Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Hi, hello, I am not dead yet

Hi friends,

I figured I should pop in, however briefly, to assure you all that I a) am not dead and b) have not lost all interest in running. Mostly I've been traveling way, way too much these last few weeks & just generally ultra busy with work and family stuff. I've been getting a run in here & there when & where I can, but it's nothing to write home about, really. (Logging runs publicly has fallen completely by the wayside.) My weekly mileage has been as high as 40 miles and as low as zero, just depending on my travel schedule and what else is going on.

On Monday Mar. 27 I flew to Orange County for work, then flew back two days later on Wednesday night, madly threw in a load of laundry, & started packing three different bags for three wildly different locations. (I'd started on Sunday but there was some stuff I couldn't do until after laundry on Wednesday.)


Orange County does not lack for sidewalks :)


...though some are nicer than others. :-/


Three different climates, three different sets of gear & clothes.

Thursday morning we drove up to Tahoe for a long weekend of skiing, which believe it or not has been on the calendar for a couple of years; Don's parents have a timeshare there that they knew they wouldn't be able to use this year so we'd agreed to take it years ago. (Twist our arms, I know.)


Things started old cold-ish & gradually warmed up


By the last day he was sweating in a T-shirt.


One of the days I got a snowy(-ish) trail run in



Trail shoes were the right call.

Then Sunday evening we drove back to SF, where I had about an hour to unload the dirty clothes & switch out the ski bag for the work suitcase before Don drove me to the airport to get on a 12:30am flight to San Antonio for a conference where I was presenting the next morning. (Herewith kicks off several weeks of less-than-stellar sleep.)


Going on two hours of sleep, *maybe*


Fancy talk-giving math ladies! #obligatory


My boss & co-speaker at the Alamo. Never forget!


Don't miss the Riverwalk if you're in San Antonio. It's a bit touristy in places but other parts are super pretty & peaceful. (Narrow with lots of stairs & pedestrians, though, so I would not recommend for running.)


The view from dinner one evening

Friday afternoon I hopped a plane from San Antonio back to SF; this time there wasn't even time to go home, & Don just picked me up at the airport with yet another bag for our drive down to Paso Robles for some wine pickup events.


I took no vineyard pictures so please enjoy this one from last fall.



Wine pickup!

(Yes, I know you're feeling REALLY sorry for me right now. One endures, somehow.) It was a fun weekend as always, but we got home later than we planned on Sunday night & pretty much came home & crashed.

Then three lovely days at home! By which I mean, three lovely days of both of us suffering from mild food poisoning (the cause of which remains mysterious). YAY. :-/ Then Thursday morning it was back to the airport for a flight to Dallas, where we were celebrating his Grandad's 100th birthday (genuine YAY!). This was also a fun weekend, and I even got a couple of (verrrry humid) runs in with Don's dad & cousin, but I also never really adjusted to the time change and didn't sleep great for most of the trip.


There IS some nice running in Dallas, including a lovely trail that runs around White Rock Lake.



Now I'm back for an entire, blessed week (!) before I have to get back on a plane to LA next Monday. (Though, thankfully for only two days.) Ten days after that it's off to the Big Island for a genuine, real life vacation (WOOHOO!!), & ten days after THAT (and you will not believe this) it's back onto ANOTHER plane to Hawaii for a week, Oahu this time, for work. Then I'm finally home for two solid weeks, then a week in SoCal for work, and SWEET JESUS after that I actually think I'm not getting on a plane again (as far as I know) until September.

So maybe you can see how getting anything consistent going running-wise has been, if not impossible, at least beyond my meager capabilities.

The good news is that, although my travel schedule is not necessarily cooperating with the idea of starting to actual for-real train for a thing again, my motivation is starting to come back. I actually started getting excited about running a 5K or two in June and hitting the pavement hot & heavy this summer in hopes of rocking my goal half (Rock N Roll San Jose) in October. At this point I'm actually feeling not-terrible about committing to 6-10 easy miles most days & something in the 10-15 range on weekends when possible, and I'd also like to start adding in things like clamshells and lunges and single-leg squats and planks and other ab things here and there, even if it's only 10 minutes a day or a half hour a few times a week for now.

Odds are I haven't seen your blog in weeks, sooooo what's up with you?

2 comments:

  1. Oh hey, hello! Don't worry. I probably haven't blogged for weeks either.
    Sounds like a tough life! Well, ok, I don't envy your travel schedule. That's how many flights in how many weeks?! No shame in 'maintenance' running while all this is going on, either. I think spring in California is surely made for just plain old enjoying life.

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  2. Wow, just reading about your traveling makes me tired. And you haven't even included anything about the home renovations. Good luck with the rest of your travels - enjoy Hawaii (both times)!

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