Mornin' (barely) everyone.
Everyone must be sleeping in this morning for me to be the first one posting at 11:50.
Yesterday, I helped my BIL and his DW pack up a U-Haul truck for their trip back to VA. It took us about 2.5 hours at the storage shed where they put everything, and there was some very heavy stuff, so my legs and back were a bit unhappy by the time we finished there. They had a little more packing to do at our house, so before I headed back to work I told him to call if he needed help and/or before they were ready to leave. The next time they called, they were already on the road heading out of town, so we just had a quick phone good-bye. So it goes.
I did the first race in our 8-race series this morning - a hilly 5K in Dover, NH. The weather was about ideal: sunny with little wind and temps in the low 50s. A bunch of racwalkers from my group were there, which was good to see. Stephan signed up this morning, so I knew I'd be shooting for 2nd in the walking div. I had my Garmin on, but chose to not look at my splits this time out, and just go by feel. There were times during the race that I felt a bit sluggish, and I wondered if making all those trips up and down the ramp to the truck with boxes and furniture yesterday wore me out. But I checked after the race and, according to the Garmin, I finished in 32:11 for a 10:10 average pace, which is faster than I've been in a while. So maybe I need to do more truck-loading on the day before races. As expected, Stephan won the division, and was about a minute and a half in front of me.
We're going to visit friends for dinner tonight, and I have to bake a cake, and I also want to try to get some yard work done this afternoon since we are expecting rain for the second half of the day tomorrow.
Have a greta Sunday!
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
The only thing stranger than Jay starting the daily so late is that I'm the second to post from 4 time zones later! Everyone must be enjoying spring. Nice job on the 5k, Jay. I ran a race without my Garmin once (not on purpose, I forgot it at home) and ended up PR'ing that thing. Maybe there's something to that?
Our pollen counts are extremely high for birch at 3343 (anything over 1500 is considered very high), and our deck has a fine layer of yellow powder on it. So far so good with the Nasacort, so glad that stuff is OTC now. I'll go out for a run later but doing house stuff now on this absolutely gorgeous but a bit breezy day.
Marathon Maniac #957
Jay - I admit it seems sort of bizarre to me that your BIL would pack up his family and truck them out there without first scouting, approving, and closing on a house. What an incredible amount of work for them and for you on that wasted round trip.
Steady rain here today. I am joining Erika in home care stuff, cleaning a bathroom and the kitchen and vacuuming all around. Now I am working on enrolling our family in the annual insurance process through my DH's employer, Montgomery County. We are currently grandfathered into the older, better health plan option. New employees don't have the option of this plan, which costs more but gives better benefits. If I do the enrollment wrong, and sign up for the wrong insurance, we won't be able to get it back, so I am carefully reviewing everything before I hit "submit." Oh, the pressure.....
5.8 miles for me this morning in 49 degrees.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Nice racing Jay
Erika and Holly - I have a condo that needs cleaning....
Spent the day with Henry's DS, DIL & GD. we bought sandwiches and went to the Arboretum for eating and smelling lilacs, picking dandelions & violets, etc. Lots of walking! GD hates to say good-bye, so it's always a meltdown on leaving and hugs & kisses when she comes in.
marj
Jay, good job on a speedy 5K race. Nice long runs for Mike and evan.
This morning, it was about 40° and almost calm. I ran 5 miles at a 10:57 pace.
A good day and good runs for all.
TomS
Ha! Nobody would ever ask me to clean their house if they saw mine! It's all I can do to keep up with the clutter and the cat hair, and I sometimes don't come close.
I also think Jay's got some strange family... who would do that? It's one thing to be spontaneous, and another to just fail miserably at any sort of planning.
Holly, be sure you really do get better benefits for the premium. It rarely works out that way. We have a lot of employees who "love" our lowest deductible plan but they don't realize they pay so much more than if they had the cheaper plan and the worst case scenario for health issues happened. We try to tell them, but they don't listen. I guess it's a form of budgeting. But remember, all plans cover preventive care at 100% so if that's all you get in a normal year, go for the lowest premium.
Ok, too much time doing errands and shopping. I'm heading out in the glorious sunshine and 65° for a 5-6 mile easy run. See ya!
Wow - light day today. Everyone must be out doing "stuff".
I can't imagine going through all that work to pack a trailer with all of my belongings unless I was sure I was moving. You're a good man, Jay. Tell us about your cake
And I wish we had lilacs to smell and dandelions to pick. It's been colder than he#@ here. We're lucky our grass is green!
Soooo looking forward to meeting Erika and Holly. And Aamos, and Starr and all of the assorted DH's. Slo - I hope you'll think about coming to our pre-race party.
11 miles this morning with the Cellcom training group. Not a real great day for a run. It was 41° and 20 mph winds when we started. There's just something wrong with having to wear mittens at the end of April. I'm running around a 10:10 minute/mile now but I've decided that's life in the "slow lane," and it's all good. Then I went to DS#1 and DIL's house and helped them work in their yard for a few hours. My 5 and 6 year-old grandson have a new trick since moving to their new house. They push the garage door opener by the back door, then run and grab onto the bottom of the door for a "ride up" Their parents were not pleased, and appropriate discipline was doled out....
We're going to watch the Revenant tonight. I heard it's kind of long and I'm hoping I can stay awake!
Jlynne, 10:10 sounds fast to me! I have slowed down a ton, but then again, I've put on some weight - combo of an 8 hour a day desk job - which I have never really had before, and post-menopause. I mean seriously, I don't feel like I eat that much, but the weight won't budge the way it used to when I would run a lot. Can someone confirm that menopause has this effect, or is it all in my head and I am making excuses?
On a positive note, I had the best long run today I have had since I started this training cycle 2 months ago. My knee and feet were totally fine the entire time, and I even had some sproink! 12 miles at the bridle trails, with 4 miles of those up and down a beautiful residential street that has a shaded gravel path. I'm very happy with that run as I was expecting a slog. 60-65F and beautiful!
Oh, back to Jlynne, yes, mittens in April is just wrong! And that is a great idea your grandkids had with the garage door. I'm a bit jealous!
My water heat stopped working. It is the one for the kitchen and main bath. Good thing is, we never use the main bath for showers, so I have very little incentive to get on this and get it replaced. I can use the sterilize option on the dishwasher to heat the water in the meantime. My DD also broke the hinge off her bedroom door, and the patio door lock felt apart. So I have 3 fix it jobs on my list. I LOVE being a single Mom!! No, seriously, I don't mind fix it jobs at all, I just don't like that I have a million other things to do to as well! Like yardwork...for one. Of course Mr. Blue Eyes wants to come over and install a new heater for me - he says it is easy. But I don't like being 'rescued'. Too much Scottish pride and stubbornness.
ETA - Jay - way to go on your race! Maybe there is something to that - leaving the Garmin at home.
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
My excuse for posting late is that I am still down in San Antonio. Today was the last day of the conference and my turn to yak. It was a 15 minute discussion of someone else's paper. It seemed to go well. Then DW and headed off for a Texas barbecue lunch. A very good place called the Smoke Shack. Someone from the Travel Channel was there filming. Very cool! Food was really good. Who thought a grilled cheese and smoked brisket sandwich could be so good! True, you only have a 50-50 chance of surviving the ensuing heart attack, but so worth the risk!
Oh running, quite a nice one for me this morning. There is something called the river walk in San Antonio. Turns out it is about 10k if you run out and back to all of its tributaries. I started out on my own but about 2 miles in to the run ran into, so to speak since we did not really collide you know, another participant in the conference. In her case, she had a paper on the program. A good one, it was on the program for the conference I attended last week. Anyway, she had run the river walk the other day and gave me a running tour of the place. Very sweet gal. About 20 years younger than me I would guess. An assistant professor at the University of British Columbia if I recall correctly.
coastwalker for the relay team, I was thinking maybe you could help us move all of our stuff to the starting line. Then if we did not like the hotel maybe move us to someplace we do like. Unless that is a dud then move us . . . Man you are a saint! I would be in jail for manslaughter if I were in your shoes. On the plus side, if I was on the jury I would let you off.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
Sayhey! MM#130
Hiya!
Redsox on TV, so must be brief.....
Jay, that is outstanding. My first mile is often slower than your pace, and I think you are great. For so many reasons.
Sent some photos of the lilacs at the Arboretum to the RD of the Mad River Maratin Vermont. It snowed there recently. Love that place!ins,
Jlynne, sorry you can't shake the aches. Maybe we will bring in such vast amounts of good cheer that we'll bust up the pain.
Pitch Perfect 2 is a totally fun movie. Gotta go get DH' s pizza out of the oven and watch the bottom of the third!
grins,
A
https://agratefullifedotnet.wordpress.com/ (for a piece or two of my mind)
MM #5615
Hello everybody!
Since this was the first weekend day without rain for awhile, I spent the day doing yard work. I stopped long enough to go for a 10 mile run, though.
Now, I have to prepare for some kind of presentation a committee I am on is giving at church, tomorrow. We had a meeting about two weeks ago on what we're all supposed to talk about...but that was two weeks ago. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.
Nice race, today, Jay. There is no way I could have done a race the day after helping somebody move. Very nice job.
Okay--that's it--gotta go--see ya!
MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
old guys just have to call it old age
and post-menopause.
It's all very sobering, especially when we found out today that our classmate who said goodbye to us at last Saturday's 55th HS reunion dinner died today. No wonder we're adding every five years' birthday anniversary to our reunion schedule so the next one will be in 2018 when we're 75 instead of having to wait until 2021 when we're 78-yo's. My two best friends and I've already promised to do our best to be there. I hope so.
.
However, having grandkids like jeanne's, tom's and all sure helps.
In fact, I wish my GS could try out that garage door.
I'd sure let him do it and when my DD'd try to get him down,
he'd just say what he did when she called him off the steep rocks
at the Glacier Visitor's Center, . . . "but Papo let's me do it!"
..
But remember, all plans cover preventive care at 100%!
. . . . until you graduate into the retiree version of the same plan
when you need it the most and they tell you it doesn't.
oyasumi nasai.
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)
Yeah Tet, we talked about that by e-mail. Holly's looking at employer plans though, and they do. And I'd love to read the note from your DD after your GS did the garage door stunt...