On the Road Again

This morning at Lake Artemesia

I don't exactly know how or why, but I seem to have got my mojo back on several fronts! And now, stand back, because I'm on the go!

I parked my Vespa scooter several years ago. First, I had a vertigo outbreak in the early spring, before I had put my bike on the road for the season. The vertigo lasted about a week, with two very bad days when I couldn't walk for some period of time due to total loss of balance. I totally lost confidence in my ability to deal with gravity even after the attack subsided - not a great attitude for leaning around curves on a two-wheeled vehicle! Also, the type of vertigo I had, BPPV, is likely to recur. (But it hasn't, so far.) So that took me off the road for a year. Then, no surprise, the bike wouldn't start when I tried it after sitting for a year. I bought a new battery, and last year made another attempt to get it going, to no avail. 

This spring, I determined I had to either ride it or get rid of it. I had been thinking an electric bike might be a better proposition. But I really couldn't see buying a expensive new toy while I had a very similar one parked in my driveway already. In addition, where the bike is housed is one of the sunniest spots in my yard - I was eying it as a place to put more plants if I got rid of the Vespa. A dear friend, a motorcycle maestro, came over last weekend and he got my bike to start right up! I rode around on the street and it seemed sound and appeared to be running well. At the least an oil change seemed necessary before really relying on the bike, so I made an appointment to take it to the dealer for a tune-up (no user-serviceable parts inside). 

The dealer is about 15 miles (and two states!) away, in Arlington, Virginia. I worked myself up to it riding around the neighborhood some, to get both my muscle memory and my systems memory fully back up to speed. My body seemed to know what it was doing (I first started on motorcycles about twenty years ago) but I needed to resort to the manual to remember how to work all the buttons. I really was keyed up for the ride to the dealer, studying maps and trying to memorize the routes, as I wouldn't be able to look at my phone during the trip. To get to Virginia, I would have to go into DC and across the Potomac. The District of Columbia into Virginia can be very confusing, with a plethora of roads going in very strange directions. It would be easy to accidentally end up on an expressway and be stuck there for a few miles. With a top speed of around 60 mph (and cruising capability around 50) technically I could be on an expressway, but remember, this was the trip to make sure the bike would be reliable to try to go that fast. I also certainly need more practice and confidence before doing that again!

The day of the service drop-off dawned rainy. I had scrounged through my closets and found my old riding jackets didn't fit, as the Vespa idle period coincided with my gaining 20 pounds. I scrutinized my weather apps and set off between deluges. I had an uneventful 40 minute drive, dropped off the bike to a nice Italian service guy, and treated myself to a wonderful lunch in a cafe in upscale Arlington. The DC metro has lousy service these days, with the local line closed down entirely right now, so I also treated myself to an Uber the whole way back.

I picked up the bike on Saturday ("we don't often have to remove a mouse nest from the engine!" they said in that charming Italian accent, and charged me about 20% of what I originally paid for the bike) and I had another uneventful and confidence-building ride home. So I'm ready to go! Small local errands, fun rides, perhaps even going off with the scooter gang I rode with pre-pandemic! I call it "fresh air without the exercise" and I've remembered how much of a smile this puts on my face.

But in other exciting road news, I have gone back to running! At least, I've stuck my barest toe in! 

Both knees are currently in an ok state. They hurt, but at levels I can stand. And so far, most activities have not caused them to hurt worse than they feel just sitting around. On my trip to Bellport, I walked more than four miles in sand, and I've been trying for three mile walks two or three times a week. I have a New Year's goal of making it 10 miles in one day by the end of the year. But walking takes a long time to get the miles in - a three-mile walk by itself takes me slightly more than an hour, and I have to get organized, get the right shoes on, put the dogs away, and maybe drive somewhere first. So I decided to try running again.

I've actually had a bit of a Thing about running. It seemed impossible to do again. The mechanics of running are distinct from walking, and I I couldn't make myself do it. My knees hurt, but all the muscles of my legs have been tight. Crossing the street, needing to hurry, I couldn't go into a jog. I would lean forward, then tense up and not be able to do it. I had an image of a face plant in the middle of the street from a leg collapsing under me. 

When I was running regularly, I ran intervals between walks. The length of my running intervals varied widely, from a mile of non-stop running all the way down to 30 seconds, but the technique, of running and then walking for a minute or two for recovery, is sound. The theory of very short intervals, especially for beginning runners, is that you can sustain the mix for much longer than you can sustain just running, and so your body gets more thoroughly conditioned to running. Your heart and breathing rates repeatedly go up to running levels, and then recover before you do it again. I also had a couple of sessions with a running coach who specialized in a technique known as "chi running". It is supposed to lead to fewer running injuries. The essence of the technique is to lean forward from your ankles (not your waist) and a foot will automatically lift up and move forward to keep you from falling. A fast cadence is stressed, with a faster pace leading to longer steps but the same cadence.

After hitting the turnaround point for my three mile walk one day this week, I decided to see if I could overcome this Thing and run. I leaned forward, and my foot lifted up, and then I was running! To the untrained eye, I was "just barely jogging" but to me it was everything. I could feel the muscles in my thighs waking up in surprise! "What's going on here? I remember this!" The form came back to me, and it felt good. I ran just three short intervals interspersed with walks, and then swaggered my way back home, feeling quite a bit taller and more confident. The Thing was gone.

I went out this morning to a nearby trail that makes a mile and a half loop in a pretty setting, equipped with my running watch and running playlists. I walked a lot, and ran my structured intervals for a bit, totalling two loops. I'm highly satisfied with where I am with this, even though I barely kept up with a (young) person walking while I was running. I hope to work up to doing 5K races again, but even if I don't, it's all good. My body is capable, I am capable, and if the body starts to decline, it's possible even at the advanced age of nearly 70 to recover some of the mojo.

I'll leave you with this: schedules and weather finally combined to get us out on the Bay! Yay, sailing! I'm on the go, on two wheels and four, and two feet, and by sea! Stand back, here I come!

Florida Sailing

We woke Thursday morning to a
bright sparkly morning - coffee on deck!

 On the Thursday midnight deck watch, things were definitely looking up. From there on, sailing was more like the other trips I have been on - requiring layers, bouncy, but overall warmer and less challenging. On that midnight watch we were closing with the Florida coast. We crossed back over the Gulf Stream, and saw the Bahamas light on the up ahead on the left, marking the Florida strait. To the right up ahead, we couldn't spot any land but there were clearly lights looming on the horizon lighting the night sky in that direction. 

On that watch, for the first time ever in my life, I observed the movement of the stars. (Or, as my NASA scientist neighbor pointed out, the rotation of the earth causing the apparent movement of the stars.) We were headed due south, and that put my one sure star constellation, the Big Dipper, right behind us. We had a bright sky, no clouds, and the looming light pollution from Florida was still far ahead and in the other direction. The Big Dipper was upside down, emptying its contents down to the sea below. I followed its two pan stars straight down to Polaris, the North Star. I located it right away as I got on deck at midnight. Three hours into the watch, when I went to look at the Big Dipper again, it had moved! Now it was sideways, holding some of its contents back. MAGIC! A few nights later, one of my watch mates showed me how to use the big dipper to find Arcturus (follow the arc of the handle) and Spica (spike that same line out farther) and finally a small square constellation called the "spanker" that was always oriented to true south. (Repeating the mnemonic for my own benefit.)

Thursday morning - this is one of
most comfortable spots because it
has a back rest!

That morning I hung out on deck for after-breakfast watch before mine, with the weather finally conducive to being up there with nothing to do. As it turns out, the Captain decided to set more sails without calling out more people. And it turns out they have a saying, "on deck, on duty"! So I got to actually help haul on big heavy lines to raise the main and trim the other sails. And, my help was actually useful and even necessary. They have a big racket device where two baseball-bat sized sticks are stuck in and used as levers, and that is used for final grinding up of certain things. I got to serve on one side of the rachet for the first time! It was hard! My shoulders and biceps felt it, as I put my whole weight into it.

Friday off the Keys

As the day wore on, we came in reach of cell phone signals from shore, followed shortly thereafter by visual. We followed the southern curve of Florida along from Miami and then along the Keys. Remarkably, the wind followed along behind us, making the same curve. And for the first time, it was T-shirt weather. Friday afternoon found us off Key West, and then we shot through the passage between the Keys and the Dry Tortugas, and finally headed north. Still, the wind followed us! Though, it dropped in strength considerably.

The day spent off the Keys was different. We were in contact with the shore, both via cell signal and also the VHF radio at the wheel was full of chatter. After several days of seeing and hearing from no-one else, it felt like we had emerged from some other world. I did not check news, only texts and emails. I figured I didn't need to know anything about the larger world beyond my friends, family and neighbors. Several of the crew members had spent time on boats in Key West, and they reminisced about the boats and the lifestyle (some of which we heard from on the VHF radio!). As the weather had moderated, making it easier to move about the ship with fewer layers on, boat chores piled up for the crew. 

The crew in the rigging doing chores

As we headed north, and the wind dropped, it got hot! We were going to be early into St Petersburg, but there wouldn't be any dock space available until Thursday. So there was no point in making the kind of excellent time we had been making up till then. With the wind dead behind us, on Saturday the captain dropped the large fore-and-aft sails on both masts and at the front, leaving only the square sail high up on the foremast. (The "foretop"). With just this sail up, the awnings could be rigged - one between the two masts, and one over the boom all the way to the back of the boat. The shade was VERY welcome - it felt like 20 degrees cooler immediately. 

In charge!

So we poked along at 3 knots (roughly a walking pace) for the rest of Saturday and Sunday. There were many boat chores to be done aboard - sanding and painting, polishing, sewing leather chafe gear to strategic places on the rigging, adding more "thimbles" into the rigging to feed lines through, reducing tangling. With the boat doing only a little bit better than drifting, the crew left the handling of the ship to us guest crew. We took over the helm and the boat checks, letting the crew get on with specialized tasks uninterrupted. No-one needed to touch the sail for those two days! I felt pretty good about being in charge until I heard the chief mate say to the second mate "it's not like they can hit anything of even go far off course at this speed!".

A word about the crew. The bulk of the crew is in their twenties, with one just 21 years old. I was happy to note that 7 of the 12 professional crew were women! (Apparently the Pride has made a point of having a co-ed crew from the very beginning. I'm just a little too old to have jumped on this, but I'll never know if I would have had the nerve anyway.) The Captain is roughly my age, and has been with the Pride project from the beginning, back in the late 70s, though not exclusively and not always full time. Last year, they appointed another Captain, and the two of them now trade off voyages, allowing time for other pursuits. But I've only sailed with this Captain, and I wonder what life would be like under the other. This Captain had his management style from the 1980s described as "likely to bark orders and corrections" - still true! But this first of the season shakedown voyage involved a great deal more explanations before executing maneuvers, and I really appreciated it. 

A view of the salon and the galley
Good head clearance, and the only actual place to sit
Also one of the many many ladders,
and the support pole for the mast

The First Mate is a woman just shy of 40, I'd say. She has been aboard the Pride and several other ships, but has also been a world-class roller derby champion and and general contractor, among other gigs. She was my watch leader, and so we had some downtime to hear life stories. She is convinced she is right to be going to sea right now.

The longtime cook quit just a week before the voyage! The organization went to town beating the bushes for a cook, and the poor woman they got had never been on a boat, had never cooked professionally, and was a vegetarian who had never cooked meat. But she was very game! (She was also a former world-class roller derby queen, currently at loose ends.) She fell, she got seasick, she got burned, but she got right back up and kept things going. So the food was very basic, but it was more than just edible. We had scrambled eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, with bacon or sausage some days. Lunches were leftovers from the night before, and sandwiches or wraps (including the crew favorite fried spam one day). She had an always-on diesel stove and oven, where burner strength was handled by moving pots closer or further from the hot side. Until we turned the stove off when we got to Florida, and she had to learn to use the propane stove. She also had a giant electric rice cooker and equally giant electric fry pan, and even though the engine was off, we ran the generator twice a day to charge batteries and make enough juice for her to use the electrical appliances. She made brownies one day, but could only do it when the angle of heel wasn't extreme - otherwise all the batter would slide to one side. Dinners were spaghetti, sloppy joes, meat loaf, baked salmon. Plain, but more than just edible, and very appreciated.

I got to know and like my watch mates. The two professional crew members included a very personable young man from Berkeley, CA, and the 21-year-old woman from Tampa, our destination. Both had been working on boats for a while, but were mostly new to the Pride. They had rigging skills and were happy to keep busy with boatkeeping chores during the day watches, but at night we all sat around the helm, taking turns steering and doing boat checks, but with plenty of time to talk. I think of the young man as "1911 guy" - he dresses in classic seaman's clothes, and when everyone else was hunched over their phones at first contact on Thursday he grabbed his paper journal. The young woman was "Florida girl", left home at 17 and has been working on boats ever since. She was crew on a school ship that had college students, and I think she learned a way there of distancing from the students that spilled over into some distance from us guest crew. But she did love to talk about herself! The adage of "ask them about themself and they will think you are a fascinating conversationalist" was rarely more true. I liked hearing about her experiences and life goals, so different from mine. 

Sunday night a large pod of dolphins came to join us! There was a mother with two babies, and several other adults. They stayed playing in our very placid bow wave (still traveling at 3 knots) for a long time - maybe 45 minutes. They were truly magical and a delight to see.  We could climb out on the rigging supporting the bowsprit and get right above them. We had also seen a few dolphins that didn't stay long while we were out in the ocean. There in the ocean we also saw windrows of floating sargasso weed (Florida girl retrieved some and identified the tiny critters that live there) and many many schools (flocks?) of flying fish. They scoot along in the wave troughs, and I was always surprised how long they stay up and flapping. They truly look like birds at first glance. The first time I ever saw them was on the voyage to Bermuda two years ago. We also had some luminescence in the wake and on the white caps.

Sunrise at anchor in Tampa Bay

Early Monday morning, after my midnight watch was over, the engine started up for the first time since a week ago Saturday - 9 days and 1200 miles ago! Our single sail came down. We were entering Tampa Bay, which is crazy big - much bigger than I thought. Before breakfast, I heard the anchor go down.

It was Monday, and we couldn't go the last few miles to St Pete until Thursday. The plan was to stay there and do more boat keeping, including putting the dinghy over the side and painting the hull. It was pleasant weather and forecast to stay that way, but I was tired. Also a bit stir crazy - I was getting the fewest number of steps ever recorded on my fitbit. 

My cabin mate, Florida Man, was even more ready to get off. He is a very serious sailor, but had no interest in scraping and painting, and he didn't have the arcane skills of splicing, worming, and servicing that was going to be done on the rigging. And he had clashed with the engineer, and knew that though he had skills, she was not a supervisor he would like. But Florida Man lived about 30 miles away and thought how nice it would be to beside his pool with a cold beer in his hand, rather than rocking and hot on the boat. As the Captain reviewed the plans for the next few days, FM asked about the possibility of going ashore. The captain declined, citing distance and time to get to a landing place. Florida Man countered with other ways to get ashore, and the Captain was accommodating, if FM could arrange it. I asked him to book two seats on whatever he could do, and went below to pack.

Florida Man called the closest marinas looking for water taxis or a pickup, but no-one was interested. He asked the Captain if it was ok if he simply flagged down a passing boat. We had attracted a fair amount of attention, being so beautiful and distinctive. The Captain was concerned for his paintwork, but he thought they'd be able to rig something safe for us and the paintwork both. FM had also checked for rental car availability, but came up with nothing at the two local airports. He didn't have ready transport available to come from his end, but then he checked into Ubers, and figured out it would be in the neighborhood of $100 - if he could get someone - and decided it was still worth going for. I checked my airline's website early, and they were still selling tickets for that day's flights to Baltimore - they had three non-stops in the afternoon. And, should worst come to worst, there would surely be a hotel room available to go the next day. Very unlike me, I decided to go with the flow.

Jumping ship!

Just after lunch, I heard the hails and realized Florida Man had been successful! I scrambled to finish stuffing my bags, and started to haul them on deck. There was a nice runabout with a couple in it standing a distance off. We had put our own dinghy over the side already, and so FM and I lowered our bags over the side, followed them down the ladder (the curved side of the Pride always makes this very challenging for me) and were driven over the runabout. Again, bags first, then us, and off we roared at 30 mph towards shore! They were a couple from Newfoundland that spent every winter in their condo on the south side of Tampa Bay. They asked where we wanted to go, and we said "anywhere we can get Ubers" - with my destination the Tampa airport and his much farther away south.  So they took us into a large marina, helped us carry our bags to the office by the parking lot. They were so happy to be of help, refused any money ("let us buy you a drink, at least." "No, no, happy to help. Now we have a story!")

I booked my flight home in the uber on the way to airport - that's a first for me! In the airport, I changed from shorts into long pants, in a restroom stall that was bobbing around furiously, making it difficult to get my foot through the leg. The airport continued to bob, as I first sat in a comfortable chair in air conditioning, and then got a hamburger and fries. Last aboard the Southwest flight (last to check in), middle seat home aware of how stinky I might be! Uber home, where my lovely little dog was so very happy to see me. 

It took three days for the bobbing around to settle down. I'm now well rested, and this seems like a distant adventure (except for the bruises continuing to blossom and change color).

Dead Man's Run

The 5K race scheduled for last night switched to an all virtual race because of the storm. But they opened the course for folks to do it on their own, so my girl and I headed down past Capitol Hill to Historic Congressional Cemetary, and ran it on our own. The day was absolutely gorgeous, a perfect 60 degrees for running.

This was my first 5K since the Before Times, and my girl's first ever! Her time was equal to my personal best time, but she is 22 and I was 60 when I made that time, so ok. We both are doing run/walk intervals timed by a watch. My run intervals are slower than some people's walks, but the mechanics of running are different than walking. It's always clear to me when I'm doing which. The advantage of doing these short running intervals is you can go further from the very first time out. Today, at two miles, my thought was that because my intervals are so short and I was going so slow, I'd be able to keep up the run intervals to the end. But by 2.75 miles, the rest of the course was all uphill, there was no cheering crowd, and I was done. I walked the rest of the way.

We had fun, and are signed up for an in-person Turkey Trot next month. 

I hope to train more before then. My knees are part of the limiting factor, but also my lack of cardio fitness. I'm doing physical therapy for the knees, but I've got to get out there for the cardio. Better fitness should spill over to everything else in my life, so the theory (and some of my previous experience) suggests.

In prep for this, I dug down in my drawers and closets and found some running clothes I hadn't been wearing. Some I gave to my girl and some I kept. Yay for shopping my closet!

Flamingos Spotted in the Wild on Morning Run!

 The flock was on a hillside; the solitary was under a viaduct:

In other news, I've started my first slow steps toward running again! It's been two years since I was doing any significant running. I made an actual effort in the summer of 2019, right after I retired, but it all went away in the fall after my mother died. But I'm signed up with my girl for an actual 5K race at the end of October, and I want to make an effort to train for it. This is the incredibly fun Dead Man's Race at Historic Congressional Cemetary, which I have done before.

Me in 2015 at Dead Man's Race
Possibly the most fit I've ever been

I've been walking quite a bit more recently, and when my girl took up running this summer, I got the bug again. My running is Slow AF, but the mechanics of any running are different than the mechanics of walking, so there is a distinct difference between the two. A customary Slow AF approach is to run/walk very short intervals - right now, for me, it's literally 45 seconds of running followed by 60 seconds of walking. But by putting the walk intervals in, I can right from the start of training go a reasonable distance.

I have a target of finishing the 3.1 miles in less than hour. Most of my daily dog walks are at closer to two miles an hour than three miles an hour, and very fast walking isn't comfortable for me. With the run/walk intervals, my walking is naturally much faster than dog rambles, but three miles an hour would be a challenge for me to sustain outdoors (I can do it on a treadmill, level). But interspersing run intervals gets me there nicely - I was just over an hour today.

An added bonus to running:
nerding out on my stats and performance

My goal is to run three times a week for the next three weeks leading up to the race. On the off days, I'll do walks with the dog. Maybe after the race, when I have a base, I'll try running with Bixby. Right now, I don't want to have to focus on managing him while I focus on running form.

Back to Running

Running is very important to my self-image. I like it for itself. I know it brings terrific health benefits. But I really want to be able to describe myself as a runner. It brings a level of bad-assery to my self image that "active" doesn't provide. So, even though I am frustrated at the current lack of progress on my knee healing, I went for it on Saturday. It was the barest possible toe in the water at running, but it was definitely running and I'm glad.

Out and back course - and made it in 52 minutes!

There is a world-wide group of community running organizations, Parkrun, that has several local groups, the biggest and most convenient being in nearby College Park. Every single Saturday around the world they put on free, timed 5Ks. I went and volunteered once in December, right before the knee surgery, to scope it out. Every Saturday this year I've thought of going, but weather and busy-ness kept me from going. To be honest, the sad state of my recovery also kept me from going. I didn't want to be last. I wanted to be at least as fast as their 100-year-old walker! I set a target of an hour and fifteen minutes to do the 3.1 miles, in practice walks. I got there in practices, so it was a matter of scheduling.

When the stars finally aligned yesterday, I decided I was ready to try a tiny bit of running. There is nothing that gets my heart rate up like running, and I really want to get back to it. So, I set my fancy running watch to beep and vibrate intervals:  30 seconds of running, followed by 2 minutes of walking. Yes, you got that right - just 30 seconds of running at a time, followed by four times that of walking. I have read, on one of my facebook groups, about people starting at that low a level, though I never have before.

I felt slightly ridiculous as the first 30 second vibration hit my wrist and I slowed to a walk just 30 seconds after starting. But, the way intervals work, best to keep to them from the start. By a mile into it, it was starting to feel like this was the right level. At the halfway turn-around, it clearly was the right level. It was my goal to be able to still be doing a definite run - not walk - at the finish line, and I made it. I only skipped one run interval, right near the end, and it was because I was talking to some other women along the way.

You can see the effect of the intervals on my pace (above) and even more sharply on my heartrate (below)

So I'm on my way back!

My knee started hurting right away, in the first interval, and I wondered if I could do it. But, I kept going, and as time passed it didn't hurt worse and I was less focused on it. The doctor told me I wouldn't be injuring it, even if I did something that made it hurt, so I just kept going. It didn't hurt worse at the end than the beginning, and I don't think it was worse for the rest of the day, or today.

Another Race Done

Today was the Takoma Park 5K. This neighborhood run is the second race I ever entered, in 2012, and the one I have done most consistently. My time was much slower than before. I refuse to admit that I am now in an inevitable decline due to age. Instead, I see this as yet another confirmation that on race day, it's too late to substitute determination for training. I frankly under trained.

The other way to look at this is way better than the race I did in February. That was the slowest I've ever been. It was snowing, it was on steep hills, and it was freakin' February and I was not trained at all.

This made me go back and look at previous race results. I had compiled many of my results before, so it wasn't a lot of work to go back and bring the list up to date - especially since I didn't run in ANY races in 2017!

What did take some time was making a nice graph of my pace over time. My best year was 2015, where I took training seriously. Here is the history:

Lower on this chart is better- fewer minutes per mile

BTW, for my few but avid readers - I've put some effort into the garden blog, and am likely to do some posts there, as I work to fill the void from the tree and get some renovations done.

Moderation in Nothing

Many things to say on the topic in the title but very quick post before I am distracted. 

I love running!

Just back from short slow run to my music in the cool drizzle. From the first moment I was jazzed, even though it's been a week since I last ran. My motivation is I'm a month out from my local 5K- the one I walk to-my first one ever. 

It felt very good the whole time, which included walk breaks. I strutted back up the hill to my house. I want to capture this feeling and send it my way when I'm huddled on the couch. 

Let's Get It Started in Here!

I'm running, and running, and running...

I've had a good few weeks for running, with some down spots along the way. The first week of July, I ran in a women's 5K in Annapolis, for the second year in a row.  My time this year was two full minutes faster than last year's race!  That is a really big deal.

I joined a tiny little running club, and it's helping me show up.  Way cheaper than personal training, this "club" is a meet-up group. Every Sunday morning there is a rendezvous to run around a little man-made lake, and afterwards we go get bagels. (Except I get coffee, no bagels for me.)  There have been as few as two and as many as six of us so far. Each of us goes around the lake a couple of times at our own individual paces.  I like the company, and I like the repetition because it lets me compare from one week to the next, and I'm definitely getting faster.

In addition to Sunday mornings, I'm trying to run Fridays after work, down on the mall.  It is one of the places people travel from all over the world to see, so why not?  I don't run outside when its over 90 degrees, so I've actually done it twice.  This past Friday was relatively awesome.  Good weather, and I felt good. I put in four miles, which is far for me.

Meetup.com is a website where anyone can set up a group and announce a time and place to get together. I've been to several meetups, starting with the Quantified Self, where I gave my talk about my graphs. I've also been to some technical data visualization sessions, and last year did some hikes. I searched for local running groups, and stumbled on one organized by a guy nearby. Basically, he or the co-organizer decide on rendezvous time and place and enter it into the website, and anyone pretty much can sign up and go.  They also post races members are going to, so I heard about some fun ones. In September, I'll go run the runways at Dulles Airport, a 5K.  In October, I'll be doing the Dead Man's Run at Historic Congressional Cemetery again - and this time, I think I'll have company from our meetup club.  In November, I'm going to run the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - and this race is a 10K - about 6 1/2 miles.  I'll need to get the distance up by then.

I've been looking for a training plan to follow. I've not found anything on-line that works for me, but I've read enough general guidance to figure out a routine that could work. "Tempo" runs are ones where you try to keep a set pace for a certain time period. That is what I tried to do today and succeeded to get my fastest run at the lake so far- no walk breaks.  "Long" runs are what they sound like - set out to go the distance, and pretty much ignore pace.  For me, that means its ok to intersperse walk breaks.  That is what I'm trying for on Fridays down on the mall.  "Intervals" are short bursts of trying to be fast, with slower periods for recovery.  If I am able to do a midweek morning run (by "able", I mean have the gumption, there is no physical reason not to) that is what I should try for.  The dog is not interested in running far for long, so that's another reason short intervals should work for us. I leave him behind on Sundays, and he's obviously not at work with me on Fridays. Since he becomes a boat anchor when he's had enough, that means I need the time both to run and to walk him.

I continue to go to the gym, twice a week. My trainer mixes intense cardiac intervals with the strength training, which is also helping the running.  Pretty much, I have a constant series of aches and pains. My sciatica is my little friend, always there just above my right buttock, sending messages down the leg as far as my ankle.  Both knees are sore, though the right one is more bothersome. I stubbed my toe last week, and after two dog walks and a lake run, it was red and swollen. "Runners logic" said go to the gym, just don't do any box jumps.  Last week, I seem to have slept wrong and got a knot in my right scapula. It's worst when I sit or sleep, however, it gets better with movement. Anytime it rains, I wake up with sneezing fits from whatever gets released into the atmosphere with moisture.   This torrent of complaints is to say this activity may be leading towards "younger next year" but it doesn't mean I feel awesome all the time.  It makes me happy and makes me feel strong, however.

Except the first five minutes, every time. That is such a huge hurdle, and the biggest barrier to keeping it up.  Here is the track record (so to speak) - I want to get the count up for August.

Year of Adventures.... Sort Of

Looking back to the end of last year and beginning of this year, I didn't have much in the way of resolutions. I did, however, express one:  Try to have an adventure at least once a month. An adventure, defined loosely, was doing something I had never done before - something hard.  At least, hard for me.

How did I do?

I almost blew it right away.  In January, on the last day of the month, I went running on the mall, right from work. Pretty weak, I'd say, but it counts.  I did this a couple more times this year, but after my dog was cleared for exercise, I mostly have gone running with him.

February was Rocky liberation, and we celebrated with a hike in Greenbelt National Park. My first time to the park, and Rocky's first hike. It was splendid, and long enough to be really physically challenging for us both.

March was different. I did something social, and hard. I went to a "meetup group" - an event set up with an open invitation on the internet.  This was very hard for me, but actually I ended up doing a few of these this year. In March, I attended the Quantified Self group - the same group I gave my talk to in November. I also attended a Data Science DC group, where there was the author of Cool Infographics, something which I am very interested in.

In April, I did a "Meetup Group" hike, to see the cherry blossoms. It ended up with just a couple of us, but it was fun before work.  I also did the Detox Diet, (which I wrote about in May).  Not something I intend to repeat, but an interesting adventure, never-the-less.

May began the 5K circuit, starting with the Takoma Park 5K. It wasn't my first time, but it was the first race in two years, the first of the season, and I'm counting it as my adventure.

June, I went to the Congo with my family. Adventure enough for anyone.  Not your normal vacation destination. It was particularly good for me to be on a vacation where I could influence nothing, I was just along for the ride.

July was the Annapolis Women's 5K. My first race with a friend. Lots of fun.  I also did two other Meetup hikes, places I had never been before. I was not overwhelmed with the company, but it was good to get out and be at least a little bit social.

August was The Attack of the Killer Tree, and my first ride in an ambulance, my first metal stitches. Not an adventure I want to repeat, but it kept me from the Flee the British 5K I had been planning to run, so I have to count the ambulance ride as the adventure.

September I joined a new gym, and ventured out in public in workout clothes. Before then, I had only worn those clothes to my other, private gym, and only for the 6 am workout. Now, I'm strutting around running errands in my workout clothes downtown.

October was three adventures:  two 5ks and sailing on the Pride, as well as ER trip #2 from slicing off a piece of my thumb with a mandoline.

November was the last 5K race of the year, and my QS talk which was posted on the internets.

December - what have I got to show for the month? I'm doing new stuff at the gym - including bench pressing with the big weights! - and the rowing machine, and pull-ups.  I think that will have to count.  I don't want to count ER trip #3, the cardiac false alarm. I'm sorry I brought it up. Let's go back to the subject of planned adventures.

What will I plan for next year? I'm going to take a vacation to San Francisco for one, in June. I think I need more travel, will have to figure it out.  But I think I achieved my goal, overall, of pushing myself to new horizons this year. It is certainly NOT time to rest on my laurels, but instead move forward.

Excelsior!

Races!

I have done a couple of 5K races, bracketing the weekend on the Pride.  I'm happy with what I did in each of them - they were fun!  I'm into it for the party, and to give myself a goal. There is no doubt without a goal I'm far more likely to bail out on a training run, with no specific accountability tied to each time I have to decide whether to get out there, or stay inside and drink more coffee.

Of note, generally I actually like running while actually doing it.(As opposed to liking how I feel afterwards.)  I have bad knees, a bad back, allergies, sinus headaches, miscellaneous aches and pains, and I want to just give myself a pass.  Often, often, the first five minutes feel bad, and then, gradually, the aches and pains lessen rather than grow, I warm up and get looser, and want to keep going.  This happens over and over, and yet knowing that doesn't necessarily make it easier to get over the hump of getting out there and starting.

The first October 5K was the Historic Congressional Cemetery's annual Dead Man's Run.  I have signed up for this event twice before, and NOT run it for a variety of reasons. This year, I was determined to actually run!

Before the race

It is a fun event, with people in costumes both running and cheering, and music at the start. It's also mostly flat, which is really nice.  Also, I could listen to music while running through my ipod - some events do not allow headphones, to increase situational awareness on the track.

At the starting line

This is a fun family event. Notably, it's the only one I've done in the evening, rather than very early in the morning.

The cemetery is on a bluff over the Anacostia river,
and the run goes out along the trail.

After the finish - happy Nan!

Also, I was very happy with my finish time:  38:15. Yes, some folks pushing strollers with children in them were faster than me.  But I had fun! And staying to listen to the age-cadre results, I finished faster than the top finisher in her seventies - something I failed to do in Annapolis!

Happy Runners!

The second 5K was in Baltimore. They have a "Running Festival", with a marathon, half-marathon, and 5K. My first HUGE event - overall, there are tens of thousands of runners, with more than 4,000 in the 5K alone. Because there was a chance for a conflict with the Baltimore Orioles in the American League play-offs, the start time for every event was moved earlier by an hour. I had to be in Baltimore, nearly an hour's drive away, by 6:30 am!  A friend came to my succor and offered her driveway and house, just a block from the start line, as my place to be.  The real benefit was the access to the house (she was gone for the weekend) and her bathroom - as there were inadequate noisome porta-potties.  Since I had buckets of coffee getting ready, this was huge!

Huge numbers of people in the very early morning

At the start

I also did this one with the friend I ran in Annapolis with. She's about five years older than me, and also brand-new to this as a sport. Her daughter is a marathoner, and also ran the 5K with friends as a training run for an upcoming marathon. I liked the crowds, the noise, and fun party at the end.

It's still early

Nearing the end

They had a QR-scan code on the running bibs
you could scan on your phone to get the official results

Sustainable Training

For the third time this year, I didn't run in a 5K I had signed up for. This one was the best excuse yet - only a week since The Attack of the Killer Tree - but it's way too much a pattern. I wasn't supposed to run after the concussion, and I considered going and walking. But wouldn't you know it - it was a themed run - Flee the British - and the setup included Dolly Madison in costume leading off with the portrait of George Washington under her arm, and followed by British soldiers in costumes with muskets and bayonets. The last thing I was up for was being last in the pack - a very real possibility - and the onlookers all cheering on the redcoats behind me.

(Aside: I am bemused at how we are celebrating one of the most humiliating defeats in U.S. history - the capture by the enemy of our national capital in 1814 with all kinds of amusing "run away! run away!" festivals.)

I bailed on one race earlier because I signed up in expectation of friends also going and they didn't. I bailed on another because it was the day before a 25-hour plane trip and I was afraid I would push myself in the run and hurt the knees, which would then freeze up during the interminable time sitting still in steerage.

So I actually have run in two 5Ks this year - one in May and one in July. My time in July was better than the first one - hooray.  I'm signed up for two more in October - the Dead Man's run in the Historic Congressional Cemetery at the beginning of the month and a huge running festival in Baltimore in the middle of the month, with my friend I was with for the Annapolis race.

When I split my head open, I was actually on my way back from a run with the dog. I had been pretty good at doing run/walks with the dog 2-3 times a week, and longer walks on other days. But it was very unstructured with no accountability, and no sense that I was getting better or progressing in any way.  So after bailing on fleeing the British, I decided to get a more structured, and hopefully sustainable, training plan. Using my Runkeeper app on the iphone, I picked a plan labelled "Beginner's 5K - to finish" and jumped into the third week of the workouts. This was so I would be done with the plan by the time of the next race on October 4. It certainly builds slowly, and actually, even at week 3, took me back a couple of notches from what I had been doing on my own. It involves just three runs a week, with the midweek runs as timed intervals and the weekend runs longer distance-based intervals.  From the beginning, I've been tacking on a little bit extra - one or two extra intervals, but at the timing they suggest.

I have got the dog more in tune with running.  Since there is nothing my Very Hungry Labrador likes more than food, I'm using food to encourage him to keep up and match my pace.  I think perhaps switching back to the relatively short intervals is also good for him. So I no longer feel like I'm engaged in dog abuse.

I also did some runs in running shorts. I bought the longest ones I could find, but they are much shorter than I would normally allow myself to be seen in. I'm more comfortable with the tight but longer running pants. The shorts are good when it's steamy, though I feel like I have to change right afterwards. But paying attention to wearing clothes I like is part of my motivation.

Now my problem is the shortening of days.  It is pitch dark when I roll out of bed. Some days it's hot and steamy, other days its frosty, but it is always dark.  This past week, I changed up my routine. I had been going first down to the stream valley park by my house and doing a mile or so up or down stream, then returning through the neighborhood. This week first I went through the neighborhood, and came back as sunrise was approaching and the trail by the stream was less dark.  I think I may need to switch in a week or so to treadmill running inside, which does nothing for the dog who will still need to be walked.  Or else find a way to switch my schedule to either go to work later, or to run in the evening (I can't imagine running at lunch - no time to change, run, shower, and change back - that would be 90 minutes at least, lunch is more often around 30-45 minutes for me.)  My neighborhood is built on a steep hillside with most of the roads going up and down hill - not good running turf though great walking exercise - and so running out of my neighborhood to somewhere else... not a lot of good choices there either. I'll figure it out, though, and having the specific structure of specific workouts to do on specific days for my chosen training plan is good discipline.

So I'm hanging in there, and looking forward to running for the next twenty years at least. Sustainably. I can't capture here today all the other things I've thought of for blog posts - eating, wardrobe management, etc., but nothing else earthshattering is going on. School has begun, and my girl is settling in. We're establishing new routines, and it is working out fine.  Big boy has his own apartment finally, and middle boy is happy in in his school. Mother is hanging in there.

So that's it for today - the basement and the dump beckon me!

Annapolis 5K

Yesterday was a women's only 5K sponsored by a running club in Annapolis. (There was a run for men afterwards.) Adrian, a friend of mine from my sailing club, had signed up for it and I joined in. It was very different from the TKPK5K - hot, humid, smaller, no headphones allowed.  Adrian is pretty much my only running friend at this point. She is a couple of years older than me, mostly retired, and lives a nomadic and very active and outdoor life, splitting her time between the sailboat and the camper trailer.

Bottom line: I did better than in the Takoma Park - I read the print out of race results, not available yet on-line, but I finished in 40:09 from the chip timer. (TKPK5K was 41:06.) Obviously I need to set a new goal of under 40 minutes from here on out.

I drank a lot of water in advance, and munched a bit of cheese on the drive over. Plus a couple of cups of coffee - so nice not to be seriously dependent on coffee, but it really helps.  Despite the brutally humid conditions, I decided not to carry water on the run - there were sure to be a couple of water stations if I needed it. In general, I'm inclined to follow a rule of anything less than an hour doesn't require water during it, and certainly not sugary fuel to keep going.

I wasn't sure what to wear, but ended up with some compression pants and a very loud wicking top. I got some new running shorts, but hadn't worn them in any workouts and was concerned they might have unexpected awkwardness like bunching up. Didn't seem the time to experiment.

Pre-race homage to Bitchcakes. I did put on shoes, of course. 

Pre-race jitters.

This women's only race was different from others I've been in. There were many more women our age, and as I jogged along, there were lots of women going more-or-less my speed.

I jogged most of the first mile, and from there on walked up hills and jogged most of the rest of the time. I kept the heart rate up and only had one break where it went down.

Many small hills - why did there seem more ups than downs even though we ended back and the starting point?

 We hung around for the awards, including the age-group awards. The top 3 in each age group - including 70-79 - beat my time. Only the sole 80+ runner had a time slightly worse than mine!  What a motivation to keep doing this!

BTW, my running friend just got Younger Next Year from the library - I told her about our friend Chris and that she should really love this book!

Post-race happiness. Note red face.

Takoma Park 5K

I'm just back from the Takoma Park 5K, an event for which I was sadly undertrained.  However, I did my best and that satisfies me fine. I don't have the official results yet, but I had three different devices tracking me (!) and the unofficial results are a pace of about 13:20 and a time of about 41 minutes.

EDIT: OFFICIAL RESULTS

545 278/327  190/219    480 Nan Shellabarger      F 59 Silver Spring MD    00:41:06 13:14 00:41:35 13:23   

It means I was 278 out of 327 (190 out of 219 women) and my time was 41:06 for a pace of 13:14.

I ran the first mile, and from then on, alternated jogging and walking. My heart rate had gotten quite high - over 150 - and I really couldn't maintain that for long. It seems that for this morning, at least, that heart rate was the edge of nausea - my redline.  So I walked until the heart rate dropped and then I'd jog till it got back up and stayed there for a bit.  The first time, I was looking for the recovery rate of 120 but then I thought "wait a minute, this is a race, just go as fast as you can" so I'd recover to under 140 and then push into a jog again.  Just before the end, my left calf started to hurt but I barely noticed it. It's quite sore now, however.

I had half a berry-and-nut smoothie (no dairy) beforehand and a small cup of coffee (I'm just re-caffeinating from the detox). Plenty of water.  No water along the way (didn't think it would help the nausea).

Before the race

PsychoKiller blaring on the sound system. I'm adding to my playlist!

Milling about in the starting pen

We're off!  (Into the sun)

Fast runners heading back the other way

I'm now back with the children and strollers and walkers

The finish!!!

Homage to BitchCakes. Plus I'm strangely reluctant to remove the number.