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Despite the encouragement of active.com, I’ve been flailing a bit on committing to a training and racing plan for the year. It’s not that I’ve been slacking on workouts – I’ve actually run at least twice a week since mid-November with the exception of a 10-day hiatus after the Disney half marathon. For some reason I’m just hesitant to nail down a plan. One of the running forum suggestions was to write down the reasons you run, like a mission statement, to help motivate and focus you. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, so here goes.

1. Mental health
I like the way running helps me focus. I can process what’s going on at work, reflect on theology, pray, sing, or just zone out. I handle life better when I’m running regularly.

2. Physical health
I crave healthier foods, I feel better, I look better, and my systems all seem to work better when I’m exercising regularly. Running is the easiest and most natural way I have found to stay in shape. It’s also good for my long term health – blood pressure, weight and bone density in particular. And let’s not forget the elation of runner’s high – Jop Jop Jop!

3. Social
I *really* like running with friends. I’m more likely to go running in the first place and the run passes more quickly. A buddy can be a good pacer to avoid going out too fast, or to keep me going when I’m feeling slow. I also like to be a good influence by encouraging others to get out and run.

4. Mental toughness
There are plenty of times in our lives when we need to do something that we just don’t want to do. It might be cleaning a frighteningly messy space, having an honest conversation about a difficult topic, or just tackling a task in stride instead of procrastinating. When I compare an icky chore with, say, running a hilly 10K in the wind when it’s 10 degrees and dark at 6am, I feel like I am capable of almost anything, even that once daunting task.

5. Competition
I thought a lot about this one. I typically enjoy going at my own pace, using races every year or two as a deadline/motivator. Last year we raced a lot, so I got to regularly experience butterflies before the start, the rush of adrenaline in that first mile, the fun of picking off other runners, and the satisfaction of improving over past efforts. Of course I also experienced with helplessness and chagrin the results of not hydrating, eating or pacing well. I’ve been comfortable to be a pretty decent runner for someone who doesn’t train regularly. I’m a little afraid of putting in more effort and not getting much better – it’s safer to say I don’t care about my times or meeting my goals. But I think I’m ready to say that competition does matter to me, I do want to be stronger and faster, and that even when I make mistakes, I can use them to fuel my next run.

So, now that I’ve said that publicly, I’ll set a goal for myself to post at least once a month on how I’m doing.

Last week’s main accomplishment was to set a running plan for the week and invite co-workers to come along. I ended up running four times (1 by myself, 2 at work with colleagues, 1 with Beej) = 24 miles + 1 yoga session. I already sent my running plan for this week to my co-workers, focusing on days when it would be too easy to skip out due to a busy schedule. My goal for February is to get in 3 runs (or snow shoe outings) + 1 yoga or strength workout each week.

We just returned from a fabulous and somewhat surreal trip to Vegas. When asked “did you do anything fun this weekend?” most colleagues don’t expect me to say that between leaving work at 5pm on Friday and attending a division management meeting on Monday morning, I went to Vegas.

It was a bit of a whirlwind to start. Brian picked me up from work, we met Amory at Logan to catch a direct flight, met up with Armen from SF at the Vegas airport, took a cab to the Bellagio, checked in, then met up with Nate flying in from business in Orlando. Evidently the cab line was amazingly short compared to past years, a sign of the poor economy, but nice for us. [Win!] Our room looked out over the fountain – an amazing deal for $150 thanks to Amory’s email [win!]. She was even able to change the second room from a smoking or King + rollaway to a suitable 2-double bed non-smoking room [win!]. We fueled up with delicious dinner/breakfast at the Bellagio Cafe [Win!], including some much-needed coffee, and then went out to find some $5 blackjack tables. We headed to Bill’s (formerly Barbary Coast that we called Barnaby’s Toast) where I got my first lesson. I couldn’t have been more fortunate with the patience of the group (and most of the dealers) who played more slowly and answered my MANY questions even with my little “cheat sheet“. I finished up $46 [WIN!], which I felt was an appropriate level of beginner’s luck, and we managed to stay up until almost 3am (Vegas time). [Win!]

After what seemed like an insufficient time to sleep, my body thought it was time to get up and get going. Brian met Amory (who had gotten up even earlier) downstairs while I took a leisurely shower [win!]. We met Mary, who has been dealing black jack for 37 years, and was full of stories and wry humor. [Win!] After we all assembled, we decided to head out to the strip for breakfast. We happened onto the Amore Patisserie in the Mandarin Oriental, which had wonderful pastry and even better grapefruit sorbet. [Win!] We spent an rather uneventful morning in the Monte Carlo before lunch at Fatburger so I could experience the other side of the strip. The burgers and fries were tasty [win!] but perhaps not the best long term plan; Fatburgers digest about as well as you’d think they would. After an afternoon nap [win!] we decided to check out downtown.

I can’t say downtown was a win, but it felt like an essential experience of old Vegas. The lights were bright and tacky, almost blinding as we got out of the cab. The vibe at the pedestrian mall Fremont Street Experience was a lot different from the Bellagio to say the least. There were street vendors selling all kinds of gaudy items, go-go/pole dancers at most of the casinos, a Showgirl and Elvis only a few feet away from each other taking photos with tourists. We started out at the Four Queens, and took the Light Show as an excuse to escape. The light show was disappointing – what would you do with the world’s largest TV screen, the size of 12,000 normal TVs? I’m sure it’s not what we saw. We did find an empty $5 craps table at the Vegas Club with a seasoned veteran dealer who explained that particular table’s rules and coached Amory and Armen on how to improve their odds. Craps is too high variance for my taste, but I had a fantastic time as a spectator to Amory and Armen by cheering, yelling at the dice, trying to follow what was going on, and enjoying the festive atmosphere as the table filled up. [win!] We had intended to go to the Golden Nugget, but it was too expensive for a downtown casino, so we decided we’d had enough and it was time for dinner.

Nobu was a BIG win from the first bite of yellowtail to the last bite of dessert. It was hard to pick which dish was our favorite – I think each one got a vote, except perhaps the beef, which we still thought was worth trying, but felt heavy after the tasty fish dishes prior. Especially compared to Olive’s the next night, it was a good value for the top notch food. [WIN!] We thought about gambling at Hard Rock but by then Brian and I were ready to call it a night. We got a very restful night’s sleep [win!] and were ready for our final day of adventures.

Finding Amory at Mary’s table again on Sunday morning, I decided to join her. This was definitely the most fun I had all weekend – a quieter pace before noon, camaraderie at the table, fun dealers, finally feeling comfortable with the game and good cards. [Win!] The guys wandered while Amory and I camped out for the whole morning. We finally stopped when it was time for Amory’s spa appointment and I joined the guys for lunch at the Cafe (again) – yum. Unfortunately we had to check out of the hotel so no naps today – we had to power through! After lunch we returned to Bill’s for a while to watch the football game, then when Amory met us we wandered over to the Flamingo. I scoped out the bird habitat, watched the end of the Jets game, then got roped into playing Pai Gow Poker with Brian and Nate.

I had sworn I would only learn one game per trip, and this trip it was Blackjack, but it turns out Pai Gow is suitably mindless that even I could pick it up within minutes. First off, it’s perfectly acceptable to show your hand and ask a fellow player or the dealer for help. [win!] Second, it’s very likely that you’ll push any given round (since you play two hands at once) so the money leakage is slow. Third, the cards are dealt to all player positions regardless of who is playing, so it’s a slow paced game and again the money leakage is slow. Finally, the stereotypical player seems to be a middle-aged Asian woman, so the intensity is very relaxed and low pressure. [win!] I ended up enjoying this wind-down of our table gaming, if for no other reason than it was fun to be punchy with Armen (who favors craps and does NOT favor pai gow), Amory (who really wanted food at this point in the day after skipping brunch), and Nate and Beej who were having fun but were a bit tired. [win!]

I’ll skip any further mention of dinner, other than to say the wine was good. We said farewell to Armen who had an earlier return flight and returned to the Bellagio to kill a few hours until it was time to go to the airport. Nickel slot races are a tradition, so we each put $10 into a machine and started pressing buttons. It’s common to win a few bucks along the way, but it’s part of the race to quickly dispense with these “setbacks”! However, Amory’s machine kept counting… and counting… when she got to $40 we decided to stop racing and actually cash out the winnings. It kept counting! She won the max on that machine, almost $100! WIN! So of course then we went and played some ill-fated blackjack for the last half hour. I think Beej came out ahead but I did not and poor Nate did even worse. It was definitely time to go home after a wonderful weekend of delicious food, pleasant weather, great company and fun times.

Today’s weather at Disney provided deja vu to the weather we experienced on October 19. When we boarded the bus before 4am, the temperature hovered around 34. While we waited for the start, ice pellets and tiny flakes of snow fell. An inauspicious start to our day – the first time it has snowed at Disney Marathon Weekend.

We expected the hardest part of the day to be staying warm before the start of the race. Bags had to be checked by 4:30, but our wave didn’t start until 5:50, leaving a long time to try to stay warm before we started running. Brian’s sister Leslie and her running buddy Melinda opted to dress in layers of disposable sweats and jackets, which they shed at the start line or shortly thereafter. Brian and I decided to wear what we expected to run in. We figured we could vent using gloves and hats and shed a layer if needed, so pre-race we huddled low, and I ended up borrowing a disposable poncho from the gals. Bryan, Melinda’s husband, used a hybrid approach, wearing his running gear and a coat that lasted until mile 5. We all survived, and after a short hiccup where the latter 3 of us got stuck in a long line at the porta-potties and missed our starting corral, we hopped into the next corral and started the race just before 6am.

The course map had us starting near Epcot, running around the Magic Kingdom, then back to the Epcot parking lot. There was definitely some congestion at the start, not surprising given the 17,000 participants, but not nearly as bad as we feared from stories we’d heard. We started with a 10:30 mile with lots of weaving, and got to cheer Melinda and Leslie as we passed at the start. The second miles was a 9:46, still in heavy traffic. By the third mile we decided to make a move and pick up the pace, managing an 8:43, before settling into a more moderate 9:14 for the 4th mile. We approached the Magic Kingdom at mile 5 with a 9:12, then wove our way through the park in tight quarters with a 9:25 and zipping out with a 9:07 7th mile, just over halfway. Bryan stuck with us through the surges and weaving until this point when Brian and I decided to pick it up for the second half. We nailed an 8:33, 8:26 and 8:34 for the next three miles, taking us to the 10 mile point, with only a 5K to go. We ran together for one more mile at 8:44 before deciding to finish up at our own paces.

As I was cruising around the turn in mile 11, a fellow runner slid and fell down near me. No one else seemed to be checking on him, so I stopped when I saw that he wasn’t getting up. I helped him up and discovered his face was bleeding; just then another couple of runners stopped to help, fortunately. We tried to get a volunteer and a police officer to provide assistance and direct us to the nearest first aid station, but they were of no help. By then the injured runner was walking and started to jog with us, and the couple who stopped were escorting him, so I was satisfied that he would be ok, and took off again. It was a strange situation where I wasn’t quite sure what to do, but I felt much better checking on him and knowing that he was at least able to continue.

Despite my detour I ran an 8:45 for my 12th mile, kicked out a 7:50 final mile with a 51.26 second last tenth of a mile to finish in 1:57:38. Brian was close behind, also finishing under 2 hours, in 1:59:46. We both met our goals of running negative splits and finishing in under 2 hours. The novices put in a good showing as well. Bryan finished in 2:08, while Melinda and Leslie finished their first half marathon in 2:43.

While we thought the pre-race waiting would be the hard part, it turned out that the post-race waiting was even worse. We found a 6×6 tent where a few runners had ducked in to escape the wind and rain, so we joined them while waiting for the rest of our group to finish. There was really no other designated area to wait that was protected from the elements. The race organizers gave us plenty of food and drink, and we all got mylar blankets, but that only staved off the chill so long when wet and tired. By the time we all met up in the tent, we were all more than ready to get on the bus and get back to the room to get dry and warm. Brian and I fared slightly better, since we hadn’t shed all our warm clothing along the course, but our bodies were all locking up and shivering. Unfortunately many other runners were trying to get to our hotel at the same time, so we had another 30+ minutes of waiting in line for the bus.

We wasted no time hurrying from the hotel lobby to our room where we shed our wet clothes. I lucked out and got the first shower while Leslie crawled into bed to keep warm. About a half hour later, our room was 80 degrees and we were all starting to feel more normal. After a nap and a pizza lunch, we almost felt normal.

I can’t say that I would choose a cold rainy day for a race, but after today I believe I’ve got the right gear and preparation to run well even in poor conditions. We still had a fun day with Leslie and her friends, and it’s always gratifying to step up to a challenge and keep a good attitude despite less than ideal circumstances.

Next up, the Hampton Beach race , which I understand will provide a warm dry site for warm up and post-race cool down. I’ll be very happy to be a 10 minute drive away from home instead of at the mercy of mass transit. Who knows, maybe New Hampshire on February 21 will be a nicer day than today proved to be in Central Florida!

For some reason Seasons of Love from Rent has been running through my head a lot this season as I think back over the year.

The first measure that comes to mind is miles. Brian has been logging his miles on the road (950 miles biked, 575 miles on foot) and meters in the pool (60km) this year. I’ve run over 370 miles since June, when I started logging miles in my new running shoes, and “miles” is the third most used word in my facebook posts in the last year. This training was motivated by 5 races each – a 12K, a half marathon and a 10 miler before Brian’s two triathlons (sprint and international distances) and my 25K and marathon. We also have driven quite a lot of miles, between our July trip to the midwest and our holiday four-state tour (about 2000 miles per trip) and my 38 mile commute each way to work (I put on about 20,000 miles a year on my car). The number of days carpooling was lower than it probably should be – a good reminder to make a better effort to share rides in 2010.

We ate local for 27 weeks this year courtesy of our farm share, with some additional support from our garden, our family’s gardens and Tendercrop farm. I’m sure I can’t count how many bunches of Chinese cabbage we ate – too many! We’ve eaten out less, have spent less money, and have eaten healthier than in many past years, plus we know where more of our food originates.

Dollars recovered comes to mind when I think about my year at work. When I took over a new project in April, it was projecting a $1M overrun by the end of this year. I’m very proud to say that we are now on budget, we’ve got some excellent results from our recent flight test, and we’re expecting our next phase to start in January. While there have been plenty of challenges, in many ways this year has seemed very easy from a work perspective. I couldn’t ask for a better team of colleagues at BAE Systems, on the government team or with our subcontractors, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know and work with them despite a fairly rough business environment overall.

We could count hours volunteered. Brian has continued as a legal advocate at the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, spending a few days each month at court, and also volunteering at the office to set up a database, work on files and do legal intakes. My work at MIT continues at a lower level – I’m on the IRDF board, am serving as a Community Catalyst Leadership coach and president of the WILG corporation board. Then we’d add on hours spent by Brian as our church treasurer and by Susan on grant applications and meetings and newsletter articles… perhaps we shouldn’t count.

House guests at the Juddmansee B&B is a fun metric! Dan Sheldon is in the lead for naming rights to the guest room at this point, but Mary Obelnicki is a close second. Isaac Sheldon came to visit us for the first time for Brian’s birthday, which was great fun. Brian’s Mom and Grandma drove out and stayed with us for almost a week. These are just a few of the folks who have stopped by. We love having friends and family visit! There is no way to measure the joy and love of our friends and family.

How do you measure a year?

In my last post on books I was debating on a book to pick for book club. I was ready to pick The Shack by William P. Young but was encouraged by the book club attendees that month (both MIT employees) to pick The Difference “Difference” Makes by Deborah Rhode. I was fearful that it would be a bit dry – and, honestly, it was. It’s written mostly by lawyers and social scientists, so it’s a more academic style that most of our book choices. But, despite the fact that not everyone finished the book, we had a wonderful discussion of being a woman in the workplace, mentoring, feminism, economics and politics. Everyone participated and had a story or point of view to share.

After that, we read O Pioneer by Willa Cather, the first book I’ve read on line, and a continuation of our theme of women leaders. I’m about halfway through Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the book club choice for December.

In the mean time both Brian and I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, a recommendation from our friend Bill, sure to inspire any runner. Brian has started Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a recommendation from Ab, which I plan to read next (probably on my trip to DC this week).

It’s been a lot of fun to read from different genres, sometimes to go live in a different world or world view – and sometimes to gain insight into my own life. My list of books to read is growing faster than I can read them! I’ve been extremely fortunate to have many friends who will let me borrow books, and even a few who believe in the “read and pass it on” cycle. Despite the on-line book availability, I can’t read electronic books on an airplane, prime reading time for me. Plus, it’s not the same to read by the light of the LCD when I can take advantage of the best reading season: curled up in the recliner with a glass of wine, sitting in front of a warm crackling fire in the den on a cold, windy, wet day. ahhhh.

I realized it’s been a rather sparse November for our blog. What has been keeping us busy?

We really enjoyed having friends come visit the Juddmansee B&B. First Mary came for cooking and games during her cousin-ween trip. We were very excited to tackle a pile of greens from the farm share, play games, and make apple pie with her. She inspired us to try some old “Road Trip Orchards” wine and check out the peach wine Sarah and I had made. Her sister Anne is credited with phoning in the proper instructions to “take out the pork loin now” at the perfect time, as well as inspiring Mary and me to try the new Revitalife raw foods cafe with her.

Next up was Beej’s 36th birthday, celebrated at Smith and Wollensky with many good friends. Isaac stayed with us for a couple days and Dan stopped by for dinner at the Grog. We enjoyed thoughtful conversation, camaraderie, and another opportunity to play Settlers of Catan.

In the mean time, we transitioned to the late season farm share. First we were inundated with spicy greens and squashes, then we got confused about the pickup time and missed last week. It turned out to be an error in our favor, because I went on travel last week and we’ll finally catch up on perishable farm share items this week. Last week’s lettuce and optional spicy greens (= opt out!) plus greenhouse peppers and tomatoes meant tasty salads and a manageable share.

And yes, the snap dragons are still blooming in the back yard.

It’s also been a busy time for church stuff. We had our annual meeting at the end of October, then our normal business meeting the 2nd Saturday of November followed by an additional strategy meeting last Monday. The Angel Gabriel Christmas Fair was a big success and our “talents” fund raiser is going well. We also have had another congregation express interest in sharing our building, and meanwhile we’ve submitted applications for two grants and are working on a third. I’m cautiously optimistic about our finances, but we’ll see what transpires between now and January.

Last week I traveled to Dallas and Fort Walton beach. A highlight, other than flying our system on a P-3, was checking out the state park across from the hotel. I often wish for good running routes when I’m traveling, and this one was too good to pass up.

I flew back on Friday, just in time to hear Shawn Colvin at the new Tupelo Music Hall in Salisbury. We are psyched!!! First, that we have such a great venue so close – only 10 mins drive from our house. Second, that they have some great musicians booked. We enjoyed hearing Liz Longley open for Shawn Colvin, and we’re considering seeing Ani DiFranco in January.

Finally, I’ve been working on completing my Advanced Project Management courses on line. The final week of on-campus courses at Stanford was planned for September, but I was not able to attend. Luckily my registration was transferred to the on-line course offering, but it’s been a challenge to fit in the videos and reading on top of my normal workload and schedule. I managed to complete Mastering the Project Portfolio last weekend, leaving just one more module to go – hopefully I’ll make more progress this weekend. I keep forgetting that on top of our race schedule and other “normal” activities, I’ve been completing a graduate certificate this year.

So please don’t fear that we’re wasting away our time in boredom and have nothing to write. We’re taking a break from racing for a couple months, we’ve got the yard under control, and we’re just enjoying fall in New England. Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s the last week of our summer season at the CSA, which means that most of the vegetable offerings have turned to squash and potatoes. The nice part is that we don’t have to eat through the entire share each week, because these items will last for weeks or even months in a cool, well-ventilated location like our cellar. We had MANY weeks of cabbage, so enjoyed one blissful week when we’d used all the Chinese cabbage on Saturday and didn’t get any more until the following Saturday. We are enjoying fall lettuce as well, though the tasty toppings like tomatoes are now out of season, so we’re shifting to flavors of feta and olives or dried fruits, seeds or nuts. But, the most spectacular fall harvest has to be the Brussels Sprouts. I learned only a year or so ago how they grow, from observing Grandma Hume’s garden. This stalk is open to the recipe Brian used to braise the little guys with pork. They were small and delicious, especially when sliced in half to allow the braise to permeate and mellow out the sometimes-bitter center flavor.

We enjoyed our hay ride and tour of not only our CSA farm, but the neighboring Ferry Landing Farm as well. We’d heard about it a bit in our news when they cleared the neglected Christmas Tree Farm to return it to a vegetable producing field, but seeing it in person was both educational and impressive. We enjoyed the fall color as we took a ride on the Ferry Road, which was the equivalent of I-95 back in the late 1600s.

All summer our snap dragons have been flourishing. They were an impulsive addition to the lilac and lamb’s ear corner, which turned out to provide color and height all season. And they are still going! The always tardy maple tree is still clinging to about a third of its leaves, it has already snowed here, and we’ve turned our clocks back to standard time, but the snap dragons are still looking spry.

I really hope they reseed themselves and show up again next year!

This week we’re looking forward to our first meat share from the CSA and trying a new squash soup recipe. We love the sights and tastes of fall!

Today started at 5am with a peek out the window to see that it wasn’t raining yet. I assembled my gear and headed to Lowell for the Baystate Marathon. Despite a few butterflies and a chilly 41 degrees, I was feeling warm and ready for the race.

My goals, in order of importance: finish, run sub-4 hour, qualify for Boston, beat my 2000 marathon time. I found the 3:40 pace pack at the starting line, and we set off from downtown Lowell in a light rain to tackle the double-loop course.

I felt good getting out at 8:33 for the first mile among the few thousand runners, and decided to position myself a little better in mile two to warm up my legs. By mile 3 I was with the pace pack, but realized the pacer was running 8-minute miles, not the 8:25 pace expected for a 3:40. I thought maybe she was just going out fast early, and would settle down. Turns out this pacer did 8mins until a 2nd pacer took over at 9 miles and set an 8:20 pace (pacer #1 only ran the first 10).

No matter, I was feeling great, the rain wasn’t bothering me, and I was feeling like all 4 goals were possible. I found a running buddy to chat with between miles 5 and 15, which made this middle section very easy. The only tiny glitch, it seemed, was that I hadn’t been able to swallow the electrolyte tablet I was planning to take after an hour, but I decided that sipping Gatorade on the course would be fine, since I was not sweating much at all. At the halfway point, I dropped my fuel belt with Brian and was 3 minutes ahead of the 3:40 target pace at 1:48:03 (I ran what may have been my fastest 10K time at 50:24).

I started slowing a bit after 15 miles, but was still definitely in range. If I had run my target pace for the first half, I’d have been concerned about creeping toward 9-minute pace, but considering all those 8-minute miles to start, I could now ease back to around 9mins without worrying. I held close to 9s through 20 miles. At this point, my strategy had been to position myself to qualify and give it all I had left for the last 10K.

Well, that turns out to be what I did, but “all I had left” at that point was scraping the bottom of the barrel, both physically and mentally. The rain had picked up, so I was completely soaked by this point, and then the wind also picked up to about 15 mph while the temps dropped down to 37. My wicking layer turned into a very cold 2nd skin, which removed heat all too well. I started being pre-occupied with how I could stay warm – especially my hands. The only answer was pull my sleeves over my hands to try to keep them from getting colder, and keep plodding along. Somewhere in there my right pinky was feeling numb, and I started yelling at my legs to “c’mon, I know there’s something left in there, let’s see it!” Of course between miles 20 and 26, no one looks at you oddly when you talk to yourself – or most anything else. My running song had changed from Christina Aguilera’s “Stronger” chorus (modified lyrics – “makes me run a little bit faster – thanks for making me stronger!”) to the Dixie Chicks “It’s So Hard.”

I’ll spare the details of the slow decline – the splits tell the story of my legs slowing blowing up.

By 23 miles I was no longer on pace to qualify, and I just wanted to be DONE. I was determined to keep jogging and not walk, if only because it would be so difficult to get my legs moving again, and because I wanted to get out of my wet clothes and get warm as fast as I possibly could. I crossed the finish line in 3:55:56 and was extremely grateful for a support staff person who threw a mylar blanket over me, took my arm, and led me to the stands where a wet but incredibly supportive Beej met me and let me regroup. (Remember, he was out in the rain all this time too, and he wasn’t running to stay warm!)

After sitting (well, a little bit more like curling into a ball while resting on a seat) a few minutes and putting on a fleece vest under the mylar, we headed up to the concourse to grab food. I wolfed down a cup of chicken noodle soup (WARM! thank goodness for this non-traditional post-race food!), a pb&j, two rolls, and a snickers mini. I also had most of a bottle of water. Every time I shivered, I stuffed something else in my mouth. We made our way to the car, where I changed out of ALL my wet clothes and ate a Clif bar and had some recovery drink. We then headed home with the heat going full blast.

It amazes me that I can go from thinking “this is insane, I hurt, I never want to do this again” at 11:30am to “I think on a warmer day I can really crush this course” at 1pm. The power of endorphins? The difference between a cold wet Susan and a warm dry one? Either way, I still think running in 40-degree temps in the pouring rain and wind was the most insane thing I’ve done this year. On the other hand, I ran today’s race in today’s conditions and did the best I could, so I’m happy to know I met the marathon challenge for a second time. Two out of 4 goals isn’t bad. I also know that I do actually have 8 min miles in me, so that’s an added bonus, which will be great incentive when I get back to training.

But for now, I’ve popped a couple advil, I’m sipping hot tea, and working on just shuffling myself around the house. No running for me for the next 5 days.

Sometimes it feels good to just get stuff done around the house.  Brian and I came up with plenty of things to do today, so we decided to skip hiking and spend the day on home projects.

We started out touching up the house paint that we’d scraped previously. It’s a 2-person job: I hold the ladder while Brian reaches the tall patches. I have lots of good painting memories that were recalled today.  Going to the basement to search for the right colors among our many gallons of house paint, I recalled helping Dad by figuring out what can of half-used paint matched which job.  “Oh, that’s the back bedroom at Pontiac Street!” or in this case “Tea color is the door frame in the kitchen, it’s more orange than the front door.”  Brian and I both worked on touching up the back of the house, where there is no ladder required.  It reminded me of many paint projects in Indiana, the fun times at WILG spent painting, and later painting with roomates on Essex Street.  We made quick work of job #1 of the day.  But, “While we’re at it…” idea #2 was born, when I mused how nice it would be if I painted the shed today too.

Next, with the ladder already out, we decided to wash the windows.  This was a bit of an adventure, because we didn’t just mean to grab some windex and paper towels.  We aimed to clean the outside windows, including the 2nd story ones to the bedrooms.  Next stop, Kelly’s Hardware, to get a squeegee on a telescoping pole, plus some ammonia and a spray bottle.  We also picked up a new doormat, a shop vac, and a furnace filter.  We headed to Tendercrop to get some straw for the strawberries while we were out.

Now to tackle the windows.  What possesses house painters to paint windows shut?  We don’t know, but we’re not pleased.  It’s hard to describe the process of trying to open the storm from the inside, loosening it, going outside to get up on a ladder with a putty knife to try to loosen the window from the outside, repeat in differing orders until the window actually opens.  Punctuate with trying to reach behind the half-open window to see how much of the other side can be cleaned.  With many skinned knuckles, a chipped putty knife, and otherwise unharmed windows and Juddmansees, we now have two sparklingly clear windows in our bedroom and the 2nd floor landing window also has been freed.  By this point we called it a day on the window wrestling, and decided that Beej would continue to clean the outside of the storms, while I returned to painting.

Brian had replaced the hardware on our front door a while back, and had used wood putty to plug the holes that were no longer needed.  I did the touch-up today to cover the holes and un-painted parts, so it now looks like a normal red door.  Although the afternoon was growing late by this point, the shed was calling.

Shed before painting

While I tackled the front of the shed, Brian changed the furnace filter, shop-vacuumed up the paint chips, took the swing canopy inside for the winter, and started cleaning up the various window and paint supplies.  I also managed to cover the strawberries before it got completely dark.  Here’s the finished shed!

phew!  It was a busy day for the Juddmansees!

For most of the summer we’ve been enjoying our farm share, and rarely venturing out of the realm of known foods.  Sure, we generally don’t buy swiss chard or kale or chinese cabbage as often as we get it at the farm, but we’ve had plenty of those foods before.  It’s more of a case of having these foods right in front of us to use – so we are good kids and eat our leafy greens.

As fall has arrived, we are taking the opportunity to venture from our comfort zone.  I don’t recall cooking blue potatoes before, but I made chips last night.  Turns out they have a white and purple bullseye pattern to them when sliced, and when cooked they looked much lighter than the dark purple skinned lumps on the counter.

We chose a delicata as our squash today, mostly because I’d heard of them but never had one.  I think we’ll try it baked, to get a sense of the flavor.

I’m cooking romano  beans in the crock pot tonight – I’m less interested in the natural flavor of a large bean (which I worry will be stringy or beany), especially after many weeks of green beans of varying colors and sizes.  Thus, these beans  are cooking with a ham bone and some sausage and leeks (also from the farm share) for added flavor.

We also picked up our first  cranberry shell beans, the striking beans on the cover of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, a major inspiration for our farm share and local eating over the past couple years. (Yes, they are the red and white beans being held in the cupped hands at the top of the web page!).  I’m tentatively planning an antipasto with those – cooked and served room temperature with some olive oil.

In addition to our new ventures, we’re also increasing our appreciation of some foods.  I’ve been an eggplant fan for many years, but Brian’s generally shied away from them in the past.  By cooking them sufficiently and with generous use of fresh herbs, we’ve eaten three eggplant this year and enjoyed every bite.  We have also been enjoying the longer, lighter green peppers.  We both grew up with bell peppers, which are darker green and a blocky shape. We enjoyed some of those earlier stuffed with ground beef and tomato, sort of like chili.  Our farm share peppers seem to be sweeter and have a thinner skin than the bell-shaped variety, which makes them perfect for putting in a tomato sauce, hash, beans and rice, or just eating on a salad.  (They’ve not lasted long enough to roast yet, but maybe with the cranberry shell beans.)

It’s fun being a guinea pig for our own new cooking, and we never seem to ask “what should we cook” – rather it’s “oh my, we have a counter and fridge full of vegetables, what do we need to eat next?”