Picnic in Paradise

There is nothing like a beautiful December picnic two weeks before Christmas to make you so thankful for living in paradise! This little girl needed the sun on her face and the wind in her hair something awful. She was begging for a picnic. As we were trucking our bags of stuff up to the bus to hit the hills my son made the comment how funny would this look in the States? Yeah probably does not happen there.

It is so nice now that the kiddos are all big enough to play on the equipment and not kill themselves. Now we just have to worry about the adults, like the time my oldest daughter caught her pinky toe on the slide, ouch!

Even the teenagers enjoy getting out and playing. Oh wait she is a teenager but I guess he is an old man, and I mean old, won't even go there right now. Different post for a different day.

And don't these two goofy goobers just look like they are having a blast? They are just anxious to get going on the fire, the good part.
Did I mention I love Monte de la Cruz?

A Biker Is Born

When my children were young we had a standing rule in the family. They had to be faster than mom at some sport. They grudgingly took on a few sports and struggled through. All but a couple of them that is. Teeny is much faster at swimming,, when she trains. My oldest daughter, whom is my running partner, I should say was my running partner, is super fast. Now my third born has taken up cycling, running and swimming.

Today he rode up to Monte for his first time. He loved it, once he got there. He was also enjoying coming down until he blew out his back tire. And the good news was once he fell and got it over with he was ready to go on the new pedals.

Needless to say a new Biker is born! Watch out Uncle Bart he is going to carry the torch!

Hiking

Every Saturday I get the extreme pleasure of "taking a hike". As I have mentioned I am training for the Leadville Heavy Half Marathon in July. I found this hill heading up to Monte de la Cruz with the steepest incline, and the most altitude in the whole valley area. There are a few volcanoes with more altitude but would take me half the day just to ride the bus to them. So instead I walk out my door, pic 1 and head up, and up, and up, for about 7 miles until I get to Tirol, the Swiss Chalet at the top. Nestled in the pines at about 5,000 ft.elevation it is beautiful. It is so nice when I finally get out of the hot sun, traffic and really steep hills and into the hilly pines. I have to say it is the best of both worlds and I am enjoying the heck out of this training. Oh yeah and I mention the really rockin run down with the awesome view?

Bonking Again

Today was a beautiful, very hot day for a hard hike up to Monte De La Cruz. I went up an hour and almost made it to the turn off for the rec center. It was beautiful and cooler once I got some altitude. I get my trail running staying off the road in the grass and the gravel by the side of the road. I am even getting the running down part down.

The problem is my memory. Why I forgot that I need water for a two hour run, and some gatorade would have been nice. I have got to remember to fuel. I get to thinking I am immortal or something and don't need to take care of myself. I also should go out earlier when it is so darn hot. I think it got up to 85 this morning, with lots of humidity. We are starting to pick up on the humidity in preparation for rainy season.

I am also learning how to hike. It is amazing how different your muscles have to work to hike uphill than running. I found I use my feet and push off, which I don't do when I run. When I run I do the marathon shuffle and when I hike I am using my legs more, with more motion. I only came close to tripping over my feet once on the downhill, close call! Good times, good times!

Energy Meter

O.K. I think the energy meter is running on low. Feeling like the energizer bunny that finally ran out of batteries. My daughter says it was the double work out last week and I have not recovered, hahaha! Though it could be. I am trying to "rest" up for the big week next week. I will be starting the Leadville heavy half marathon training. I found a training program that should work with my "schedule". By schedule I mean is not too hard, does not include speed work, or anything that might get me hurt :)

I have incorporated lots of hiking into the program, hiking uphill to be exact. I will be hiking up a hill to Monte de la Cruz and hope to be able to hike all the way up by the end of the next few weeks. It will be a doozy, as my ears already pop when I start hiking up, it is steep.

It will not really satisfy my need for altitude, but that is about all I can come up with. I have been having a few anxieties about the whole 11,000-13,000 ft. elevation thingy, but hey I can always walk. That is the advantage of being on foot instead of a bike. I would die before I would ever, ever, ever walk a bike up any hill! But I am not too proud to walk when I am on foot. Sometimes I can walk faster than I can run anyway on the really steep hills.

The good news is I had a great workout, and my daughter made some most excellent granola today, four bowls later I am ready to crash.

A Day in the Mountains

Monte de la Cruz is my favorite place in Costa Rica. Here we are doing a hike up to the cruz. The girlies loved hiking and they especially loved cooking hot dogs and smores on the fire.

We are going to miss this beautiful family when they vamoose off to Hondurus.

Grandma and Grandpa with the whole Central Valley in the background.

The Central Valley of Heredia, San Jose and outlying areas.

Hiking, hiking, hiking!

The playground in the park. The little cabinas are great and have fire places as well as sinks.

Two tired hikers chowing down on something healthy, for a change! Had to get a picture of teeny eating an apple.

Monte de la Cruz

My son commented this morning that he was wanting to head to the mountains. Since he had not been to Monte yet I suggested we take the bus up and hang out there for the day. We caught the bus and for the first time ever had a great time there. Usually it is so cold up there you have to wear a sweater. Today was beautiful. The sun was shining the whole time we were there and we took a good hike up to the cruz.

There is a beautiful view from there looking over the whole valley. We could see for miles and it helped me out a lot. I needed to get out of my little neighborhood and remember there is a whole big world out there and open my mind and eyes a little bit.

That is the beauty of hiking around in the beautiful nature created for us. We realize how beautiful the world is and can get out and enjoy it because we are free and very blessed. It was a great way to spend the day and I am sure I let him talk me into it!