Hope everyone on the DL is recovering nicely! I am finding the recent hot spell a bit tough for the long runs- first 5 miles or so are fine but then I get tired more easily than normal, and breathe harder for any givem pace. I suppose I will adapt soon enough, but am planning to run early tomorrow to avoid it as much as possible. 13k today (8 miles), and a nice cool swim at SIL in the afternoon. Wish we had a pool! Simon.

Hi, guys! Had a great vacation in Ontario - perfect weather the entire time. No cell phone coverage at our resort - whoo hoo! DH and I ran three times - 5.1 miles, 5.6 miles, and 6.2 miles. VERY slowly. All the miles were on gravel roads or trails through the woods. It wasn't too hot in the mornings, and there was always a nice breeze. My ankle felt OK, although after the last run, I put my gel pack on and it was TOO cold, due to ice that had built up on it in our little mini-fridge. Later in the day, my ankle was bright red and hurt! It took a couple of days to feel better. I decided to take three days off after our longest run, so I'll tray again tomorrow. Niagara Falls was beautiful - more amazing than I expected. It was SO wonderful to walk around without kids and do whatever WE wanted to do! We got drenched on the boat, Maid of the Mist, that takes you right up to the falls. We walked through the new casino and mall, walked along the rapids, visited the butterfly conservatory, and ate in a revolving restaurant at the top of a 500-foot tower next to the river. A perfect birthday! I think it was one of the best vacations we've ever had. Now back to real life - clearing out kids' stuff before we move anything into the new addition. DS16 (he turned 16 on the day that I turned 46!) is exhausted from his week at XC camp in NC. He ran 51 miles for the week, all very hilly and very hot. He also got stung by bees or yellow jackets a couple of times on one run, but he said they were running so hard that the stings weren't any worse than the pain from running, lol. He got advice from the former Florida State running coach as well as a college kid who ran a 4:04 mile in HS (he said DON'T run all three seasons in college). DS13 and DD10 loved their camps in the Adirondacks, and are already begging to go back next year. DS13 grew some MORE and is now taller than DH, DS16, and me! He's made for the wilderness - he really needs to find an outdoor job when he grows up. OK, enough rambling for now. Larry, I'm glad you're not pushing too hard!

Simon, I forgot that you are in Ontario! Cool. Everyone was so friendly. As someone "from away," (not a New Englander), I have observed that in general, Canadians are a little more outgoing than Yankees (ducking for cover)! On our way back, we drove around the north side of Lake Ontario, and saw some of the thousand islands as we crossed into the US. We were wishing we'd spent a little more time there. Our son's camp was just outside Lowville, which isn't too far into New York from the border. It IS beautiful - not crowded at all.

I suppose that puts your race in October, waytogomom? My big day is October 19th., it's scary how fast race day is approaching! I imagine you are following a training program that will build up your mileage a bit before the race. Looks like you ran a pretty fast 10k last month on low mileage, but the half is quite a bit different! Rainy 15 miles on Sunday, very slow and laboured after a brisk run on Saturday. Teaches me to run when I'm tired, which must be a good thing, rest today. Simon.

Simon, yes--Oct. 4. And yes, I definitely need to get out more for more mileage. It's been tough this summer with so many activities going on, so I've only gotten out a couple of times during the week and then a long run on Saturdays, but I need to get out a couple more times per week for sure.

Way to go Mom, great job.

Saturday I ran my first 8 miler. I have decided on a different half--it's 3 weeks later than the one I was planning on, so now I have 11 weeks. I changed because my nephew is running a full, and we thought it would be cool if I ran the half at the same time. I told him that there is a chance we might come in around the same time!

Teresa, what a great vacation! DH and I dream of the day we can take off without our little ones. Simon, your race is on DD's fifth birthday--it'll make it easy to remember to think of you! Waytogomom, what a good idea to give yourself more time to train. One of the girls in my small group at church is thinking of training for the half I'm running but she's not signing up until she's further along in her training. If she doesn't feel ready she'll sign up for the other local half three weeks later. It's good to have options . . . Philip, your daughter is adorable! Yeah, getting up at 2:30 makes for a tired dad. You'll be in great shape for your race if you're still ten weeks out. A 5k with 2000 runners? Yikes! I'm hoping my half doesn't have too many more than that. Cheffy, yes, summer, sucks. I thought I went through this whole acclimatization thing in May and then I had to go through it again in July. 'Course this being Florida my husband reminds me the worst of it is yet to come. August and September tend to be the worst. Prime training time, too. I appreciate your advice, guys. I'm going to try not to overthink this. I did manage to, I think, pull something late last week. My lower calf is a little sore. I read around a little and I don't think it's the achilles b/c it doesn't hurt near the heel, so I hope it's muscular. I iced and massaged and ran 10 on Saturday (dumb). Tried to do my normal easy 8 on Monday and had to cut it short--meant to do 5 and miscalculated and ended up with 6. Was supposed to run today and ended up taking the day off instead. Still thinking through what to do tomorrow. Might take another rest day, might run real short, real easy. The advice seems to be to keep icing after the run and lay off the hill work, so no bridges for me for a couple weeks. I know the RA community is divided on whether continued running or rest is best, but I'm afraid to make this worse. The goal is to get to the start line healthy, especially since the new dream is to maybe train for a February marathon. Boy, if I could just remember to run my easy runs EASY , I think I'd be better off. Maybe I should figure out how to set that pace alarm on the old Forerunner.