Weekly Recap: 8/28/2017 - 9/3/2017 (caught up!)

The last week of August feels like we were just boiling in the heat of July.  After track and a bike ride on Sunday, I didn’t have any expectations for Monday.  I went on a short, slow, and squeaky run.  My shoe was really squeaking.  It’s time for new running shoes; the tread on these was pretty much worn to the center line grove at the ball of the foot.  They have about 300 miles on them, my ballast wears through shoes quickly.  Dinner out!  Jax and Gus got a walk together.  Really these suck for all three of us, I’ll probably start walking one then walk the other after.

Back to Front L to R
Deb, Inge, me, Heather
See Mom I have friends!

Met up with Faith for a run on Tuesday, about 2 miles in we make the decision to run 5 or 6, and she had 6 so we went for 6 and it was remarkably easy for both of us and speedy for me.  Not normally two words in a sentence for me speedy and easy.  The weather was perfect for running.  About the 6 mile mark we noted we could actually go a full 10K with no walk breaks, so we did that.  A major accomplishment again!  I think it rained later in the day so I didn’t get Gus out for a walk.

This just kinda freaked me out so I had to share it...
Someone needs horns and it's even more perfectly weird.
Maybe a tail and a pitch fork?
Any photoshoppers out there?

Hills with Ro on Wednesday, we discussed our Long Island bike ride that was supposed to be that day but got pushed out due to schedule issues till the next day.  It was rainy in the morning and got nicer as the day progressed, still cool, probably the first day I’ve not worn a tank top in months.  We were happy the trip was postponed a day, the weather was looking ideal for Thursday. Took Gus out for a walk then Jax, while it takes longer it was more fun for all of us.

The Long Island bike ride day was upon us, Dave and I were up and out by 6:20 a.m. on Thursday to catch the 7:15 a.m. ferry with Ro, Mark, Grace, & Steve.  The day started with Grace having a flat tube before we even got on the ferry.  That was changed on the boat and we were off for the second of 4 ferry rides for the day.  9 miles to the Shelter Island Ferry and then we were off to cycle through Shelter Island to the South Ferry and then on to the long part of Long Island.  The wind was not our friend for this part of the journey along the South Fork and the Hamptons, but once we reached Riverhead we would be heading East and the wind would be in our favor.  We made a couple stops here and there and one at the Big Duck!  Then lunch and then we were a few miles from having the wind at our back as we rode through the wine country of the North Fork.  Really a nice ride and Long Island is very very flat so lots of pedaling and very very little coasting.  We had a couple adult beverages at the bar ¼ of a mile from the ferry and made it on the 4:30 ferry.  Gus got a walk, it is trash night on a lot of the roads we walk; one of his favorite nights of the week.

Back to Front Left to Right
Steve, Me, Dave (the Imaginary Husband)
Mark, Grace, Ro

Relive it here.

Back to Circuit Class for Friday and my Wobbly Crumply Knee wobbled and nearly crumpled but I’m able to sense it before I fall, it’s really really wobbly and crumply, I didn’t complete the first set of sprint exercises in class and was able to do the second set without Wobbly Crumply Knee.  Interesting, very interesting.  Gus and I went for a long ramble, I needed to get cash from the money god and thought I'd try the closer one but it was closed, like no more bank, so we wandered around and headed home and there was another money god that would give me money with no service charge so we prayed to it.

Yeah, not so much anymore....  

Early Saturday I bailed on the 55-mile hilly ride with Sir George.  After they finished I found out scary Coach Amy wasn't going to be there, crap.  In lieu of a ride, I decided I'd do my track work out and finished the whole thing.  Walked up to the track, ran 3/4 of a mile warm up 4 x 400's, 4 x 200's, 5 x 100's (I lost count) with recovery of the same distance between and ran a mile home for a total of 5.9 miles.  Felt good.  I like the 100's the best.  Eventually, I will get to putting my times in a spreadsheet and tracking progress.  I was closing in on a 2 minute 400, I'm pretty happy about that!  When I get that assembled I'll share and y'all can see just how much faster you are!!  HA HA!!  Took Gus out to where the XC race was last week and explored a bit.  He hasn't been in the woods or off leash since he fainted at Wahaneeta after he'd been on the Beta Blocker for a few weeks, so it's been at least a month, maybe 6 weeks?   He did great and was alert the whole time and I let him off the leash for about 1/2 mile and he didn't over do it.  He was also very alert on the drive home and the last outings prior to the arrhythmia diagnosis he'd been relaxing in the back seat (totally not normal for him, he is a bit anxious in the car and loves to have his head out the window)

Gus Butt!

Faith texted with a new start time for her laps at Haley Farm / Bluff Point.  9 a.m. Sunday to let it warm up a bit, no telling what the rain was going to do.  She and Crutch were running 25 (she did 25 the day before) I was in for a lap, that is 7 miles.  She was trying the run 5 minutes walk a minute method to see how she felt.  I was a little iffy on this; happy to run along, I'm always game for an experiment.  Plus having done laps at Burlingame when I trained for my lone Ultra once upon a time I know it gets a little tedious, and she had just done the same route the day before.  When I walk it usually means I'm done running, I really wasn't sure how I would respond physically or mentally to this.  It was actually refreshing!  I felt like I could have run another 7 after we finished up the first lap.  I nearly attempted it but know better since I haven't been running much more than 5 or 6 miles at a clip, tackling 14 might be a little stupid or short sighted.  Dunno.

I could feel my Wobbly Crumply Knee clicking a bit, not sure what that was all about, something to note.

Me, Faith, Crutch

The rest of the day was boring house stuff... although we are trying to figure out what has been eating the front mat.  Could it be that Crazy Orange Cat?  Squirrels?  It is making a mess, the four of us make enough of a mess we don't need any help!  Took the boyz on separate walks, while it's more work for me it was far easier on my sanity!

Knitting:  Made some progress on the increasing part of the baby sweater!

Reading:  Ulysses, my friend Sheila asked how it was going.  My reply:

It's the ramblings of a drunk lunatic about Leopold Bloom's day, his random thoughts, his sexual perversions and fantasies on the 16th of June 1904. As with most of the 'classics' overly descriptive and wordy. Dave, while reading Moby Dick "Really, Melville needs 4 single spaced tiny type pages to describe the color white?" It's 30 hours of driving time. I got a little bit out of it but really, it took me 10 hours to figure out that this was about one person and not many persons... Maybe I'm illiterate? ha ha

My mother suggested this may not be the book for me.  I'm going to finish it damn it, I am stubborn!!  It's really not all THAT bad, better on audio I probably would have thrown the book or the Kindle across the room by now...

Mileage:

Feet:  43 - (28 of these are running! Gus is walking longer)
Saddle: 77

All in all a good week, a little light on the bike but totally on me for bailing on Saturday's ride.

Sincerely,
Beth, happy with the cooler weather.