It seems like my weekends just keep getting better and better. I spent the weekend out of town, doing fun things with my favorite person and favorite dog. I saw Hancock, which was not as good as I had expected it to be. I hiked at Bowman Lake State Park today, which was great but it was farther away than I thought, so there wasn't a ton of time to hike around.
This weekend I'm planning to go to Country Fest and then some time between Sunday and Wednesday I am planning an overnight hiking trip to the Adirondacks. I'm thinking Avalanche Pass, but I'm not sure yet.
awesome weekend. again.
Happy Fourth of July
I almost ran a 4 mile firecracker race today. Last night, after writing the post, I was just itching to run something. There was one locally, and a race 4 miles or under isn't something I need to train to do. Now doing it well, or fast, is another story. Before embarrassing myself, I checked the results from the year before. Out of the approx. 150 runners, only three or four ran slower than 40 minutes. After seeing that, I decided that my superficial need to feel like I could run a race was not worth the embarrassment of potentially coming in last, or very close to it beating out a 11 year old and a 72 year old. So I stayed at home, hit the park for a short 2.5 mile run with Marley to burn off some unexpected morning stress, and then headed over to party down with the family. Spent about 6 hours swimming and throwing kids into the pool. Good workout in my book. For the run I purposefully left my watch at home and didn't bother to worry about time.
I'll be absent for a few days, but hope to get some hiking in and will post pics upon my return.
sooo... about this running thing...
Apparently it's not for me. I don't actually see a marathon in my future. Despite all of the changes in my life, I've had a good deal of time. But I just haven't stuck with the training. I was even at one point contemplating a 5 k or 4 miler for tomorrow. I could probably throw shoes on and run one tomorrow right now, despite not running for a while. I could probably pull in decent 9:30 min miles. But the constant training for something, forcing time in your schedule to train, rather than just going with the flow, like I prefer to do, is hard for me to maintain. If I had a race in the spring, I would have been all set, but conflicts kept arising. And working on a base for more than a week or two or, God forbid, doing speed work to run faster? No thank you!
I can run. I've proved it. I can run consistent 20-25 mile weeks. I have trained for, and completed, a 15k. I have no knack for training for several sports at once, and hate the run once, hike once, bike twice kind of weeks. I feel like there is not continuity in the training and don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with my "training" if I'm not focusing on one sport at a time. And in the summer it is WAY to boring to only focus on running, and I'd never do it. I prefer to be doing a different thing every day. Tennis, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, swimming (aka trying not to drown) etc... Since I can't swim, triathlons are out of the question. But, I have a newfound curiosity for adventure racing. Cyclocross is out because I don't know how to train for it really and I don't have the right equipment and I haven't cared enough to follow up with it, so it's probably not something I would stick with.
So who knows. Part of me feels like a failure for not following through on specific running plans. But then I think about a friend who was telling me about a guy he knew who said he couldn't go on a mountain bike ride because he had to ride a long road bike ride to train for a 6 hr mountain bike race. That sounds so backwards to me, and he wasn't enjoying the road bike ride, and I swore I'd never be that way. I'd do what I wanted. So I don't plan on skipping a hike or mountain bike ride to get in a planned long run for some training schedule so that at the end I can just say I did it. The journey has to be fun, because it's pretty obvious, at least for me, that actually runny any distance over 6 miles is torture. I take some masochistic pleasure in the burn in my legs and adding a mile because I want to see how far I can go before I bonk, but really it's not all that fun.
I'm not the type to do things just for the sake of doing them if I'm not really enjoying it. Certainly not more than once. And I'm guessing that the 15k I ran a while back counts for the one time. So now I'm focusing on just doing whatever I feel like. I rode the roadie the other day because it seemed like a good idea. And it was fun. Just like all the hiking I've been doing has been so much fun. I finally have someone to hike and camp with, as well as my family who is planning a camping trip, which I'm excited about. Instead of talking about things, I'm actually doing them with someone who enjoys it as much as I do.
So I guess I'm doing what I need to do to think of myself as a "success" if I just keep having fun. And who knows... I might even wear the running sneakers out this year.
15 miles along the Erie Canal...
Or in my case 16 miles along the Mohawk. Today I took the road bike out for a spin. It's been a long time since I've been out for a decent length ride, and my goal was to ride out for 30 minutes and then try to make it back in the same amount of time. I did a little better, and made it back 1 minute early! The weather was gorgeous, and aside from all of the road crossings (at which there are gates blocking the pathway that you have to ride around to keep cars out) it was a great ride. I stopped about a mile in to adjust my seat, and a guy decked out in all new biking gear, and expensive gear at that, flew by me. Well, before the turn around point I caught up to him and passed him. It was a glorious feeling. I pushed hard and made sure that I was always in the highest gear I could be in without slowing down. I really pushed it, and can feel it in my legs. The saddle was awful though! That's the problem with sharing a bike with my dad; the saddle and pedals either need to me changed for each ride or I suffer with toe clips and a mens race saddle that puts pressure everywhere I don't want it too.
Now I'm off to the barn again to ride Zip with my dad. Between all of the bike saddles and horse saddles I've been riding in this week, I'm awful sore and am walking a little funny. The horseback riding has put some pressure on my left knee and ankle, but not enough that I feel pain after I get off. I think it'll just take some time to get used to it again. I'm hoping to get my dad to take some more pictures, because in every picture he took of me last night, except the one I posted below yesterday, my head is cut off. I need to get a pair of boots with a heel too. I plan on being in the barn quite a bit, and you need a heel to ride. Well If you don't want to look like an idiot who has never been around a horse before, you need a heel to ride. Rule is minimum of a 1" heel so that it stops your foot from sliding through the stirrup and getting caught if the horse takes off. I've been riding in a pair of low cut hiking boots, which are alright except for the heel.
put your ass on some class...
...ride a Quarter Horse.
I just about laughed out loud when I saw that sticker on the rear window of an ivory Lincoln Mark LT pick up at the barn today. (read over-priced-too-pretty-and-far-too-much-
of-a-status-symbol-to-ever-get-dirty-gas-guzzling-hunk-of-metal)
Anyway, I'm riding again. I haven't been riding on a regular basis since early high school when both of my parents had several horses each and I was able to saddle up and go whenever I pleased. But then mom's boyfriend moved in and they got all possessive over stuff, and dad ended up with only one foal that he bought after we sold the others. Since I was about 2 years old, you couldn't get me away from a horse. I was always in the barn. So now, my dad has Zip, who he boards at a local stable in Albany. He bought him when he was a few months old, but when we were there we were looking at another horse, and Zip had only been born the day before. I was in love, and a few months later, after Dad bought another horse, he decided to swap out the horse he bought for Zip. So Dad's trained him and been working him fairly regularly. However he's busy enough that he can't be there every day. Plus my dad has about zero patience and and you're lucky if his attention span lasts more than 1 minute. So I asked if I could ride Zip and maybe even show him at some local horse shows and spend some time really getting him into tip top shape. Dad, despite his possessiveness over his saddle and his horse, has relented and I've pretty much go free roam with Zip. I'm happy and it feels great to be back in the saddle.
Peebles Island State Park
Yesterday I hiked Peebles Island State Park in Waterford, NY. It is a small island at the junction of the Mohawk River and the Hudson River. The entire island is now a State Park. Google maps only shows one bridge to get to the Island, but there is a second that you can see if you click to satellite view on Google Maps. The second bridge comes from the north off of 2nd St in Waterford. There is parking just before the bridge where the boat launch is, if you want to bypass the $6 park entrance fee, although I was lucky to find a spot there. I actually came in from the south through Cohoes, and took the Delaware Ave bridge, paid the $6 and then was confused the by the signs as to where to park, and ended up driving out of the park across the north bridge. A car was leaving just as I pulled in to turn around, so I parked there anyway.
The park was beautiful. I was prepared for thunder showers, but we ended up hiking at 2 pm in brutally hot heat. Marley joined us, and had agood time, but the heat got to him as well. I was very tempted several times to jump into the river, but decided against it. The trail was fairly wide and flat, and would be great for families with smaller children. There are several picnic tables and places to relax. There is no railing along some of the steeper ledges though. I didn't make it to the inner trails that criss cross the island, and want to go back on a cooler day with some water and explore the island more.
It's only about 5-6 miles by water along the Mohawk River, so I'm also hoping to kayak or canoe over to it one of these days and explore the neighboring uninhabited islands. I just need to locate a local place to rent kayaks or canoes.
John Boyd Thacher State Park
Yesterday I hiked The Cliff Trail and Indian Ladder Trail at John Boyd Thacher State Park. I've been there once before, but it was several years ago and I didn't remember much at all about it. It was hot out and we managed to arrive between rain showers. It was a great hike, despite getting caught in one of the rain showers. It would have been much more enjoyable had I remembered to bring a ziploc to put the camera in in case of rain. Because I didn't we rushed for cover rather than enjoying the beauty and unpredictability of nature.
View from the Cliff Overlook
When we started the hike, it was between rain showers. The view was hidden behind a thick blanket of fog, and the visibility was only about 15-20 feet. The next picture shows most of what you are supposed to see from this point atop the Helderberg Escarpment.
it was only a frog.
So... I'm walking down the trail, enjoying the hike and the weather and the company, and all of the sudden something cold and wet and slimy hits my ankle. And I shriek like a little school girl. I really detest strange things touching me unexpectedly. Once I calmed down, I was able to take this snapshot of the evil little bastard. All in a day's hike, I suppose.
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