Never Underestimate the Power

Sometimes in life there's a picture or a story that captures your heart and touches your soul. Maybe it was Blake's million smiles that reminded me of James' miles and miles of smiles. Maybe it was the fight he had. Whatever it was about Blake, he touched not only my soul but so many around the world. Soar high little buddy and when you meet my friend, Rob, take his hand and let him show you Heaven's tallest mountain.

This week was my last week of training before Bear Chase so I was really shooting for some quality miles. It was also a busy week with appointments so scheduling was a bit tricky. I've taken to most of my week day runs now being at Mt Falcon. Not the easiest of trails for typical week day runs thats for sure. I'm just trying to remind myself that it will make me a stronger runner in the long run. But may do those hill climbs hurt! I'm also used to charging every hill climb there, but it I'm running Falcon consistently I need to only charge one climb a week. This is easier said than done, but I'm getting there. By the third day I managed to run to the top 30 seconds slower (33:32) than the day I charged to the top (33:05) so I'd call that progress. I really focused on keeping my heart rate low and steady on that climb, which really helped me feel much better as I was climbing. By spring I'm pretty sure I can get this climb under 30:00 and be setting myself up for a strong summer.

I had what felt like a terrible run at Staunton, but my time for the first climb was 46 minutes, which judging from times in the marathon the week before would have put me pretty much with the top guys, so maybe I felt terrible because I was pushing harder than I thought. My legs just felt done though. So we'll see how I end up feeling come Bear Chase. I was really hoping for some better training.

On the James front I got a call from daycare Monday morning that he had thrush and I needed to pick him up. So we had a lovely outing to the pediatrician to get meds for that. Tuesday we had a followup with ENT to see if his ear infection had cleared up enough that his hearing test would be valid. He was pretty sure he saw James' tubes had fallen out. We pressure tested the tubes and whether they're in or out they aren't working and there was fluid behind his ear drums, so no hearing test for 6 weeks. Then we'll evaluate for another round of tubes. I'm not a doctor, but I can pretty much say in 6 weeks this kid is still going to need tubes. It just concerns me that not hearing well for over 6 weeks will affect his speech.

Friday we went to Leadville to have his cardiology appointment. His VSD and PFO are both still small and very unlikely to need surgery so that's awesome. They did see pulmonary hypertension, which wasn't really unexpected since that's why we were there. Its pretty mild so we'll just keep him on oxygen a bit longer and ween him off of it a bit slower, but he'll get there just like everything else he does. At least we're getting answers as to why he still needs oxygen at night.

It was an unbelievably gorgeous day in Leadville, not a cloud in the sky. So what's better than going for a mom and son hike on Hope? So James and I joined the people around the world celebrating Blake's life by hiking Hope Pass. Nick had told me about a trailhead a bit down from Twin Lakes where you didn't have to do the river crossing so we headed there. This trail was a bit steeper, but you didn't have to cross the meadows or the stream. We had a blast! We sat by the river where the trails merged and blew bubbles. James loved the bubbles! All in all a great mom and son day, something we'll have to do more often!

Week September 16 -22

Miles Running: 42.0
Hours Hiking and Running: 9.5