urban hiking

Now, I'm using the term "urban" loosely here.  This isn't a major metropolitan area by any means.  My point, though, is that we went hiking this weekend on a lovely wooded trail that's adjacent to my town's biggest commercial center.   You can go to the mall, and then a fraction of a mile away you can hike for a solid hour.  No joke.

You can hear cars going by, but visually you'd never know you're still remarkably close to civilization most of the time.  We even watched as an owl flew across the trail in front of us, landed on a branch in a nearby tree, and stared at us for several minutes.

cliche-errific

I promise you, this has nothing to do with the fact that it's January, but I've decided that I need to get more exercise. 

It has quite a lot to do with the fact that I injured my foot in September and spent over a month waiting for it to heal. In that time I got out of the habit of exercising more days than I don't. As it turns out, five weeks is more than enough time for work to fill a schedule vacuum, and for 10 hour days to begin feeling oddly not painful. As it also turns out, it's much, much easier to go from 8 hour days to 10 hour days than it is to make the reverse transition.

But! Recognition is half the battle, right? Well, 30% anyway.* And so, tomorrow, I shall start the day with exercise.  I was all psyched to go to the gym, but the weather and the fact that the roads aren't heated around here aren't cooperating, so the more likely option is that I'll be punching my little heart out in 8 games of wii boxing.

*Ha, my phone autocorrected "anyway" to "amnesty."  Fitting.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Part Eight

You can find the "official" (yeah, those are air quotes) explanation of the Copycat Project by clicking on the tag at the end of the post, but the long and short of it is this: I haven't updated my blogroll in forever and a day, and rather than update it now I find it much more fun to tell you incrementally about blogs I read (that, uh, you might want to read too, if that wasn't already obvious). Each blog gets its own post, written in the style of, or about the topic of, the recommended blog. Hence the fun little "Copycat Project" name.

This Copycat post kind of snuck up on me. And by that I mean that I was catching up on my woefully neglected Google Reader account and happened upon a post by ddayporter over at Bananas, Continued that made me remember that I have this Copycat Project at all. Specifically, it was this post. She went to Mount Blue State Park recently. I went to Mount Blue State Park recently. She hiked the Brook Trail on Tumbledown Mountain. I hiked the Brook Trail on Tumbledown Mountain.

Clearly this is the universe's way of telling me I should link to her blog, right? Right. So go read. Maybe right-click so you don't lose your place here, ok? It's just not fun until you have 15 tabs of stuff you want to read, that's what I always say.

Anyway.

We went camping this weekend! The Awesome Husband and I trekked a couple hours north with his dad, my parents, and my brother. We left Mr. Cecil at home with a team of dog sitters (no, really), which very likely was a wise decision. Lower cute quotient on the photos, but higher sanity quotient for everyone involved.

Hiking Tumbledown turned out to be the main event, for sure. The leaflet provided by the park that outlined the hiking trails indicated that the Brook Trail should take 2-3 hours round-trip, and that it's a moderate hike. That sounded good, so my father, my brother, The Awesome Husband and I packed some fruit and granola bars and set out to hike it.

I'm not sure who wrote that leaflet or decided that the Brook Trail is a 3 hour "moderate" hike, but wherever they are, I'm pretty sure their pants are on fire. The first hour or so was lovely, and then it started to get progressively more challenging. My dad turned back to the car a little more than halfway up the mountain, and we later assured him that it was a good decision. It was sort of like walking up an uneven staircase, two steps at a time. For an hour.

We took a lot of water breaks.

At least it was pretty.

The increasingly noticeable ache in my knee was totally worth it when we got to the summit, where there's a nice view and a pond. And a feeling of accomplishment (or something).

So, so, so happy not to be climbing anymore.

Triumphant!

By the time we headed back down to the car, we were so focused on a) not getting injured, and b) just being done with the hiking already, we didn't really take any photos. But I'll tell you what, the turkey and manchego sandwich I ate at 3:30 that afternoon was the best food ever in the history of the universe.

And there are no pictures of that either.

small victory

The Awesome Fiance and I had a limited amount of time for a recent running workout, so I figured that I, at least, would use the opportunity to work on my speed.  The Awesome Fiance is a naturally faster runner than I am, but he's gracious enough to slow down to my pace.  Speed work for me is entirely comfortable for him.  And I usually focus on speed when I'm running by myself, whereas when we run together, we go slowly and add distance.

Anyway, so the victory: I can now say that I've run a 9:40 mile without the assistance of a treadmill (the conveyor belt and the constant pacing feedback are both helpful).  It certainly helped that he (unintentionally) gave me an inaccurate answer when I asked for a time check near the end, though. Whatever, I'll take it.  And the two miles in twenty minutes and a few seconds, I'll take those too.   

a really stellar day

Got up this morning and had cereal with fresh strawberries for breakfast, with french vanilla coffee.

Ran a 5k with Mr. Terrific. Well, we started together -- about a quarter mile in I started listening to music and he ran ahead. Just how terrific is he? He stopped to help an elderly gentleman who'd been overcome by the exertion of the race and today's humidity, rather than power through the last stretch before the finish line to have the fastest possible time. That's how terrific. I was several minutes behind him and ended up clocking in about two minutes faster than the race we ran on Mother's Day. I was pretty unprepared for that one though, so "two minutes faster" is still pretty slow.

Had the best sandwich ever for lunch. Avocado, lettuce, and tomato on wheat. It haunts me still. A bottle of Coal Porter along with it rounded out a possibly perfect lunch. (Not bad for a beer I initially tried years ago almost exclusively because of the name. Thankfully it's not only punny, but also delicious.)

Spent the afternoon with Mr. Terrific's dad to celebrate Father's Day, and we'll be having dinner with my dad.

Thunderstorms are supposed to roll in this evening.

The pea plants finally have flowers on them.

I like today.

Fitness Update. Or: I Hate Biomechanics

Faithful readers will remember that I'd gotten all re-energized about running... then my knees started to hurt, so I stopped. Then I figured out that my knee pain was caused by bursitis, so I went to a physical therapist. On learning that the underlying source of the issue is likely the low arches in my feet, I dutifully bought new running shoes, new regular shoes, and new sandals that cost more than the running and regular shoes combined, and I've relegated all my old, lacking-in-arch-support footwear to the deepest recesses of my closet. Well, to the non-eye-level compartments in my shoe organizer, anyway.

My knees are mostly better. A little stiff sometimes, but manageable, just in time to get ready to run a respectable time in a 5k later this month, and gear up for a 10k at the end of the summer. I'd mapped out a training schedule and everything.

You know where this is going, right? A new issue. Of course. If you guessed "arch pain," you win! My interwebs self-diagnosis indicates either plantar fascitis or a sprained ligament. Either way, the best course of action seems to involve a lot less running than I'd planned.

I'm filling in the gaps with arm workouts courtesy of our Wii system (and a resistance band that's more effective than I'd expected), the 30 Day Shred (though I'm not doing 30 days in a row, no sirree), and occasional attempts at Zumba classes. I think I might also incorporate turning-on-the-stereo-and-dancing-around-the-living-room more often, too.

Ambitious or foolhardy? Perhaps both.

The SuperFiance and I ran a 5k over the weekend. Considering that I was sidelined by knee problems all fall and winter and I hadn't run more than a mile in one go since last summer, I was pretty pleased that I only switched to walking once, for about .1 miles. I can't say I was overly pleased with my time, but it does leave lots of room for improvement, so there's that to look forward to.

We're signed up for another 5k in June, which gives me several weeks to a) get faster and b) convince the SuperFiance that he can run ahead of me at his own pace rather than doing the slow-motion, chariots-of-fire thing just so we can run together.

That's all well and good. A faster 5k is totally doable. You know what might prove to be a bad decision, though? Signing up for the Trail to Ale 10k. Yes, that's a TEN before the k. I'll also point out that it takes place shortly after our wedding. I mean, yes, exercise should always be a priority and should never be put on the back burner because of scheduling conflicts or major life events or any number of other things, but man did I paint myself into a corner in terms of enforcing that policy.

If any local peeps are planning to run this one, let me know. We can meet up at the end, once I've shuffled across the finish line and you, presumably, will have finished, recovered, and had time for an ale or two.

An Injury-Free Ski Adventure is a Good Ski Adventure

So I haven't posted in almost a week because... we were on vacation! It was me, Mr. Terrific, and the Terrific Family, and we went skiing. At this point, I should note that the same group went on a similar vacation last year, and I took a snowboarding lesson that proved to be the ultimate example of my coordination failures. I had a nice time, but I spent 2 hours on the slopes, at most. This year, in contrast, I made the very wise decision to ditch the snowboarding concept and take a ski lesson instead.

You know what? It wasn't horrible! I only fell twice over the course of the two days we had lift tickets. And, most surprising of all, I spent most of my descents with my skis relatively parallel to one another: no excessive snowplowing to slow myself down! Granted, I wasn't blazing down the trails at breakneck speed, but I was staying in (relative) control by skiing across the mountain like you're supposed to. I even rode the chair lift *by myself* without forgetting to lift the safety bar before attempting to disembark (can't you just picture it?) -- hurrah!

And as a bonus, we had only the best spring weather for the whole trip. As you can see, it was very sunny:

ouch (and yay)

I've already mentioned that I've had to take an extended, infuriating, grump-inducing hiatus from running. I've been going to physical therapy and doing exercises to get my knee back up to snuff. The decline of fitness has been inevitable, though.

Over the weekend, I decided to put a toe back in the shallow end of running. As much as I don't want the progress I've made to be destroyed by overuse too soon, I'm also wary of being too inactive by way of paranoia. If I don't get back to training, I'll never get back to my former capacity (such as it was). So I ran, a very little bit. Very little. I did six minutes total, broken into three two-minute segments, separated by walking. I didn't listen to music, lest I be tempted to keep going through a particularly high energy song. And I didn't push myself with speed or hills.

It was lovely. But now I really, really hurt.

At last, a photo

Pretty, huh? (And yes, I know, the photo is tiny. That's what I get for trying to figure out how to get my phone to talk to my computer when I should be heading out the door for work. Well, I tried.) They're the snowshoes I bought over the weekend. I'm excited to use them, but right now we're seeing uncharacteristically large expanses of grass, and snowshoeing will have to wait. This might be the first time all year that I'm disappointed to hear we'll only be getting a dusting of snow when the next storm hits us. Mind you, I still don't want to shovel our driveway or careen down slippery roads, but wandering around some snow-covered forest-y or meadow-y areas would be fun.

So, skier friends, for the timebeing, I'm with you. Bring on the blizzards!

Does pouting count as cardio?

I love autumn for lots of reasons, but the one I'm most acutely aware of right now is the fact that it brings fantastic running weather. This week, we're supposed to see temperatures in the upper 40s, and I adore running outside in those conditions.

Except... that thing I mentioned before about how my knee was hurting? Well, it still hurts. And it hurt noticeably more the last time I tried to soldier on, ignore the achiness, and put in a couple of miles. I'm going to give swimming a shot with a friend of mine who insists that it'll be fun. I've gotten used to bringing a book to pass the time while biking to nowhere (oddly, the angry music doesn't help me too much when I'm pedaling). And I might finally get around to checking out yoga. It's not the same though. None of it. I'm still kind of amazed (after, what, eight years?) that I'm a person who'd be jonesing for running in its absence, but yep, I am.

Running +/-

+ Went running outside yesterday.
+ Went running outside today.
+ Remembered to wear new running shoes today.
- Spent the second half of my workout trying to keep a blister from forming along one of the shoe seams.
+ Used new mp3 player that actually works...
- ... but that isn't fully stocked with music yet.
+ Still had enough peppy and/or angry tunes to keep me motivated.
+ Ran farther today than I did yesterday...
- ... but less than I was used to a few months ago.
- Knee ached in the first quarter mile (this is why I haven't gone running much in the past few months)...
+ ... but didn't hurt much after I got going (does this really mean it's ok to run on it?)
- Local race listing website changed their format and no longer includes location on first glance.
+ Found some possible 5ks to run on October 10, October 18, and November 22.

I knew I could do it!

I've done three 5ks so far this season. The first was pretty darn slow, even for me. I like that I run and it makes me feel healthy and awesome and all take-on-the-world-y, but I'm sure not the fastest person ever to don sneakers. Slow for me is, shall we say, just above a shuffle. I chalked it up to (which is to say, rationalized it as) getting back into running after a hiatus, using it as a baseline for the rest of the year, et cetera, et cetera.

The second outing was similarly slow, and I was actually a little baffled, what with my time for 3.1 miles of solid running being slower than 3.1 miles at the gym with some walking thrown in. Obviously, gym treadmills aren't necessarily calibrated with the utmost precision, but still. Strange. I think my poor showing had a lot (well, at least some) to do with my being way the heck in the back of the pack (where I should be!) at the start line, and so not actually starting when the clock did. Seriously, the thousands of people in front of me took a while to clear out.

Race three was slow, too. I walked parts of it. Mainly because I had the realization about halfway through that I'd forgotten to eat breakfast, and, oh, that's why I was feeling all weak and weird. Whoops.

Anyway, I've been pretty sure all along that my legs have got it in them to run a slightly more respectable 5k under good conditions (that is, with adequate training, nourishment in my stomach, more accurate timing, shoes tied to just the right amount of tension, hair affixed properly and out of my face, and any number of other peripheral factors working in my favor). And lo, on the day that my mp3 player batteries failed me (horror of horrors!), I was able to run not one... not two (as was my previous maximum)... but THREE POINT ONE MILES at a ten minute mile pace overall.

And I didn't even feel pukey from sprinting too hard. Rock!

Good things come in threes, too.

I'm choosing to take the successes I can get this week. We will not discuss the un-successes, because that isn't very fun, now is it?

Success #1:
Rocked out the culinary skills and made ravioli. Specifically, homemade whole wheat spinach ravioli. The pasta itself was a pretty standard recipe, rolled by hand, with white-whole-wheat flour used in place of all-purpose; the filling was sauteed onion, wilted spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella. Served in a sauce of diced tomatoes, white wine, and garlic.

Success #2:
Made extra sure that I'll be ok for this weekend's 5k by running three miles and change yesterday. A total of maybe four raindrops hit me, but I managed to avoid full on precip. Looming storm clouds are good motivation for running a little bit faster, too.

Success #3:
Finished Camden.

The pattern calls for long sleeve attachments that are affixed with buttons. I think this is a great idea, but I doubt I have enough yarn. Instead, I've moved on to a cardigan to be knit sans pattern, shaped improvisationally as I go. I'm using a wool/mohair blend. Yes, yes, it's June. I know.

More of the Same, and Something Completely Different

It's been another great weekend in Craftosaurusville. My, what a boring blog this has become: "we did this fun thing, then went to this fun place, and blah, blah, blah." I suppose it's better than being boring and pessimistic, no?

Anyway, this weekend's adventure was kayaking. Wait, did I forget to tell you? Yeah, we got a kayak. A 19 foot tandem kayak with lots of storage space (all the better for storing camping gear, one of these days). We didn't camp this weekend, just paddled around a lake for a couple hours. Thankfully, there were no spills into the drink (inanimate objects or ourselves). Thanks to some... shall we say "zealous" jetski and motorboat enthusiasts creating sizeable wakes, we had a chance to practing riding out a bit of choppy water, which will come in handy when we graduate to ocean kayaking. (The vessel's designed for it, but out abilities, as yet, are not.)

I'll tell ya one thing, though, this kayak is heavy. And carrying half of it at your side (rather than up close to your torso) is tough, to say nothing of lifting it over your head and onto the top of a car. Well, it's tough for me, anyway. I looked up the specs, and apparently it weighs in at 88 pounds (sans paddles and nalgene bottles inside). My arms are not designed to lift 22 pounds each -- half the kayak, using both arms -- over my head. Yet, anyway. By the end of the summer, I'll be pretty darn strong. That, or injured.

The other news of the day is that I'm officially selling my old house (*single tear*). It's adorable, it's charming, it's updated, it's easy to heat, and it's got a great yard on a quiet street. If you happen to know anyone looking for 862 fantastic square feet of house just outside the largest city in the northernmost New England state, please have them visit southportlandbungalow.blogspot.com for more information, lots of photos, and an address by which to contact me for further details. Go interweb networking, go!

Snowboarding: Do Not Like!

The Awesome Boyfriend and I spent a lovely couple of days with his family at a local(ish) ski resort over the weekend. They're wonderful people and I had a fantastic time. But the snowboarding. Oh, the snowboarding.

Now, I went into the snowboarding lesson fully expecting to be less than stellar. I'm endearingly clumsy, to put it kindly. Elementary school birthday parties held at roller skating rinks struck me with fear and dread throughout my childhood. I get nervous when I traverse an icy stretch of sidewalk, for heaven's sake. Balance is not my forte.

Apparently, once I strap a snowboard to (even just one of!) my feet, the effects of whatever inner ear issue I've been suffering from magnify in severity. I almost fell over while standing still and listening to the lesson instructor tell us what we were going to do next. Standing on the board and trying to move? Laughable. I was That Girl, unable to stop without falling over, but not before helplessly watching my snowboard foot travel in one direction and my free foot stay infuriatingly planted in place about three feet back. I threw in the towel after about an hour and a half on the mountain. (And I'm glad I did! Holy hummus, do I hurt! The hip adductor machine at the gym? Yeah, I feel like I spent about four hours on the thing. Clearly, I'm not used to dragging a piece of fiberglass behind me with my foot.)

Snowshoeing was much more my speed. As was good food and beer and fun conversation and the outdoor pool and hot tub, to be sure. But the snowshoeing was great. Two hours of wandering through wooded trails with The Awesome Boyfriend was so much nicer than the embarassment of displaying my clumsiness in the manner of an eighth grade gym class flashback.

... and the lack of falling allowed for the taking of pictures!

Snowshoeing ticket. Uber-official.

Single file

End of the trail! Injury-free!

OK, fine. Now where are my sneakers?

Dear Self,

Congratulations on getting through that 5k over the weekend. That's great. High five. Taking a day off from the gym on Monday was well deserved. Maybe Tuesday was as well. Maybe.

But this, this not having done any cardio since Sunday nonsense is ridiculous. There will be more road races in your future, and if you've got any hope of running them in a more respectable amount of time, you're going to have to make friends with the treadmill again. Soon. And don't even get me started on training for the 10k. Six miles, dude. Six miles. They won't run themselves. And you certainly won't run them with this level of effort.

In sum: go to the gym already! Seriously.

Cheers,
Reality: Destroyer of Denial

Updates by Category

KNITTING
I'm about halfway through Surface at this point. I knit the back and fronts of the body as one piece (no side seams!) and that part is finished. The sleeves, knit from the fun, textured cuffs up to the caps, are about a third done. Enter a lot of rows of stockinette in my future.






GARDENING
Still wistful and hopeful for warmer temperatures and visible soil around the corner (ha). My Favorite Man recently received a Home Despot gift certificate, which we've decided to allocate toward the building materials needed to assemble raised beds. Must research. The seeds I planted a week-ish ago have done zilch in the germination department; I think it's almost time to give up the ghost and admit that they've aged out. Updated shopping list: building materials for raised beds, seeds.


FITNESS
Road race this weekend. Between now and then I need to create a super-duper up-tempo playlist for myself to make sure I've got constant motivation in my ears for the numerous points at which I'm likely to want to slow down and/or start walking.

The following weekend, I'll actually be learning how to snowboard. That phrasing might be a bit ambitious, to be fair. I'll be on a snowboard, and I'll take a snowboard lesson, but whether I'll actually learn *how* to snowboard is still up in the air. Either way, I expect to use my get-up-from-having-fallen muscles quite a bit.

Cue Chariots of Fire Theme

I'm signed up for a 5k road race in two weeks. I've done a few 5ks several years ago, and I actually signed up for this particular race last year but didn't end up running in it for various reasons. I'm determined to keep that from happening again this year. A couple months ago, I made a point to make my trips to the gym treadmill-focused without overdoing it, causing shinsplints, and bringing myself back to square one. I came to the realization yesterday that - uh oh! - this thing is coming up on the horizon alarmingly fast (which phrase, of course, has nothing to do with how I run). My mile-and-a-half or two-mile treadmill outings of late aren't going to cut it if I have any hope for not thoroughly embarassing myself at the race. I know I'm going to be among the slowest of the slow (always am!), but I'd like to finish the thing, and finish in a time that's at least not humiliating. For me, 33 minutes would be keep me out of humiliationsville. Half an hour would be fantastic, but I'm not sure if it's realistic for me, at least for this particular event.

Anyway, I went to the gym today and set out to get my muscles and psyche used to the idea of running for thirty minutes at a time at a slightly uncomfortable speed and level of exertion. It was great! So so so great. I mean, yeah, I got bored at various points and tired at a lot of other points, but the treadmill screen tally at 3.1 miles was a lovely sight. Today's "ok, I'll run a little while longer" moments brought to you by "Take the Power Back" by Rage and "Toxic" by Britney Spears (don't judge, it's up-tempo and very motivating).

Now I'm exhausted and a little hurty, but in the best possible way. Time to make a batch of broccoli-cheddar soup. Today's a good day.