Hills aren't as bad as they look

Ask me: almost every time I had to run today it was on an uphill incline. We spent the night last night at Todd's Mom and Dad's cottage, and even though it was a late night getting to bed I got up and ready to go out and do my run. It was an overcast morning with the promise of rain, which prompted me to get out the door as quickly as I could.

Lee was going out to walk the loop with her neighbour Anne-Marie, and Noah wanted to run with me so off we went. Noah is eleven and very fit, and ran circles around me pretty much the entire duration of the outing.

I did the 5 minute warm up walk, and then added about 2 extra minutes of walking on to get me to the stop sign and the top of the first hill before I started running. Then off we went. I had 3 minutes of running, 90 seconds of walking, and 5 minutes of running. The entire duration of this running was up one very very long stretch of hill. Good thing I didn't drive the loop first, because I might never have left the cottage.

A truck drove past me just as I was finishing my 8 minutes of running, and I thought to myself, "If that was Wayne, he would open the passenger door and put me out of my misery."

Eventually I got to walk 2 and a half minutes, and that was mostly down the really big 'Well Hill'. Then the running began again. I wasn't sure how much stamina I had left. I ran for about 1.5 minutes down hill and then bam...another hill to run up.

"We should run faster Mom...you are good at this, we can cruise fast from here to the cottage."

"Noah, I am going fast. Can't you tell?"

"Oh, well yeah Mom. I just thought, you know." More running in circles around me here. "That we could really run."

Shit Noah, what do you think I've been doing for the last twenty minutes?

Funny thing is, Noah is a really sweet kid and in no way means any disrespect. He just figures we can run really fast and set a world record for getting back to the cottage.

I finished that segment and got to walk for 90 seconds down a hill. Just as I reach the bottom and get ready to start up another hill, it's time to run my last 5 minute run.

Run might be a strong description. I was using running motions, and was moving forward, but I think it might have looked more like I was using the stair climber than running. Fortunately I hit another downhill part and felt that I deserved the treat of running down a hill after all of the uphill running today. Before long, my run was over and I was in the cool down walk part.

Of course, Noah was still circling around me from side to side wanting to run again.

It was nice to have Noah out with me, but talking during the running is just not possible for me, and so at one point in the uphill climb I had to tell him that "now is not the time for a big conversation."

Running in the salt air was nice, even if it did rain on me a bit. And I have to say that I am amazed at the endurance and stamina I am developing. Three weeks ago I couldn't run more than 90 seconds at a time, let alone do any of it on a hill. Never mind a long stretch of hills.

After a nice breakfast at the cottage Todd and I went to do some shopping and then visited Michelle & Wayne (and Britt and Brad). Then we came to the trailer for a quiet night of rest and relaxation, without kids.

Since it's a little damp, we decided to turn the heat on.

Not a good idea. After a run-in with some smoke and a funny smell, we determined that somehow...somewhere...something....was in our heating system. Naturally Chris the firefighter was here LAST weekend, not this weekend. Todd brilliantly thought to grab the fire extinguisher as we ran out the trailer door. I have to give him credit. I was just going to let the whole thing go.

I did however think to turn the furnace off as I ran out the door. Then the smoke died down and we decided we had to LOOK for the 'thing' that had clearly taken up residence somewhere in our RV heating system.

There is no better way to become familiar with your trailer than to simply just start dismantling things.

After inspecting the floor vents and removing the furnace access under the fridge, Todd ventured outside and removed the outer panel. Sure enough - he found the creature who met an untimely death beside our furnace. Apparently lady bugs like dead mice, because there were lots of those too. And other untoward crap that I didn't want to hear about and had no intention of seeing.

I stayed safely on the couch with my feet elevated, facebook chatting with Brittney and Wayne about the whole expedition Todd was on.

My brave man got the whole mess cleaned up and even sprayed some air freshener in there. We are not going to turn the heat on again tonight though. Just to be safe. We'll give it a few days to air out.

If you need to know anything about accessing your trailer furnace, call Todd. He hires out cheap in the summer.