Thursday Linkfest

It's been a long time since I've done one of these.  I'm thinking about bringing them back.

The 'Wrong Side of the Tracks is the East Side for historical, economic, etc reasons.  East LA?  East St Louis?  Pulled some points together I didn't know.

Sign Needs to Be Updated.  I was telling someone in Ohio, using this lake's old name is almost like a slur now.  Like, literally that guy was so bad we don't say his name.  Like American History Voldermort.

I would describe myself as keto-curious so I found this helpful.  I guess I'm more interested in the 'fat adapted' part as a runner.

In other news, A white guy wants to tell a black lady to dress more lady like, so she rolls all over the court in a tutu.  And the follow up, another white guy tells another girl how to dress although at least this time the WTA are having none of it.

Sunday Long Run - Mississippi River

Plan: Try to stay mostly at MAF.  In retrospect, I could've had a better plan for the later miles.  Instead I came up with that on the fly: Run hills to get the feel for what you should do in the race.

Route: I ran out along the creek, then up the river into downtown and ended at my gym.  I needed to lift weights and do abs there.  Then I took the bus home.
Weather: Started at 68* and 95% humidity.  The sun did come out at some point, so the humidity got somewhat better.
Wardrobe: Skora shoes, illuminite shorts and 2xu top.  I wore my bigger belt for the water bottles (2 zipper pockets) and it was a bit uncomfortable because of where the bottles sit on my sides (not enough room to swing my arms). 

Execution: Like my Cincinnati run, this was good 'till like mile 7, and then I got tired and my heart rate got high.  Unlike Cincinnati, this is also when the hills really started for me, and I walked less than when I was in Cincinnati so that's a win.
Nutrition: I had half a salted avocado before I left, and a few sips of water along the way.  At the end of the run (before weights/abs) I had a Larabar.

Bonus: This was my first time in a long while running to the gym and then busing home.  I picked an awesome day.  I missed the Foreign Legion Parade by a few minutes, and the bus was detoured for Open Streets, though that wound up not adding any time to the trip.  Remember for next time: I should make sure I have my own coffee thermos.  Paper cups are now inadequate to my needs.

My Pet Spider

My "pet" spider...

Some background: A day before I met my new 'pet', my cousin's wife (Supermom) puts this status on Facebook that her dtr Supergirl (such a good blog name right?) was talking to some boys at her preschool.  One of the boys says 'oh this other girl can play with us too because she's pretty' and Supergirl replies 'I'm not just pretty.  I'm strong, and I can lift a chair over my head.  And I respect nature, I have a bird feeder.  And I listen to my parents'.  She's four.  (This is paraphrased, but I've hit the key parts.)

When I got home from my trip, I discovered I had a new 'pet' on my patio.  Normally, I'd leave her alone, but she'd specifically moved onto my patio chair, and wove her web across a walkway I use all the time.  This spider is big for Minnesota and I'm aware of it's presence from touching it's web which is crazy strong. Ok, time to be a grownup.

I found a stick, and slowly deconstructed the web.  My pet spider took refuge on my patio chair.  That's not cool.  So I had to gently approach her with a very long stick.  I got her to climb on that so I could relocate her to 'not on my patio'.  Y'all know I got some pictures first, right? After this, and after I stopped feeling my spider crawling on my skin everywhere, I posted on facebook about my adventure, and gave Supergirl credit for the strength to get through this.  The facebook status was so popular, I wound up naming the spider after Supergirl.  The real Supergirl says I'm funny because I said the spider's web could also lift my chair over it's head.  Did I tell you how strong this web was?  I almost got scissors and knives to clean it up. 

A day or two later I went back out to my patio.  I guess spider-Supergirl has forgiven me.  She's rebuilt her web in a much more convenient place.  It's on some pipes up against a wall, so it's not in my way.  I hope she gets lots of good food there.  I've posted a couple update picks on Facebook so Supergirl knows that I am glad for her example and I too respect nature.

Loony Challenge - 7 Weeks To Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 34 Miles
Actual: 34+ miles

Long Run Miles Planned: 12 Miles
Actual:: 11.45 Hilly miles in Cincinnati.  It was sometime last year training for this same batch of races that I last ran this far.

Sunday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout, Sunday Abs
Actual: 11.45 miles, mostly at MAF, though the last mile or two were touch and go.  (I've done this run before, in apparently the same shirt and hat.)  4 minutes 'finisher' of squats, standing leg raises, and side steps.  No abs or weights because I was out of town.  We'll see if those get made up.

Monday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 6.82 Miles around Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska.  No plyos, but a finisher of squats, standing leg raises and calves. I was grumpy most of this run, but glad I did it once it was over.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: Run 5.26 miles in the morning, Avg Hr 136, pace 13:33/mile.
3 minutes 'finisher' of squats, standing leg raises, calf raises
Afternoon Tuesday weights (except I swapped overhead press instead of bench press).  I have 'moved up' in weights to 55lbs overhead press, for reals.  One day I will get the stones to move up on my squats too!

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 1.19 Miles run in the morning.  And then I worked all day and did a 'video interview' for TCM in the evening.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 4.16 Miles in the morning.  3 minutes 'finisher' of squats and raised leg raises.  No weights because of the logistics of my life.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 1.2 miles in the morning.  Thursday weights in the afternoon.  Where I met Ms Iva at the gym.  She congratulated me on my weight lifting and told her I was a motivation to her.  (I see her all the time and I feel the same way about her.)

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 4.16 Miles at above MAF because I am grumpy. 3 minutes 'finisher'.

Hanging with the Family Part 3 - Tennis and Chili

Saturday
Morning: I had an early flight and an even earlier bus/train ride out of town.
Afternoon: Mom and I had Skyline for lunch and then we had the one nice visit with Grandma.  We met up with a friend who was surprisingly kid free for the day.  The three adults headed over to the zoo.  I got to see Fiona for the first time.  I also saw pelicans and penguins.  I love Pelicans.
Evening: We had Indian for supper because Friend’s Husband doesn’t eat the ethnic food.  As I was going to bed I found this note. It's funny because I'm actually the cleaning person who washed those sheets in May.

Sunday:
Morning: I meant to get up at 6am and run 8 miles.  I real life it was after 9am and I ran 3 miles.  We did grocery shopping and prepped dinner ahead of time.
Afternoon: We went over and had a fairly lousy visit with Grandma that we wound up cutting short.
Evening: Cousin, his wife, and Baby Cousin her blog name may become Sweet Pea came over for supper and hanging out.  It was lovely.

Monday
Morning: I did get up around 6am, and ran about 6 miles.

Afternoon: This was Dad and my “bonus tennis day”.  Just the two of us headed out.   Pictures are Azerenka (played a 3 set first round match), Andy Murray (lost and still looks hurt), Shapovolav (another lefty had a hard match with Tiafoe that he won).  And John Isner and Sam Querry (they just served aces past each other for a while.)  It was really hot.  Dad said 'it's not often I drink $40 worth of beer with my daughter.'  That was 2 beers each, btw.  Tennis prices.

Evening:  After tennis we got in the pool to stop out bodies from feeling like they were cooking, and then had left over chicken salad sandwiches.

Tuesday:
Morning: Second day of getting up early and running.  Another 6 miles in the books.
Afternoon: Day 2 of tennis, and it was hotter than day 1.  I headed up with my cousin.  We looked around for a bit, and then met up with family.  We saw a bit of Jack Sock losing, a great doubles match, a women’s doubles match which was not as exciting, and Azarenka’s first set of what was ultimately a loss. We also got to see Novak Djokovic and Simona Haley practicing.  Mom got to see someone pass out as well.  It was hot y’all.
Evening: After tennis, we all got to take showers and then had a small supper of chicken salad.

Wednesday:
Morning: I woke up at the crack of dawn and went running.  It was a really good run.  And it ended with coffee which was also spectacular.  Eventually I wound up at Grandma’s and that did not go well, but I did say hello to a couple out of town relatives I don’t get to see often.]
Afternoon: Mom and I headed down to see the Kentucky boys and play all of the games.  We did mustache smash, super uno (or something, the one with the slot machine), and a basketball game outside before it started to rain.
Evening:  For supper, we saw Uncle Spaghetti and family.  They are also sad about Grandma, but otherwise doing well and trying to stay positive.

Thursday:
Morning: I woke up late on purpose because it was raining.  Mom and I headed over to Kentucky to see an old friend from the museum and drink all of the coffee.  On the way back, we checked out the Apothecary exhibit at the Krohn, which was interesting.  We saw Grandma again for a while which was fairly awful.  (At this point, I’m going to see her because I want to think of myself as the kind of person who goes to see her Grandma.  But I can’t tell if she’s getting anything good out of it, or if I’m just making things worse.).
Afternoon: I was ready for a run and honestly didn’t care about getting wet.  This is meant to be a bit of a rest day instead of yesterday, so I didn’t go too far.  Mom and Dad had some errands to run.
Evening: I had grits and catfish and okra for supper at this place called Swampwater Grill.  It’s legit.

Friday:
Morning: It was already over 70* and super humid, so I did another short run today, but I did do my weights workout, so that was a plus.  Dad and I headed over to see Grandma around 9:30.  The visit got off to a rough start, but turned out to be great.  Grandma got dressed and went to Rosary and Mass, and seemed quite peaceful about the whole thing.  It was nice to see her be not so upset for a little while.
Afternoon/Evening: I hung out at home in the afternoon and then we went to Tellers for supper with Marge (and Mom and Dad).  This was a fairly low key day and I was fine with it.

Saturday
Morning:  My days of getting up early to run continue.  I ran 4+ miles and then grabbed coffee.  Mom and I headed over to see Grandma and had what wound up to be the best visit of the trip.  Grandma was talking about camp and working in the ice cream shop, and we talked about her noodles for a while too.  If you know Grandma, this is really fun to hear her talk about.
Afternoon: I finally had Mom and Dad get their own accounts for their cell phones, so that took a while.  Mom and I also stopped at Whole Foods and did some shopping at Rookwood but neither of us bought anything.
Evening: We saw Crazy Rich Asians and I loved every minute of it.  For the ladies, it's a film that features smart, powerful, kind women who have depth.  For the travelers, it made me want to go back to Singapore.  I kept watching going "I've been there".

Sunday:
Morning: Well, 5:30am rolled around way too soon.  I got up and did the longest run I've done in quite some time.  (I think since this time last year?) We had breakfast and then went over to see Grandma.  That was going really well until all of a sudden it was going very badly.  I did get to see an Mean Aunt (she's not really mean, it's a nickname) who lives in California and was here visiting.  I'm glad to catch up with her.
Afternoon: Mom, Dad and I headed over for one last taste of Skyline before...
Evening: I wound up flying home with Dungeon Master's sorority sisters.  My ticket was for a middle seat.  When I got on the plane, a mom was in the aisle and her (roughly 10yrs old) son was sitting next to her in the middle seat, so I wound up with a window.  I considered it a lucky break.
Afternoon:

Loony Challenge - 8 Weeks To Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 34 Miles
Actual: 34+ miles.

Long Run Miles Planned: 10 Miles
Actual: 8.67 Miles on Wednesday.

Sunday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout, Sunday Abs
Actual: 3.35 Miles through Ault Park.  I am shocked to tell you that some version of Sunday Weights did happen.  Abs did not, but weights almost never happen at my parents, so this is a win.
Nutrition: OMG, Mom had left over grits.

Monday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 6.51 miles at MAF in the morning.  No plyos because my ankle but I did do a squats ‘finisher’ at the end of the run.
Nutrition: Dad is going around telling people we drank $40 worth of beer at tennis.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 6.51 miles in the morning, at MAF.  Weights did happen but not the normal Tuesday routine. I have a 15lb set of dumbbells and an 8lb set here and that’s all.  So I did a ‘finisher’ of squats, back rows, and overhead presses.
Nutrition: I’m sure it will be bad.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 8.67 Miles run.  5 minutes finisher of body weight squats, side steps, and standing leg raises.
Nutrition: Uncle Spaghetti is making spaghetti tonight.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 2.16 miles in the afternoon after the rain.  I did not do weights.  Dad says we got 2.5” of rain today.
Nutrition: Ask me about the grits I had for supper.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 2.16 Miles and 5 minutes weight finisher.
Nutrition: I got super special coffee in the morning.  Mmmm.

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 4.67 Miles early in the morning before the traffic starts.  ‘Finisher’ of squats and single leg raises starting from 7 reps, counting down to 1.
Nutrition: This is something I’m starting to think about now.  I’m learning more and more about Keto, which is hilariously different from Whole30, but in some ways the same. The food logs may come back leading up to Loony.

Long Run: Cincinnati Hills Style

Plan: Do this route, I can turn around early if I want, and try to keep the heart rate in check.

Route: I was staying with Mom and Dad so I did this route again.  It's part of the Flying Pig course, so I'm visualizing myself doing that next year.

Weather: Started in the high 60s and crazy humid.  It warmed a bit but not ridiculous.

Wardrobe: I wore my old Minimus shoes that I keep at Mom and Dad's with my Illuminite shirt and shorts.  I just wasn't down with the reflective vest today.  I had on a visor too.  Obviously no sunglasses since i left at 5:40am.

Execution: I was pretty happy with the way this went. Heart rate got a bit wild later in the run.  I expected that.  The end of the run has a couple hairy hills and I walked a bit.  Also, this was a big jump in mileage for me, so I knew I'd be tired.
Nutrition: I ate nothing before hand.  I carried no water.  I carried a Lara Bar but didn't eat it.  I was crazy thirsty when I got home and had all of the fizzy water.

Bonus: Did I tell you about seeing sunrise along the river?

Loony Challenge 9 Weeks To Go: Step Back Week

Step Back Week
Weekly Miles Planned: 25 Miles
Actual: 16 Miles run and 6 elliptical ‘miles’ for a total of 22

Long Run Miles Planned: 4-6 Miles
Actual: I think this was Wednesday with 5.2 miles

Sunday Planned:t 1-6 Miles Run at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout, Sunday Abs
Actual: 1.21 Miles in the morning.  No bells or abs.  All of the walking downtown and hanging out with the family during the day.
Nutrition: I have planned for failure!

Monday Planned: 1-6 Miles Run at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 3.05 easy miles around Lake Nokomis.  No plyos because my ankle was freaking out last week and now I don't know what's going on.
Nutrition: Continuing to fail, and okay with it.

Tuesday Planned: 1-6 Miles Run at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.21 Miles run in the morning.  Tuesday weights including 3 sets of 55lbs overhead press.  I have to find out if the little bar downtown weights less than the little bar at Midtown.  I wish I were joking. I assume they're the same weight, but I always see bigger lifting 'gains' downtown.
Nutrition: This was not actually the worst day in the world because Qat Lady cooked me dinner.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 1.18 Miles run in the morning.  4 elliptical 'miles' in the afternoon. I'd been thinking I hadn't run more than a mile since last Friday and I was about to fall apart.  I forgot all about Lake Nokomis on Monday.
Nutrition: I mean, I should take this off for a minute right?

Thursday Planned: 1-6 Miles Run at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.21 Miles in the morning before work.  2 'miles' on the elliptical.  Thursday weights.
Nutrition: Mistakes were made here.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 4 Miles treadmill run with 8 x1 minute hard, 3 minutes easy.  This treadmill workout usually goes pretty fast.  It stays fresh because I don't do it that often.
Nutrition: Feeling yesterday's mistakes. 

Saturday Planned: 1-6 Miles at MAF, Plyos, Walk with Dungeon Master?
Actual: 4.16 miles very early in the morning.
Nutrition: Well there was a bowl of rice for supper.  This week is a continued failure and I’m cool with it.

Behind the Blog Name

So, my Pooky Bear is blogging again and I'm trying so hard not to copy any of her questions. I lasted 8 days y'all.

The Story Behind My Blog Name:  In high school I was in a youth employment program and we learned about caves and bats among other things.  There are 4 "a"s in my whole name.  So my first email address was a4bats@aol.com I am not making this up.  When Blogger was all "what do you want to call your blog?" it just seemed like a great idea.

The quote that runs on the top of the blog, "There is nothing you cannot be. There is nothing you cannot do. There is nothing you cannot have." is a quote from a book called Conversations with God by Neal Donald Walsch.  Mom read that book first, when I was in high school, and probably a time or two after that.  I've listend to it on audio book more than once.  Different parts of the book speak to me at different points in my life.  As my Pooky Bear points out, this blog is like 14 years old, and that quote is still relevant. 

Hanging with the family part 2: The Boys Come to Town

Friday Night:  I left my house to pick up tacos.  The crew was gathering luggage and heading to hotel.  I came out of the tacos restaurant and it was raining sideways.  Then I had to drive a mile out of the way due to 35W construction.  So we've started off in a fairly Minnesota way.  I did have fun hanging out with everyone though.
Only in MN: Our own "taco tour" or Lake Street, and the adults had a Surly or two in the hotel lobby.

Saturday

Morning in the rain: Mall of America.  We surveyed the go carts and the rides and ultimately hit up Lego Land before abandoning.
Morning in the mostly not rain: Lock and Dam 1.  There are vary levels of comfort with being up really high in this group, so we all took this at our own speed.
Lunch: Punch Pizza

Afternoon: (the rain may have stopped, we are unsure)  Explored St Anthony Falls Visitor Center and the Upper St Anthony Falls Lock and Dam.  (Lower falls is still working and a bit harder less visitor friendly.)  Then we poked around Mill Ruins Park.
Quiet Time: We all took naps or "read" with our eyes closed.

Late afternoon: We poked around Minnehaha Falls Park until it became clear someone would go in the creek if we weren't careful.
Supper: Peppers and Fries is one of my favorite local burger joints.  We did the thing.
MOA again: The boys played laser tag.  Their Mom and I wandered the mall and visited.
Bed: I had a nightmare that I was late picking everyone up the next day.
Only in MN:  Mall of America.  Also, learning Dakota words like "Minnehaha" (it means falling waters).

Sunday
Pick up: 8:20am.

Morning: The hotel was by MOA, so we took the Blue Line downtown. We found the Mary Tyler Moore statue, though none of us remember the television show.  Breakfast was at Hell's Kitchen and we got to sit in the Far Side Room.  This is not related to the crazy chef on TV.
Part 2 of the morning was walking across the Loring Greenway and Loring Park to the Sculpture Garden.  There were varying levels of interest.  It was starting to really heat up at this point.  So we got on the bus and headed off to baseball.

Afternoon: We saw a Twins game, including what may have been my first in person grand slam.  (It was the good guys who got the grand slam.)   This is only my second time visiting the Twins Stadium.  Big Cousin has been there both times. After the game, we all had quiet time and several of us got to take showers.  I was hot and gross and I do want my family to continue to enjoy my company.

Evening: Tiny Diner was actually a request of Big Cousin and he remembered it from last time.  We had cheese curds as an appetizer. Then we went back to the hotel and the boys swam while the grown ups hung out.
Only in MN: Mary Tyler Moore.  Spoon Bridge and Cherry. Twins Territory!  And Cheese Curds.

Looney Challenge - 10 Weeks To Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 33 Miles
Actual: 33+ Miles, not including all the walking we did on Saturday

Long Run Miles Planned: 10 Miles
Actual: 9.51 Miles on Sunday morning before Tour De France

Sunday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout, Sunday Abs
Actual:
Run: 9.51 Miles at the crack of dawn.  I got up at 5am so I could work out and be done in time to see Tour De France
Sunday Kettlebells: I did the workout and a 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 workout, all with a 10KG bell.  (Because it's the heaviest bell I can lift over my head for 7 reps).
Sunday abs: done.
Nutrition: Went to the famer's market after working out.  Sadly, Bogarts was there. Decisions were made.

Monday Planned: 6-10 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 1.21 Miles.  I need to be more honest with myself about how Mondays will be spent.  It was easier to get up and run a long way when I knew I'd be having an eating fest with Qat Lady and My Pooky Bear in the evening.  That has since switched to Tuesdays.
Nutrition: Better than yesterday.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual:
Run 6.15 Miles in the morning, and this was an awesome run.
Lift weights in the afternoon.  Less awesome, but still okay.  It's going to take a while on the squats I think.
Nutrition: Still a work in progress.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 4.55 Miles, mostly a Z3 run, which turned out to be a lot of fun.  This makes up for my lazy mileage on Monday.  As I'm writing this, I realize I forgot to do plyos.  I hate plyos.  Maybe if I didn't have to do 4 sets, I'd hate them less?
Nutrition: OMG.  Just, not right now.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual:
Run: 6.55 Hill miles in the morning.  1 set of plyos that I now deeply regret.
Weights: Done in the afternoon 
Nutrition: I mean, I had a bowl of ramen.  We're taking a break.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run
Actual: 4.17 Miles in the morning because weather tomorrow is not supposed to be that fantastic.  Plyos are on hold because my ankle/foot is having an issue.
Nutrition: I just bought beer because family is coming into town.

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Plyos
Actual: 1.21 Miles on Saturday morning.  No plyos, though I just realized my ankle is feeling better.
Nutrition: The boys are in town.