of bikes on the roads (like this group) and to encourage bike usage.

I try to designate a few days each week as my "car-free" days - so long as its not too icy or snowy out.  When I'm biking, I am nearly always pulling my toddler in our bike trailer, and thankfully, he loves to ride along and see the world this way.  I love the extra exercise, time outside and time away from my car.  It is a win-win-win!

No selfies while biking.

Recently, we tried something new and biked to a different library than the one we usually frequent.  This required us to cross a 4 lane divided highway, that is basically the main thoroughfare running north out of town.  It has sidewalks and crosswalks and crossing signs.  We obeyed them all as we crossed, but the timing of the signs required us to hang out on the sidewalk in the median for about 5 minutes, waiting to cross the second half of the street, before we could get back on the north/south bike path.

Biking the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes - no cars to worry about!

The median was just barely wide enough to fit both my bike and trailer without either part hanging out into the busy traffic.  I kept watching all of the traffic.  But I have seen one accident at this same intersection where one of the vehicles spun out of control towards the sidewalk. 

Recalling this accident made me second-guess my decision to bike this way.  Had an accident occurred while we were waiting in the median, we would have been lame ducks, unable to move out of the way quickly enough.

So....I'm probably not going to bike to this library again.  As much as I enjoyed it, it is not worth the risk.  My husband and I were talking about it, and it would be so awesome if there was a bike overpass (or tunnel?) at this intersection.  There are literally hundreds of homes located on the west side of the highway, but the north/south bike path is on the east side of the road.  So is the Farmer's Market.  So, you really can't access the bike path without crossing the big highway.

Making roadways safer is good for drivers and bikers, and might encourage more folks to bike around town.  I hope there are continued efforts to improve bikeability in CDA!   

Monday at Tubbs

Happy Monday, Friends!

Our music class* was canceled this morning, so I took this big boy for a 4 mile stroller run down by the lake. 

In his mind, I'm sure this was the most exciting stroller run ever because we saw: (1) a working excavator, (2) a working dump truck, and (3) a police motorcycle pulling over a big truck (he even remarked that the truck looked "just like Daddy's" but thankfully it wasn't his!). 

Then we went to the playground where he played for 10 minutes before running over to Tubbs Hill because he wanted to find a trail and go hiking.  So, that's what we did.  I asked him if he would please help me climb up this rock, and you know what he said? "Of course!!"  He is so sweet.  It was a wonderful morning to be outside together.

I hope your week is off to a great start!

We do the Music Together program.  Are you familiar with it?  I think it's fantastic - M loves it!

Running & Biking - Heyburn State Park

Good morning!  How was your weekend?

Ours was great.  I got to run 8 miles on Saturday morning!  They felt fine, but I am still S.L.O.W.  But it was a beautiful morning to be out there.

Here is a little bit of what else we have been up to:

We recently drove down to Heyburn State Park to ride bikes on The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.  The trail is awesome, we only covered about ten miles (it is over 70 miles long!!), but it is a nice, gorgeous ride along the lake shore.

We crossed over this neat bridge towards the beginning of our ride.  M loved all of the "bumpy spots" and it was very picturesque!

We really had no idea about how heavily the area has been polluted by years and years of mining operations, however.  The trail itself is safe, but the brochure had lots of warnings about not playing/walking alongside the shoreline off of the trail, I think because of lead residue present in the sediment.  That's too bad, because it is lovely!

We had a great bike ride, and I'm excited to go back and ride further!  Check it out, y'all!

Tell me about your favorite biking spots!

Does your toddler like to ride in the bike trailer? Thankfully, M does!

Quick Takes: Scenes from Our Week

 --- 1 ---

 About as close as he wanted to get to the moose and "biiiiig beah!!!" (as he called it).

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My friend loaned me this.  With more travels coming up, we won't be starting this too soon, but I thought it better to be prepared!

--- 3 ---

My aunt brought this to the beach house, and I was thrilled to find it at Target!  Yum!

--- 4 ---

Ironman is this weekend!  I am so impressed by all of the athletes.  We checked out the village on Thursday and played at City Park.  Good luck to all of the competitors!

--- 5 ---

USA v. Germany was on the big screen at the Ironman Village!

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M looks a little dazed and confused after our 45 minute bike ride (cross training!).  This is what happens when he refuses to nap in his bed - he passed out in the bike trailer!

--- 7 ---

We had an epic spill of olive oil in our pantry (M likes to hide in there now?!) so I cleaned and 'reorganized' it.  Really, I just moved most of the stuff higher, which I guess I will keep doing as he keeps getting taller!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Family Hikes: Memorial Day at 4th of July Pass

We spent the morning of Memorial Day hiking up at 4th of July Pass.

It's a beautiful, lush green spot with a ton of trails for hiking.  It's a great spot - and only 20 minutes outside of town!  Our toddler was in HEAVEN.  He loved walking the trails, spotting snails, centipedes and moose droppings (and you should here him say "moose droppings" - hilarious!).  We probably covered about 2.5 miles in 2 hours because we were mostly walking at the speed of a 2 year old. =)  We don't have a hiking baby carrier (yet) so we let him walk or he would ride on Dad's shoulders. 

Talking about bugs.

I printed out the trail map from the Panhandle Nordic Club website and it was very clear and easy to follow.  The signs for the trails were well-marked.  The parking area is just off of the interstate exit and there are toilets at the parking area.  We didn't see anyone else out while we were hiking, but there were a couple other cars at the parking lot.

He loves to say: "Don't fall in da wadee!" [water]

It was a beautiful day and a great post-race recovery - we'll be back for sure!

With my favorite little hiker

CDA Half Marathon: I Survived! (Race Recap)

I ran/walked the CDA Half Marathon Sunday morning.

This was my second year running this race.  The course was entirely different this year: still some hills but very shady and beautiful.  I thought it was a great course.

The race benefits the Centennial Trail Foundation, so it makes sense to have the course feature some of the most beautiful stretches of the Centennial Trail.

I woke up at 5 for the 7:30 start.  Last weekend before my trail run, I felt like I didn't have enough to eat and had too much water before the race.  This time I got it right: I had 1/2 a bagel, banana and half a cup of coffee.  I also sipped some water occasionally up until about 15 minutes before the race started.  I drove downtown around 6 because I wasn't sure how tough it would be to park.  Needless to say, I got a spot 1 block away from the start, whoop whoop!  #winning  I walked down to try to exchange my shirt at late packet pick up in the resort, but they were only doing exchanges after the race.  I tried to use the bathroom in the resort across the hall from packet pick up and they had locked the doors!!  Boo on you, CDA Resort!  #notrunnerfriendly.

Marathoners started at 7 am and Halfers started at 7:30.  It was nice and cool, in the low 50s for the start.  There was an adorable kid playing his guitar and singing just around the corner from the start - he was rocking out! 

I planned to take walk breaks every 5 minutes so I wouldn't completely bonk.  I ran the first 2 miles and then started my 30 sec walk breaks.  I didn't end up doing this exactly every 5 minutes because I walked thru a few of the water stations and didn't walk any downhills.  I didn't take my gel until 1 hour in, which might have been a little too late because I started to feel pretty pooped around miles 7-8, and I think those may have been my slowest miles.

I chatted with a really nice woman around mile 10 - she was from Naples, FL!  She had the prettiest southern accent and we traded stories about the Sunshine State.  We parted ways at a water stop, but she totally zoomed by me shortly before the finish line.

My time was 15 minutes slower than last year.  Yikes!  That's a lot, but that is what I get for not getting the long runs and workouts in.  I have been running a couple of days a week, but just jogging along for 2-4 miles is not the path to improvement.  I am still glad that I did it and glad to have finished healthy.  Here's to a great start to summer. 

In Brief:
Expo: small, packet pick up is a breeze, shirts are good
Half Mary: About 900 runners/walkers, out & back course (marathoners do 2 laps, so you get to see them run by), some teeny hills, 1 moderate hill, shady with good crowd support, except for coming up out of Sanders beach - where was everyone??!!
Post-race: line for water (wish they had bottles, or some prepped!) was kind of long, bananas, bagels, oranges, cookies, beer garden (but we didn't stick around for it), cool medals (much better than last year)

Happy Halloween!

How was your Halloween?

Our little snow leopard, with me trying to run out of the photo!

The last few years, I just haven't been big on Halloween.  It was fun to dress up in college and law school, but before this year, we always lived in condos or a busy street that no one really trick-or-treated on.  Plus I don't like all the skull and crossbones/ gory types of decorations that seems to be all over the place now!

We grew up in a very rural area so we never had very many trick or treaters come to our house, but I always loved putting up the silly little cartoonish decorations - we didn't do the scary stuff.  W did always have cute costumes and there is this great old home video that my parents have with my sisters jumping up and down dressed as a unicorn and a bumblebee and all of us acting like crazies.  Makes me laugh just to think about it!

But this year, we actually had more than 2 groups come by our house!  Pretty funny that we had to move to a small town in Idaho to have the traditional trick or treating experience!

Posing with our hedgehog friend that my mom sent!  M likes to pet him.

We took M over to our neighbor's house so he could say "boo" and they could see him in his cute little costume.  On our walks around the neighborhood, I taught him that if he sees a ghost, he has to yell "boo" so he has been getting a lot of practice.  Then we went back home and he loved watching people come to the door and waving bye to them.  It was fun.  I was kind of surprised that there were some big kids who came by the house - my friend says she just flat out tells them that "this should be your last year trick or treating."  Hah!  Harsh, huh?  

It was also fun to watch Dan keep telling the kids, hey take more, take one of each.  We were really committed to getting all of the candy out of the house!  He said his parents used to keep track of how many trick or treaters they had.  One year when I was growing up, we had a big Halloween party and my uncle turned one room into a haunted house and really went all out.  So I guess I do like Halloween after all!

I loved this explanation about Halloween on this website:  http://catholicicing.com/explaining-halloween-to-catholic-kids-how-it-goes-with-all-saints-day-or-all-hallows-eve/

I'm going to bookmark this to use when M is older!

I would love to hear about other fun Halloween traditions, please share!  

Trail of Terror 5k Race Report

Saturday I did the Trail of Terror 5k with M in the stroller -- our first stroller race!

There was a 1/2 marathon option too.  Considering he was yelling "All done" when we still had a quarter mile left to go in the 5k, I think we made the right choice by not running the longer distance. =)

This was a fun race.  The weather was perfect - cool and crisp and the race is out on country roads that back up to the mountains so it can't be beat.  People dress up in costumes, so M wore his Leopard costume.  He was a fan favorite of course, and it kept him warm too!

Staying warm in the car before the race

We finished under 30 minutes (barely) which I was glad to see, but my mile #2 was pretty slow.  There was another lady pushing a jogging stroller too and she and I kept passing each other on the long uphill during the second mile.  I'm sure we were quite a sight, and she had a dog with her too!  I was impressed.  I was dragging on the uphill and even walked for a minute or two so I tried to let it loose on the downhill.  Happy with my 8:35 mile #3!

Pre-race snuggles!

 We got a fun key chain and a growler at the finish line, along with a bunch of Halloween candy.  You can tell I don't drink beer much because I didn't even know what a growler was.  1/2 marathon finishers also got a medal.

Post-race, trying to catch my breath!

A fun race with a nice and chill post race party.  M and I shared some pizza, watched the awards and listened to the music at the after party.  He also enjoyed running around after the race, hopefully he'll want to do his own 5k some day!  I  really liked this race - we'll be back next year!

Gorgeous North Idaho!

Prairie Home Farms

Last week I took M to Prairie Home Farms with some friends.  This was our first trip to a pumpkin patch and animal farm.

He had a lot of fun wandering among the corn stalks and the pumpkins.  He is kind of a wanderer/explorer, so he probably would have been happy to do this all day!

Reenacting a scene from "Ollie's Halloween" - one of our favorite fall books!

We also saw some goats, pigs, geese, chickens, horses, bunnies and a turkey.  The pigs were huge and he was a little bit afraid of them and VERY scared of the horses, poor thing!  He didn't want anything to do with the horses and burst into tears when they stuck their noses over the fence.  But he had a blast looking at the geese and was squawking back at them, it was pretty cute to see.  He also liked chasing the farm cat around, but his all time favorite activity was pulling the little red wagons.  He is a little people mover, for sure! 

The owner charges $2 admission, $3 for a bag of animal feed and .30/lb for pumpkins.  We didn't get any animal food because I wasn't sure he would want to feed the critters, this ended up being a good decision.  I also didn't buy any pumpkins because I am a cheapo and will only pay .09/lb at the Super 1 sale.  =)  It was a fun, beautiful morning - great to be outside!

Weekend Adventures/Fall in the Inland Northwest!

Weekends are the best!

The view near where Lake CdA feeds into the Spokane River

 We had a such a great relaxing weekend.  M and I went for a short and easy stroller run on Saturday morning.  It was gorgeous out, and we got side-tracked checking out the neighborhood garage sales, but it was really nice to get him out into the fresh air.

Nice paved trails in our area

Later we went over to Spokane Valley so we could go to Hobby Lobby.  I am looking for some things to finish decorating M's room, but they didn't have what I needed so that was kind of a bummer.  We did pick up Five Guys for dinner, which made up for my failed attempt at retail therapy. =)

On Sunday we went for an awesome family bike ride along the river.  The leaves are starting to change - it seems that we get more yellow/gold than red but it is just lovely.  We didn't make it all the way into downtown, but we stopped for lunch at the Fort Ground Grill.  The food was fine but nothing special, but it had a nice casual atmosphere that is appealing to us.  Plus, M and I enjoyed watching football on the TV (since we never get to do that at home, ha!).

M fell asleep in the trailer on the way home, poor little guy couldn't make it all the way home before naptime took over.  We went to the Sunday night service at our church.  We have never been to it before, but they play contemporary-style music which reminded me of my Agape (pre-Catholic) days back in college!  Poor M was falling apart by this time though because it was too close to bedtime and he had such a short nap, so we probably won't be attending this service all that often - the 10:30 usually works much better in this stage of life!

Prince Charming.  At Church he is getting very good at loudly proclaiming "AMEN!" whenever he feels like it!

Riding through the North Idaho College campus

How was your weekend?  Does my weekend sound incredibly boring?  Who cares, I loved it!

Coeur d'Alene Half Marathon Race Review

It's been almost a month since I ran the Coeur d'Alene Half Marathon, so this recap is way overdue!!
I haven't seen any other CDA recaps online, so maybe this will prove helpful to someone thinking about running the race next year.

This race was a lot of fun.  I think I'll try to run it every year (but maybe not race it!), because it's on a beautiful course, the perfect size and just plain fun.

It starts out in the Riverstone development (a kind of outdoor shopping area close to, but not in, downtown and just off of the interstate).  Packet pickup is super easy and there is not really an expo, but you can browse the stores in Riverstone and Fleet Feet set up a both too.  I liked the race shirt (tech long-sleeve, white) and I've already worn it a bunch.  Plus, it only says "Marathon" and not "Half Marathon" so you get to look like a full marathoner.  Ha!

The full marathon starts 30 minutes before the half, and then they kind of loop around so that the half start folds in to them so both groups are running together for approximately half of the half marathon distance.  (Does that make sense?  We ran together until the turn-around point for the half)  There were a lot more runners doing the half as opposed to the full.

The weather was gorgeous and cool at the start.  I rode my bike down to the starting line, and that was probably the coldest bike ride of my life, ha!  I found my training buddy at the start (we had done nearly all of our long runs together) but since she was aiming for 10 min miles and I was aiming for 9 min miles, we split up pretty quickly.

There are no pacers or waves, the race is small enough that its easy enough to just start at once.

The first mile was super crowded since we were all crammed in one lane on Northwest Boulevard, the main drag into downtown.  This police car was actually cruising down the lane next to us with an officer on the loudspeaker repeating "you are off the course!" to anyone who was running on the outside of the cones.

The route is gorgeous because it has a lot of shade, runs through some lovely neighborhoods and along the lakeshore and on our great paved trail.  The full marathoners continue out to Higgins Point and then retrace their steps back along the same route as the halfers.  There were plenty of water/gatorade stops and the volunteers were super positive and helpful.

The only downside was the finish was very disorganized and there were only 2 people pouring water into small cups for finishers.  There were tons of people waiting for water and this was just taking too long.  Individual bottles of water would have been much more efficient.  They have a live band at the finish so it was quite a festive atmosphere.  The full marathon was not a Boston Qualifier this year because of construction going on downtown, but the construction doesn't block the course, I think they just had to change it around some.  I would describe it as a rolling course, and hill training definitely helps.

Other than the lack of drinks at the finish, I would definitely recommend this race to start off your summer!

The final 400m, up the hill and then they turn right to the finish line.

My little guy enjoyed the spectacle!

Post race breakfast at Le Peep - a MUST!  It is delicious!

5 Things From This Week

1.  We had non-stop rain for two days this week.  We had to turn the heat back on!  M and I were going a little stir-crazy with all of the time in the house, but some play time at an indoor play area and a trip to walk around Kohl's sure helped get the wiggles (and screams!) out.

2.  Speaking of M, he now says "yum" and "yay" occasionally.  It is adorable.

3.  I am trying out the Whole 30 program.  So far (day 5) it feels like it takes all of the fun out of eating.  But I guess that is kind of the point!  I know I eat way too much artificial sweetener/processed foods, and a friend is one week ahead of me on the program, so I thought I'd see if this has any positive effects.  I'm also curious to see what (if any) effect this may have on my unexplained infertility and running training.

4.  Speaking of running training - my next planned race is the Scenic Half Marathon in Sandpoint.  I'm going to try to follow a program that I found on Jenny Hadfield's site.  It is a 14 week program so I'm already a few weeks behind, but I like that it includes a lot of strength training, cross training and speedwork.

5.  It's Ironman weekend!  And our 6th wedding anniversary!  I'm hoping to get to watch some of both the Ironman start and finish this year.  Last year we didn't get to watch any of it, but I am a running/fitness groupie and I am kind of fascinated by the level of commitment that it takes to train for, complete and complete in Ironmans, so I am really hoping to check it out.  I did a few sprint triathlons as a law student and I still have my tri-bike, I just don't get out there on it nearly enough!  Oh, and for our anniversary, we're just going out for dinner.  =) We typically don't make a big deal out of our anniversary.  I think we'll do something fun though for our 10th, so I'm glad I've got some time to plan!

Have a great weekend!

A Busy Start to Summer

We have had a fun and busy start to summer.  I wouldn't have it any other way and am so thankful for these adventures:

My husband was traveling recently for work, and here's a pic of the souvenir he brought me from London:

Royal Wedding Tea!

 We both got a good laugh out of how overly excited I was about this tea.  I guess he remembered that time I woke him up at 5 am in a hotel in Florida to watch the Royal Wedding!

Our little guy helped Dad pack

He got home just in time for the CDA Half Marathon.  I finished under 2 hours (barely - 1:58!), but 17 seconds behind my half marathon time in 2011, so I was still just a little bit disappointed.  But it really was a fun race, and I think I'll try to do it again next year!

Happy to be finished!

The weekend after the Race, M & I flew to New Jersey to visit some extended family and attend our college Reunions.  Traveling with a 14 month old on a full flight was exhausting, but thankfully my sister flew part of the way home with us, and then we had an empty seat in our row on our very last flight.

Getting some ice cream to cool off in the heat and humidity!

It was really hot and humid while we were there, but it was a great trip.  M got to see all of his cousins on my side of the family, and they are all boys and all so cute together.  His older cousins kept petting his head and saying "he is so soft!" and "he is so cute!"  Haha.

Cooling off after the P-Rade

My parents brought M up to Princeton on Saturday morning so he could meet my old college friends.  My sister (who is Class of '05) and I went up on Friday night to hit the Tents and visit with old friends.  Reunions with a baby is SO different than without!  I spent most of Saturday worrying that he was getting too hot, and searching for A/C.  I can't believe we used to live in the dorms with no A/C!  M had fun playing with the other '03 babies and cooling off in the courtyard by the Chapel, before we went to Mass.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to see a lot of folks, but there were still lots of people that I didn't get to see or talk to enough.

In front of Nassau Hall!

Now we are thankful to be back home, enjoying our beautiful weather and enjoying getting back in our routine.  I got a few runs in this week, but mostly we've just been taking it easy.  And I'm way behind in my reading challenge (still on my Michael Pollan book!) but I'll get there!  We have some great gifts for D for Father's Day, so I'm hoping he'll be excited when he sees them!

Have a great weekend!