Weekly Recap: 1/2/017 - 1/8/2017

Well sometimes a person needs a day off from everything and assist the Imaginary Husband as he fixes a leaky shower.  That day was Monday, This required taking the whole thing apart and finding the place that wasn't caulked 9 years ago and fix that and caulk said spot reassemble shower and re-caulk said shower...  These things really shouldn't take all day but it did.  It also took 9 years for the mistake to be evident in the kitchen ceiling.  Wonder how long it will take for that to get fixed...  Seriously we need a "handyman" on retainer.  I'd love it.  Give him or her a laundry list of things to investigate and fix and magically they'd be done!  It would be brilliant, right?

Ok maybe not, but maybe?

Back to work on Tuesday, I'm actually very glad to get back to a schedule. Everyone was in good spirits and Number One Smart Guy, who was supposed to retire in April of 2016 was in good spirits, guess that happens when you know you don't HAVE to work?  He was telling the story of finally finding out the jerky he asked his wife to buy was actually dog treats. For the last four months he'd been leaving them on the counter and muching on them for a protein snack.  Granted they didn't taste all that great and Murphy and Seamus were really interested in said jerky.  He had to go looking for them, they were particularly healthy sounding Chicken and Sweet Potato, but whatever, he really couldn't figure out why his wife put them with the dog treats.  Then he read the package, AFTER putting on his glasses.

My double day is Wednesday, hills with Ro at lunch then Spin after work.  No dog walk... of course they will give me hell for this, but I'm tired....  woe is me.. first world problems!  They did need food for breakfast so that was my excuse.  I don't think they bought it, they pestered me all night long.

Up early for a Thursday in mid town Manhattan, fortunately my meeting were 10 - 3 so it was only a 6 hour day on top of a 6 hour commute.  I got into work 15 minutes late, luckily I banked an hour, I did get home with enough time to get Gus out for a nice walk and we both were better for it.

Woke up to snow on a non-running day, Friday.  Well crap.  I had already committed to go to spin with Ro at lunch and I didn't want to bail, and I really need to stick to my running schedule, even if I didn't run on Thursday because of NY....  Spin was good and we were going to be blessed with snow starting up again mid to late day on Saturday.  SO I was OK with missing this snowy run.

Addy did some 10 second sprint 10 second recover for 10 times at level 8.  OMG my legs were dead by the end of class.

I got Gus out for a snowy walk in Champlain and by the end I was struggling to get up that last hill and out of the park.  This would be my perfect excuse for my poor performance at the race!  HA!

Who says dogs can't skip, he totally was skipping!

The snow was due to start mid day, and then moved up to about the time of race start (10 a.m.) on Saturday. The wind was coming from the NNE ( 10 - 12 mph), so the bulk of the race would be into the wind.  Or at least in my mind.  Resolution Beach and Trail 5K was fun!  Snowing and windy and of course I was the wind block for 4 people (because yes, I am that LARGE) who then left me as they had fresh legs to my dead legs for the last 1/2 mile sprint on the beach. I was dying by the time I got through the stone house.  I couldn't lift up my legs.  This must be what real runners feel like?  Ha ha ha.   It was a great time and Scott Mason Photography was there waiting, he's a good guy.  He was waiting for the American Flag to come through the stone foundation and he got some great shots of that.  But I was in between the fast people and the flag so he got me too.  :)

It was fun and my slowest time on that course yet, by nearly a full minute.   It's fun to see all the competitors doing their best and to run on the beach in a snow storm, what could be better?  Nothing, at least not for me this morning.

Dave went with me to get Gus and Jax out to scrub off some crazies.  Because we are pretty much snowed in, and no one was out and about it was perfect to take the two of them up to the High School and let them run in the courtyard off leash.  If we went down to the park we'd have to walk back up hill and there probably would be more people there.  Dave did have a good point.  So we took them up the hill and did a couple laps around the courtyard to let them go bonkers. We were out a whole 30 minutes and it was just enough to let them get their kook on and give us a few laughs at their antics.

The plan was to clean out the dining room and find a way to store my three bikes (my classic circa 1995 Bontrager mountain bike will remain in the basement until the appropriate 'throw back' ride to drag out that beast) and the Imaginary Husband's 4 bikes in a way that also made the room usable as more than a bike and beer storage room, perhaps as a dining room and eat at a table like adults?  Well there was a Sunday  snowshoe hike in Arcadia with some of the NEMBA (New England Mountain Biking Association), folks  because, well with 15 inches of snow (a little less inland, probably 10) the usual Sunday crew wasn't going to be biking.  Dave encouraged me to come along, Haley would be there so I'd have a girl to talk to.  OK, sure.  Better than taking Gus out to Champlain, I probably spend too much time by myself?  Of course I'm always intimidated for group activities, what if I couldn't keep up?  Dave just laughed.  Ok so I'm silly sometimes.

Me, Jason, Bart, Dave, John, Scott
Photo by Haley, she did not want her picture taken I offered to swap places...

The snow was piled high on all the tree branches and rocks, it was so freaking beautiful.  I love the cool crispness of a winter morning after a big storm.  The bright blue sky, the sparkling untouched snow.  We hiked a couple hours 5.9 miles on the Garmin, spectacular.  Nice to get caught up with Haley, I'm not much of a talker, I need to get better about that.  But the sound of the group of the 7 of us tromping through the woods was mesmerizingly calm and soothing and seeing the beautiful woods after snow was a visual delight.

The picture doesn't do it justice

It was a good outing, and a small part of me was happy to not be complaining about hip pain that the rest of the crew was grumbling about.  Cross training is really important, only biking isn't good, only running isn't good, really important to keep a variety!

Oh and we don't have a garage, so that's why the bikes are in the dining room.... and the basement is his workshop.... in case that is where you were going next with your question.  Perhaps next weekend we will tackle the dining room project.

Mileage:

Feet:  25.9 for a yearly total of 33.7

Saddle: 30 for a yearly total of 30

Sincerely,

Beth, happy for some snow, sad it will be 50 by mid week.  

Farewell 2016! Howdy 2017!

So I set out some goals

2016 Goals:

Biking: PMC, starting out of Sturbridge MA - the full 192 miles, 2 or 3 Century rides - TBD I'm over TFCE, and I'd like to to Mt. Washington again but it is the week before the PMC and I don't know if that is going to give me enough recovery time.  I have to do some research and make some decisions before the end of January.  2,016 miles on the bike, it MAY be doable with one or two spin classes a week and commuting into work on the bike in the summer.

What happened?  I did the 192, against my Physical Therapists direction.  1,567 on the bike

Running: Full Marathon - targeting the Indianapolis Marathon in September.  Possibly at 50K in the fall - I'd love to run the Delaware Water Gap 50K.

What happened?  Injury, no marathon, no 100K, no 50K, a couple 1/2 marathons before it went pear shaped.  713 walking miles and 954 running miles for a total of 1,667 on my feet.

Stretch goal:

2,016 walking + running miles:   This is a HUGE stretch goal for me.  2015 I achieved 1,679 miles between running and walking.  Will I make it?  I'm not sure.  Will I try?  Yes.  I've set up  my training log to keep track of the running and the walking miles and what I need to hit each week to achieve it. It is essentially 12 walking miles per week and 27 running miles for 52 weeks.

All these miles put me at 4,036 miles for the year, about 800 more than I'm trending.  That means about 80 more hours on the bike and about 130 more hours running through the year.  It will be interesting so see how committed I am.

What happened?  I totally recognized this as a possibly un-achievable goal.  I was on track until I got sidelined in June...  Could I have done it?  Probably.  I was certainly tracking appropriately for it  until July 8th when my bank ran out.  Will I try this again?  Probably not, it took the fun out of an enjoyable activity for me.   As for the bike, well the hip takes a lot of repetitive strain so that was out the window before it even started.  

Bottom line, this isn't pass fail for me, I had a pretty good year, I learned a lot about my self, I can now, for the first time in a long long time touch my toes immediately after a run not after holding a stretch for 5 minutes!  I think that's good.  I have a better appreciation for my body, my mind, ice packs for injury, beer, and going for what I really want.

I'll call that a success and move forward into 2017.

So what do I want to accomplish in 2017?

Seriously:

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!

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

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

Drink good beer.

Read books.

Knit.

Sincerely,
Beth, looking forward to this really big year of the 5-0!!!

Weekly Recap - 12/26/2016 - 1/1/2017 - And Yearly Stats

Well another year seems to be speeding by.  Why is it when I was a kid it was FOREVER till another year passed and here I sit, in the same chair, on the same laptop, different beer (so that's good right) thinking similar thoughts.  Well not really.  Last year I was thinking how I never managed to run more than 13.1 miles at a time.  I think that's right...

Hold please and let me check...

Yeah, close enough for hand-grenades and lawn darts (I can't see anything more than 13.4 miles in my 2015 spreadsheet)

No 20 mile runs this year either.  I topped out at 14 in one shot before my hip finally said enough is enough stupid head.  Hmmm so is this a weekly recap or a year end post?

I'm still tinkering with the format for these, my narcissistic ramblings, because yeah, I really think I'm THAT important.  No, hardly, but it is nice to have something to look back on and remember where I was at a particular point in time. I tried the diary thing as a kid, my handwriting is atrocious and it physically hurts to write things so that never worked out so well.  This, well, this works.  Happy to have you along for whatever you care to partake in.

The last week of the year popped off with a bang on Monday, exhausted from the first of several late nights, I took Gus out to Barn Island to attempt to get it right.  I should have reviewed the detailed and copious notes Gazelle made on where I went wrong and what to look for.  I didn't, all I remembered was "Matthew and I tied A ribbon to a tree to signal the not obvious left you missed."

At one point Gus decided on a right that didn't seem correct, it wasn't, it led us along a trail littered with horse poops, he was looking for a snack?  So we back tracked and got back to the trail we were on.  I was fairly certain about this, I remembered the rock.  Because, yeah in the woods all rocks look a little different. I'm really not sure if I'm serious or this is sarcasm.

And then we stumbled upon something that sort of looked familiar and then a lot of ribbons tied on trees.  Well actually all over the woods were ribbons tied on trees.  At one point I saw a bunch of ribbons tied on a tree and thought, well maybe that's the way but that isn't near the trail we are on.  Are we on the wrong trail?   I know the purpose of these ribbons, so that one, well off the trail Gus and I were on was probably just marking the spot of a deer?

Well marked, even I couldn't miss it...
Truth, I did venture ahead a bit and realized, yep, that was it!!
Many Thanks!

And the left was just up ahead!!!

Gus found it, he was waiting, impatiently, for me.
Truth, he found it the last time too...

We followed the trail and when I hit the Jimmy Smith Single Track (see where the green and red diverge) sign we went left not right/straight, so that right should have taken us out to Greenhaven and then back.

I'm not disappointed in what we did, after a mile of hiking Gus was ready for some speed so I kept up with him best I could!!

Blue - my and Gus' first attempt
Green - Gazelle and Fawn
Red - my and Gus' second attempt

I was happy to get home and see that yes, we actually were supposed to end up out on the hard top (the point where the green and blue hit and go straight together and then the green /red diverge) and then back to single track!

I'll call it mostly a success.

Dave and I took Jax out on Sammy C's, Outenback, and the Vin Gormley for a hike to wear him out a bit.  His right leg has been bothering him, probably knee/ACL, at least it isn't the leg that was crushed when he was a puppy.  That's how he ended up with us, his owner ran him over and decided it was easier to dispose of him rather than fix him....  to each his own, thankfully there are rescues out there willing to fit the bill and do the rehab.  Jax is a pretty great dog!

They share the orange vest!

Quite the full day for a Monday with a full evening ahead of us....  The holidays are exhausting.

After getting home at an unreasonable hour, again, the boyz had us up on Tuesday at a time we weren't agreeable to, however they were up so we were up, the sun was up, so we were up.

I took the opportunity to misread the clock and go for a run figuring I had to be home by 12 to make it to a lunch that started at 12;30, um no.  You didn't factor in shower time... fortunately that chore along with this "getting ready" thing that women do takes me 15 minutes so I was only 15 minutes late.  Dave actually was grateful because this gave us the opportunity to take two cars.  Him grateful?  ME GRATEFUL!!  It gave me a few hours at home alone to work on my year end project for a couple hours and snuggle with the puppies for 20 minutes.  He asked I bring some interesting beers so I did, happily enjoying that 'chore'.  I was able to introduce his cousin-in-law to some Edmund Fitzgerald Porter and he was very impressed when his beer app gave this a 96 out of 100.  What that beer app is?  dunno...  Although it was much easier to see the rating of the beer quickly on it than on Untapped (the one I use)...  oh well...

I made it to the evening's festivities, Dave's cousin's daughters 12th birthday and her great-grandmother's 101st birthday.  You'd never know Sally was 101, I'd peg her for 70, but really she'd be 75, but I'd never say that because she keeps up with the fashions and has perfect posture, I mean ram rod straight can carry a book across a room on her head and it won't fall off!!  Absolutely amazing.  I should find a photo.

An interesting story to close out the day.  The cousin-in-law works in Manhattan and gave us the list of beers he had for us, Narragansett was one, well we were IN Narragansett so there is that.  Then he went on to tell us how this is now the HOT beer in NYC.  Replacing PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) Narraganestt Beer brilliantly hired an attractive female sales rep, who managed to replace the PBR taps with 'Gansett.  Super kudos!!  So this is the hot beer, and if you are going to have more than one, have a 'Gansett!!  Well played, well played!!

I'll follow on with my own story.....

I remember way back in my days at Ford, I purchased internally and externally threaded fasteners (screws, nuts, and bolts - but saying you are a screw buyer, is well, eyebrow raising to say the least).  I joined a group of 8 men, 5 approaching retirement, 3 close to my age, and me, late 20's me.  The 20 something female sales reps were completely lost on me.  I mean really....  seriously....  Until one of my suppliers had a new sales rep, Jim, holy mother of God what could I buy from THAT company?  Sure I can go golfing.  Um  yeah, my calendar just opened up for lunch! Then appeared Steve and everyone else followed suit with their own young male sales rep once they discovered this was no longer the commodity purchased solely by men across the Big Three!

And another late night, but we knew it wouldn't be another late night the next day but the day after was going to be crappy weather so we better make the most of Wednesday.

Took Gus out to the beach, contemplated riding my mountain bike and testing out my new knee pads.  That didn't happen.  Oh the Imaginary Husband gave me some super duper cool and light weight knee pads for mountain biking.  Once fall where my knee hits a rock and BOOM it's all over for biking and running, so yeah, good idea.  After chores and laundry I cracked open the growler from my favorite Brother-In-Law (I have two so I can have a favorite.... unlike my father who tells me I am his favorite daughter, and well he only has one... so yeah)

Pretty crappy pour, my poor cow is drowning in all the foam!!  Dave helped with a whole pint of this 1/2 gallon...  Um no... there is still 1/3 of his pint.  Sheesh...  see what I have to deal with here people?  Pull your weight!!!

Ro texted early in the a.m. that she didn't want to walk in the rain could we touch base about 10 a.m. on Thursday to see what the weather was doing.  Well certainly, I'm not going to make someone do something they don't want to!  I had a meeting with our financial adviser.  Per usual, he had one plan and I had another.  His plan was super simple to review the one account and mine was well not so simple.  He asked, "What did you want to talk about?"  I replied "Retirement."  He wasn't expecting that.  I was ready to see how close Dave (the Imaginary Husband) and I were to this event.  After a shuffling of papers and a peek in to my current IRA with my current company, and pie sized eyes, Garrett said following my father's advice when I started my first real joby job in 1992 was a good idea.  The advice:  super simple: minimally invest to the match of the company and aim to invest to your maximum contribution by upping your investment by your raise each year. Thanks Dad!

Knowing that I don't have to work until I die makes me happy.  Will I be able to cut the cord at 55, probably not comfortably, BUT knowing it's possible makes the biggest difference to me.  It's nice to see something going better than expected.

Ro and I had a quick hill walk, well it seemed like those 4 miles went super fast as we jabbered the whole time and the rain did start and was getting more strong so we cut out the 5th mile and went back to her house.  I felt really guilty for her walking in the rain and she was sure I was freezing, I let her win, I could tell she was really ready to be done, so we were.  One of these days we need to run our hill loop, but a 14 walking pace is nothing to sneeze at considering the hills we walk!

Friday was scheduled to rain all day, and that's what it did.  Otherwise I'm at a loss what I actually accomplished other than having nothing I had to do.  Got Gus out for a short hike at Champlain at dusk.  I think he has gotten more miles this week than I have, and that was the plan.  Get him and Jax out as much as possible.  They do well with the exercise and they crave it.  Helps keep both Dave and I on our toes.

I'm perplexed at exactly what I did on Friday... Oh well...

Oh crap I remember!

Dave and I went out for a bike ride.  It didn't rain ALL day!  I needed 6 miles to get to my Strava goal.  We got them!


Jax came with us, which means we don't have to go fast.  He is struggling with an injury, we aren't exactly sure what but it is clearly overuse and is not slowing him down.  He hobbles a bit when he gets off the couch.  He will get a couple week break from running in the woods, and we shall see.  Poor guy.

OK finally lets get moving!!

We started with a 300 foot climb.  Ugh.  I really need a warm up before I can really get moving.  I should have taken a half mile run to get my lungs started.  Gak they are so slow getting up to speed!!

So the climb was a little frustrating, however the top was totally worth it.  This was the least technical of the trails we have been on.  It still had parts I had to Hike a Bike, just not as many.  I didn't want a 'gravel grinder' to ride only on fire roads or cinder paths.  It's getting better I can see lines and it is not feeling so foreign to me.  I do miss the road bike and wonder how much different it is going to feel once I can get back out on Ruby.

Jax was seriously not interested in posing for a photo

Dave gave me knee pads for Christmas and I had them on so they gave me license to be a bit more aggressive with my riding.  Less fear of popping off a knee cap on a rock or a log.  They worked.  I went down pretty hard over some logs and the sideways fall tangled me in my bike with my right knee wedged between the top tube and a log.  It all worked beautifully.  Awesomeness!!

The next fall found me on the side of a hill and nearly somersaulting backwards down it, thankfully I again got tangled up in the bike and that held me in place! I kind of had a feeling what I was trying to do, go over and through a fairly well spaced out rock garden, wasn't going to go so well.

All in all it was a fun ride and I need to get out for more than two hours a week on Barney.

Jax totally ready to crash!  Mission accomplished!

Gus woke up with a gurgling tummy on Saturday, I had planned on taking him to Barn Island to do more exploring.  He didn't want to eat but seemed fine to go out and adventure, so we did.  I think he's had too many nibbles of people food.  Seriously, nibbles, like a few pieces of caramel corn and licking clean a couple plates that Jax had already licked clean.  He's back on the strict kibble and pumpkin diet to get him straightened out.  The gas is pretty amazing on top of all the tummy gurgling. 

I tried to stay to the perimeter trail and succeeded at the new part I wanted to conquer, and found a new part and now I think I need to go RIGHT at the green rock and not left!

#1 - where I need to go right - follow the red path  (red path is the goal)
#2 - I consciously went this way, no really!  I wanted to see where it went

All in all there are a lot of trails and they are all unmarked.  At least I'm not too far from civilization and have the option to call for help when I find a hard top road.

I know it is bad form to mark trails, so I won't but wow I'd like to...  I do notice a few marks here and there, some blue ribbon along what looks to be a path people take with horses, based on the amount of horse poop!

Gus finally ate when we got back but only half his breakfast, I think Jax got the most of the rest of it.  Whoops!

Dave and I met up with some friends at Ninigret for a bonfire.  That was fun, not a big time commitment and we could get home and be off the roads early and away from the ripping wind outside.

I barely made it awake until midnight.  A particularly tough WWF move had me a little perplexed, once that was made I was out.  Sunday started bright and sunny and warm. Definitely not going to be an issue running the Buttonwoods 5K this a.m. and it wasn't.  Surprisingly speedy.  A friendly Turtle contacted me to find out what my intended pace was.  I said 11, but could be pushed to a 10:30, she is injured however that is too slow for her!  Not a problem.  I managed a 10:18 overall still with the niggly pain in my right hip and my lack of any sort of speed work or desire to run faster.  I'll take it for what it is, a reasonable 5K to start the year.  My benchmark.  This is my 5K B goal?

Took Jax out for a hike at Barn Island, Faith met me out there and we had a lovely walk and chat for 4 miles.  Mostly on the carriage roads, which is easier so we can see what's coming up ahead to know what to expect from crazy Jax.  Jax was good with Faith, which was nice. She'd only met him once and he took a minute to warm up, pretty typical for him with new people.  After that he was fine she was one of the pack and he was happy to be entertaining and mostly mind and partially lose his mind.  Goofy dog.  

Weekly Mileage:

Feet:  31.5, for a yearly total of 1,666.5  (this doesn't include the 1st) against a B goal of 1,702 and C goal of 1,660   BOOM!  Done! No where close to my original goal of 2,016 but that was REALLY a stretch goal for me.

Saddle: 6 for a yearly total of 1,566.7 against a B goal of 1,644 and C goal of 1,590.  I skipped spin this week otherwise I would have made this one.  I'll call it good.

Yearly Stats:  because this is already obnoxiously long

2016 I ran / walked / rode 3,234 miles!

 How this year compares to the last two:

I think we can see from Jan - May why I was out for 2 months and the 4 months after that were pretty low....  Not sure what I'll aim for in 2017 or if I'll aim for anything other than 25 - 30 miles a week on my feet and it will be seasonally dependent in the saddle.

All in all it was a good year, I started it with a smile and ended it with a smile. 

Sincerely,
Beth, another year in the books and next week I'll write about the Lumo Run, my new gadget!

Happy New Year!