IRL August 2017
| September 3, 2017 | Posted by Melinda under Training journal |
In this “In Real Life Post”
- Introducing Sunny Dee
- Updated picture of Farley’s hoof
- Why I didn’t run in Yellowstone
- Tess’s toe update
- Summer is ending but *this* year I have the best plan yet for not getting all mopey.
This was an “in town” sign. Not even the blatant “don’t you dare run” signs that were on the real trails.
There sure isn’t a lot of miles on the trails for August to explain how busy I was/felt. In Yellowstone and the Tetons there were signs all over saying DON’T run. You could be eaten by a grizzly. So, I ran around parking lots and up and down boat ramps in between family time. Smoke from fires every where I went this summer made me feel NQR and slightly nauseous (listen to your body!). Now that I’m home the extreme heat has made getting on the trails a little dicey. I’ll absolutely still run and be active, but driving out to a remote trail that may or may not have water, all by myself, seems like a giant risk. The line between “how I expect it to go” and “disaster” seems a bit thin. I also had a huge increase in working hours starting in mid-July and I’m still figuring out how to make my new schedule work for trail time.
Running
8 runs total, all runs were under 5 miles.
- Total mileage: 26.5 miles
- 2 additional powerhike practices (and both slower than they should be! Still working on trying to get that magical 15 min/mile pace)
I travelled a LOT in August. Yellowstone/Teton trip, an out-of-town veterinary clinic thingy, vetted an endurance ride that was further away than normal and more. I’m so proud that I got my runs in – even under less than ideal circumstances.
Do I wish there was some long runs in there? Absolutely. Do I think I did really well with the challenges of this month? Yes. It’s important for me to remember that endurance is a series of small daily choices that add up to something in the long term. This month was a lot of fun and contributed IMMENSELY to my quality of life. Not so much to my running fitness *snicker*.
Looking forward
I’m officially off the wait list of the Euchre Bar Massacre and am expected to be training. Ummm…yeah. Need to get right on that.
I’m looking at 100’s next year assuming I don’t get into Western States. Love the idea of the Zion 100 in Utah (spring), and tempted to try the Tahoe 100 mile next summer. Other races that are exciting is the Spring time 4mph challenge put on by the Shasta Trail Runner’s group, and a Fat-ass 50 miler that a friend is hosting at the end of this year. Nothing on the calendar officially except for the Massacre yet!
Farley
One ride in the river bottoms (3.2 miles), an arena bareback ride, and some other hanging out that didn’t involve running.
Her foot continues to look awesome, and she’s sound.
MerryLegs
A lead line run (3 miles), an arena ride where we worked on using the reins and bit (!).
Has been getting various annoying little injuries that haven’t been serious but have been in unfortunate locations….like the corner of the mouth where the bit goes. All have healed but she has successfully gotten herself out of a few sessions because of it!
Horses overall – Horse activities were mostly contained to the a single week where I was home and my schedule was reasonable. Taking the pressure off any goals or expectations has been ESSENTIAL and I’m deliberately pushing away any anxiety that is trying to come up right now as I lay down just how little attention my horses got this month.
It doesn’t matter. I need a break. I need to get to a spot where it’s fun and I’m not going out there because of guilt and because I “ought to”.
I’m getting there. I have really good horses and they will wait for me. I’m figuring out how to prioritize and schedule stuff with my new job and I’m putting a lot of thought into what I’m going to do this winter to keep myself in a good mental place. I’m usually able to get running miles in, and a lot of my stress revolves around the lack of horse time. Which is why it’s CRAZY that I’m not getting in as much horse time as possible this very minute. But forcing it wasn’t working and I *think* that taking a deep breath and rebooting is.
Looking Forward
Did you even *read* my above paragraph? That’s right. There is no freakin’ looking forward until I start getting out to the stable and having fun. It boils down to this: Ride. Have Fun. Figure it out.
Other stuff
Sunny Dee (and a Trail Biscuit)
Green rental kayak for the weekend. (not Sunny Dee).
While in the Redding area on business I went on some kayaking adventures with my parents and the short story is I started looking on Craigslist and found a hellavu deal on a kayak.
Copious amounts of caffeine may or may not have been involved.
Meet “Sunny Deposition” – Sunny Dee for short :).
Bought the $$ type of rack that I can unload and load the 60 pound beast by myself!
I’ve decided life is too short for cross training, but perhaps kayaking can be my version of it. Last night I got a roof rack that I can load Sunny Dee onto BY MYSELF, and a life jacket that is comfy (because if it isn’t comfy I’m not likely to wear it – which is true of all my safety gear. The fact I’m *suppose* to wear it isn’t enough for my brain).
Syrofoam throw-away ice chest cut down to fit in the hatch.
This morning I took her out for her maiden voyage and it went great!
Snack break on a shallow gravel bar.
I…errr…also bought a bike.
Meet *”Trail Biscuit”.
So……when I was looking at Sunny Dee the (very nice, helpful, AWESOME) guy selling her mentioned he had some bikes on Craigslist too. I’ve been sorta looking for a while – I don’t particularly enjoy biking enough to pay a lot of money for a bike….but having commuted on a bike for a lot of years I’m picky. I wanted a Trek. I’m also very short which isn’t as common a frame size.
What are the odds he had a Trek mountain bike in my frame size for the amount of money I wanted to pay?????????
Exactly.
You can see why I handed over another $75 and found a way to stuff the bike inside the Subaru after red-neck tying Sunny Dee on top.
SO MANY WAYS TO ENJOY THE OUTDOORS.
*I asked my non-horsey tech to suggest a name with literary connection, bonus if it was pony related because the bike was so small. She screamed “TRAIL BISCUIT” and for some reason this was SO FUNNY (why?????? why was it so funny???? Please someone tell me!!!!!) we hysterically laughed for a gazillion minutes and now I don’t think I can ever think of the bike as anything else.
Tess’s toe
Tess’s toe wasn’t cancer. Unsure exactly what it was. But not cancer. Whew.
There was some fungal activity that the pathologist suggested was consistent with dermatophytosis (ring worm) – but it doesn’t match what I was seeing clinically so I think that it was probably on the skin secondary to the compromised area and secondary to whatever was causing the swelling.
So that’s that and if we can ever get past the incision healing (WORST PATIENT EVER. Don’t move, don’t lick, don’t be annoying) we can move on with our lives like nothing happened.
Absolutely no regrets for chopping the toe off. Sure, hindsight being 20/20 the toe probably didn’t need to come off – but without the biopsy/histo results I didn’t *know* that, and the cheapest most effective way to treat and find out what it was, was to do surgery. Toe irritiation has a habit of turning into nasty things, and I didn’t want to wait around to see what would happen when the fix was SO EASY.
Although this reminds me of a certain truth I tell clients all the time – the surgery part is easy. Getting the dog to be a good patient for the 2 weeks after surgery is THE WORST.
The end of summer
It is SMOKEY here – enough that I don’t feel good running or riding until it clears up. Lest the haze in the photo fools you – it’s also been zero wind with temps of 105-110 the last couple days o_O
Call it cliche, but I’m going to say it – the days are definitely getting shorter, and there were days this month that there was a hint of the coming fall in the morning.
Not currently of course as I sit here writing this post in the middle of a 110*F heat wave that has me sweating all over my keyboard at 6am, but that’s besides the point.
WINTER IS COMING.
And this year I have a plan.
Even though I feel like I have squandered my entire summer and I don’t even deserve to utter one little complaint that it’s ending because I didn’t do ALL THINGS, I’m setting aside such unreasonable feelings and preparing instead of sitting in denial until November.
Full details are coming in an upcoming post – but I’ll share one of my recent revelations:
- Just because I live in California with relatively mild winters doesn’t mean there isn’t a time for everything. Ignoring this and behaving as if I can do ALL THINGS year round without modification is unreasonable and a major factor in the blubbering depressed state I find myself in every February when winter is obviously going to last FOREVER and NEVER END.
Details soon of my awesome plan!
PS – more pretty pictures
Another pre-Sunny Dee rental kayak picture.
Fig napping with Grandma C
Pre-fueling for a kayak adventure! (notice how red the morning light is – all that smoke!)
Love this !!!
So true!
Preach on about the figuring out priorities
#exactly!!
Soooo GLAD to hear Tess’s toe was/is OK! Had you NOT taken it off, and it WAS malignant, you’d be regretting THAT. Boy, can I relate to the “not riding ’cause it’s so frigging HOT!” attitude. So frustrated that I can’t haul myself out early enough to feed a horse a bit and get a ride in before it’s unbearable. But there IS hope in the weeks ahead…. later or sooner, but eventually. This CANNOT last forever……… Looking forward to your next posts; meanwhile, I’m headed to Pt Reyes for 4(!) days next week; hoping it’s cooler then than what it has been recently! They don’t even HAVE AC there……
I love kayaking. We keep talking about buying one…there’s a kayak launch on a lovely wide shallow river literally 5 minutes from the barn!
OMG “Trail Biscuit” is hysterical! Best bike name EVARRR!! It is SO perfect! As to why it’s so funny? I don’t know. I’m still laughing over it as I’m typing this out! 🙂