Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Praying for Good Weather

It's race week! It's sunny and beautiful outside. I've been wanting sun for months! What's wrong wrong with me? I'm hoping for a shady overcast day with temperatures in the low 50's on Saturday morning. A light drizzle would be fine too.

I think I'm still scarred from my race last year where I had an epic over-heated melt down after 7 miles. I was SO ready to run last year. It had been down right cold almost all Spring. Then, two days TWO DAYS before the race, it turned 70. No time to acclimate AT ALL!

So by now I've gone over last year's race like a 100 times in my head but you'll have to bear with me one more time...

Miles 1-4, feeling great, in fact effortless...

Mile 1 - 8:36
Mile 2 - 8:41
Mile 3 - 8:44
Mile 4 - 8:40

Mile 5 - 9:08, I got a little stitch in my side which NEVER happens
Mile 6 - 9:12, I realize I'm not sweating anymore
Mile 7 - 9:24, I have black spots all over my visual field and I really can't see anymore

I saw my Mile 7 time and also saw two people collapse in front of me so I decided to throw in the towel and started walking until I could see again. I was totally disgusted. I wanted to run 1:55 last year and ended up running 2:05:52.

All I want to do this year is get under 2:00 again. Temperatures went up into the 70's today. I waited until noon (so it was good and hot) and did 5 easy miles. It's suppose to be in the 80's tomorrow but I am working during the day the next two days. I am going to try and get outside as much as possible in the mornings and get used to getting hot. It's suppose to drop back down to 50 degrees on Saturday morning but that sounds too good to be true.

I'm going to be a fidgety fussbucket all week ruminating about my race so bear with me!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tiramisu

Today was the annual Miller Family Reunion. My father-in-law is one of twelve children so there are alot of Millers at the reunion. I think I am related to half of Brown County, IN by marriage. They have a pitch-in every year in April.

I found this while grocery shopping on Friday...


It's mascarpone cheese with coffee and it was on clearance. Woohoo! Looks like I'm making Tiramisu for my pitch-in dish.

My Tiramisu recipe calls for mascarpone cheese with coffee added in. This already had the coffee in it. It wasn't quite strong enough though to suit me so I added some espresso powder to the recipe. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon espresso powder (my addition)
16 oz mascarpone cheese with coffee*
7 oz package of ladyfingers
1 cup strong brewed coffee, room temperature
8 tablespoons Kalhua (optional)
shaved chocolate for topping

*original recipe calls for adding 2 tablespoons of brewed coffee and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract to plain mascarpone cheese.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well blended.


Whisk in milk and espresso powder; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover and chill for at least one hour.

one of my favorite ingredients!

cooled custard


Beat mascarpone cheese with chilled egg yolk mixture until well blended.

mascarpone cheese and custard

now nice and fluffy together


In another bowl, beat heavy cream until stiff.

I put my bowl of cream in the sink to beat to keep from making a spattery mess.

Fold heavy cream into mascarpone cheese mixture.


 All the fluffy stuff getting folded together

Dip half the ladyfingers in coffee and arrange in the bottom of an 8 x 8 dish. You can mix Kalhua into your coffee first if you want.


 ladyfingers


Spoon half of mascarpone cheese mixture over ladyfingers. Dip remaining ladyfingers in coffee and arrange over mascarpone cheese mixture, then top with remaining mascarpone cheese mixture. Top with shaved chocolate. This dessert, surprisingly, is not very sweet so be generous with your chocolate!

Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight so your flavors can meld.

second layer of ladyfingers

finished!

Now, if you are impatient like me and can't wait for the flavors to meld... or you just have some leftover ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese... feel free to make yourself a little something...


Before going to the Reunion today, I did my last tempo run before my half-marathon next Saturday. I ran a 5K in Columbus, IN. I almost blew it off and didn't go because I was a little sore from Thursday and a little worried about running hard again today. I knew though that if I didn't do the 5K, I would not get any running in today so I went... and I'm glad I did.

I felt surprisingly good once I started running. Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 8:00
Mile 2 - 8:08
Mile 3 - 8:02
last 0.1 (or 0.2) - 1:11

5K time - 25:21

Times are per my Garmin. The "official" times are not up yet. My Garmin says I ran 3.2 miles. I'm just happy I ran very consistently. I'm also thinking about actually training for a 5K after my half-marathon because I'm starting to get curious about how fast I can actually run one all out. I did step in a pothole at the very beginning of the race and twisted my right ankle. It startled me more than anything and I'm glad I didn't fall. My ankle is a little sore but not swollen so it should be OK. All I have are two more easy runs next week and then it's race time!

Mileage for week 10 - 24 miles.





Friday, April 26, 2013

FDIC Courage and Valor 5K

As a kid, my first home was a rental in downtown Indianapolis. It was a very old two-bedroom house, complete with musty attic on the IUPUI campus. My memories of it include one year, right before Halloween, the plaster ceiling caved in on my head while I slept... quite traumatic for a 5 year-old who had to miss daycare the day of her Halloween party because I spent the night in the Riley Hospital ED getting my head stitched up. We also had lily-of-the valleys that grew under and around our front porch and I thought they were the most fragrant and beautiful flowers in the world.

Downtown was also a run down place full of old dying department stores. We went to LS Ayres at Christmas and rode the Christmas train on the top floor before seeing Santa and eating in the Tea Room. I went shopping with my mom on Hoosier Bargain Day which was always on November 11th and we were out of school that day. We moved to the near Northside in 1975, then outward to surburbia and I really never spent much time downtown after that. Sure, I'd run to the mall once or twice a year or go to an event downtown, but I've never spent any time just looking around.

So, last night, I ran a 5K as a tempo run. It started at White River State Park. I had to look on a map to find the "park" and realized it was someplace I drove by quite often but never realized it was there. The run ran around the downtown canal.

I saw downtown Indianapolis like I had never seen it before.

It was absolutely beautiful! All the museums that backed up to the canal - the Indiana State Museum, the Eiteljorg, the NCAA Hall of Champions, etc... and all the neat little condos. There were waterfalls and fountains, murals on the walls, flowers. The air smelled like lilacs. There was not a single scrap of trash anywhere. The grass in the park was lush and green. The sun was shining. The event was for a bunch of firefighters that were in town. There were agencies from all over the country. A lot of them ran in their gear. The color guard displayed the colors, then a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" for all the fallen firefighters. The whole scene with the music just gave me chills!

There were about a 1000 people there for the run. The official results page just listed the timed runners but there were a ton of people just running without a timing chip. The only downside was that all these people had to funnel down and run on one side of the canal. I kinda freaked out at the start because I was afraid I was going to get knocked into the canal... there were a couple tight turns in the beginning and I couldn't see the footing in front of me until the last minute because of all the people. Anyway (as usual!) I ran my first mile too fast before I settled down. So...

Mile 1 - 8:11
Mile 2 - 8:28
Mile 3 - 8:23
last 0.1 - 0:56

5K time - 25:58

I did a 2 mile warm down and then walked around the park some more. You can see the downtown skyline was you run back towards downtown on the canal path. There's a "slow food" garden at the park. There's a path that goes along the White River. I never knew any of these things were there until last night. I definately want to go back there to do some runs, plus, I wouldn't have to "play in traffic" like I usually do. I just have to figure out a good place to park my car since I ended up paying $10 for parking last night.

I would definately do this run again next year.

Have you run downtown? Know of a good place to park?

Someone tell me what "FDIC" stands for.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

So Far So Good!

Yesterday was suppose to be my "rest" day as far as running. I went to see my chiropractor and had a myofascial release done on my left hamstring. He used some plastic tool that looked like a paint scraper with scalloped edges and mashed on my leg with it.


So this is what my leg looks like today. My husband says it looks like I've been beat. My leg has never felt better! It feels bruised since, well, it is, but the tightness is gone.

I was not going to run yesterday. Then, I found out that my local running store Blue Mile was having a Boston Marathon tribute run. It was a 26.2 minute run. They also sold T-shirts with 100% of the proceeds going to the One Fund to help all the people that were affected by the Boston bombings. I decided to participate and figured it would be a slow slog around the mall parking lot. HA! Didn't turn out that way - at least in my case. Also proves I have NO sense of pace.


Here we all are before our run. I'm kneeling in the front with a light blue T-shirt. I just figured I'd follow the pacers from the store and we'd do a slow slog around the parking lot. We got to the turn around point (we were running single file down a sidewalk so I had no idea who was behind us until then) and I realized there were only 7 of us running with the pacers. Umm... I think we're running faster than a 10 minute per mile pace... We got back to the store and had another minute to go so we ran around the fountain. I finally asked the pacer how far we ran. We ran a little over 3 miles. So much for a slow slog on my day off.

I was shocked that NOTHING hurt this morning. Today was interval day. It poured rain on me but I did them outside anyway. I did six 800 meter repeats with 2 minutes rest in between. My goal was to run them at 4:00 each. This is how it went:

#1 - 3:59
#2 - 3:54
#3 - 3:50
#4 - 3:51
#5 - 3:53
#6 - 3:49

The wind and rain picked up during #3 so I thought I was running too slow and came in too fast. I felt dead tired on #4 and #5 so I again thought I was running too slow. By #6 I was just ready to be done! I guess this whole increasing your lactate threshold theory by running intervals works. I still hate intervals. I had a one mile warm up and a one mile warm down so 5 miles for today.

I wonder if I'll be sore tonorrow. Tomorrow is definately a rest (from running) day.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

Comments from the kids...

"I'm half cat you know" - from my 10 year old daughter. Context - resting in the sunny front seat of my car today.

"I feel like I'm in some reality show" - from my 13 year old daughter. Context - running from her dance competition Saturday back to the high school so she could try out for cheerleadering; she had to go back to the competition after that.

All I can say is that I made it through the weekend. I've had some normal moments and then some surreal moments. I'm with my 13 year old. Saturday felt like a reality show. Two dance competitions at two different sites about an hour away from each other. Kid #1 (my older child) originally was in 4 group numbers and a solo but we pulled her solo so she could try out for cheer. We were up at 7 am. I took her to the competition, left after the first 2 numbers, drove 40 minutes back to her school for try outs and handed her off to a friend who drove her back to the competion so she could finish her last 2 numbers. Meanwhile, kid #2 was doing two solos and a group number at competition #2. She spent the night with a friend from her dance studio and went to the competition in the morning with them. I left kid #1 at cheer tryouts and raced to competition #2 in time for all her numbers. Her competition didn't end until 9pm. We then went out to eat after that. We finally got home at midnight and just dropped over. Kid #1 was already home. She made the cheer team. And where was my husband? He's at a pistol shooting competition out of town.

Needless to say, we all slept in today. I cannot remember the last time we all slept in like this morning but it was wonderful! Then, I went for my last "long run" before my half-marathon. I was suppose to run a 9:20 pace. It was a beautiful afternoon. Absolutely perfect for a long run. I spent the whole run fixated on my watch. Here's how it went...

Mile 1 - 9:16
Mile 2 - 9:12
Mile 3 - 9:17
Mile 4 - 9:12
Mile 5 - 9:17
Mile 6 - 9:16
Mile 7 - 9:16
Mile 8 - 8:38

I'm still nervous about my ability to keep a 9 minute pace so I wanted to make sure I had some reserve after running 7 miles and ran my last mile faster to see what I had left.

It is SO much easier to run outside. I was suppose to do intervals on Friday. It was actually just two 2-mile repeats. It was 40 degrees with 22 mph winds and raining so I did them on a treadmill. I probably would have run them faster outdoors but I had to set a pace on the dreadmill and since I'm still deathly afraid of getting pitched off, my paces were conservative. The workout was: 1 mile warmup, 2 miles in 18:00, 2 minute rest, 2 miles in 17:53, 1 mile warm down.

Mileage for week 9 was 23 miles. One more week of "real" running before my "taper" week. I'm not sure you can really call anything a "taper" at this point since I'm barely running over 20 miles in any given week. I'm planning intervals on Tuesday and I'm registered for a 5K on Thursday that I'll sandwich between some warm up and warm down running and that will be my tempo run.

So how was your weekend?

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Where Did My Week Go?


I can't believe it's Thursday night already.

I spent Monday morning watching the live videocast of the Boston Marathon. I watched the winners and their interviews and continued watching until about 3:30 into the race. I then went and got my own long run in. 12 miles. No watch but I pushed the pace so I was out of my confort zone. Did my warm down and took a shower, then went back online and found that all hell had broken loose...

I can't even remember what I did on Tuesday.

Yesterday, I got a 5 mile tempo run in early and then went to see my new chiropractor. Actually, it's someone I met at a road race last year. He was giving free massages in the massage tent and did a great job on my left hamstring. This leg has been giving me problems since I pulled something in 2011. Now it just hurts me all the time and I finally decided to do something about it. I wanted to find someone that did Active Release Therapy (ART). The only people I could find that did this were chiropractors and I figured if I was going to go see a chiropractor, I might as well see someone who's worked on my leg before. This guy doesn't do ART but does some myofascial release techniques which is close enough for me. He also runs and does triathlons. Anyway, I got my leg mashed on for an hour and it really does feel better today.

Does yardwork count as cross-training? I didn't get any running in today but did a boatload of yardwork. So much stuff to do! So much stuff to plant! It's been so wet and rainy it's the perfect weather for me to dig up my yard and move things around. I divided my coneflowers and moved 8 of them to the front of my house. I'll have to get some pictures up soon. I can't wait to get some vegetables going but I'm not going to have my raised garden bed done until next weekend. My brain is spinning because every time I go to Home Depot or see something online, I want to add that to the list of things to do. I want to try blueberries, strawberries, and eggplant this year in addition to my usual tomatoes and basil. Oh, and some sunflowers and rosemary too. And then I saw a rose "tree" that I wanted... but where would I put it?

I think I'm going to be really sore tomorrow. I'm suppose to run intervals.

Yes, I'm having a ADHD kind of week.

What kind of week are you having?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Six Down, Seven to Go

After my horrible mile repeats earlier this week, I got really concerned about being able to run a 9-minute pace for any length of time. I really dislike wearing a watch when I run but decided I really needed to watch my pace on a tempo run and see if I could run a nine minute pace.

My other problem is that I have a tendency to start races way too fast. That's the problem with having a competitive type A personality. I see other people take off and I want to take off after them - even in a race with 35,000 other people. I just get caught up in a faster pace at the beginning of a race and crash and burn later. Last year, I ran my first mile in 8:36. I just couldn't contain myself! I spent the first 4 miles trying to slow myself down, the next 3 miles crashing, and the rest of the race burning. It was NOT pretty!

I found a 10K to run this morning. My plan was to stick to a 9-minute pace no matter what everyone else was doing. So here's how it went:

Mile 1 - 8:54
Mile 2 - 8:52
Mile 3 - 8:56
Mile 4 - 8:47
Mile 5 - 8:53
Mile 6 - 8:54
last 0.37 - 3:11 (8:32 pace)

YES!!! I can hold this pace for at least 6 miles! Now if I can do it for seven more, I'll be set.

I did start out too fast. My Garmin told me I was running a 7:28 pace at the 0.3 mile mark. I really slowed down the last half of my first mile. The course was longer than a 10K too. I talked to several other people at the finish who had tracked their run and they all had between 6.3 to 6.4 miles on their watches. It was a little race. No timing chips or anything fancy so the official time was the gun time. My gun time was 56:30. My Garmin time was 56:26. In any case, I also got this too...

2nd Place F40-44
Yup, it was a little race... but I'm starting to feel a little better about my running.
Week 8 is done. 24.5 miles. Three more weeks to go! Yikes!


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Shopping Therapy

It's grocery day! I love to shop for a good deal. However, I decided years ago that I don't need any more "stuff" in my life. These days, I think I spend more time trying to get rid of all the stuff that's been brought into this house over the years than buying new stuff. I think that's why I like grocery shopping so much. I can get great deals on consumables so it's stuff we need and use. I feel good because, even though I'm spending money, I feel that I am saving overall. And, no accumulation of stuff!

So here is how my shopping went this morning...

First stop, Meijer. I planned on mainly getting things from their 10 for 10 sale. This means they have lots of things on sale for $1, and if you buy 10 of them, you get the 11th item free. Usually, if you pair the sale with your coupons it's a great deal.

Well, things didn't go quite as planned. I had Clif Mojo bars on my list because I had 0.50 coupons that would double and make them free but Meijer didn't have them, they just had a regulat Clif bars. I also had Del Monte Fruit Naturals Mango fruit cups on the list but again, Meijer didn't have them. That took away 4 potentially free items from my 10 for 10 list so I was actually a bit hard pressed to come up with a total of 11 items. A package of strips steaks that had been marked down also jumped in my cart. They were marked down to $6.38/lb which is a good price. This is what I ended up with:

1 loaf of bread
1 lb of strawberries
3 packages Armour pepperoni slices*
1 50ct box sandwich bags*
3 Chobani Greek yogurt*
2 Aunt Millie's English muffins*
5oz bag Craisins*
3 oz Clear conditioner*
1 strip of Red Star Platinum yeast*
1 container EarthBound Farms Organic Salad*
3 cans Campbell's soup*
3 lbs of strip steak

*indicates I had coupons; blue is a 10 for 10 item

$28.01
Next stop was Kroger. Kroger is having a Mega Sale. Buy 5 items from the Mega list, get $5 off your total. You can do multiples in one transaction, as long as you buy your Mega items in multiples of 5. I did really well. I also found the Clif Mojo bars of $1 so I used my 0.50 coupons here and got them for free. So here's what I got. Other than the Clif Mojo, everything else was a Mega Sale item.
2 HUGE boxes of Cheerios
2 boxes Minute Rice
2 Hormel Compleats
2 32oz containers Mountain High yogurt
2 boxes Fiber One bars
2 Clif Mojo bars
I had a coupon for every item. The yogurt and Clif bars were free after coupon.
$5.59

I will probably go back and do one more shopping trip this week since I have more 0.50 coupons to use. Kroger will only double 2 like coupons per transaction and I wasn't motivated enough to go through again today.

Last stop, SuperTarget. The Haagen-Daz deal is back, but even better this week. The Marsh circular has a manufacturer's coupon for "Buy 2 Haagen-Daz ice cream, Get 1 Haagen-Daz Gelato Free, up to $3.50." The Target website has a printable Target coupon for "Buy 2 Haagen-Daz ice cream, Get 1 Free." I bought 3 containers of Haagen-Daz and used both coupons. I've also been getting free Campbell's Skillet sauces by using a $1 manufacturer's coupon and a $1 Target coupon (they are $1.99 ). Also got more Campbell's Go Soup using a $1 manufacturer's coupon and $1 Target coupon (they are now $2.36).

$4.58

I'll probably do some more Haagen-Daz deals this week. The price went up from a couple weeks ago, from $3.54 to $3.89 but the coupon stack is better this week, so it comes to $1.43/container.


Overall, a pretty relaxing morning at the grocery store.

Do you like to go grocery shopping?






Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Kale Salad

Who knew kale was edible? When I was in high school, my first "real" job was at MCL Cafeteria. I was the salad girl. I would set up the salad bar in the mornings, scoop all kinds of assorted salads for the customers, and keep all my salad bowls full and the bar looking nice. One of the ways we kept the salad bar nice looking was to fill all the empty spaces between the bowls with kale. It was dark green, curly, and hard. As far as I was concerned, it was purely "ornamental", a garnish for the salad bar.

Oh how things have changed! I recently discovered that there are actually different kinds of kale. I found a recipe last year for a kale salad and I've been hooked on it since. This has become one of my favorite salads. The recipe calls for Tuscan kale. It's also called dinosaur kale or lacinato kale. I found my lacinato kale at Meijer. For some reason, there are days when none of the grocery stores have this kind of kale so I grab it when I can. I always see the other kind of kale but I don't think it's tender like the lacinato.

So here's the recipe...
KALE SALAD
1 bunch of lacinato kale
1/2 cup olive oil
1 lemon
3 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes
Parmesan cheese (I used Asiago because the wedges are on sale this week)
lacinato kale

Remove the ribs from the kale and cut it up into bit size ribbons.

dressing ingredients

Measure olive oil in a measuring cup. Squeeze in the juice of one lemon. Mince garlic cloves and add. Add red pepper flakes to taste. Mix everything together and pour over your chopped kale.


Let all the flavors meld for about 30 minutes then shred your cheese on top and dig in!


I believe the original recipe also called for breadcrumbs but I eat mine with bread on the side and use the bread to sop up the olive oil dressing and any extra cheese shreds that are left behind.

On the running front, I decided to do a nice easy run this morning to just get my legs loosened up. I also think I need to get better acclimated to this warmer weather. I actually got my butt outside before 9 am and had an enjoyable 3 mile run. I think I'm going to do more easy runs this week rather than try to cross-train to up my mileage and see if that makes me feel any better on my harder runs.







Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Mile Repeats

I think narcolepsy must run in the family. Either that or none of us are morning people. I drove my older daughter down to the end of the driveway this morning to wait for the bus. We BOTH fell asleep. The flashing red light from the bus woke me up. I turned and found that my daughter was still asleep. I had to shake her awake and nudge her disoriented body out of the car so she could get on the bus. I wonder if she went back to sleep...

Today was interval day and I did 3 one mile repeats. They were pretty much a disaster. I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel so tired, like I just want to sleep all day. My whole body feels tired and achy. I think I'm putting more effort into my runs than I have before but I'm not running any faster and I'm worried my mileage is so low.

Looking at my log, I did mile repeats for the first time last year on April 5th. I did one at 8:04 and the second at 8:22. I did them again on April 8th and did #1 at 8:33, #2 at 8:38, and #3 at 8:24. Then, on April 10th I did 5 miles at 8:49 pace - I remember that because I did it on a treadmill and was scared the whole time that I was going to get thrown off!

So today, I did #1 at 8:24. #2 was 8:45. Admittedly, I thought I had to run a little further and was planning to speed up at the end when my watch beeped and I realized I was already at the end. #3 was awful. I ended up running 8:57 but felt like I completely bonked with a quarter mile to go. I literally wanted to just lay down and quit. I was so tired I didn't even jog my warm down but walked a half mile instead.

I can't believe what a difference a minute makes. I ran my warm up at a very comfortable pace. I usually don't time my easy runs but I was just curious what my "easy" pace was so I timed myself. Ten minute miles is my easy pace. I can run all day at this pace. I discovered years ago that I can pretty much roll out of bed any day of the week and run a 2:10 half-marathon. What frustrates me is why it seems SO HARD to run a sub-2:00 half-marathon!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Spring is Here!

What a difference a week makes...


When we left Indiana a week ago, it was in the 30's everyday. We returned to green everywhere, sunshine, and temperatures in the 60's and 70's.

It happens every year. The magic of Spring Break!

I didn't get any running in while on vacation. We were too busy driving around for 4 hours a day trying to find our next activity! I did get some hiking in and my arms were a wee bit sore the day after we went rafting but, really, not much to amount to a workout.

I did my long run today. The schedule called for 15 miles. I ended up getting 11 in. The weather was fantastic and it was wonderful to run on the road again. I started running in the late afternoon and started overheating during my first 5 miles. The sun started to set after that and it was better but I has huffing pretty good after 10. I went back out to do my last 5 but turned around at the half-mile point and decided I was going to call it a day and start making dinner instead.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get all 15 miles in today but I'm looking forward to running outside this week!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Where the Streets Have No Name

We are now in the land where the streets have no name...

We have gotten to know Costa Rica intimately by driving it.

Getting here was fairly painless. Got up at 3 am. Plane left the airport at 5:30 am. No delays. Got to Costa Rica at 2pm local time - 4 pm my time.

Our hotel, per their website, is 6 miles from the airport. It took us 5 hours to find it. Yup, 5 HOURS!! We could not find a marked street to save our lives and no one seems to be able to give directions because none of the streets have signs. Plus, we don't speak Spanish. There was alot of gesturing and instructions like,"turn at the sign with the big mouth" and "it's the street after the Panasonic." I even called the hotel and got instructions like "get off the highway at the Office Depot and turn on the side street by the Holiday Inn."

After that experience, we were nervous about getting to our ziplining trip the day after. The website said it was suppose to take 4 hours from our hotel. My husband met some people who had already made the drive and they told him it took them 6 hours. We had to be there by 11 am. So... my husband decided to book us into another hotel that he thought was 10 miles from where we were ziplining. We drove there the following day. It took us 4 hours to get there.

That night, I tried to get more directions to where we were ziplining. Ummm... the location was 4 hours from where we were! Distance-wise, it was only a little over 100 miles. Looks like you can drive it in less than 2 hours. However, it's a dirt goat-path up and down and around the mountains. Plus, we were in the cloud forest region so we were literally driving through clouds with no visability. None of these streets had names either but it didn't matter at this point because most of the time the only "road" was the dirt path we were on. We left our second hotel at 6:30 am. We got to the ziplining place at exactly 11am.





I'd have to say though, ziplining through the cloud forest was worth it! Some of the lines were over half a mile long. The other thing we discovered is that it is very misty and rains on and off all day long up in the cloud forest. Ziplining took about 2 hours. We then toured a butterfly garden and a hummingbird garden. The last thing on our schedule was a "canopy tour" that had us walking over 8 suspension bridges over the forest. It was only 2 miles so I kinda pushed everyone to do it. Then I regretted it. It started pouring down rain. The bridges are WAY up high and the half of my family that is afraid of heights were pretty freaked out but didn't have a choice at that point. We got out of the cloudforest at 5 pm and found our car to be the last one in the lot.

Then we had to drive back "home" to our first hotel. My husband wanted to avoid the dirt roads as much as possible because they took FOREVER to drive and shook your teeth out. We mapped a route that had us to the Pan-American Highway in 1.5 hours.

The Pan-American Highway is the "superhighway" that goes up the middle of Central America. It's actually a paved road with one lane going each way and no lights. If you get behind a truck, you end up driving 30 mph. People pass in the on-coming lane all the time. We were the fourth car back behind a truck at one point when a school van passed all four cars and the truck in the on-coming lane of traffic going uphill in the dark! It took us a total of 4 hours to get back to our hotel.

That was yesterday. We are relaxing today. Tomorrow, we are getting up at 5:30 am to go white water rafting. It's suppose to take 1.5 hours to get to the place. We are giving ourselves 2.5 hours.

The kids have decided that any paved road in this country is called a highway. I have learned how to get directions on Google Maps using GPS coordinates because nothing here has an address!