Hot and humid here too. I got a 4 mile walk in early.
Last night was a perfect evening of why I love being out, exercising and being able to do what feels right.
I left the house about 8:30 - so still light but feeling evening. Just me and Coldplay’s Head Full of Dreams on Spotify. 
I ran about 1.5 miles and saw a friend out walking along the nearby golf course - we have been wanting to walk together sometime but time/work/family has got in the way. I ran along side to make sure it was her - and ended up then walking fast with her for about 2 miles or so. Her bday is today and I could tell she was a little down - “feeling her age” (turning 57- the same age I’ll turn this year). She asked about my running and if I was a “forever runner” - I told her I started at 53 - I think she needed to hear that message and story that 57 - or whatever - is not too late to start something new! We walked the golf course, saw some beautiful deer feet in front of us, chatted and got some exercise. We parted at a certain point and I ran the rest of the way home - it’s getting dark now and it felt GREAT. No watching the clock, no thinking when can I take a break, no breathing hard - just smooth, easy running.
That felt GREAT.
Excellent report, abasket! There are SO many rewards from exercising and being outside!
Did a 50 mile ride today with a group of about 18 other riders from another bike club I sponsor and do the legal work for. What a beautiful day, blue skies, sunshine, low humidity but HOT - 88-94 degrees. Just a nice social ride through rolling countryside with plenty of hills to keep us on our toes.
My riding style on roads that are one lane in each direction and only 12-14 ft wide in each lane is to ride squarely in the lane so that cars don’t try to squeeze past me in the lane to pass and instead must wait to pass until the oncoming lane is clear. This is exactly what PA law provides and is actually much safer than hugging the right side fog line to allow cars to pass with the result that they don’t give you enough clearance because of an oncoming car and end up clipping you. It’s surprising how many cyclists don’t understand the dynamics of safely sharing the road (let alone what PA law requires) and there were quite a few on this tide who fell into that category and had not ridden with me before. For a while they were yelling at me to pull to the right to let cars pass when it was inappropriate to do so and it got to the point that they were getting quite annoyed at me and wanted to scold me. My Sturdy Girls training partners who were on the ride stepped in and basically hold them to be quiet, that I was the lawyer for this club and knew what I was doing. I love my a Sturdy Girls, they are so protective of me, lol. It was, as they say, a “teachable moment” ;).
What a lovely story abasket! And you can tell your friend that I started running as I was turning 59.
Hopefully your friend found your comments to be inspirational, abasket. What a lovely evening it was for you!
Hail to The Sturdy Girls!!! Taking good care of our MK!!!
Lots of great stories!
Taking a little lunch break from bark spreading. We had a little heart rate raising experience this morning. Mr. went into the garage and heard a loud “meowwwwl”! It was coming from under the hood of our truck (which has not been used in more than a month). Opened the cover and saw a huge orange tabby wedged between the engine and some other junk. I have never seen this cat before; he must have snuck into the garage and decided to hide somewhere… He was stuck in there pretty well, and nothing worked to get him out! We put the truck into neutral and pushed it out of the garage hoping that the cat would get out on his own. Mr. decided to close the garage door so the cat would not go back into the garage. As soon as the door started moving, the cat sprang forward, fell under the truck, and took off so fast that all we could see is the tip of his tail. Lol.
Back to the barking project.
Wow, that’s the 2nd “cat under the hood” story I heard today! Why do cats go there??!
Cat, “barking” project. Nice.
Poor kitty! Maybe he’ll come back. You need another one, right?
The 3rd place finisher at the difficult Western States 100 mile race was wearing a prototype Oiselle skirt- their first skirt. I can’t wait until it is available. She said it worked perfectly- no chafing etc- including water crossings- for the 100 miles. She’s an Oiselle runner, needless to say.
I will be looking for that srkirt, MOfWC. That’s a good testimonial to its quality
Ended the day with only 13,500 steps but tired like I ran a marathon! Mr. was hauling the bark up our hilly backyard, and I was spreading it and pulling whatever residual weeds have popped up. Niece was helping Mr and was shocked that we paid hundreds of $$ to get that bark delivered. Last time we did such a massive blitzkrieg on weeds was in 2011. It is not a bad anti-weeding insurance in the long run, LOL.
No signs of our tabby garage guest. He was very cute and quite tame for a trapped kitty. He only hissed when Mr tried to pull him by the scruff of the neck. I could have easily adopted that kitty, lol, but he probably had a family waiting for his return. He looked well taken care of despite having no collar.
Yesterday was a quiet day, ran some morning errands then took the pups to the park which they enjoyed. I must have been tired because I ended up taking an unplanned nap. Grilled steaks for dinner with a salad.
This morning repeated my MAF test which thankfully showed significant improvement or I don’t know that I could continue! This week’s long run is three hours. Something to look forward to!
Great on the MAF test, sabaray! 3 hours will be so good to get your ready for the marathon. Time on your feet. Are you checking out the MAF forum on RA? There is some good information on there. Remember that heat and life stress have a big impact on HR, too.
Nice, sabaray!
I too made steaks and salad for dinner. We ate on the stone deck - that was our first official outdoor meal of the year.
Make that “3” who dined on steak last night! Ours accompanied by roasted beets and fresh corn.
4 - steak and a tomato-mozzarella salad with a olive oil/balsamic vinegar/fresh basil dressing.
The steak was cooked on my slab of Himalayan salt that I got for Father’s Day, which adds a very interesting flavor to the meat.
nre, what kind of steak was it and how did you cook it? I am curious because I was given one of these salt slabs, but I have not used it.
Boneless sirloin, not too thick of a cut, the thick cuts take too long to cook. I like to press some salt and pepper into steak before I cook it, but this time just used pepper because it picks up salt from the block. A couple minutes per side and it was done to a nice medium.
I heat up the block on the grill. Mine came with a handy metal carrying rack, and I just set it directly on the grates of the grill. You can heat them over your gas kitchen stove as well, but it’s too hot to run a burner inside the house for an hour or more.
The biggest issue with the salt block is that you have to heat very slowly or it can crack. It takes hour+ to get it gradually up to cooking temperature. I’m used to just turning on the gas grill for 5 minutes and throwing the steak on, so it takes a bit more planning.
I’ve cooked boneless pork chops that I put a spice rub on, those came out really well. I sliced them in half the long way to make them thinner, and it only took a few minutes to cook. I may try some shrimp or scallops next.
It was a nice weekend, less busy than others lately and that helps. I got a nice 10 mile run in on Saturday morning. Then I had to spend the beautiful afternoon trapped inside at a baby shower (daughter of a friend). I got a lot of yardwork done yesterday and the rain that had been threatening all day didn’t happen until after 8 pm. Tonight will be a run after work, distance will depend on heat and humidity. It is another bright sunny day.
BB - wow, that is a LOT of mulch! I did 12 yards by myself over Memorial Day weekend and that was a lot. And fortunately no hills in the yard to have to deal with. You guys are amazing! I hope the kitty made his way safely home. We had a chipmunk hanging out under hood last month. Apparently they love some of the wiring. We had $450 in damage from chewed wires. Now the car is back in the garage! (Not foolproof as the chipmunks chewed through the seal on the bottom of the garage door to get in but since I moved the birdseed into the house they aren’t interested in the garage as much anymore).
sabaray - I am glad that your MAF training is paying off!
MNK - good for you in teaching the riders and drivers the rules of the road. So much better for everyone to be safe.
@C3Baker, I talked with my friend about the Tunnel marathon. She gives it two thumbs up. The scenery is unbeatable. You really don’t have to carry your flashlight all the way to the finish - volunteers collect them at the end of the tunnel and bring them to the finish line for you to claim. The gravel was an issue only for five-finger type minimalist shoes, but other pavement shoes were fine. The downhill is very gradual, and the last 5 miles are flat flat. She said that she had no issues with her quads getting sore, but the last 5 miles felt like running up a hill afterwards.