Week two of Boston training: Quite uneventful!

As the title of this post should lead you to believe, compared to last week, this week was downright quiet. Thank heavens.

I took ZERO workout selfies. I am sure everyone is very sad about this.
I will entertain you with pictures of random things.
I will be SURE to bring back the sweaty selfie next week. 

On Monday, I had a little run in new shoes. Another pair of Clifton 3's, they have been serving me well. The old pair had well over 400 miles on them, so it was time.

New shoes!

I also cashed in a lovely Holiday gift and got my hair done. I look better now. 

The one and only time that my hair will ever look decent. After professional help.

Tuesday was a rest day.
I got my stitches out! (no pics of that either, you're welcome)
To recover from that ordeal, Eric and I went out for a quick drink with my Dad and sister. We met up with a friend of ours, and her Mom and Daughter.
We are geeks, and like to show up at every opening of every pub in our area. This was such an occasion, and X Vault opened with a bang, as essentially the whole town showed up. It shows promise as another local venue worth visiting. (in short, good drinks, interesting menu, nice ambiance, typical chaos of opening day!)

X Vault, opening day

Wednesday was weirdly warm, temps hitting almost 50.
The snow melted, and with that the reemergence of the strangest piece of yard art in town.
The penis frog.

Well. Hello, Mr. Frog.....

WHY? But really, WHY? Where would you buy a dong frog, and more importantly, WHY would you??

Thursday and Friday were uneventful. A couple treadmill runs, and a round of 8x400's which reminded me that I am, in fact, not in great shape (no kidding.) I did my long run (10) plus hills on the treadmill on Friday. Again, uneventful (sweaty though.)


On Saturday I had an easy recovery run (right about at a 9:40 pace which was actually a tad quick.)
Andy (Eric's twin, if you don't remember) and his kids came over, and we headed out to see Rogue one. It was excellent. We also made the kids play Pokemon with us, and it was great fun.
Then we headed to Vivo (in Bridgton) for some great dinner. Vivo never lets me down in the food department.

Dinner at Vivo with the Fam!

The kids brought me the best gift!
A bottle of wine the size of my leg. I am #soblessed (but really, I was super pumped.)

My new baby!!! I love you, big wine!!!

Sunday was a reasonably exciting workout day.
I did a 40 minute sufferfest bike video.
I then ran 2 miles.
And *swam* in the pool for 10 hours, and managed .25 miles.
If anyone was curious, I am a dreadful, dreadful swimmer and my whole *swim* consists of me attempting not to die. Not cute.

So! Week two done, and it wasn't very exciting in the exercise department. Week two rarely is, if you really think about it. Week three is going to be very similar but I'll try to come up with some better stories about it...

Weekly stats:
Miles run: 27, just as prescribed.
Longest run: 10. Which feels long now. It won't soon....
Other: 1 bike, 1 strength work out (bad) 1 swim (ugly)
Wildlife sightings: 18 wild turkeys and one Penis Frog
Low/High temps: Negative 9/Plus 47. Go home winter, you are drunk.
How am I feeling? Good, I can eat solid food again.
Beer of the week: CRAP! I drank a few beers, obvs, but nothing new... I did have a delicious mojito at X Vault though, so we shall consider that to be the winner.

The Middle-Aged Household Status (a cohabitors guest blog)

So, I was tapped to be an epic guest blogger here on Middle-Aged-Runner, even though I still dispute the fact that I am middle aged, and calling me a runner is a stretch. I will not go into the details here on what was used to coerce me into writing this entry. No, not that. It mostly involves food and beer, and maybe some cheese and crackers and some wine. I like wine. Anyway.

As you wish.

Things here at the middle-aged household are coming down to a more normal level after hitting a peak of insanity recently due to horses, snow storms, races and parallel peaking marathon training plans. And by more normal level, I mean that while we now have more time in which to do household things like vacuum, do dishes and fold laundry (HA! like the laundry will *ever* get folded!) We are both going taper crazy whilst and at the same time. It’s a good time. Actually, to tell you the truth, it’s not too bad. We keep each other sane and talk each other off of the arm of the couch before anyone does anything terrible. (FYI - Danielle has perfected the art of couch-arm-talking-down, I learned everything I know from her.) 

This is a fact.

With under 2 weeks to go until Hyannis (which is an ‘A’ race for both of us, my 1st marathon (No, the run of an Ironman doesn’t count. (Also, I love parentheticals.)), and Sara's 2014 Boston qualifier) talk has begun to focus on logistics and weather. I find myself constantly refreshing future forecasts hoping to will the weather into being warm and wind free come February 24th.

Oh magical intertubes make the weather awesome.

Also, I am in a constant debate with myself about nutrition and what to carry and what will be supplied by the aid stations. Annoyingly, Sara is very cavalier about nutrition and if she can get a gel or two down she is all set (she tends to eject said nutrition after (or sometimes during) the race so who can really blame her.) My current plan has me downing no less than eight (8) packets of the gooey, slimy things at intervals that are very unlikely to have conveniently placed aid stations. Ugh! I don’t want to think about it anymore! So much stress!

On the plus side, despite the fail that was the Mid-Winter Classic X 2 20 miler, I am feeling strong and fast (just maybe not long enough (TWSS)). 

Mid-Winter Classic Team Pic - Also, I love the GIMP.

As you can tell I need some work on the positive thinking side of things. I have set up a few mantras for just this reason.

Here is a small sample:

• Why do I do this to myself?
• I quit.
• Is this all you've got?
• You might be able to do this, on a good day.
• Don’t let the geriatric old lady get away, damn.
• How many miles left?

I’m told that these might not be ideal.

The only other thing going on is the constant battle that Sara fights with herself about getting a new pooch. We have plenty of four legged children running around (3) who are constantly underfoot, barking annoyingly and eating all the pompoms on the winter hats.

Including my fantastic Jyane Cobb hat :-/

But, she keeps seeing cute puppy pictures on the FB and then goes about making puppy eyes at me asking if we can get one more. I of course say, “Sure! why not? We have plenty of room!” thereby making her realize that if I agree to it, it must be one of the most terrible ideas ever, and the crisis is averted. For at least the next few hours. Or until she sees the next cute puppy picture.

Hopefully, Sara will stop being lazy and start blogging again so you don't have to deal with my incoherent blathering anymore. ( I can feel the followers fleeing as we speak.)

Eric