The Channels Natural Area Preserve : 1/7/2018

I bought myself some hiking boots for Christmas and today I got to try them out!  I am happy to say that they fit perfectly with my thick wool socks and kept my feet dry and toasty warm on a cold hike through a bit of snow.

It was a cold and windy afternoon up at the Channels today, but at least the temperature wasn't in the single digits like it has been for the last week!  The hike up was a good 3 mile uphill which helped me stay warm, but once we got into the rock channels and up in the open on top, the wind was brutally cold, which resulted in me not lingering long to take photos!  It will be a great place to go back to on a warmer day though.

The hike wasn't on difficult terrain, as it was all on forest road like this.  There were only a few icy spots, but they were easy to walk around on the edge of the road.  There was a stretch that was steep enough to make my calf muscles start burning, but other than that it was an easy walk. 

I love walking through rhododendron tunnels!

I also enjoy having someone else along to take photos of me so I don't have to do so much back and forth with the tripod...

It's too bad the old fire tower is in bad disrepair and much too dangerous to climb...

The Channels rock formations.  

 Lots of different pathways through them, 

it would be easy to get lost if you don't have a good sense of direction!

Since jumping photos are now a standard part of my adventures, it stands to reason

 that anyone who hikes with me must also take part.  

I'm pretty proud of us for getting the timing perfect on the first try! 

Long Run and lots of internet issues

I'm so glad to now be in an apartment that is cigarette-smoke free...but the issues I've been having with Comcast since the move have been ridiculous.  The first day they were supposed to send a tech to set up my cable/internet, he never showed up.  I spent all day calling every few hours and being told to "just keep waiting" even though he was supposed to arrive by 10 AM.  I can't be home during the week, so I had to reschedule for this past Saturday.  It snowed Friday night and was bitterly cold, so it was icy.  They changed my time from 8-10, to 8-8.  And then around noon cancelled because of the "weather" even though the roads had been cleared and nothing was falling through the sky.  I got access to a wifi hotspot, and thought I would be fine.  Then my old account was cancelled, and I lost my access because I can't access the hotspot through my new account until a tech shows up.  I lost access while I was sleeping Saturday night.  No-one yesterday managed to fix my problem.  I was at work all day today.  First person I got when I called today had no idea what she was doing, but pretended she was going to have someone else call me back.  I ate dinner and then called again.  And got someone smart enough to set me up a new username and password that will work.  So I'm back online...and hoping it lasts.  But not holding my breath.  I have a race this coming Saturday, so I can't get a tech out here til the 21st...it's gonna be a long 2 weeks if I can't keep access to this hotspot!

Last week : 

M : 5.5 / 7:27 / 354 ft

T : Wolf Pack 3.5 / 7:52 / 131 ft

R : 14.5 / 7:57 / 892 ft

Sa : 4.7/ 8:09 / 226

Su : run w/Ben 3.1 / 7:41 /118 ft

total miles : 31.3

Monday was supposed to be an easy day, but I found a new hill I wanted to run...and in the process of getting there somehow I started running fast and then I pushed the hill just a bit...so not an easy day.  

Tuesday I again wanted to go easy, but got carried by the group.  I did cut it off short though and let Ben go on and get 6 miles without me.  Wednesday I finally took a day off, which I needed since I had run 10+ on Sunday and then run hard again on Monday.  

Thursday I decided not to wait til 6 to run with the group, and started around 4:45.  I wasn't sure how many miles I would do, I was vaguely hoping for something over 10.  I figured if I still had energy around 6 I would run through the parking lot and run a few more with the group.  I got there right around 6, at just under 10 miles.  I hit 10 while running circles around the parking lot waiting for everyone to get ready.  Then they told me they were running the creeper trail.  I wanted to keep running, but I was getting tired, and knew I was dragging my feet to much to run on the trail with all its rocks and roots.  Last thing I wanted to do was fall on my face.  Also, I don't have a headlamp, and I suspected I was too tired to keep up with the group, but also I couldn't fall behind without a light.  So, I ran 3/4 mile to the trail with the group, then broke off and continued my long solo run.  Somehow I made it all the way to 14.5.  It was long, cold, and lonely out there with no music or partner, but it was a great run and I'm glad I was able to do it.  

I took my much deserved day off on Friday, and then Saturday I shoveled myself a path to the road and went for a jog in the snow.  It was about 10 degrees out, so at least I could run through the snow without getting my feet wet...

Sunday it was about 7 degrees out for Ben & I's jog.  Froze my face off, but the rest of me was fine.  

Snow Day Adventure

I had a snow day on Monday because the roads still weren't quite clear enough for everyone to make it to school.  And I don't think our parking lot had been plowed out in time either.  Turns out Holly just happened to have the day off from work as well, and we were long overdue for a photo adventure, so we took advantage of our mutual day off!  We decided to go out to the State Forest to play around with our cameras.

We could see a bridge from the road that we wanted to get to, but there was no sign of the trail to the bridge.  It was buried under knee deep snow.  My boots almost come to my knees... After some deliberation, I decided that I would blaze a trail.  I got a good bit of snow in my boots, but it was worth it because we had fun taking photos jumping off a log we came across, and I ended up wading into a stream to take photos too.  Always fun to go in the water.  (I have the awesomest boots ever)

timing level : advanced

timing level :expert

timing level : fail

The camera was blinking and beeping and Holly asked when to jump 

and then the camera started clicking and I screamed "now!" 

And I leaped off the log, leaving a confused and entertained Holly behind.

Because who wouldn't want to stand in a stream in January 

when everything is under 18 inches of snow?

It's A Winter Wonderland

I took yesterday off from running to dig out my car instead.

Before.  I had to shovel over a foot of snow off the walkway just to get to my car.

After about an hour : about 3/4 of the way around my car is clear.

And then a guy from across the street pitched in with another shovel, and a neighbor with a snowplow pushed most of the snow out from in front of my car.  Then I was able to pull out and back down the road so he could plow the whole parking strip. 

And then it snowed about 3 more inches. 

Today : my back feels like it's being stabbed by a bunch of knives whenever I move.  Didn't stop me from running though!  Roads are still 95% covered in snow, but I strapped my ice spikes onto my shoes and only had trouble in a few spots that had looser snow that slid under my feet.  Most places the snow was packed down well enough that my spikes worked perfectly.

This week : 

M : 4.3 miles / 7:33

3.3 miles / 7:01 (solo pub run)

T : 6.2 miles / 7:42

R : 4.3 miles / 8:05

F : 4.4 miles / 8:24

Su : 4.4 miles / 8:26

total miles : 27

There was no school on Monday because it was bitterly cold and the school ran out of heating oil.  I suspected that no one would show up to the pub run, and I knew I wouldn't want to run 6 miles in the frigid night air, so I ran a few miles earlier, and then ran a fast solo pub run.  Tuesday's run was also bitterly cold, I found that a 10k was about the most I could handle in normal running layers.  It snowed Wednesday afternoon, and the roads were a mess of slush, snow, and black ice for Thursday's run.  The winter storm hit early Friday morning, I went running around 8:30 AM in the pouring snow with several inches already on the ground.  I would have run longer, but I spent over 1/2 mile running into the wind which was blowing needle like snow straight in my face and it was unpleasant enough to make me decide to be done.

after Friday's run

it requires two shoe laces for each foot to rig on the ice spikes, 

but once they are secured to my feet, they are awesome

In other news, my car title came in the mail in the middle of the blizzard on Friday!  

So happy to be done with car payments!!

In which I dug my car out of the snow. Twice.

Running this week was very frustrating.  After the snow we got last Saturday, the roads never got completely cleared.  It was just too cold for the snow to melt away.  Between the frigid temps (-9 for my Friday morning run to school to turn on the heat!), and the snow covered roads, my runs were mostly short.  My legs got so restless from such short runs, I ended up going for a run on Friday night because I just needed to MOVE!  We only had school on Wednesday and Friday so there was a lot of sitting around at home.

The up-side to all that snow?  I finally started working-out again.  Long overdue.  Doing my first workout in a very long time the day before I had to unearth my car from a snow pile might not have been one of my more brilliant plans, but I survived.  At least that first snow was really easy to shovel.  The cold air helped keep the snow really light so it was easy to scoop up and throw onto a pile.  It only took me an hour to clear my car and all around it; the sidewalk next to it, 6 feet behind it, and 3 feet in front of it.

A snowpocalypse rolled in early Saturday morning and dumped snow on us All. Day. Long. And at least half of the night.  There was almost 8 inches of snow on the sidewalk leading out of my building when I shoveled around 12:00.  By the time I had shoveled all the way to the road, I turned around and the whole sidewalk was covered again.  It took me a good two hours of shoveling this morning to unearth my car and clear around it, and then I spent some more time after my run clearing some more icy slush and moving my car back and forth to get as much out from under it as I could.  It went up to 40 degrees today, so the roads were very clear for my run, but there's still some icy slush glued to the pavement under my car, which is going to freeze solid tonight.

Thanks to an awesome friend with 4wd, I got to go check on Pony yesterday evening.  She was super stir crazy and really wanted to get outside, but then she wasn't really sure what to do with all the snow.  She attempted unsuccessfully to dig through it for grass.  I ran her up and down the driveway a little bit to stretch her legs, and then put her back inside.  

Today pre-shoveling

Today post-shoveling round 1

Today's run on clear roads, in 40 degree sunshine was amazing. It felt so luxurious after the previous runs.  I wish I could have run longer, but I hadn't eaten enough for lunch to get me through much more than I did.  I am very glad I got to enjoy a longer run before the temperature drops back down for the foreseeable future!

This week:

M: workout : 10 exercises*, 5 rounds 30/10

T : 4.3 miles, 1 hr snow shoveling

W : 5.1 miles

R : 3.2 miles, repeat Monday's workout

F : 4.6 miles (AM), 5.9 miles (PM)

Sa : workout 60-50-40-30-20-10**

Su : 9.1 miles, 2+ hrs snow shoveling

total miles : 32.1

*30 sec on, 10 sec rest, 30 sec between rounds : squats, push-ups, plank, leg raises, side plank right, side plank left, burpees, shoulder bridge, lunge hold (switch 1/2way), jumping jacks

**60 jumping jacks, 50 sit-ups, 40 lunges, 30 squats, 20 push-ups, 10 burpees, no breaks.  9:29

The push-ups were the hardest, I couldn't crank them all out without pausing a few times.  I'm going to try to do that workout at least once a week and see how my finish time varies as I (hopefully) get stronger. 

And...because this post isn't already long enough... 

here are some pictures of food I made this week.  

quesadilla filled with broccoli, turnips, and mushrooms, topped with fried eggs and avocado

Sandwich with rosemary pork tenderloin, fried egg, avocado, and a bit of mozzarella

(my new favorite sandwich)

Shrimp-Brussels Sprout Lo Mein

Sweet Potato Pierogies

Last year, we had our first snow day on December 10th and our second on January 7th.  This year, January 7th brought us our first snow day.  I woke up to a 1 hour delay because of the frigid temperatures, with a final decision to be made by 8:00.  8:00 went by and there was no word, so I figured I had better hurry up and get ready so I could get my car cleared and thawed in time to get to school for my early-arrival duty.  Then, hooray, the call came at 8:05, right before I started throwing on layers of warm school clothing.  So I happily stayed in sweats and curled up on the couch with a book for awhile.  And then I went for a run.  I was supposed to take today off, because I ran the last 8 days in a row, but I couldn't take a day off when it meant sitting on the couch all day.

After my run it was time to play in the kitchen, because I'm pretty sure that kitchen adventures are a snow-day staple.  My oven is out-of-order until Friday or Monday, so baking wasn't an option.  (I turned it on the other day, and several minutes later noticed fireworks going off inside it.  Turns out the heating element snapped in half...)  I had a sweet potato on the shelf that needed to be dealt with, so I decided sweet potato pierogies would be a delicious, fun, time-consuming project.

Pasta Dough

I used this recipe for the pasta dough, but I made everything smaller and used 2 eggs.  

And I added garlic powder, and skipped the cornmeal.

Filling

1 sweet potato, boiled and mashed with a spoonful of sour cream and a bit of butter

1/4 sweet onion, chopped and sauteed with 2 cloves minced garlic

The final product, boiled, lightly fried, surrounded by shaved carrots 

and drizzled with a ginger cream sauce.

Race postponed

I was supposed to run a 10 mile race yesterday, but due to all the snow that got dumped on this part of the country, the race was pushed back to next Saturday.  Convenient for me, because I haven't run since Monday.  My foot started hurting again, and I caught a head cold on Monday evening.  It seems that my immune system was so busy fighting off the constant barrage of flu and pink eye germs flying around, the cold snuck in under the radar.  Luckily I was able to fight it off in just a few days with dayquil, green tea, and lots of sleep.  The snow days on Thursday and Friday helped with the extra sleep part.

The foot pain however has been quite annoying.  Yesterday, I finally got around to asking a doctor friend to look at it.  The verdict is metatarsalgia.  I'm glad it's not a stress-fracture or anything worse, but the annoying part about this diagnosis is that it may mean I need to throw out my stockpile of running shoes and find a new model to run in.  I'm currently rotating three pairs of the same shoe, and I have a 4th pair that I haven't even taken out of the box yet.  It turns out they might be too flexible for my feet.  I'm going to try insoles first, and hope that they will enable me to keep the same shoes at least until I get good use out of the ones I have already bought.  But, if I have to buy new shoes, so be it.

In the meantime, I got lots of exercise shoveling snow on Thursday and Friday.  Here's before and after photos from Thursday's shoveling adventure.  On Friday, I shoveled the snow from around the front and side of my car so that I could actually get out of the parking spot.  I will be parallel parking between 2 snow banks for the foreseeable future.

On Friday, I hiked up the hill to a friends house to hang out for awhile, and then took pictures of her kids sledding.  

 I got a few snowballs thrown at me!

Day 7 : this post is kind of all over the place

Hi my name is Gretchen and it has been 7 days since my last run.  This is probably the longest I have ever gone without running even a mile or two.  I haven't lost my sanity yet, but I am definitely starting to get restless.  I think the only reason I have been managing to cope is that the roads are covered in snow and ice.  Even if I was going to let myself go for a run, I doubt I'd get very far.

as you can see, I am fading away from lack of exercise

(still able to push down the piano keys though)

So why am I torturing myself with all this time off?  I tweaked something in my foot awhile ago.  Running didn't make it hurt worse, but it wasn't getting better either, so I took a few days off.  Then I went back to running, and forgot about it.  Several weeks later, the temperature dropped to the single digits and I went for a couple of runs.  Runs, not jogs.  The pounding on frozen feet brought back whatever is wrong with my foot.  At that point, I was less than 2 weeks away from a race. So I took it very easy, just running once every few days, to keep myself in shape for the race without aggravating my foot.  Then I ran the race.  And won the race.  But the beating my foot took while running down a mountain did not exactly help make the pain go away.  

It should be noted that my foot actually hurts worse to walk than to run, when it hurts at all.  It's not actually enough pain to stop me from running, but I'm trying to be responsible and let it get better, instead of continuing to stress it.  I don't think I've felt any pain in the last day or two, but I could be ignoring it so that I can go back to running again...  I suspect that I will go for a run as soon as the roads are semi-safe again.  If the pain comes back, maybe I will go see a doctor.  Hate to do that when I just finished paying for the 3 doctor visits it took to cure my ear infection back in November, but I if I have to go, I will.  

PS: I'm ever-so-glad that I've been paying lots of money for health insurance for 5+ years so that they could help me out just-a-little-bit the first time I ever decided to use the insurance.  Makes it feel so worth it.

PPS: And now that my deductible has gone up to $5000, it seems unlikely that I will ever reach a point where the insurance actually helps much.  But if something terribly awful does happen, I'm sure I'll be glad I have insurance...

ok rant over.

Here are some pretty pictures of birds.

Besides the fact that I haven't been running, I also haven't spent much time at work...because of all that nasty ice and snow that no one seems able to clear off the roads.  So I have had A LOT of time to sit around the house.  

I got so bored, I cloned myself.

Both my clone and I are fading away though...

All that time sitting around was good for something though.  I filed my taxes (and then found out the IRS won't process returns til the 31st...so I may as well have waited).  And...drum-roll...I registered GMcD Photography as a WV LLC!  So now I can conduct business legally.  And I suppose I will be charging/paying sales tax now.  Hopefully this turns out to be a good decision.  Time to start throwing around my business cards!  That is...when the weather is decent enough for me to set foot outside.

Until then...I'll be snuggled up in this awesome chair.  Making my way through this gigantic Game of Thrones book.  It's so big, my hand now hurts worse than my foot, from trying to hold it open.  

This is how excited I will be when the snow melts and I start running again.

And here are some pretty pictures of ponies in the snow.  Just because.