Still in Ireland, heading from Galway to Dublin, then home. Had a nice race on Saturday. Sunny and warm, not “normal” Irish weather, although maybe it’s the new normal. Took a lot of pics, will post a couple after I’m home.
QOTD: are you up on your family roots/genealogy? My dad has tracked down every last ancestor here in Ireland. My mom’s side of the family is a little more complicated, but seems to be mostly Irish/English/Scottish/German.
Anyone hear from AT lately? I know he’s got some Irish genes like me.
5/11/24 Grizzly Peak Marathon, Berkeley, CA
7/20/24 Tahoe Rim Trail 56 miler, NV
9/21/24 Mountain Lakes 100, OR
Are we there, yet?
Thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Ireland 10 years ago. Only regret is we tried to see too much in too short a time. Actually found a beer I enjoyed from the Dingle Brewery.
QOTD: One of my uncles traced one side of the family back to colonial days. There are Boones and Lincolns included in the family tree. My brother did some tracing and followed our roots to Tennessee where we still have many relatives. He also verified what we all thought was one of my father's tall tales that there is native American blood 5 or 6 generations back.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Yesterday, I did a really good strength training routine here at the house. I think I may have finally successfully incorporated that into my regimen. This morning, Tuesday, I ran/hiked the 2.3 mile loop in 30 minutes, about 13 minutes per mile.
QOTD: I think most of my folks came from Wales, but I don't know for sure. I have a distant cousin who can tell you everything about one side of the family going back to about as far as records were kept. She is in her 90's; I probably need to sit down with her again and get a refresher. They ended up inheriting the bulk of the original Spanish land grant that was given to the Day family.
On Ireland, one of my favorite things about teaching high school English was my poetry unit. I would spend at least a month on that unit, and we covered a lot of Yeats; he was my focus because I could always see what he was describing, and Galway was always part of that. I would take it an extra step and throw in about a week where we studied Gaelic mythology, fairies, nature goddesses, etc. I always found that interesting in college, and I felt like I made it interesting even for kids who didn't really seem to "get it" at first. We always ended with a portfolio that I found to be impressive. I just sort of let them feel their way through it with sort of an open-ended conclusion. It was really fun.
LB2
Trails
My mom is German, still has the accent. I spent 5 years living in Germany and visited my aunt (mom's sister) a couple of times. I speak very little German and she no English so it was interesting. My dad's side is western Europe. They did the dna thing and it said mostly the German/Switzerland area. Except for a sister my dad's side is all deceased now.
SRD today. Doing some stuff around the house (switched out the upstairs thermostat, etc) and I may pack for the weekend later.
qotd: we have the broad info (German, Welch, French, Scandinavian plus some other stuff… ) but not details on actual folks/names earlier than 1 to 3 generations ago.
tbd.
A full day yesterday with a strong rowing session, an uptempo trail run of an hour, and then a good mountain bike effort at my nearby venue. Happened to still have my Garmin on when I biked which I normally don't and I was surprised to see my heart rate was above redline for most of the time. Lots of anaerobic stuff going on. Had to make a conscious effort to back off on my pace on the climbs. Interesting for me anyway as on a road bike I can't get my heart rate up much.
Weights this morning then some intervals in the woods. Planning on mountain biking later around supper time.
QOTD--Never had much interest. I'm a basic American from the melting pot. German , French, etc. DW is melting pot scandinavian. My father had a big interest in that stuff and when he'd try to tell me about it my eyes would glaze over and I would start to nod off. Maybe someday I'll wish I had paid attention.
4 miles this morning with Chowder and another 3.5 tonite with the brewery group. Lots of yard work still overflowing from the weekend. That’s starting to wear me down.
qotd: lots. DS and my nephew both have gone back pretty far. German/Luxembourgish/Norwegian. Apparently since I have an unbroken male line from my great grandfather, I am also a luxenbourger and can get my dual citizenship. Thinking seriously about it— mainly so I can go to Cuba.