Monday (4) - I was totally feeling like bailing on this running day and maybe taking a nap. My whole me was dragging and I said: "Hey, you don't have to prove anything to anybody, just get out there and move for 30 minutes, ok?" I agreed with this deal for myself and on the walk to the door to go out I decided I'd up the run interval to 4:30. Seems like I was setting myself up for failure, yet, I did it anyhow. Surprisingly, the first mile energized me and I didn't feel like the 4:30 was a total mistake by the end. Guess it will be 5:00 for next week? I probably need to drop the walk part at some point, of course, I'm going to do this slowly. If you ever meet my mother ask her how much I tortured her learning to walk. I've been doing things at my own pace since I was 1. Oh yeah, actually pre-birth, I also tortured her hanging out for a couple extra weeks in her uterus and then her being in labor for 2 days or something obnoxious like that.
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| Glad this comes in a tall can now! |
The rest of the day was much better and I didn't feel like I needed a nap. It has been a long time since a run gave me a big boost of energy like that. Usually, it helps me focus for the rest of the day and curbs my desire to backhand people or swear at the computer or backhand the computer and swear at people.
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| This was from some article on classifying dogs. I didn't save the link. Pretty spot on for Boxers |
Tuesday (2 + 1) - 2 mile warm up on the elliptical. Oddly one of the lawyers I work with chose the machine next to me, I thanked him for the assistance he gave me yesterday, he gave me his usual long explanation on the history of the universe, plugged into his headphones and went about his business on the stair stepper thingy. OK. Booty Core Day #11, I thought we were supposed to start using the bands more, not yet. This was a lot of supersets and I like those very much. I'm feeling a difference in my stability, so maybe this is making a difference. Now I'm kind of wishing I did the bum pics, just for my own curiosity!
Dave waited till I got home so we could both take Jax out. Clearly, he was going bonkers being inside all day. Jax, not Dave was going bonkers. It is a struggle to convince Dave 30 minutes a day outside is not a punishment in the winter. We had a nice quick hike determined it is much easier to hike roads in the dark. The sky was clear and the moon and stars bright. Always nice to see. Jax doesn't care about that nonsense however did find things to smell and was pretty peppy running all over.
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| Gus Gus. Jan 2017. |
Wednesday (5) Ro is still in the land of Orks and Kiwis, I started out half-heartedly to walk/run our usual loop and did the whole thing, yes it was kind of a surprise to me! It was so cold I couldn't feel my watch vibrate for the walk segments, I threw in 30 second walks randomly. Perhaps I can forgo the walking? Something to try. I'm not going to be running more than a 10K at a time.
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| The way it should be. The peep in the dog bed and the dog in the boy peeps spot. As Paul Jackson astutely remarked, "the blankets are on the couch to keep it from getting dirty from the human, right?" |
I skipped hills last week, last Wed was a rough day for me emotionally. Anniversary of a friend's birthday, he would have been 52, even after all these years, he passed in 1998, he was run over on the side of the road in an attempt to rescue a dog, it hurts to remember a life ripped away so young by an impatient driver. His girlfriend lived to tell the story. I can't even imagine. Dave was a mentor to me when I was at Ford, I learned so much from him.
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| "Patiently" waiting for his pizza crust. |
Thursday (2 + 2) - Booty Core Day #12, I definitely liked 11 better BUT I there was more band work with 12. Elliptical to warm up, was booorrrrinnngggg because Mikey wasn't there to entertain me.
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| I think this was Sammy C's trail. Who goes there? -- Jax and the Boy Peep. |
Took Jax on a hike at Burlingame before dinner. He is getting into hiking at night more, this is good since we have many more months of early sunsets.
Friday (5 +3) - Just like Monday I was not feeling this run at all. Ran into Beefcake on the way to the gym and he wasn't feeling it either so we made a deal to just freaking do it. Sometimes that is all you can do. The run was tiring, however, the wind was low and the sun was out and I enjoyed myself. I was secretly hoping to take a nap when I got home from work. That didn't pan out...
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| Now I know where the sign is. Up so high no one can see it! |
Took Jax on a hike when I got home, a different combo of trails. He was really running around like a goofball. Maybe he knows Sunday is going to be one of those "are we ever leaving the house days"? The pending rain/sleet/snow storm from late Saturday through Sunday has us planning carefully our time in the woods to make sure we can both get out on our bikes and get Jax out for a hike before the storm hits. We are in such a bizarre weather triangle between the Race in the Long Island Sound and Long Island and the Atlantic things can completely miss us or hammer us. Snow is fun to play in, rain, not so much.
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| Oh, I wish I knew a long time ago how warm and cozy covers were. -- Jax |
Saturday (5 + 2) - Went out for a mountain bike ride in Arcadia. It would have been less cold had I turned around and went back to the car and put on my windbreaker. Biking isn't running, if you start out chilled you get frozen. It was a week of inappropriate wardrobe choices. The ride was fun and I'm sad I had to cut it short, but any longer and it was a crap shoot if my body was going to seek revenge if I got any colder.
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| But I think it would be OK if I went out on the ice to get that stick. -- Jax |
Took Jax to Carter Preserve for his "C" hike. Loosely thinking I'll try and find a place for him to hike with each letter of the alphabet. I probably should start keeping track or not, who knows. We hadn't been to Carter since the beginning of hunting season and we parked at the Kings Factory Road parking lot this time I took him to the Rte 112 parking lot. It is a big preserve and I wanted to see the other side and we had about an hour before the sunset. We hiked the White and Orange loops. Very cool!
Sunday (2) - It rained as predicted, ended earlier than predicted so we took the beast out. My plan was to walk the paved roads of Burlingame. Dave thought other people may have that same idea so we went to the old camp loop, and stayed on the not too terribly flooded roads. Jax was full of energy, and it was nice to move. We both agreed Monday was going to be a complete veg day with the low temperatures, it probably wouldn't get into double digits.
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| For Pete's sake stop taking my picture and let me get a stick to break. -- Jax |
Knitting:
I ripped out the sock on Tuesday night and restarted on Wednesday. I will add in a pattern repeat and that should make a difference. The pattern repeat seemed to make a difference and then I had to remember how to do the afterthought heel and this required math in my head. Ouch. My head hurts.
My Icelandic wool connection (I found a farm in VT) let me know she didn't have what I ordered but had a sub in the same weight yarn but only 1/2 the quantity. I said send what you have and refund the rest of the money. Who knew this stuff was so hard to find. Well, I think because the original supplier (from MT) is out of business and this yarn is from way back when my middle brother was married to his first wife. He married his second wife in 2007... He must have married his first wife in 1998? I honestly can't remember, but it was after Dave and I started dating and that was 1997 and it was definitely before I moved East (1999) it really isn't a surprise to me I'm having a tussle with this. I'll take what I can get and see how it all works and well if it doesn't then I'll rip it out and make something else.
Reading:
"Washington: A Life"
Ron Chernow
Status: Finished
I loved this book. I didn't know much about George and especially nothing about Martha. Chernow does a great job of writing about the facts and figures so prominent in history and adding in the human interest element to make a very enjoyable biography. There is so much I did not know, I'm not surprised that I didn't know stuff, its history and as my mother can attest, I am a circumspect student of history.
"Grant"
Ron Chernow
Status: Started
So far enjoying this. The big question was how was Chernow going to handle Grant's love of the drink. Interesting. His wife is a character and seems to cause him a lot of angst.
All in all a good week, guess I felt more like not doing anything it was a struggle, nothing insurmountable.
Sincerely,
Beth, still writing 2018 21 days into 2019.
