Week 1: 2017 Goal Review, 2018 Goal Setting and Weekly Recap: 1/1/2018 - 1/7/2018

I set a few goals for 2017, they weren't especially elaborate, as 2017 unfolded they were exactly right.

Mileage goals on Strava:

Run:  1,600  1,467 Missed by 133 miles - this taunted me in November and December when I watched it go off the rails and did nothing about it.
Bike:  2,017  2703 Blew it away by 686 miles!

If you take the adage: 1 running mile = 3 bike miles I came out ahead by 96 miles.  I'm calling this a win.  I will admit I felt like the bike mile goal was a slight sandbag as my 2016 miles were 1,598, not a total sandbag though!

The goals I laid out in my blog post, here.  

1.      Every race is fun.  I'm not going to place, I don't have the drive to do the work to achieve this.  I do think that races are for everyone, from the top 10 to the bottom 10. If I can't enjoy it, I'm not doing it!

Highlights:

I bailed on 7 Bitches when it was getting horrible, one day you bitches, we will meet again!!  Plus really I felt horrible watching that poor trail gets so destroyed, it made me very sad what we as humans can do to something so beautiful in the name of what?  Chasing a PR?  Conquering a fear?  

My biggest challenge was the Newport Christmas 10K, I signed up for it because it is a fun race.  And now I can say I’ve been chased by a cop car in a race!  

My favorite race was the Dirty Girl 10K in New Hampshire.  Looking forward to doing this one in 2018, wonder who will be the Dirty Dude?

Nailed it!

2.      Run, Walk, Ride, Hike, explore and enjoy the great outdoors every single day, in one way or another.

I didn’t get out running, walking, hiking, or riding, every day, most days.  There were days I was stuck inside because of work or driving to MI.  However, there wasn’t a single day where I didn’t leave the house, so that counts right? 

My favorite times are being in the woods with the dogs, the imaginary husband, friends, and alone.  

Mostly nailed it!  

3.      Rest when I need it, and try and not beat myself up for it.

This was a stretch goal for me.  It will always be a stretch goal for me.

Something to continue working on!

4.      Drink good beer.

Oh yes!  Lots and lots of good beers consumed, and if it wasn’t good, I learned the art of the drain pour,  Cinci Cougar, Founders Lizard something or another – WTF were they thinking - or finding someone who WOULD appreciate it.  The Dirty Girl Mint Stout from Right Brain, Rachel enjoyed that, I know I didn’t!

Nailed it!

5.      Read books.

Lots of them, 44 according to Goodreads, across all sorts of subjects!!

My favorite was “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman

Nailed it!

6.      Knit.

I am most proud of all the sweaters, 15 going to keep babies warm, and yes, the sweater I knit for myself that I actually like and wear!

Nailed it!

So what about 2018?

I think I made a pretty good list and will carry it forward to and add in:

Be present.    I allow myself to get very distracted playing WWF and I can waste hours on Facebook and Instagram.   Time to limit my screen time, I did make an effort towards putting the fing phone down or closing the lid on the laptop in the last quarter of 2017, I still need some work.  I noticed how much it bugged me when I was out with friends and they couldn’t put their screen down or kept checking them, what was so much more important or interesting?  I think it is really a habit/addiction and less not being interested in the company you are with.


Weekly Recap:  1/1/2018 - 1/7/2018

Monday:  Happy New Year, took a zero to start the year. Not a harbinger of things to come, more I feel like crap and it's cold and it's my last day of vacation to hang out with the dogs and why don't I tick a few more things off my to-do list.

I was having some peanut butter on a banana for breakfast and these two strolled in.
Gus will have some banana and peanut butter
Jax thinks bananas are gross and only wants the peanut butter

Tuesday:  Back to work, still cold, Tuesdays aren't running days, so yeah!  I took the Bootcamp class at lunch and then Spin after work.  My body was not at all thrilled about this and decided to 'flare', after starting to feel the coldness come on and my hands and face feel like they were on fire, I turned up the heat and hunkered under a quilt till the imaginary husband called timeout after an hour and turned the heat down.  I NEVER turn up the heat and am always telling him it is hot. Things got all sorted out and I felt like myself by morning.  Clearly, I overdid it.  Clearly, my body said, um bitch, no.  Lesson learned.  I can do double workouts, just not the first day back after a week off!

 Wednesday:  Back to hills with Ro.  It was warmer out, 20F, which is warm compared to the temps of late.  We had a great hill work out and my continuation on the road to normal continued. Something to be said about 90 minutes with someone who gets it and gets you and has her own hurdles to overcome.  She turns 59 in a few weeks and it is not sitting well with her, not at all.  I'm not sure what to do to help her, other than remind her she is more active and fit than most 30-year-olds.

His new coat.
While he looks dapper he won't get to wear it again for a while.

Thursday:  Well how about that a snow day!  Work closed!  I was planning on "working from home" anyhow.  Now I didn't have to stay uber tied to the computer and could get a few things done around the house.  Like laundry, it was going to be warm enough to do laundry in this drafty old house, it is a real thing, I'm not making it up.  A few meetings and some documents to proofread and that took me till about 4:00 p.m. and I was ready to get outside and do some shoveling.  Not that it was going to amount to much of a savings of effort on Friday morning, however, it was good to be out and doing some core work!

Gus snuggles

Friday:  The neighbor, Bob, was up and out by 7:00 a.m. snow blowing, we were out by 7:10 a.m. to get the little bit left over shoveled out, the front walk and to the street shoveled out, and get a path dug to get Dave's truck out.  Yes, my shoveling was purely window dressing, however, it was necessary for me!  Still, we could help Bob with the shoveling around his wife's car and the front walk while he took care of the across the street neighbors sidewalk.  This is kind of the whole community thing.  Plus I think men have a thing about moving snow around, just sayin'.

I did a 5K on the elliptical, what a weird machine, definitely low impact and I worked up a good sweat.  Better than freezing my face and other parts outside.  

Gus got a short walk, he was very excited for a walk and to put on his sweater and we got 0.05 of a mile and he was not at all happy with his cold feet.  We turned around and logged a whopping 1/4 of a mile.  I found some boots for him, and he tried them on later in the evening, completely unimpressed, but I think once he puts the full picture together it will be much better.  Certainly once Diesel put the picture together he was sold on the boots for any treks to the beach.  Jax gets it once he is out in the snow and his paws aren't freezing.  The tiny mincing steps Gus was taking clearly mean the problem was with his feet.  Gizmo only cared if he got snow between his toes otherwise, he went wherever whenever.  Sage was the same way.  

My out of control yarn collection housed my old ski goggles!
This is a big score! They will be perfect riding the bike in the cold temps to keep my eyes warm and prevent them from freezing shut!

Saturday:  It was pretty clear something is wrong with Gus and it's not just the weather.  Off to the vet.  Some neurological tests showed inflammation in his discs,  his feet weren't responding correctly to some simple tests.  The vet pointed out the swelling on the back of the spine.  His sweet new coat was pressing on this, making him super uncomfortable, my assumption.  They gave him a shot of carprofen, drew blood for some tests, Lyme panel being one.  I was sent home with a couple bottles of pills (carprofen (pain) and methocarbamol (muscle relaxer)) and the instructions limited activity for 4 - 6 weeks and NO STAIRS, crate him when you go out so he stays very sedentary.  A lot of tears was the result of this, I was injuring him further by walking him.  Those of you with pets totally will get the guilt induced beating about the head and neck.  He likes having a downstairs Gus Hut so that wasn't an issue.  The stairs, well he can't take himself to the bathroom so there is no poop eating, and he gets to go out the front door and use the front yard, which is something Diesel, Sage, and Gizmo before him all got to do.  Pretty soon after Gizmo died Gus started waiting by the front door for before bed potty time.  18 months later his dream has come true.  

I didn't do a lot, but I did get all my activity time per my watch, let's call that good, shall we?

Jax needed some blog time!
Love his little snaggle tooth!

Sunday:  Gus is up and at 'em looking spry and happy, a little wiggle back in his brown nub of a tail too!    Always a good way to wake up in the morning.    The vet called, two things popped on his blood tests, first:  he has anaplasmosis a tick-borne disease causing the symptoms he is exhibiting, neither of us remembers him getting bitten, but who knows and one of the protein panels was high inflammation or cancer, we are going with inflammation.  If that mass on his heart were cancer, it would have shown it's ugly head in some way or another and nothing.  Off to the vet to pick up some Doxycycline and start him on a course of that.  Gizmo used to have Lyme flares from time to time and his flares were usually him limping on his back left leg, so this doesn't seem unusual at all.  Hopefully, we aren't being viewed as horrible dog guardians for having dogs with tick-borne diseases, sometimes you just don't get all of them and the medication schedule gets off by a week...

George Ross posted that he was looking to ride fire roads in Arcadia, doubtful anything would be packed down enough to get on single track.  I raised my hand and met him at 1 for a 6ish mile ride.  We tried some of the snowmobile tracks, the snow was not packed down enough.  It's nice to be out with another newbie to the mountain biking in winter experience.

Photo by George Ross
He kindly asked I give him a second so he could get a shot of my riding over the bridge.
Thanks, George, he always does make me look like I might know what I'm doing.

Mileage:

Feet:  10
Saddle:  22
Not stellar...

Books:

" Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
Finished.  Excellent book on Norse Mythology. Very entertaining. I'll be looking for more by this author.

"Buddha in the Attic" by Julie Otsuka
Finished.  I wasn't sure what to think about this book, so I thought about it. It wasn't the story of one woman coming to America as a 'mail-order bride' being surprised the picture of the man and the occupation of the man did not match what their letters said and their lives until they were met with suspicion and deportation after December 7, 1944, it was the story of many women. Some tragic, some inspiring, some meh, all of them told by a list. Really an interesting way to tell a story, or rather stories. I'd like to know more about these women and their experiences.

"Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty
Started

Knitting:

Finished a couple sweaters for a friends grandbaby and another friend's first baby started a sweater for a friend first baby.

Summary:

Not a bad week, not a great week, a week.  It was cold, I was nervous about going out in the cold, and every time I didn't feel any worse for it.  

Sincerely,
Beth, looking forward to what this year holds!