In preparation for the cross country season, Findlay and I followed a summer training schedule our coach gave us — I worked up to a 10 mile run, which gave me a great running base. In order to escape the midday heat, we woke up between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning; although it sometimes depressed me to think about waking up so early during the summer, my days felt extremely productive. Many of my favorite memories from the trip are from those morning runs, and I miss the feeling of having a Portuguese city all to myself.
I found it most difficult to run in Porto, since our apartment sat right at the top of a huge hill. Most of my runs took me downhill to the river (about 1.25 miles down) and across to the Gaia side…the run back up was always fun. I was relieved when we got to Lagos, a small coastal city in the Algarve, where not a hill was in sight. This was easily my favorite location to run, since most mornings I would run along the beach as the sun rose above the horizon. No one else was awake, and it felt like the beach was all mine.
It’s nice being back to the trails of the Pacific Northwest, but I terribly miss my peaceful Portuguese runs. I hope to have similar opportunities next summer.
So fun to catch up on your travels! The boys are growing up so fast!
Thank you Mrs Lynch! Great hearing from you!!