Jan 2016 IRL and a mini link luv
| February 3, 2016 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Let’s get the ponies over as fast as possible, since we already know I’m not putting any goals or expectations on myself until daylight savings time (t=38 days BTW).
MerryLegs
Ha! nothing…..
Farley
I had one ride. The weather is so crappy, the footing so awful, and the mud so impregnated on her coat that while I managed to scrub enough of the mud off to make her half way look like a horse, no way could I put a saddle and girth on her. Her skin is just too sensitive. So I hopped on bareback and had an absolutely freaking-fantastical ride. Walk trot bareback complete with clean 5 stride walk-10 stride trot and repeat transitions (if that doesn’t sound hard you haven’t tried it lately) some sword practice, and refining turns off my seat at walk and trot. She was an angel.
In mid March there is a “School of the Horse Soldier” event coming up. Its sort of a multi-day clinic for cavalry competitions – which I had been prepping Farley to do a couple years back when Nationals were in Reno. The school is a lot of fun in its own right and the instructors are people are people that I would love an excuse to spend a weekend anyways. It’s different, low stress, and fun. Some of my family will be there and a lot of my friends and Fig can go with me. I’m not 100% committed yet so stay tuned. This would be my 3rd School of the Horse Soldier, and ironically I’ve gone on a different horse every time!
Rider Fit
Despite spending the first week or two on my death sick bed, the month wasn’t a total wash.
- 44.5 total miles (as opposed to ~48 the month before)
- Only 7 runs (16 runs the previous month….) which means my runs this month were much longer then the ones in December.
The training theme of January was Base Building; building the long run and I managed to do just that. 2 runs in the double digits, and 2 others that went beyond the 1 hour mark. It came at the expense of my strength work and interval work that’s OK, I’ll pick them up again soon.
I knew from past experience that getting to 10 miles and beyond is an important barrier for me. The toughest wall in training comes at that and once going out for 10 miles is no big deal, it’s never quite as hard to get through the rest of my long runs.
The first 10 miler this month was hard. The only thing that kept me from quitting at mile 7 was the knowledge that I had done just that 2 days prior and the focus of the week was double digit run. And that day was the last day to get it done. So grit your teeth Melinda, and just do it. Yes it requires you to go past the house and do another small loop around the neighborhood. You are 1.5 miles away from that goal. You can just shuffle through it. Stop bitching.
The second ten miler was near the end of the month, a couple weeks later. I had dimly recalled by this point that even though 10 miles is relatively short, I did have a policy of eating on runs over 90 min, so perhaps that is why I was getting so grumpy on these long runs and bitterly trudged through the end of them. (in my defense it’s been both forever since 10 miles was a long run for me, and yet simultaneously forever since I’ve done a run over 90 min….time and perception is such a weird thing).
Ah, good ole’ glucose.
I made the impulsive decision that oreos counted as fuel if consumed on a run, and junk if consumed on the couch and ate one every time I started to notice the transition from blissful day dreaming to bitter self pity. About half way through the run I begin to feel epically sorry for myself so ate all my remaining oreos…..and was quite happy for the rest of my run. Score!
- 3 long runs
- 1 hike
- 2 easy runs
- 1 tempo
Plans for this month….
I signed up for a 25k (15.5 miles) this Saturday. Last weekend when I was faced with doing 12-15 miles unsupported by myself I saw this race on the schedule and impulsively downgraded my run to a 10 miler.Weather should hold, it’s on parts of the Western States Trail, which I’m obsessed with, and I probably won’t have to pump during it. It also plays into this month’s focus of “Hills and Strength” well. Sounds like a good idea to me!
Pregnancy (post) notes…
For those of you reading along for a pregnancy/post partum tip, I have a word of encouragement. Remember when I posted that 6 weeks was like a magic turning point? 3 months was another one for me. Post run hip pain got significantly better, pelvic floor soreness after long runs has all but disappeared, and incontinence during running and riding magically went away. Hallelujah! My super secret ultra plans this spring might actually happen after all.
Link Luv
My site and blog reading is even more dismal than last month, so it doesn’t even warrant its own post. Since I don’t actually have a single link. *insert sad hysterical laughter*.
I did read some good books (only books that I rate as at least a 4/5 stars get featured here).
- The Peter Grant series is just getting better and better. “Foxglove Summer” is the latest and best so far.
- The Night Circus. Was a 3 star book until the last 25%, when the different ties and style of writing came together so beautifully I had no choice but to give it a 4 star – recommended without reservations.
- Spark Joy. A non fiction book about organizing and tidying. I like throwing stuff away and organizing, but I still found some new ideas and insights in this easy to read, simple book. It came at a great time, as I was unpacking and organizing a very tiny apartment for our family of 3 (and two large dogs…) to live in for a couple of months. I thought I had whittled down our stuff to the bare essentials, but was able to throw even more away and it’s made a big difference is allowing me to just sit in my home and relax.
- Fated (Alex Verus series #1). I won’t lie. I’m a little tired of urban-fiction-with-magic books right now since I’ve been reading SO MANY of them. So that, combined with the writing trying just a little too hard had this book squarely in the 3 star category…..but then about half way through it really picked up and didn’t annoy me and I couldn’t deny it deserving a 4 star rating since I shelled out money to buy the second one as a kindle book since my library only has the first one.
- Feed, by Mira Grant. I’m also a little tired of zombie books. And this one didn’t really grab my attention until about 1/3 of the way through…but then I couldn’t put it down and I spent all morning playing hookey in order to finish up. So it deserves to be here too :).
- Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. Fantasy done right and reminds me of all the fantasy series I got to read courtesy of my sister Redgirl’s love of the genre and willingness to read through the crap and then lend me the good stuff. I finished the book a week ago, and daily I still think about going back to my ipad to read it, only to remember (sadly) that I finished it.
Pictures from this month’s adventures
If I can’t be on a pony or running, a hike is the next best thing to beat cabin fever. Checking out new trails with Fig. Must be the beginning of the hike since we are dry and a shower burst half way through fixed THAT.
Just a wee bit of cabin fever going on here.
Official 3 month photo.
But why no pony pictures??????
Because it’s dark, muddy, rainy, and the ponies are currently indistinguishable from the dark mud pit they currently reside it, or at the very least are not very photogenic – and even if they were photogenic I’m too busy trying to stay upright in the mud while capturing said ponies to whip out my camera. Spring is just around the corner…..
School of the Horse Soldier sound AMAZING. And I have long been convinced that Oreos are the perfect workout food.
It’s been close to 10 years since I’ve been to one so I don’t have any pictures I can share, but it is SO much fun. You start off bareback, do formation riding, jump, dressage type stuff, swords on horseback, pistols at balloons on horse back, fencing practice on the ground, packing out a saddle, a “long” (1 hour probably) cross country trot exercise at night fall with an attack at the end etc. Lots of different stuff over 3 days.
Rain = mud, but also lower hay prices 😀 So I keep telling myself…