Weekly Recap: 10/31/2016 - 11/6/2016

I am not lacking for scenic places to run and bike!

This was a vacation week for me.  I haven't had a weeks vacation in 5 years, in fact the last time I was here, at The Land Shark in Hatteras NC in 2011.

After getting up Saturday to run, I ran from Hatteras to Frisco on the beach, and really not enjoying it, Sunday I went on a bike ride out to Hatteras Lighthouse, (Hatteras to Buxton) it was fun on the way North with the wind at my back, not a lot of effort for speed!  So I knew the way back would be a grind, it was.  Totally worth it.  (see last weeks blog for details)

One of 601 Futuro Homes in the World!

Monday I got up and went out to run, ugh, I loathe running in the morning and low tide wasn't till later,  I thought I'd run on the road, get it over with and get on with the day.  I enjoyed none of the mile or so I ran and came back to the house and announced, I need to do what I want to do and not what people expect me to do.  It takes me a while to get in vacation mode, one would think that by day 3, or 4 if you count the drive I'd have the hang of this, not so much. 

View off the back deck 

Sunset one of the nights....

Tuesday we planned to go to Ocracoke, I went over first, because we wanted to meet up for lunch and I knew the 14 mile ride to town could take me 40 min or it could take me 70 min, all depending on the wind.  The wind was at my back this time, I was going South, so I knew the North  back was going to be a bit of a fight and I would have the pressure (?) of not missing the ferry. NC 12 is a long flat road, ocean on one side bay on the other...  I saw a few pelicans crossing the road.  They and I managed to not get all tangled up in each other.  Very cool animals.  The picture I stopped to take didn't come out to well.

Ocracoke Lighthouse

I meandered a bit around downtown Ocracoke, it's not all that big. Met up with the gang for lunch at SmacNally's, very awesome Sheepshead fish with a High-Wire Brown Ale.  Quite the ugly fish and quite tasty and the beer was also awesome, some of that made it into my car to enjoy while at home.

The bike ride back to the ferry was as expected into the wind.  I had 48 minutes to get 14 miles and it was a struggle keeping it at 15 or higher to make this cut off to the 4:00 p.m. ferry.  Fortunately Hurricane Matthew left a big dump of sand in the channel and this messed up the ferry schedule.  I made it there by 4:01 with a line of cars and a couple cheers from the folks who passed me on NC12 when I said "Pshew I made it!" and then nearly fell off my bike trying to un-clip myself.   The ferry departed at 4:30 so I had time to jibber jabber with my friends before we got on the ferry.  They kept saying, get in the truck, get in the truck.  I smell horrible I was NOT stinking up their truck with my funk!  No way!!

Wednesday was Apple Ugly day we went down to the Apple Blossom Cafe and picked up our goodies.  The Apple Uglies aren't as ugly as they used to be but boy are they bigger.  Like 4 times the size!  It was two breakfasts, it really should have been 4.  SO I was nice and buzzed on sugar and coffee and we all ventured off to do some lookey loo around the shops and galleries.  Across the street was the general store gift shop.  Thanks to Hurricane Matthew their beer coolers were not working so beer was 10% off.  I picked up a couple of six packs of local porters.  I'll venture back down there to load up on a new favorite Duck Rabbit Stout.

I think I FINALLY am getting the hang of this relaxing and vacation stuff!!

Hurricane Matthew went inland and did not attack Hatteras from the ocean, rather he snuck up from the West so their damage was from the bay!  The damage to the house we stay in was flood waters three feet up.  It's on stilts probably 10 feet high so no damage to the house, just the pool and the yard.  The island was busy with clean up and piles of garbage, dead appliances and probably other things the residents have been hanging on to because of the cost to dispose of them off the island of Hatteras.

I took a run at low tide, much nicer then, although I think I had a tiny blister starting.  I picked up a HUGE scallop shell and ran with that for near 3 miles and joining it was a conch shell.  One of the fisherman said "Hey, my buddy here wants to jog with you."  They laughed I laughed and I said, "Sure!"  The fisherman says "I bet he'll make it all the way to that bird 100 feet away , before he passes out."  HA HA.  It was funny.  The wind was non existent, so a better day for a bike ride, but hey, oh well.  I went out for a run to Frisco and back to Hatteras.  The pier is a nice thing to run to and then past for a bit.

Ok its a recycled picture!  I need to find one from 5 years ago, so much more of the pier is gone.

I was happy to be done and regretting not having drunk enough water during the day.   Happy to have the surf to run in and cool me off, it was in the low 70's.

Another laid back morning on Thursday yep I think I have the hang of this vacation stuff, wait what this is the last day???  NO!!!!  I thought about going over to see the sun rise I didn't, I'd do that before I hit the road on Friday.  

Low tide was after 4 so I went out for a run late in the afternoon and the wind was coming from the south.  I ran two miles in and out of fishermen and fishing line, into the wind.   I got pretty caught up in one of the surf casters line.  He says "Lookey there I caught a Red Bass"  Ha ha ha!!! The Garmin buzzed 2.xx miles so I turned around and walked for a bit and it was so nice, with the wind at my back and the waves splashing all over I walked most of the way back.  A couple of the fishermen commented about me running into the wind and walking with it.  They thought that a little odd.  I suppose it might be.  I may have run another mile before calling it a run.  Took a sunset meander to get over the 5 mile mark. 

Nice sunset walk on the beach, I enjoyed watching the Pelican's play while flying low over the surf, very cool!

Pelicans way in the distance

Woke up Friday to wind and cloud cover.  I walked out to the beach, oh my I was sandblasted and it was pretty apparent the sun wasn't going to make a beautiful sunrise, well shoot.  By the time I got back to the house the rain had started and it didn't let up.  Not so fun packing, I was glad I had done quite a bit on Thursday evening.  We did a big fridge clean out on Thursday night also. 

Got in the car and headed off the island.  Good byes are so hard, I was happy to have met Sheila's husband, they are well suited, as I suspected they would be.  She was pretty taken with him when they first started doing the dating dance.  It's nice to see them together and enjoying each other, knowing she was happy and met her match, it was easier to say good bye.

The drive was uneventful until a few miles of the George Washington Bridge where everyone loses their bloody mind.  Not until I got off I-95 at my exit was the drive calm again.  My least favorite part of any drive is CT.  NJ and NY are bearable, mostly.  

Cotton Field in VA

Got Gus out for a reasonable walk on Saturday morning, I had quite a few chores to complete and that was a nice break between tasks.  I was stiff and sore from the drive.  Amy came by to torture me / give me a massage and break up months of scar tissue in my right hip.  YEOUCH that was painful, probably another hours work for her to break up the last of it and get my hip free!  I knew I was very bound up as it's been hard walking, let alone doing it with any sort of acceleration.  Hopefully this will get me back on the road running.  I know I should have called her month's ago.  Warren is good, but he won't get in there and really break through the layers of bound up mass that need to be broken up.  I'll be happy to walk with a bit less stiffness and maybe this will help get me back to some regular running and the foam roller can actually do some good!

Back to the swing of things with a short dog jog and hike Sunday morning in Champlin Preserve.  I had been warned the smell of baked goods was overwhelming.  It wasn't bad.  It certainly distracted Gus for a while!  We ran and hiked as desired and it was nice to be in the woods.  The work Amy did freeing the scar tissue showed, it was much easier to run, everything felt very free.  Hip injuries aren't fun and this one took me out for nearly the year.  I can't say that this is disappointing, more frustrating?  I'm really not sure.  I've had a lot of time to think and ponder and be frustrated and be elated at small victories.  Mostly I've learned I enjoy running and not racing, I like things on my terms, spending so much time on the terms of other people and government agencies really takes it's toll.

MAC called this a.m. wanting to run Marine Corps in 2017 to get the gang back together for our 5 year anniversary.  The thought of training for a marathon is freaking overwhelming to me right now.  I know it's a year away...  I think I managed to talk her down to the four of us getting together for the 10K at MCM and then cheering on the marathoners.  Wonder if Gabe and Andrea will be ok with that...  Gabe is aiming for her first 100 for next year so quite possibly, depending on when it is.    In any event it will be nice to have the 4 of us together again.  But nothing will be like being stranded by Super Storm Sandy for nearly a week! 

All in all a good week, a nice vacation, I feel like I relaxed for the first time in a long time, which is good as I'll be traveling again in a week.  I didn't get a lot of miles, but that's my own goals going by the wayside. Hopefully I can get Gus fully recall trained so Dave can take him with when he takes Jax out to run.  He gets it, mostly. 

Mileage:

Feet:  Week:  18.4  for a yearly total of: 1,472.4 against a straight-line target of: 1,713.6
Saddle:  Week:  39 for a yearly total of: 1,432.0 against a straight-line target of: 1,713.6

Yeah those goals are long gone but I'll break 1,500 with ease, well unless everything goes to compete shit...  

	Run	Walk	Bike	Notes
31-Oct	1.1
1-Nov			39
2-Nov	5.2
3-Nov	6.0
4-Nov
5-Nov		3.5
6-Nov	2.6

Sincerely,
Beth, a bit less surly (vacation) and a bit more flexible (massage).

Weekly Recap: 10/24/16 - 10/30/16

Ah yes my yearly goals, saddle and feet are identical, 2,016.  Its a stretch however on some days it gets me moving when I'd prefer not to.  It didn't work as well with the bike, I was kind of shelved for 2 very important bike months, so I have that working against me.  Biking, while no impact (unless you fall off, ha ha) does put stress on the joints and since my hip issue (bursitis at the root) was all the crazy tendons, ligaments and muscles around, through, and in the hip,being very pissed off, I had to be conservative.  I don't feel any pressure in the hip when I run, I still do when I bike, because the motion is so repetitive it gets annoying.

The eMail trick worked beautifully.  I had it cued to send at 8:30 on Monday, figuring people would be just getting to their coffee and scanning eMail and this one would pop up!  I'll still have to follow up but it was a topic of discussion on Tuesday's status meeting.


Monday - I checked the weather it said 73F, ok, so short sleeves and I was fine, but wow was it windy.  I have no idea what the actual temp was or the 'real feel' because I think didn't wait long enough for the weather to completely sync or something.  Feh, whatever.  It was a nice slow run, easy actually, Didn't feel like I was gasping for breath constantly, which is good considering I've been lax on using my inhaler.  Got in 6 with about 1/4 mile of walking on either end.  I was happy with that.  The Newtons still seem fine.

The boyz got their walk, it has become almost enjoyable walking both of them.  I prefer one however, I also prefer to have at least an hour of peace and quiet before I go to bed.

Tuesday - Happy to find out everything went well for Leslie today! Faith was going to meet up with me to run/walk.  Faith is recovering from Bimblers 50K, sounds like a hell fest. I left campus and thought, I think gloves would be good and maybe another shirt, the wind was really strong and cold.  I donned on both and felt more comfortable, still chilled.  I wasn't sure if we were walking or running.  We walked a bit, pretty much my first mile was walking.  Then running at what felt like and easy pace and it was, actually and it was a faster pace than I've been able to manage on my own!  Even my suffer score showed I wasn't struggling.   It was a good run after a good morning of good news.

Took the boyz out for their walk, they were bouncing off the walls before and after dinner.  Usually they get to run free on Tuesday so I was prepared for a sufferfest of a walk and chose a route that was easy and quick to bail to go home.  They were angels, until the cat.

We turned a corner and in the middle of the street my headlamp shown on the cat and the boyz were all, wait what's that? and the cat just stayed there, not moving. The boyz got very animated and the cat sort of blinked. Crap, is it hurt was all I could think? Well it wasn't it backed up maybe 1/2 a foot. The boyz were overwhelming and nearly dragging me. AND a car was coming down the street. The cat backed up maybe a foot, hissing the whole while. I was SERIOUSLY going to get dragged down if that damn cat didn't flee! The car stopped. The boyz are quite strong when they want to be! Finally that fool cat took off like a shot and the boyz were all wait? what? and of course, the cats guardian was in the car. He got out and said, "How many lives did that ding dong go through?" Guess the cat isn't really bright, it should most certainly be an indoor cat.  Or it's just a jerk. All I could do was laugh.

Wednesday - Well today was a triple of sorts.  Hills with Ro at a good clip.  14:39 pace isn't a saunter for sure.  I'm going to miss her for the next month.  When I get back from Hatteras she is off to St. Lucia for a MONTH!  Retirement is grand isn't it?  I travel so much in November anyhow we weren't going to get to walk much.  I'm so happy for her and Mark, Wednesday marked two months of retirement, they both retired before 60.  Ok so Mark turned 60 a month and 1/2 into retirement, but still, he was able to put two kids through college and retire before 60, so that is a big deal.  Dave and I need to get our crap together and put together a retirement plan.  We have very different ideas about retirement...  We may settle on pugs and a motor-home, who knows.  We do need to figure it out as we break into our 50's.

Spin with Jennifer at the Arcadia Y.  I know it seems like such a dumpy place in an old shopping center.  It fits the bill for Wyoming RI pretty well and the spin bikes are the latest and the greatest.  The acoustics in the room are so bad and the instructor yells so it's a cacophony I can't follow but at least she uses some hand signals for the next move on the bike so I can follow that and pick up the pattern. 

Gus got his walk and I got to see some of the more intricate Halloween displays in the neighborhoods.  Jax really can't handle decorations, silhouettes of people, blow up figures, anything that moves.  Don't even let him see those inflatable tube men, whipping around wildly.  He goes apoplectic.

Thursday - A nice big fat 0, work was overwhelming, as it usually is the days before vacation and three weeks before a big deliverable.  Unfortunately Friday is also going to be a 0 so it's not exactly a good thing.  However, my body is tired and my legs are tired and two days off isn't bad my last 0 was 10/11.  I'm not exactly a couch potato!  

Friday -  Another nice big fat 0.  Long drive, but once I got to the beach house there are 4 floors so I got lots of movement up and down stairs.

Saturday  -  After a long day driving on Friday the first run is usually rough and made rougher by soft sand, along the Hatteras shore.  Whoops.  I took my shoes off and that helped and ran and finally had to walk a bit.  Nice 5 miles!  Down to the Frisco Pier and back.  

Sunday - Time to get out the bike and ride!  Went down to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  I could tell the ride back was going to be fighting the wind the whole way and it was.  Kept going past the beach house and into Hatteras proper to look for two houses we can see off the back deck and did mange to find them however couldn't get back there due to the clean up of the storm damage.  

Mileage - 

Feet:  Weekly:  31.1 for a total of 1,454.0 against a straight-line total of 1,675.0
Saddle:  Weekly: 47.7 for a total of 1,378.0 against a straight-line total of 1,675.0

Sincerely, 
Beth, happy to have a vacation again, 5 years is a long time between vacations!

Weekly Recap 10/17/16 - 10/23/16

Monday (stats below) - A non- running day, I ran on Sunday.  Ro texted late, her boyfriends birthday is Wed, our usual hill day, could we move to Mon?  Sure, works perfect.  I can put off my PT for a few more days, plus the weather, OMG the weather is BEAUTIFUL!

No dog walks, Westerly Town Council Meeting to support the continued use of a recreation field, for DOH RECREATION!!  The neighbors around the Bradford Preserve were unhappy and brought their concerns to the Town Council, perhaps they would be better placed bringing their issue to the Zoning Committee, but since the TC is the highest, they got on the agenda.  I managed two hours of the meeting.  The first 20 was regarding a failing bridge.  I never knew living on a border community with another state could be so difficult.  Which state owns the bridge, who is responsible for maintenance, will this end up like the other bridge project, stalled for 7 years, will this end up like another bridge no action taken.  The state border for CT and RI is a river, the Pawcatuck River for at least 15 miles.  You have to cross a bridge to get over the river, period.  Near us there are 6 bridges to get across that river, 5 of them are operable.  New England isn't the grid pattern of the Mid-west and the West, if you get on the wrong road, there may not be a cut over for 10 miles, you actually can end up in another state. It was an interesting conversation and I don't feel like there was an actual resolution.  That bridge may become another unusable bridge.

The issue I went in for took nearly 5 hours to discuss.  I was only prepared to be there for an hour, and I was there for two...  When I left I was empathetic to the neighbors, however it really is a communication issue, not a land use issue.  The land is being used properly.  It will be continued.

Tuesday  -   Run with Faith, she had an easy bike on her training schedule so we ran, for her an easy 5 miles and a tempo for me!  Always fun time, good conversation.

Dog walk in the evening, they were nutty and it was warm and humid so they were well behaved (ha ha) by mile 2 and I enjoyed the last mile of the walk!

Wednesday - Time to get back on the PT wagon.  I did the exercises from my last PT and my previous PT with my misaligned SI Joint.  Most were the same.  Faith is going to accomplish a pistol squat by spring, so I started some of those exercises too.  Doubtful my knees will allow such a squat however the prep is mostly core and hip and right up my weakness alley!

Back to Spin with Jennifer on Wed night.   Kim damn near killed me.  Lots of heavy gears.  I still cannot understand anything she says so I'm off a beat or two till I catch on to the pattern.

Nice lovely long walk with Gus, I enjoy his focus on the walk and not smelling every damn thing every 10 steps, by the 1/2 way point he wants to sniff more, and honestly we are in far more interesting territory by then.

Thursday - In my off time I did some shoe shopping and found a deal on Newtons, they have a stability shoe and that is what I need, they were wicked cheap so what the hell I might as well try them.  The drop is much lower than my Asics Kayanos, however I haven't run in them in eons, so time to play with different shoes and different drops and see how it goes.  These are the Newton Kismet and have an odd little bar across the forefoot and a 4.5 mm drop.  Guess all Newtons have this.  I mostly forgot about it after 2 miles, my foot felt fine post run and even post walk with the pups.  My knees and hips didn't protest so I'll continue to run in them until something tells me it's a bad idea.

Walk with both the Boyz, we can mange two miles before I lose my mind.  So that's what we did.

Friday - After so long of short Friday's I'm liking regular Fridays.  I get a lot done to set up for the next week and to clean up my to do list and start a new one.  Fearing bombarding people's in boxes on Friday, I set stuff to deliver when I log in on Monday a.m.  Sneaky, eh??

Got out for a run, didn't feel like the usual route so I modified it a bit went out an back on Jupiter Point.  I avoid that one like the plague.  I always feel like I'm running out of a hole on that out and back loop.  Poor Dan decided he didn't want me to think I was avoiding him so he went the same way I did, clock wise around the little loop versus clockstupid.  I don't care, he passed me explaining, aww so sweet.  Either way we would have passed each other it is a loop after all. Depends on the direction of the wind which way I navigate the little loop.



The best part was a Sub going out to sea via the Thames.  I stopped and watched for a bit.  What an amazing thing, the sub, the people in it, the whole package.  I'm  not close to any of the Navy folks to know how long they would be out or if this was a test.  Imagine, you are the one piloting a Sub just after it rolls off the construction platform at Electric Boat / General Dynamics?  OMG terrifying kind of fun, right??'

Maybe my calves were a little touchy with the lower drop shoe, but I doubt it.  I've been running in the ON's with a 6 mm drop.  The Kayno's have a 9 mm drop and I haven't run in them in quite a while.  I do find I'm doing less heel thudding and forefoot slapping in the lower drop shoes.  Not sure if this is true or it is just a mental thing.

It was a meandering run, I walked a bit, I morosed a bit, this would have been the weekend I ran the 100K.  Was I upset about this?  I'm not sure.  Was I happy about this?  I'm not sure.  Frankly I'm not sure about any races.  I was talking with Dave about this in the evening and it used to be I ran all the races.  Now the thought of running on someone else's schedule isn't so grand.

Then again Chafing the Dream got accepted into the Cascade Lakes Relay for 2017.  Really, that isn't a race that's a fun run.  Just like the Bourbon Chase, were I never actually met any of my team mates until the night before the relay, I did know one from a FB group, at least this time I know two (they were in my van for the 2012 Bourbon Chase) of the 12 of us for the 216.6 mile relay Diamond Lake to Bend Oregon.  I've never been to Oregon and have always wanted to explore.  For someone as intimidated by people this is really out of my normal comfort zone, but for some reason, flying to Oregon and meeting up with gals I spent three days with in KY seems completely not intimidating.  I need my head examined.

Night was topped off meeting a friend for drinks at Revival Brewing and exchanging beers!

Saturday - With the rain this was going to be a lazy day.  When Dave broke out the waffle maker I had to decline after two not quite square waffles.  I'm doing very well on my quest to get back to my pre-injury weight and I didn't want a lazy day starting with four waffles full of syrup and butter.  Besides I already had my usual proper breakfast.  It is so hard to turn down Maine Maple Syrup.  After insanely checking the weather Dave determined we'd be ok going for our planned ride in Arcadia.  And we'd take Jax with us as he was going stir crazy not getting out on Friday.  As it had rained pretty steady and hard most of Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning there would be some good 'teachable moments' for me.  When it's dry you can get away with hitting a big root at an angle and not end up in a bush or against a tree or on a rock, not so much when it's greasy.  Nearly all of the leaves fell too so this was another obstacle to learn about.  I'm enjoying these rides.  Dave warns me what I may or may not want to tackle and gives me one tip per ride.  We had that rule when road riding.  Today was push my weight back further on the seat and drop lower to the handle bars, not putting my weight on my hands when going down hill.  WOW!  This made a big difference in the maneuverability of the bike!    SO I guess I COULD have had two more waffles!!



Sunday - Off to Ryan Park by myself!  I've run there multiple times so I was comfortable enough exploring.  Of course I rode the route I've run backwards, so nothing was quite right.  It was still fun and I'm happy I didn't crash too bad, although I have a really awesome black and purple bruise the size of a half dollar on my bum.  I'm not sure from when, probably today.  I did have a crash where I ended up flat on my back.  Whoopsie.  My bruises from last Saturday are starting to pop in my calves, I knew there was going to be a bruise, why it took so long is a mystery.

Because I got bored putting them next to each day.....

Run Walk Ride 17-Oct 5.6 18-Oct 5.3 3.0 19-Oct 3.0 15 20-Oct 6.0 2.0 21-Oct 5.5 22-Oct 6.9 23-Oct 1.0 6.6

Mileage:

Feet:  31.4 for a year to date of:  1,423.0 against a straight-line target of 1,636.5

Saddle: 28.5 for a year to date of: 1,345.3 against a straight-line target of 1,636.5

Yeah, there is little chance of catching 2,016.  That's what goals are for, right?

Sincerely,

Beth, Enjoying being in the woods on a bike!