Wednesday
Run: I did a run/walk, then a run/jog, then a run/walk workout. It was a lot of fun. I saw several neighbors.
Food: I didn't leave the house but I did make a nice meal for dinner for Dungeon Master and myself. I used a chicken karage marinade, but I didn't bread the chicken. Chicken and then green beans went into the air fryer. We also had mushrooms. I have a zillion mushrooms left over.
Run: Wow is it early! I did wake up and run today. And then I did some 'strength' exercises so that I could sort out my Garmin badge for January. I needed 18 minutes on the day and I did get there.
Work: I had a nice day at work. A few meetings that I took from the lanai, and a few calls that I made from the privacy of my inside office.
Evening: We headed over to my cousin's house again for Taco Tuesday. Dungeon Master and Hoosier Cousin are now best friends.
Sunday: arrival day.
Run: I woke up in Georgia and considered a treadmill run but thought better of it. Even laps in a parking lot would be better. I didn't have to run just in the parking lot. Not far up the road I found a sidewalk. I did have to run in circles, sort of. The sidewalk went for some way, but not super far, so I had to make a couple laps.
Drive: I did the morning drive this time and Dungeon Master did the rest. We had a few rest stops in Florida. Including one costume change when I realized that compression socks were absolutely ridiculous.
Arrive and unpack: We got to the house, unpacked the car, and 'opened the place up' a bit. We plugged some things back in, took the cover sheets off the couch, put the patio table back outside, etc. I was surprised no neighbors came to say hi right away.
Supper: We went out. I was emotionally unprepared to cook the food I brought, or to go to the grocery store for actual food. I didn't know it in a real way yet, but Dungeon Master doesn't cook. She bakes. But she doesn't cook.
Internet: Want to know what kind of human you're dealing with? Take away their internet access and see what happens. I knew the local cable/internet service was out and needed a repair or a new wire to the house or some such thing. I'd assumed I could just hotspot off my personal cell for fun internet use, and off my work hotspot for work use. Well. My cell carrier absolutely craps the bed for coverage down here. Their maps swears I'm in a 5G coverage zone but I mostly have one bar of LTE service.
Even though we're away from home, both Dungeon Master and I are working too, so I had one day to get the internet sorted out. I spent most of the night thinking of options, and then thinking about how much they would cost. Oooh, look at all the money flowing out of my wallet.
Monday
First full day in FL.
Wake up: I woke up at 7am exactly, because I needed to call a Toyota Dealer and see if they could give my car an oil change before the weekend. "I don't have any appointments this week, except I have a cancellation this morning at 10:30am" I grabbed that appointment so fast.
Run: I did a run/walk tour of the neighborhood where I'm staying. I aimed for 3-4 miles and got to 3.5
Oil change: This Toyota dealer is PACKED. They were able to get my car's regular maintenance. This is the first time my brakes changed from green to yellow on the inspection. (Yellow means 'this doesn't need to be fixed today, but this repair is coming up in life') I've most commonly seen yellow for my tires, when they near the end of their mileage. They did some service on my a/c system as well. It needed to be flushed, or cleaned out, or something.
It was during this service that Dungeon Master started texting me the cable guys might have the real internet fixed today. So I did not stop at either Xfinity to talk about their mobile service, nor Verizon to get a hotspot from them, as I'd imagined I'd have to do today.
Grocery shopping, trip 1: I went to Costco. The Costco is actually very close to where I've stayed several times with a different family member. I foolishly was like "oh, I'll get this stuff that Dungeon Master said she likes too, and we can share it" It was a kindness, but I can see we are just going to eat seperately for breakfast and lunch. We haven't cooked a supper yet, so we'll see how that goes.
Internet: Glory, hallelujah. When I got home, the local cable people were still here, working on fixing the service. I only had to step in once when the caretaker wanted to see if our TVs were working and the cable guy was not done fixing the problem yet, but was not explaining that in a way the caretaker understood. I got the cable guy a coke and a glass of water, and he solved all my problems. I love him too.
Dungeon Master: Keep in mind, Dungeon Master was already working today. Through the cable guy and the neighbor and all of that.
Family: In the evening we headed over to see my cousin. We took a nice walk around a pond/garden that I enjoy, and had pizza for dinner. The Dungeon Master and my cousin made friends and we didn't leave 'till almost 11pm. It was a lot of fun.
So. Much. Driving.
We started the day in Janesville WI. We hit southern IL around lunch time. Dungeon Master wanted to take me to a special place with very special pork rinds. (I was fine with that.) We got to the restaurant, ordered, and then I ran my mile. I got back in to the restaurant when our food came out.
After lunch, I drove through IL, KY, and TN. Apparently the owner of the car always does the mountains. Nashville was not my favorite place due to traffic. By Chattanooga, I was done driving.
Dungeon Master actually wanted to drive through Georgia and Atlanta, so that worked well. We rolled into Macon GA around 11pm local time. Emotionally it was only 10pm.
8am - Dungeon Master texts me that she's trying to arrange her meeting so we can leave town before the snow tomorrow. Me: What snow!?! Shortly after that I start checking the driving weather.
9am - We've decided to leave today at 6pm. Hotel reservations are updated. I have the whole day to panic pack and panic clean except it's also a work day so not really.
5pm - I am the CHAMPION of panic packing. I know there's something in here I won't use. But I don't know what. I saw Captain Smiley who gave me a big hug, took my left over local food and sent me on my way.
5:30pm - Just leave the house.
6pm - Pick up Dungeon Master. We had to make one stop on the way out of town. Dungeon Master needed to drop off some paperwork for the person who was finally able to convince her to leave today. (I did not meet this person, but I love her.)
Driving across WI in the dark was not my favorite thing in the world. But it was actually fine. There were some trucks, but not a ton of traffic. Dungeon Master doesn't like podcasts or audio books. This will be an interesting trip.
Mom and Dad aren't answering their cell phones, so they don't know I left yet.
So, I was actually registered either for the Flying Pig 3 Way, or the 3 Way with Extra Cheese. I genuinely can't remember. Thursday and Friday I'd done my mile runs, so I had those down. Saturday was the Get in Gear 10K. The next day I'd run a 5K indoor on the track at the gym. And then I was all "crap, when am I going to run a half marathon". As with most things, thinking about it was much worse than doing it.
Race Day
Start time: My alarm was set for 5am. I actually woke up around 4:40am and took it as a sign.
Weather: So much better than Get in Gear. Wind was in my face going north, but otherwise around 45*.
Wardrobe: Shirt and pull over on top, shorts and compression socks on the bottom. I used my race vest to carry my phone plus a portable charger due to a technical fail last night.
Transportation to start line: LOL. No.
Route: I started in my neighborhood and ran along Victory Memorial Parkway. I went around Crystal Lake in Robbinsdale, then back east along the parkway over to the river. To emulate the Flying Pig I crossed the river (first time) and headed north on the Fridley side. With the wind in my face. Then I crossed back over the river (also like the Pig) and headed south with the wind at my back. That was much better.
Plan/Goals: I'd ultimately decided on a run 1:00, walk 1:00 plan. My goal was to beat my last super untrained half marathon excursion which was around 3:36. I really wanted to be under 3:30. I was kind of a technical disaster. My phone didn't charge right so I
had that battery. I'd changed some of the screen settings on my watch
so I was worried the screen brightness plus run/walk alerts would drain
that battery....
Execution: I generally stuck to the 1/1 plan. I walked a couple super steep up hills during my 'run' time, and ran some down hills during my 'walk' time. Adjustments like that were key to my secondary plan of "don't blow up"
Nutrition: I stuffed a salted avocado in my mouth at 4:40am before I got dressed. I carried sour patch kids with me and I had enough for 100 calories every 3-4 miles. I ate about a third of what I brought. I took two salt tabs (carried four). I had one bottle of water with me, and that was enough but if I'd had my second bottle I would've started in on it.
Results: Significantly better than expected. I was able to wrap up in 3:25, with
most of my miles around 15:00/mile, which is about 1:00 faster than I
expected.
Day(s) before:
Expo: Expo is too strong a word, but there was a packet pick up at Minnehaha Falls the day before the race. It was kind of weird actually. The bibs were in one place and the shirts were in another far away place and I did not get a gear check bag. The volunteer thought they'd have them the next day.
Transportation to/from expo: I liked that parking in the lots was included for packet pick up.
Expo SWAG: Technical t-shirt, and a fleece hat. My Minnesota peeps will understand why this is so cool.
Race Day
Start time: Race starts at 9am.
Weather: Absolute crap. Wind and rain.
Wardrobe: I had throw away clothes over running shorts, running shirt, and arm sleeves. I also pulled out an old race belt that I thought would do better in the rain with my car key and phone.
Transportation to start line: Did we talk about the rain? Because I drove to the race. I aimed to leave my house around 7am, get parked close by about 7:30am, and then sit in my car until 8:30am. That's about what I did. When I entered the rain storm, I went to the bathroom, hung out in the super cramped enclosed pavilion with everyone else, and did tai chi but no walking or running to warm up. Turned out better than expected.
Route: Get in Gear follows roughly the Ford/Lake loop. North in Minneapolis, over the Lake Street bridge, South in St Paul and then back over the Ford bridge.
Plan/Goals: I had a few ideas in my head. Maybe run and don't blow up. Maybe run/walk. Mostly don't blow up.
Execution: I started running and I felt good, so I decided to go with a strongly controlled "don't die at the end please" pace and just kept it even. It was fast for me in my current fitness level.
Nutrition: I woke up and had half a salted avocdao smashed on a small bagel. I didn't want much.
Results: The most surprising stat on the race page was the participation. It's waaay up from last year but super way down from where it normally is.
From today, I learned: The "do not blow up" plan worked well. The race is surprisingly difficult at the end. It's just one little stupid hill after another. So I was worn out at the finish, but I had the energy to get there.
Remember for next time: 7:30am arrival time worked well. I got super great parking.
Bonus: I also counted this as my virtual Flying Pig 10K which I feel is legit.
18 months since lock down, with vaccines in hand, it's not necessarily good.
TCM is still going to run the marathon. To protect us and prevent crowding, they made pack pick up one day instead of two. Because that makes sense.
Meanwhile we're running out of hospital beds, kids
are back in school spreading COVID and RSV, and we're waiting for flu
season.
This made things real for me like no other.
How the Mississippi River should look at Coon Rapids Dam (this is normal flow, not flood stage)
How the Mississippi River looks today, in the worst drought since 1988, and the worst drought in the modern history of how droughts are recorded.
When someone asks me what it's like to live to this point in a global pandemic, this is what I'mma show them.
I have questions for YouTube about why CC autogenerates to Dutch though.
We're having a very real drought here in Minnesota. The rest of the country is at flood stage of almost everything. Here's pics taken in the same place at Sherburne Wildlife Refuge, at the side of the road on the same stopping point. One was taken April 28 and the other was taken July 1 this year.
Water is so low.
Well, we needed one that was super close today. That or the activity at the state park had to be swimming. Those were my conditions. We picked close so that we could go early. Why did we need to go early? And how is that a thing either one of us would've picked? Because the high today was projected to be around 100* and that was just not our thing.
We parked near the swimming beach. This was not necessarily the WRONG place to park, but it meant that most of our walk was not on Pike Island. But, I got to see a part of the park I'd never seen before, so I thought that was legit.
This turned out to be much more fun than I expected. I was like "we'll just go so we can get to 8 parks, right?" I wound up enjoying myself and was glad to get out before the heat. When I came home I ran my mile and watered my garden. Then I hid inside in the a/c the rest of the day. This heat is no joke.
This summer we are engaging in L and L's excellent adventure.
Dungeon Master's work is doing a wellness challenge. If you visit a certain number of state parks, you are entered in a drawing for lots of goodies at the end of the summer. So she's doing the thing with state parks and I get to come along for the fun.
We picked Frontenac to start because it's one that does not require overnight planning. I'd been here once before (with my favorite nun in tow, that's a story all it's own) but I didn't remember much. Dungeon Master talked to the rangers and identified a route for us. All in all we walked about three miles, up and down hills, through prairies and forests, and saw all kinds of overlooks. I identified half the plants in the park (not) and re-learned that blood root is bad for you. (I learned this via google.)
After the park we headed in to Red Wing to see the big boot and grab some food. The boot was fun, as always. The food was meh but the server was super sweet, so it was ultimately a nice time. We also went up to Memorial Park (the big look out) in Red Wing.
In a surprise move, when I got home, I went out and got all of the plants. I went big on perennials this year, with only one small flat of begonias. I also went big on herbs, and re-potted my shishito peppers.
Morning: well, it rained all night and it was raining in the morning too. I woke up and had coffee and did crosswords with Dad. Around 10:30, I headed over to Skyline. One last feast? After 'brunch' I finished reading the book I'd gotten Dad and I for Father's Day, so I could leave it here for him. And then, yo, I napped hard.
Afternoon: We took a family trip to the compost bin. Which I remain super happy for because it means Mom will walk every day or almost every day. To compost her food waste.
The big event: I taught a dear friend who thinks she's anti-technology (but is really a late adopter) how to turn on her iPad. Then I discovered the whole damn world was wrong when they told her how easy it'd be. Because yo, she doesn't have an email address or an Apple ID. It takes a minute and technical knowledge to set that shit up. But, yo, we got it done. And as a thank you, she showed me where some of the very very few living cicadas are that have emerged already. I took pictures.
Evening: I did laundry and pretended I don't have to go somewhere else tomorrow. I've been here almost long enough to think I belong here. That was the longest vacation I've had probably since moving to Minnesota. (Not including the moments of not working and looking for work.) It was kind of amazing. Anyone else who gets the chance to take two weeks off, I highly recommend you do it.
This may have accidentally been my most favorite day of the trip so far.
Morning: Ok, this wasn't my favorite part because I woke up with a RAGING headache. (Thanks hormones.) I had coffee, ibuprofen, and a second sleep. During Second Sleep, I dreamed of teaching college level social work classes and doing assessments. (Why can people say and do the same things but present a different clinical picture?)
Late morning: Dad was ready to install what I am calling "Mom's compost bin". Other people are also going to compost, but this has been Mom's dream since 2008 when they moved here. We dug a trench, put the bin in place, but some "brown" in it, and I sweated up a storm. When that was all said and done...
Running: I went for a 'long' run. I meant to do a 10K for 'garmin challenge" reasons. I stopped at 4.9 miles. But for the first time in a few days, I did not poop my pants while running so I'm calling it a win. (My life is what it is.)
Afternoon: We went down to see many many of my favorite people in Kentucky. It was just the perfect afternoon of hanging out with Mom and Dad, cousins, kids, and Aunt Bonus Mom. (That should be her blog name right?) We had grilled meats and fishes for supper. Mom tried Salmon skin for the first time. It's not an acquired taste as much as an acquired psychology to try it in the first place I think. We played many card games including Euchre. There was also Harry Potter trivia. I am the MASTER at Harry Potter trivia.
Evening: Dad and I hung out on the couch and did crosswords and sometimes talked about life. Mom got frustrated at something and was all "I'm just going to do this myself, this is ridiculous" which was hilarious. (She volunteers with a national organization that apparently doesn't understand what the NASW wants before they grant social work CEUs.)
I have one day left. This trip was planned to involve more remote work and much less playing. Work politics dictated I take off all but one day instead. And yo, I can say for real now, two weeks off is more than twice as good as one week off.
Morning: I thought about getting up to run. I literally told myself "learn from yesterday". Spoiler alert: I did not. Instead I had an egg at 9am and then went to hike with Mom, and a couple other people. We hiked out at Rowe Woods (Cincinnati Nature Center) where I lived a couple summers in college working for a lady commonly known as "the bat lady" but also "Belwood". (Neither of those things are google worthy, right?) So in addition to walking around and visiting the place, we saw my old accommodations. That green cottage was way more rustic when I lived there for sure.
Afternoon: I went out for a run and felt great. I genuinely thought I could go forever until I had to poop. I also genuinely thought I was going to make it back to my house. I did not. (This is why we don't take two Imodium. Ever.) So, as soon as I got home, I um, repaired that damage and moved on with life. I hung out with Mom a while and she gardened.
Morning: I had breakfast with a different old KY friend. We visited and talked and it's like we just saw each other yesterday except I can't remember what grade her kids are in. Also, how are they freaking driving now?!?!
Afternoon: My stomach was having issues. I took Imodium. I tried to run. I did get my mile but it was not a super successful run otherwise. Let's just say there were not one but two stops in the woods. For the first time ever I called for a ride home. No one answered so I sat around and caught my breath and then made it home very gingerly. Surprised to say this was not actually the day I pooped my pants. There was a second Imodium though, which is rare.
Running: Again, pretty early in the morning I hit up the run. I didn't go quite as far today, but still had a good time.
Evening: I cooked a 'stir fry' to use up some of the rice cakes we have. I did not use them all. Sigh. Then I dealt with my stomach being in attack mode pretty much the rest of the evening, so that was awesome.
Running: Hitting my stride with this running thing. I found a "downhill" route that involves me running the downs and walking the ups, but I can get it up to four miles pretty easily.
Evening: Saw a couple of the Kentucky troupe again. One had soccer practice. So I sat with the grown up and purchased plane tickets and talked logistics for vacation. Because, yo, vacation! And then I had Skyline at like 8pm and it was lovely.
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