Weekly Recap: 6/19/2017 - 6/25/2017

Feeling like a million bucks on my run on Monday gave me far too much confidence in my abilities.  A peppy pace and legs that felt great made me think I was fit enough for such a quick recovery from Mount Washington.  HA!

As a result of feeling like a million bucks, I didn't reconsider joining the EBAC (Electric Boat Athletic Club) guys for the 100K bike ride on Long Island on Tuesday.  Hell, I even considered upping to the Century (100 miles).  Fortunately, smarter heads prevailed and asked if I REALLY wanted to "get involved in that testosterone fest" as I was "the only WOMAN".  Oh, yeah, that could get pretty brutal pretty fast.  Love ya guys, but wow can you get competitive....  middle-aged men on bicycles...  akin to 'pretty girls'...

I met up with Tom, Ray, and Frank for the 7:15 fast ferry out of New London to Orient Point NY.  We could have taken the cheaper 7 am. ferry and arrived after the 7:15 a.m. ferry.  I'd rather take the slow boat back.  After stashing our backpacks at the ferry office we were rolling by 8:15 a.m. and the 100-mile guys hadn't arrived yet. The weather was perfection, sunny with big puffy Simpsons type clouds to filter out the sun when we weren't riding in shady spots on the awesome route Tom mapped out for us.

Relive the ride here.



The minor hills we did have to 'summit' were a wee bit difficult, however, I sucked it and after letting the guys know why I was lagging on hills, I wasn't lagging so much anymore.  Funny how that works.

The usual fare for Wednesday is Hills with Ro or Hills w/o Ro.  I wasn't really in the mood for hills, however, the weather was perfect, Ro was in VT, so solo it is.  I headed that direction only to be met with a right knee that was not happy and quads that felt like lead.  I turned around and walked till the Space Watch hit 1/2 mile and started running, or something that perhaps resembles running. All felt better, but it was still like running through pudding.  I managed a bit over 3 miles and called it good.

Took part in the track club fun run for one mile and then walked the pups for another mile and change, all told I got in over 5 miles...  Definitely felt sluggish and heavy legged.

Traditionally Thursday is not a running day, it is a class/core day, and I did the circuit class despite the beautiful running weather.  Totally messed up my social secretary duties and forgot to remind Rachel about the Beer'd Fun Run.  While I should have bailed on the run, I was there so I ran.  Not fast, not particularly slow.  The boyz got out for a walk when I got home, only 2 minutes late for Dog Dinner time.

Met up with Ro for a power walk on Friday, neither of us were into the Hill Loop, so we did the beach loop and called it good.  And that was that for the week.  I'm tired, I really need to embrace less active 'rest' days!  Missed Friday afternoon nap due to a hair appointment.  I enjoy my time with Maggie, she is fun and funny and is jealous of my hair.  I had to admit I am not jealous of her beautiful blonde thick straight hair, I am jealous of her youth.  We continue to try and find a way to manage my unruly curls, one day they, perhaps also their owner, will be tamed.

A rainy Saturday turned into chores and knitting and doing nothing, a day I've needed in a while, sure last Sunday was a near 0 day with the drive back from NH, so that doesn't count.  I was hoping to watch some television, totally not my thing.  The box wasn't working.  After a call to the service center and resets, the tech declared it dead so I went to the store and traded in the old (as the clerk told me ANCIENT) box and got a new one and did some grocery shopping.

Nothing was going right setting this thing up. I did the same thing 5 times, because?? Insanity.  Clearly, insanity. I finally got so frustrated I yanked the coaxial cable and it was attached to NOTHING but the splitter.  What the actual fuck.  The cable from the basement was directly into the modem and the Imaginary Husband thought all of this a mystery, stating the tv worked last night (yeah, right).  Got that all straightened out and scratched my head as to how this could have magically happened. We have some pretty comical poltergeists, don't we???  ha ha ha Wonder what their next trick will be?  Emptying all the cabinets? (it's happened!!)  

All told I enjoyed my truly lazy day, started a new baby sweater and continued to look for my missing watch charging cable.  I swear I charged it on Monday....  a new one arrives on Monday, now to hope the battery lasts!  Because? Insanity.  I'm sure it is in the house somewhere, taunting me.... Damn poltergeist.

As an aside, way back when I lived in Michigan, pre-Imaginary Husband days, the group I hung out with were Tom and Earlene.  They were a childless couple living on a big lot off a deserted road, they had the party house...  Professionals in their 20's are allowed to call it a party house?  or no? Someone figured out where they hid their spare house key.  It was a slow build up of things moving, never missing over a period of months.  Then came home to find every cabinet in their kitchen emptied and the contents on the counter.  After a few weeks they figured it out and the spare house key location now contained the key in a lockbox!!!  Trust me they gave as good as they got!  I know I had a few zingers over the years, I do miss those days, however, wouldn't want them back...

Gus woke up with a grumbly tummy on Sunday morning so this was kind of an excuse for me to forgo my planned century ride and do something shorter.  After Tums and an hour wait, he was still having nothing of his breakfast so I loaded up a ride in the Garmin and then noted that it was going the opposite way I wanted to go.  Clearly, I was not in the mood to bike...  I threw that out the window and texted Dave that I'd be out for 50 miles and was leaving about 9:30...  Failing to plan is planning to fail, right!  I meandered here and there wondering which way this or that road went.   Happy to note Mechanic St in Hope Valley/Richmond is NEW TAR and amazingly smooth.  This, unfortunately, put me at the option of riding Rte 3.  I should have taken the first road that cut through but didn't I took Woodville.  Stay off Woodville, it's awful.  Fall 2017 it gets dug up and fixed, wait till next summer.  I had to get off that nightmare as soon as I could which put me on nice shady Tomaquag, however, I was greeted with two raging dogs barking and running up to their electric fence.  I'm sure my guys back home heard me scream!!  These were the worst of the dogs chasing bikes.  Enjoying the nice downhill on Collins meant I'd be riding back the same roads I rode in on.  Whatever, it was a blah ride.

Relive here.



Mileage:

Feet:  24
Saddle: 102

Books:

I finished "America's First Daughter" and enjoyed it very much.  

Like him or not Thomas Jefferson is a founding father, did he live by the words he wrote "all men are created equal" in my eyes, and many others no. He did live with the accepted norms south of the Mason-Dixon line at the time. The authors' prologue and epilogue clearly state they have interpreted timelines to compress the time line, they have also stated that where there are breaks in the correspondence records, they filled in details for dramatic effect. It is an enjoyable novel based on an interpretation of history. This is not a fully historically correct reference. 

I am more curious about Martha Jefferson Randolph than Thomas Jefferson, perhaps because I am continually stories of seeking strong females in a time when they were not supposed to be. I can only imagine she was similar to how she was portrayed. She knew what needed to be done and she got it done. She could not have been a shrinking violet considering the life she led or was forced into.

Started "The Boston Girl" by Anita Diamant, I think I am going to enjoy this one.  Addie is a spitfire personality, coming of age when women were still supposed to be in the shadows.

Probably because her last name is similar to a title by Irene Nemirovsky (an author my mother introduced me to) I picked up this book, plus a reading friend also liked it, but I think I saw the author's name before I saw Sheila's review...  which came first the chicken or the egg?  Either way, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Knitting:

Still, haven't washed or blocked the cardigan or found the perfect buttons.  It's too warm to wear it....

Started yet another baby sweater.  I seriously need to start sending these off to all the newborns this year.   They will fit well into their second year of life so...

Sincerely,
Beth,
Not many pictures this week.... sorry

Mt Washington for the third time! There is magic in that mountain!

Mount Washtington Road Race 2017

The big day, Saturday the 17th of June 2017, the weather wasn't as chilly as we expected, I still packed extra layers and wore a long sleeve and a short sleeve figuring once I broke the tree line the wind would be there and I would need sleeves, the last two times this has been the case.

Nothing was usual about this race.  

Power hike pace started early and wasn't disappointed I did this, I got passed by people, I passed people, the crowd thinned.  I did notice that people with other people had more energy.  Seems about right.  

Interestingly, I was back and forth with #37 Ron Johnston a superior runner to me in all aspects.....  not exactly sure why he was in my pace group, but he crossed the finish (2:31) turned around and walked back down this hill.  Probably some super runner training program! 

After breaking the tree line and the cold wind (or any for that matter) wasn't there it was clear this was going to be a death march.... 

I looked longingly at all the snow still in the ravines in the distance.

To relieve the pain that started in my hip at mile 3 I did a lot of marching backward and then forward to take the pressure off my right hip, that did seem to do the trick!

Taking off my long sleeved shirt at the beginning of the dirt section (mile 5 when it was clear there would be no cooling breeze) resulted in me managing to lose the only pair of sunglasses I have ever liked.  I never did feel much cooler.

Finally hearing the car horns in the distance helped to make me not want to hurl myself off the side of the mountain.

My A goal was to break 2:30 (19:44 or less pace).  My B goal was a 20 minute pace, this would get me about 2:32 I was 20:08 and 2:33.  

Full results here

Mark, Jason, Me, Peter, Ro (in front)
Peter placed first in his Age Group!

I think the best part of the wall was seeing Leslie, stopping to talk, she suggested I may want to finish the race first.  All I had to navigate was the wall, and I was NOT looking forward to that climb.  That's probably the minute I lost, ha ha ha!!

Just after, Steve got some great photos and said he drank all my beer.  I said he was a dead man.  The spectators laughed.  That energized me, only enough to miserably soldier at a 21% grade to the finish. 

I am a class act!
Photo by Steve

Ro cheered me on.  

Photo by Ro before the race, I can't find the one she took I must have really looked bad!!

Mark was there and behind him was Mindy who I was so hoping to meet in person.  Got a little more lively and I was mere steps from the finish line.  (Ro in the background)

Photo by Mark Gravell
My Maternal Grandfather always said do something interesting for the camera.

I couldn't even muster up the energy to RUN across the finish line.  I crossed, grabbed the blanket they were trying to put around me, I totally did not need a blanket, and someone put a medal around my neck.  

Photo by Mindy Randall
Bloated and ready to collapse 

All in all a fun race.  

By the time I got back to the car, saw the illustrious Scott Mason, and chatted a bit with Rachel I was clearly not in a good place and needed to barf, but there was nothing to barf.  I got some Gatorade from teammate Peter and that helped a bit, sat in the car fidgeted a lot and managed to feel less like I was going to die or have the dry heaves.

Finally, we got moving, on the ride down we clicked off the 5,000 ft mark and traffic stopped....  I got out as I was surely going to barf now.  I felt much better. At 4,000 feet  I was hungry,  at 3,000 feet I was hoping Steve really didn't drink all my beer.  

OMG I have no idea what was the problem, the heat, the dehydration the lack of replenishing with salt tabs (I seriously need to remember this from the ultra, that got me through the last 9 miles)... dunno, but it was awful and very upsetting.  Really more upsetting than anything.

We had a turkey dinner from Hart's and socialized until we got kicked out, it was the mini convention, they were going to the top to watch the sunset.

This was really a watershed experience for me, all my self-doubt (ok not ALL but a lot) seemed to vanish as the seconds and minutes and hours passed after I crossed the finish line.  

I can't be exactly sure what rejuvenated my spirit, something certainly did.  From the point of vomiting forward, I've been exceptionally upbeat and disgustingly perky.  

There is magic in that mountain!

Video of the race and the winners, they actually RAN !!!  Mount Washington Video 2017

Sincerely,

Beth, hoping whatever valley she's been lolling about in for far too long is solidly in the past. 

Oh yeah, and 6/17/17 was my and the Imaginary Husbands 17th wedding anniversary.  There has been nothing conventional about our relationship from the moment we met in 1997; it seemed fitting I was barfing my guts out at about the time we exchanged wedding vows 17 years earlier, ha ha!!

Weekly Recap: 6/12/2017 - 6/18/2017

Hopefully most of you followed the stream of consciousness of my blog last week, that happens when so much awesome stuff happens in a short period of time and I don’t make the time to do a proper reflection.

Monday the heatwave was due to start, anything over 70F is a heatwave to me so I spend most of June – August pretty miserable, less miserable if the humidity is lower, miserable none the less, sometimes a little heat rage rears its ugly head and I have to remind myself it’s not about me and move through it.  Ro and I had plans to walk before she taught spin class.  And when Ro and I walk it isn’t a casual lollygagging stroll, it’s a 14 minute pace, a power walk.  Slowing things down can be good in the long run for endurance and I can’t talk and run so well and we have a lot to talk about so we power walk.   I figured I could get my run in after and have a 10K at the end of the day.

I felt pretty warmed up (ha ha) by the time the run started.  It actually went pretty well, I was shocked.  I didn’t feel like cutting it short or walking.  Hmmmmm

Gus went to the Vet and get some dental work done.  Poor guy was born with a bad set of teeth and gums, so the last 4 may or may not have to come out.  In the pre-sedation check, the Vet discovered an irregular heartbeat, a normal thing in Boxers.  It’s not a surprise, it isn’t happy news, it is something we can manage through medication.  She will do some further testing on him to see what is going on inside that big old boxer boy chest of his.

This was our first outing to the beach, he looks so young!!

I took him on a short walk in the heat, yeah, a dog with a ‘heart condition’ he wanted to go.  This is what we do after dog dinner and people dinner; we go for a walk, so we did.

Tuesday is not a running day and it was hotter, I was glad to be in the icy gym for a circuit class, push-ups, weighted squats, burpees, shoulder press, mountain climbers, bicep curls, and triceps timed 3 minutes with a partner, 10 reps of each then your partner goes and you rest, when a minute left to go reduce to 5 reps of each.  It was fun, I got in an extra 5 reps on each, my partner seemed to think that was pretty ok.  I don’t know why it worked out that way, it just did.  Planked, and got a somewhat healthy lunch…

Dave was gone when I got home from work so I went for a bike ride down by the ocean.  That was nice and cool and there was surprisingly little traffic out.  That added more joy into my ride!



A nice icy shower with all the ceiling and box fans going made everything much better until the Imaginary Husband came home and turned off all the fans, “they make me have a sore throat”.  Um AC does that to me…. So I guess we sit and sweat.   Wahhh wahhhh wahhhh.  See, heat rage… it’s a thing.  And yeah, I'm not an easy person to be around ALL the time.

This is how it feels to me above 70....

Wednesday, while a running day was also a NY day, I got on the train with plenty of time to be in NYC before the meeting I was guiding someone through and wouldn’t you know, 90-minute delay because of a suspicious bag hanging off the 138th Street Bridge in the Bronx.  Good grief…  Of course, we need to be careful and everything has to be inspected and properly disposed of.  I was on one of the old train cars, no electrical outlets.  Thankfully I had fully charged my work and my personal phones.  Work was crazy with trying to figure out who was where and where our presenters in NYC or en-route…  I was very thankful that everyone on the train remained calm, this really impressed me.  For certain there was nothing anyone could do when the conductor announced we were stopped for an indefinite amount of time.  People busied themselves with their devices and making other arrangements for whatever needed to be done first thing in the morning.  Truly impressive, I was honestly concerned what could happen with a mass of people in a confined railroad car, I may have regained just a smidgen of hope for society.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Police-Activity-Stops-Metro-North-Traffic-at-138th-Street-428400163.html

Gus got a short walk, he is allowed those, after a discussion on what a short walk meant we decided a mile was short considering he usually does 3.  He has a mass on his heart and went on Thursday for a series of tests to see what they can discover.

I know Thursday isn't a running day, but I didn't run or do much on Wednesday, I ran at lunch, the weather was perfect, I think even my heat and humidity loving friends would agree, no?  Boy oh boy, that felt good, perfect temperature, breeze, humidity.  I should have done a long run!  Didn't have enough time, I was meeting with the current boss, the hopeful future boss, and future teammate, I needed to be timely!

Gus had quite the day, his abdominal ultrasound was 'unremarkable' this translates to if the mass on his heart is a hemangiosarcoma it has not metastasized into his abdominal cavity.  Good news.   He was fitted with a Holter monitor and I picked him up after work and he was glad to see one of his hoomans.  Not so much for the car ride home, though...  For 24 hours we note what he is up to and the techs that read the results from his 24-hour monitor can identify what is going on with his heart.

The leads disconnected and we reconnected the monitor wasn't one had to fix that.  We will see what sort of data this gives the vet....

I had put on new tires on Ruby and was eager to test them out.  We went on a quick 7-mile spin on Friday morning, and while I really wanted to get in a real ride (20 miles) there wasn't really time for that, I should have made the time, I did not.

I left for New Hampshire a little later than I wanted to, but it ended up being fine.  I made it to the hotel to meet up with everyone on time.  Got our bibs, went to dinner, and to sleep to be picked up at 6:30 a.m.  It was nice to take Friday off, and not have to mess around with work.  Nothing much has been going on lately.

Saturday was Mount Washington, I'm going to give that its own post.  It was a watershed race for me, as I'm coming to realize.

Drove home on Sunday met by two lonely dogs, got Gus out for a short stroll and called the week.

Mileage:

Feet:  23
Saddle: 27

It was a very low mileage week, between travel and the race I didn't get much time in the saddle or on my feet.  I'm good with that.

Books:

I am loving "America's First Daughter"  Martha 'Patsy' Jefferson Randolph was a force to be reckoned with!  The book is about Thomas Jefferson in parts, Martha mostly, and of course Sally Hemmings.  It is a romanticized version of history, I'm not fooled, however, I am really appreciating the writing and the narration of Patsy's life as the First Daughter.  Jefferson may have written all men are created equal, he didn't live that sentiment.  Like him or not, he was a founding father.

This is a long one so I'm not sure when I'll be done or what is up next.  I'm thinking Ulysses.  I've never been able to get through that one.  Maybe now is the right time.  I like Joyce's writing.

Knitting:

I wove in the ends on the sweater and haven't started anything or frogged anything.  I need to have a think about this and perhaps finish up some UFOs (UnFinished Objects) sew buttons on baby sweaters, block scarves, that sort of thing...

Definitely, need to find homes for a backlog of baby sweaters.

Sincerely,

Beth, a very impactful week, even with the light mileage!