I love this clip from Bringing out the Dead. This movie came out almost 20 years ago, and not much has changed. I even recall writing in some blog post this year, "Fire me, please!" Haha. Put me out of my misery. Another funny part in the movie is when he's just been in an accident with the ambulance while he and his partner are drinking gin; he walks away and says, "I quit!" The next day, he's back at work and all his manager says about it is when he asks him to fill out an incident report when he can get around to it. Haha. We had an employee who was texting and driving and then totalled an ambulance. Fired? Nope. I tried to quit once (although I didn't actually quit; I still worked every other Wednesday's stipend shift). Within 2 months I was begging for my full-time job back. Right before I left, my boss actually smirked at me and said, "You'll be back. You can never leave EMS." If you haven't seen this movie, it's definitely worth watching. A bit depressing, and although slightly outdated, it paints a good picture of what it's like to burn out in this profession. I love all of the accuracies in the film that I think only someone in the field would notice. Although this is big city EMS, so much carries over to all EMS, as well.
Fortunately, I'm actually not miserable in my job anymore. After getting out of the Tamworth base for Monday 24s, I've been so much happier. I don't have to deal with the children down there. It was like a fucking free-for-all. Appalling. I was about to lose my shit. Plus, so many of the calls down there are just so depressing. Since we just cover the North Conway area now, our calls take much less time. And since we're the only crew, we're not dealing with the drama that comes with every shift in Tamworth. We always know we're up so there's no argument on who's going. The truck is better kept. Although only one other crew does a truck check besides us, the truck is generally in good shape. We work with one fire department for rescue/911 calls instead of 7 like we do out of the Tamworth base. Life is simpler. I have the same partner for both 24s. We get along well, which is key. One of the biggest benefits to being in North Conway is "my" workout room upstairs. I do some sort of workout up there every shift. I can take walks around the bay in the winter. Once the snow is gone, I can run and walk on the trail out back. I also have a quiet office where I use the computer (where I am right now!)
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| I just took this. Haha. |
EMS thoughts are on my mind probably because I took a 3-day refresher at SOLO this past weekend. Although it's always fun and a good review, it's still sitting for 3 days straight. With the change in recertification for EMTs, the class has changed somewhat. I actually prefer it over the old way with its mandatory practice stations. I hated those. The new way is more scenario and lecture based with time to practice on equipment if we choose to do it. The scenarios are done as a group; funny how easier they get every year. This is my 4th recert (every two years) and my 4th refresher at SOLO. I love knowing that I'm getting better in my skills every time I go there. So much easier to do the scenarios and the practice MCI (Mass Casualty Incident). I did practice on a few pieces of equipment like the King airway and the KTD traction splint since I have never used them in the field. Needed to know I could still do them on the fly on a real scene. I was really glad we tried the KTD because there ended up being 3 of us trying to figure out what we were doing wrong. Nina finally realized that one of the clip pieces had been put on backwards. Haha. Once that was figured out, it was a no brainer.
I had a good group. Nina Chandler has been in my refresher for 3 times now so we always share a group. Scott Sutherland, a former fellow employee, joined us again this year for the second time. We also had a very experienced Army Medic who was super cool and provided a good deal of knowledge from her real experiences with wounded soldiers. The other two women had been more in the Wilderness EMT role so it was a good mix. Our instructors (2 Josh's) were great. One Josh taught me in my original Wilderness EMT course 7.5 years ago. Although I would have preferred being outside hiking all weekend with John, it was definitely time well spent. And who can refuse the free lunches?! Isn't that why we were really there? Haha. I still have to go back for my WEMT recertification, but I'll do the February class.
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| Scott and Nina |
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| Josh MacMillan |
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| Lounging on the 3rd floor |
Tom Hooper told us to stop by his house on the way home. He and Camie had Alex Shaffer and Maureen Gillespie over so for the first time ever, I agreed. Haha. It wasn't even out of the way home from North Hampton; just a different way. A planned quick visit of course turned into at least two hours. Haha. But John had fun with their bulldog, Bentley. Tom told John to bring Phoenix in, and I warned them that she would be a brat, but they insisted. Well, I wasn't wrong! Haha. She immediately thought it was her space and poor Bentley was barked at and treated like he shouldn't be there. Haha. We had a good time. Alex encouraged me to start an Instagram page for the Dirty Girl Trail Race so I did. Dirty Girl on Instagram. I haven't done much with it, but I will as the race gets closer.
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| Tom, Maureen and the B-RAT, short for Big Rat. Haha. |
Knowing the trails would be well-packed after a week of no big snowstorms, any busier trail was a safe choice for just using microspikes. I really wanted to get above treeline but nothing crazy since the weather didn't look great up there, so I chose Mt Pierce via the Crawford Path. I did all of my workouts first, then Phoenix and I drove up to Crawford Notch. As we got higher, it was snowing. Very light snow, but enough that it was pretty gloomy. I was super thankful for my new winter tires driving up and down into the Mt Clinton Rd trailhead. It was covered in snow, but I had no problems at all getting in and out. Yay! I wouldn't even have attempted it with the other tires and would have had to come up with another plan. The trailhead was exactly how I like to see them. Mostly empty!
I only ran into one of those people which was awesome. In the summer or a nice, sunny winter day, this trail would have been packed. I wouldn't even have chosen it. I love having the quiet trail to myself, especially when everything is covered in snow. And omg, it was SO beautiful! SO much snow. There was a layer of about an inch of fresh powder over the hard packed trail so the microspikes alone were still perfect. A few people had postholed the trail by probably coming up on Monday when it was really warm. I wish more people understood how bad postholing is for the trail. I understand why they just don't know since most don't realize what happens to their bootprints after they leave. Temps drop and the holes freeze leaving deep icy holes that then get covered over by a few inches of snow. What you have left is a hidden ankle breaker. Grr. Although mostly unavoidable in the spring when the snow is just too wet for snowshoes, this time of year, there is really no excuse for it other than the 3 or 4 postholes you make after leaving solid trail before turning around and going back, or, if you must go on, continuing to posthole well to the side of the trail. Postholing Etiquette.
Anyway, I was fortunate to be able to avoid most of the holes and carry on up the trail with my microspikes and Leki poles. I decided to break out my old Leki poles (I have a new, barely used pair, but let's just say a certain ex-husband "borrowed" them and now they are in operable. Haha.) I figured the poles would help lessen the pressure on my hamstring tendon and work my upper body as well. This was the first time using these poles in 13 years, but since they have been over 7000 miles with me since 1998, it was like old hat. And they were mostly helpful. The hike up the Crawford Path was sheltered from the wind, so I was actually sweating to death under my light layers. The hike up is fairly easy and gradual, and when snow-covered so much easier to hike on instead of over roots and rocks. That's one of the things I love about winter mountain running. Let's hope I get back to that this winter. So the hike up was easy. Phoenix had a great time sniffing out all of the tracks. About 10 minutes from where trail swings around into the open for the walk up to the summit, we ran into that one other hiker. He was dressed in full winter weather gear. He told me it was a storm up there and recommended I get geared up before I left the windless trail. Good thing I took his advice. As soon as the trail went right, we were suddenly in insane wind and thick cloud. I could barely see in front of me since everything was white. The other hiker's footprints had already been obliterated. We came out to the intersection sign where I had intended to turn right for the 1/10th of a mile to the summit, but between the wind, the trail completely covered in high snow drifts and Phoenix shivering, it was a no-brainer to skip it and turn back. I took some very quick photos before my hand froze and we turned back. All I had to say to Phoenix was, "Let's turn around," before she immediately bolted back the way we came. In just a span of maybe two minutes, my footprints had disappeared. I didn't regret missing the summit one bit. It wasn't like there would have been a view, and I've been on the summit plenty of times before. I took a ton of photos. I couldn't help but keep stopping since it was so pretty. Funny. We were the only color in the land of black and white. Haha.
The hike down seemed longer than the way up, probably because there was no anticipation of what we would see. Just the trailhead at the end. Haha. This came out to exactly 6 miles on the GPS with 2,343ft of elevation gain. We made it up to over 4,200ft. Total elapsed time was 2:46:11. Moving time was 2:24:29 which is crazy. So many short stops added up to over 20 minutes!
On the way home, I finally got my season pass for the Mount Washington Valley Ski Touring since it opens December 15th. It's the only affordable option around at $69, and it works out to also be the closest to me. I used to get a free pass here as a resident of Conway so it sucks paying now, but it's ok. I brought in my old pass from 2014 since they like to reuse the same pass every year; they didn't care that my name had changed, so looks like I'm going to be Leslie Beckwith while I ski. Haha.
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| Definitely not the most sophisticated id. Haha. |
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| Phoenix in the car after I came out of the grocery store |
We got back to the car, and I drove about 1/4 mile down to the Nanamocomuck Ski Trail to try that out, but Phoenix refused to get out of the car so I decided we would swing by the house and pick up my snowhoes instead. Since I needed to get spring water, I figured we'd snowshoe somewhere nearby. I carried the snowshoes up to the start of the Big Rock Cave Trail and was excited to see that snowshoes were going to be needed. Yay! Unfortunately, though, someone else was ahead of me on the trail. People!! Nooooo!! Haha. I decided to go whichever trail they didn't go at the split. For me, that meant the untouched Cabin Trail. I only had a certain amount of time to be out there with no goal in mind so it didn't matter. I'd just walk until 45 minutes then turn around. The trail ended up being kind of annoying for the first part of it. The rain from Sunday had actually melted a lot of the trail, but it would only last for about 10 yards before being snow covered again. So I just kept the snowshoes on even though I was walking on dry leaves part of the time. Haha. As we got higher, it all became snow again. At 45 minutes, I realized we were only .1 miles from 1.5 so I kept going until we hit 1.5, then turned around. 3 miles for the snowshoe hike. 1:26:13. Very gradual climb but still with 653ft of gain. It didn't feel like that much. Filled up the water jugs at the spring then picked John up at school.
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| She was on high alert for the school dog. Haha. |
I'm still sticking to the schedule. Getting up early before work and then the weekend before my class. I'm doing my Booty Core workout 5 days a week now, skipping Thursday and Sunday. I get so much of a butt and core workout with Insanity Max 30 that I don't need to be doing this workout 7 days a week. Insanity is only 6 days, with one of those being a shorter, low-impact workout. I get on the spin bike that day, as well as on my full rest day from Insanity.
This was week 5 of Insanity Max 30, when the workouts get harder, and oh my god, wow. So much harder. For the first 4 weeks, I may have "maxed out" once or twice (rarely) during a workout. This week, I couldn't even keep track. Haha. I think I took 6 breaks in one 45 second exercise alone. Haha. It's mostly the upper body work that is just so difficult. Plyo pushups are pretty hard. Haha. I have a feeling I'm going to see more results in the arms, chest and back after these next 4 weeks. Plan is to continue with this program but maybe not every day if I'm back running. 3-4 days a week. No idea yet on that, though.
Monday, the FIRST day of the week, 12/3
-21 Day Booty Core Day 20 + 5 min abs. 35 minutes.
-Spin Bike Sprint Intervals. 30 minutes.
-Ambulance Bay Walk. 45 minutes.
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| The only real excitement at work. |
Tuesday, 12/4
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-Insanity Max 30: Max Out Cardio. 32 minutes.
-Insanity Max 30: Ab Attack. 10 minutes. Yep. Still hard.
Wednesday, 12/5
-21 Day Booty Core Day 20. 30 minutes.
-Insanity Max 30: Max Out Power. Ouch. 32 minutes.
Thursday, 12/6
-Insanity Max 30: Max Out Sweat. 32 minutes. The only one in the new section that isn't too difficult.
-Insanity Max 30: Ab Attack. 10 minutes.
Friday, 12/7
-21 Day Booty Core Day 20. 30 minutes.
-Insanity Max 30: Max Out Strength. Destroyed me. Hard to imagine how hard this is for someone who started from scratch at the beginning. 32 minutes.
Saturday, 12/8
-21 Day Booty Core Day 20. 30 minutes.
-Insanity Max 30: Friday Fight Round 2. Just when you think it couldn't get more difficult. Crazy. 32 minutes.
Sunday, 12/9
-Insanity Max 30: Pulse. Low impact recovery workout. 20 minutes.
-Insanity Max 30: Ab Attack. 10 minutes.
-Spin Bike VO2 Max Intervals. 30 minutes.
So not much going on really. No good drama to talk about. Makes for a boring blog post. Haha. I'm sure I could have come up with some interesting topic to whine about, but you guys deserve a rest week. Haha. I don't even have any good photos to share since there wasn't any noticeable change from the workouts. The only change I've had is the addition of extra fat stores for the winter. Haha.
I'm hoping this blog will be about running again, but I can't make any promises yet. I plan to travel down to the snow-free land, one State down, on the 20th to do my first test run on a dry trail. If running sucks, I can just turn it into a hike. Haha. Nooseneck is still in the cards, though. It will be slow and difficult, but you gotta start back somewhere. I'm really bummed to miss the BU Mini Meets this year, but the last one is on the 22nd, and that's probably too soon to go out and sprint around a track. Haha. I'm setting my sights on the Masters Meet again for the 4 year in a row. Bowing out of the 5000, though, and trying out my first 800 instead, in addition to the usual 3000 and mile.
I'll leave this with a few photos. This week was the 6th anniversary of getting Phoenix and the 8th anniversary of getting Chill so I thought I'd share some puppy photos. Plus a few others, including one of John at school.
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| Chill was a HUGE puppy. |
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| Let the dog torture begin. Haha. |
I LOVE this song...
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