We are up in Maine until about noon today, before we head south — stopping tonight at an RV park in New Hampshire before parking the RV in its new spot in a storage unit in New Jersey tomorrow. That’s almost the last thing on our “Move Across Country” task list — we have to register the vehicles in New York and change insurance. But we’ve managed to accomplish almost everything this summer, and I’m really proud of us, particularly as Kin and I are both quite adept at procrastinating bureaucratic tasks.
It’s been quite a busy week: I went for a little tour of the North Woods on Monday with Erica. I picked up my bib for my next race (coming up this weekend). We ate out with a former co-worker of Kin’s. I blurbed a book for UNESCO. I had a house cleaner come. I signed up for the RRCA coaching certification class (in December). And we drove up here to Maine. How amazing to get to see my little brother and his family more than once every five years or so!!
I’m definitely at a point in this training block where I am so tired. (And I moved my runs around — running today after yesterday’s long run when Mondays are usually a rest day — to accommodate our driving.) I didn’t hit any of my prescribed paces in Tuesday’s speed workout (6 x 1200m with 3 x strides — 12 miles total; and I was four minutes short on yesterday’s long run. But then again, I ran 8 miles midweek, all the while thinking about how this time last year I’d never run more than 6 or 7 miles. During that run, I listened to the coaching from Nike Run Club, something I haven’t done in a long time. There was an 80 minute run with Coach Bennett and Joan Benoit Samuelson. I have missed Coach Bennett! It was helpful to have his encouragement as I was dragging ass. I listened to his 99 minutes and 99 seconds run for my long run yesterday too. (On Saturday’s run — a little over 4 miles — I listened to some of the latest the Barbell Medicine Podcast.)
Despite being so tired, lifting went well. I do recognize how training for a race keeps me accountable, and as I don’t really have a similar goal or event for lifting, I do have a different mindset: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Swimming was a little weird, as there was a guy in my lane who was doing a strange side/backstroke and kept standing up every couple of yards. Biking was fine too, and I keep telling myself if I can commit to the bike — it was pouring rain on my trip to the gym on Wednesday — during the winter, I can buy a bike. Good grief, the Citibikes are so heavy and so slow.
Second Breakfast is going well, although I’m a little freaked out as I haven’t finalized Thursday’s essay yet and this week looks to be crazy busy. (Why is it that shorter weeks are often more stressful than full work weeks?!) Last week, I pushed the last smoothie recipe (end of August!), an essay, and a round-up of news — I think I have the rhythm down. (Right up until we go on the road, LOL.)
Media consumed: the podcasts mentioned above; a couple episodes from the first season of Physical while on the treadmill; we finished the audiobook Paved Paradise; we started the audiobook Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma; I’m still reading New York 2140.
Cooking: sheet pan chicken with cumin and turmeric and chickpeas; mostly apples cake from Snacking Cakes; bacon chicken smash-burgers with jalapeños and red onions from I Dream of Dinner; Amelia and I made “death by chocolate” cupcakes for Emily’s birthday.
Dining out: we went back to real kung fu little dumpling (with Kin’s co-worker) and I had hand pulled noodles (they were pretty good); then Kin and I stopped at Oasis Cafe on the way home — second time there too. It’s not super impressive — I mean, it’s fine! — but I do like how everything is “mini” because I don’t always want a huge dessert but I like a little something. In this case: I had a melomakarona. We stopped at Los Tacos No. 1 for a really good breakfast burrito on Friday, and ate out at a local Italian place, Giardino 54 for dinner. Kin’s gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce was the star. We stopped at Wendy’s on the way up here; Kin had never had a Wendy’s burger before. Not good. We went to the Blue Hill Fair!!!! And I ate a delicious donut, a funnel cake, a bite of Kin’s pulled pork sandwich, a bite of his French waffle, and about half of the “pork parfait” he got — a genius combination of mashed potatoes, baked beans, pulled pork, with BBQ sauce.
"Never meet your idols," Kin said to me when we went to bed last night. And I do have to say, having grown up with Charlotte's Web as one of my favorite books, I'd add: "Skip the Blue Hill Fair." Or at least, don't go expecting it to be anything like what you imagined when you were 8.