April Adventures!

April is a hard running month in Idaho. Everyone has started their training programs for summer races, but there is still so much snow in the mountains, that it's hard to find trails to get on. Although we were on the treadmill a lot, we did the best we could, and ended up having some great runs.

 Wolf Flats:

Wolf Flats is a great 'go to' long run spot in winter. There are times it's too icy, and times the snow is pretty deep, but for the most part, it's a great option. We were shocked on April 1st, that it was clear of snow! Woot! Woot! Mark, Ashlee Drake, and I had a nice 10 miler.

Ashton:

We love winter running in Joyce's neighborhood in Ashton. It's in the mountains, but they plow where the cabins are, so it's perfect. We got a great 12 miler, and a great breakfast, compliments of Phil, when we were done running.

So pretty!

Finishing up down by the river.

Twinning with cute Joyce! 😁

Phil is the best! He made us huckleberry walnut pancakes, with bacon. 😋 Perfect after a long run!

Wolf Flats:

We did another long run on Wolf Flats. It was a 15 miler, and I just wasn't feeling it mentally or physically. I ran good, but it wasn't fun, and that rarely happens with me. No pictures.

Ashton Hills:

I'm sick of hill workouts on the treadmill, so I drove to Ashton to do a hill workout with Joyce. She lives up a hill with a pretty good grade. It's two miles, and I'm able to run the whole thing, but it pushes me. We ran the 2 miles down as a warm up. On the first climb back up, I just focused on running the whole way. I did it pretty comfortably. We ran back down, and on the next climb, I did 30 second pushed intervals, and 30 seconds of walking. That was harder, but I felt like I did pretty good.

Said hi to our cute fox friend.

Running up the road.

Ririe Exploring:

We had a 6.5 mile mid-week run, so I waited for Mark to get home from work, and we went exploring some roads around our house. We live in such a great area. First we went down this beautiful dirt road along the river. Then we were back on the real roads, and every farm field we passed had tons of deer in it. We saw hundreds of them.

Along the dry bed.

Deer!

The Butte & Horse With No Name:

We did a 12.5 miler on the Butte and 'Horse With No Name,' with a fun group of IFTR runners. I haven't done the Butte in a long time, so it was fun to get back on it.

Fun peeps!

Climbing the volcano!

Climbing the service road. We needed this elevation training!

The old rock house on 'Horse with No Name.'

Big thunderheads showing up at the end of our run!

Bigalow's Beast:

A friend told us about this great climb in Kelly Canyon area. It's a mile climb to the top of the mountain, and it's 1000 ft of vertical gain. The trail was awesome, there was a fun cairn at the top, and the views in every direction were amazing. We climbed it twice for our hill day. We will do it again for sure! Fun, close option for us!

At the top for round one!

Such great views!

The sun was in the perfect spot for round two.

Excited to have a new climb!

Eagle Pass to Bone Store:

Our final long run of the month was from Eagle Pass to the Bone Store and back. It was 18 miles of pavement, which we don't do very often, but the trails around here where we can get that kind of mileage, are still covered in snow. I was pretty proud of how I did on this one. I ran the whole thing. I took two 10 second water breaks, but otherwise ran all of it. I even ran the beastly hills. I started feeling it with three miles to go, and got significantly slower and more sluggish, but I was overall thrilled with how it went.

Made it to the store!

Done!

Women's runs:

We had some great Women's Runs in April. We're finally starting to hit the trails again.

Plogging:

Earth Day is in April, so we usually do a plogging run sometime during the month. We cleaned up a section of canal behind Lowe's. Big success!

We filled the back of Sheila, plus had to leave some bigger items for another pick up time.

Great group of ladies!

We got so much trash out of the canal, and the surrounding banks!

Sunnyside Canal:

The Sunnyside Canal is always an in town favorite!

We made it to the end!

Deer Park:

It poured rain the whole day! I was committed to the run, rain or shine. We ended up with a gorgeous night! The storm made the sky look amazing, and the fresh after rain smell was fantastic. We got misted on right at the end. Great night!

The 6 of us were prepared to brave the storm!

We saw a few deer down by the water.

Awesome storm clouds.

😍😍😍

I started training a little bit different this year. I was beating up my body, and getting so many overuse injuries, so I needed to cut back and give my body time to recover. I went from running 6 days a week to only running 4 days. I was worried about it, but I can already tell a huge difference. I have felt really great on all of my runs. I can already see big fitness strides. I guess when you're pushing 50, you need to give yourself some grace and more time to recover. So far so good! Let's hope this upward trend can last through the summer!