So I Ran...

...and the verdict is filled with uncertainty. Haha. My first run back, I got on the treadmill for 3 miles. 1% grade. Felt great. No pain in the right side. The left was "present" at its worst. Fast forward to 2 days later when I got on the Skyline Trail in Middlesex Fells and stupidly overdid it. Pain in the tendons as if I never took 6 weeks off (minus the one day for Lil' Rhody). I felt pretty defeated and depressed for the next 2 days. But the pain went away after a day so on the 3rd day, I got back on the treadmill. Once again, at 1% grade. 4 miles at a faster pace than the first one. Felt fine. Even tested out my max limit for tendon pain which was at 8.7 miles per hour. No going over 1% grade still. Gave me a shred of hope. Well, at least I can run. Very limited, though. The treadmill seems to be the only thing I can do right now without pain. Probably because I can keep it flat-ish (1% still has slight elevation gain) and (I cringe using this word seriously because it's become an inside joke) controlled. Haha. But it was the only way for these first two weeks back. Made one road run attempt that was an utter failure, but other than that, I spent these last two weeks on the treadmill. And I fucking loved it. Had my music going. No ice, no snow, no cold temps. Probably around 45-50 degrees in my basement. Perfect. I'll go in to more details on each run later, but I was pleased to get in 15.1 miles over 3 days the week of 12/17-23 and then 23.4 miles over 5 days the week of 12/24-30. Although I expected this minimal improvement in the tendons, facing its reality has still been difficult. I'm going to keep running minimally and continue with Insanity Max 30, even though I just completed the 8 week program. I still haven't gotten out on skate skis because the conditions haven't been good (except every day that I'm at work or on the weekends when John is with me). I don't want to make my first ever attempt at it in less than ideal conditions so I'm still just waiting. Looks like this coming Thursday could be my day, though.

So with this bad news, I'm not sure where to go from here as far as racing is concerned. I'm running a mile race on New Year's Day which will be fine with its short distance. I'm planning to do the Resolution Beach race in RI on the 12th(?) and then the masters indoor meet on the 27th. I feel like these short distances will be fine. If I do feel better at all, I will add the 5ks I was considering. As for now, I'm going to hold off on any long runs until probably February. My training window for Boston keeps getting smaller, but it is what it is. As long as I can get out there with 8 weeks of marathon training and finish the race, I'll be happy. I don't want to pull a Hartford or Baystate again; zero marathon training was just stupid. After that, most of my running will switch to trail and mountain through the summer. But who knows, I may be back to no running for months after Boston. All up in the air!

My future doesn't look bleak as of yet, and I actually have something to maybe look forward to on the job front. After all of these years, REI is coming to North Conway! Plan is open in September 2019. So my plan is to apply there full time. Very highly rated as one of the top companies to work for. Opportunities to advance and FULL benefits. I want to apply for a managerial position, but after looking at the qualifications, I don't cut it. So I'll probably only qualify for retail associate. But that's ok. As long as it pays better than what I make here, and I can actually get hired (that's a huge IF), then I'm in. I actually do HAVE the outdoor experience, but they may want younger people. Working retail isn't ideal, but I think I would enjoy this environment. I'd have to work weekends so that's something I'll have to plan for with racing. Once John turns 14, he can get a job so maybe we can both work there or him nearby so the weekend thing won't be a big deal anymore. I haven't had a life on weekends in so long that I'm used to it by now anyway. I would stay per diem at the ambulance to keep my EMT license active and have the ability to pick up shifts if I need extra money. So that's my tentative plan. Funny, even if it doesn't happen, it's still going to give me 9 months of thinking of the possibility that I won't feel so trapped here anymore. So right now, I'm here....

But knowing my luck, it will probably end here...

So I guess this post is a 2 week catch-up since I couldn't help myself with last week's 129 Ways to Get a Husband thing. That was actually A LOT of work. I seriously thought I could sit down and have that done in a hour. Hahaha! After adding up the total time I spent on that, it came out to over 7 hours!!! It was worth it, though. I made myself laugh constantly. Some of those were difficult to come up with responses to. I was cursing them for doing 129 by the end, though! Here are a few photos I didn't use. I had other photo ideas for some as well, but since I wrote over half of it at work, I was limited on outfits and props. Haha.

Still think this one might have been better, but I liked my actual work shirt in the other one.

I was going to write something witty with this...until I found my ship of shirtless men. Haha.

I'm sure this is what most men would prefer

Couldn't get this one right. My head is so much bigger than Richard's. Haha.

But, yeah, that was fun. Surprisingly, I didn't get the response I expected. I was certain to come home to a long line of single, hot, rich men outside my door, but the only one who showed up was a huge, fat mouse begging to come in at the cellar window one morning. I thought I had my game going on! Haha. 😊 Not to worry, though. I just found out that RealDoll has me covered with their Male sex robots with unstoppable bionic penises! Hahaha. (Seriously creepy looking, if you ask me.)

Couldn't get a good pic of the mouse

So that 7 day diet I attempted in the first week. How did that go? Well, hmmm. It actually worked. I craved neither sugar nor beer at all immediately on the first day. I was able to follow the diet to a T for basically 6 days. The only deviation was the planned one on Thursday when I stopped at Stoneface Brewery for beers after my run in the Fells. I ordered deviled eggs (so good, btw) to go along with my beer which fell in line with the diet. The food got old fast, but it wasn't bad, and I was never hungry...until day 7. So the last time I cut out sugar from my diet this strictly was in 2015; I did it for 6 weeks, but only 6 out of the 7 days. I realized that 7 days of this was way too much. I kept to the diet in the morning, but by midday I was starving. So I ended it at day 6.5. Haha. I did lose 3lbs and an entire inch off my waist, but by the time I was done, I was craving so much food that I overdid it. Plus, I had zero energy by the morning of the 7th day; I could barely get through my workouts. It was the weekend, and I wanted to bake so I ended up making these awesome lemon yogurt muffins and cookies and a good chicken marinade. Got on a roll. While I did that, I ate half a pizza, drank some beers and ate my sweets as I made them. This all would have been fine had I gone back to no sugar the next day, but I honestly wasn't interested. So I'd say this was not the diet for me. Too little carbs with a lot of exercise just made me lose my desire to continue. Yeah, it was great for a quick purge. I lost all of my belly fat within 3 days. But the last time I did something similar, I ate differently. I ate when I was hungry, and chose better foods. It worked. Probably also helped that I had my first sub-3 marathon goal that I was working at, too. This time, I was totally defeated right in the middle of it with the tendon issue. But anyway, would I do it again? Maybe, but only if I really needed to cut some fast weight. More likely, I would give myself two weeks to cut the weight and eat different foods. It was a good experiment. I was probably the only one who would do such a restrictive diet the week before Christmas, but it helps when you have no parties to go to or anything planned. I took some pics during the week. I didn't really see a difference since it was so minimal anyway. I took another back pic, but when compared to the previous one, I see no difference except the inch off the waist but it's only visible if you really look.

Top is the latest one. Bottom is the one I posted before.

You can definitely see that I've lost some fat in the waist.

Hard to see, but I did this pose to show the inner thigh. I had no idea how weak they were until I started Insanity. You can see a more visible line there. The arms are definitely more muscular. The obliques have seen the most improvement of the abs. Sorry for the somewhat messy room, but it's the only room I allow a bit of clutter. The rest of the house is clutter-free.

Running for Week 12/17-23

Very exciting to add this category back in the blog even if it's not exactly what I'd like.

Tuesday, 12/18- First run in over 4 weeks. I'll be honest that I was scared and nervous. I did my Insanity workouts first just to procrastinate. Got on the treadmill at 1% grade for 3.1 miles. Felt way better than expected. My body felt like I hadn't stopped running. Felt fluid. I was happy with how this went. 24:13 for time. 7:49 avg pace. Perfect.

Wicked nervous

Thursday, 12/20

I really needed to go where there was no snow. I had planned to finish off the last section of the Warner Trail that I had left to complete, but changed my mind just a few days beforehand. I had 8 Hotels.com nights with only 2 to go until my free night, but they were about to expire on 12/22 if I didn't use another room so I had booked one for $54 (total w/taxes) in the area just so I could keep my 8 nights and get the 9th. Well, by Monday, I realized I didn't want to waste $54 that I needed for the next week so I cancelled it. Made me sad to lose all of my nights, but oh well. So, I changed my plan to do the Skyline Trail Loop at Middlesex Fells and save the Warner Trail for another day.

I should have known this would be a bad idea. 8 miles and very hilly. My body was not ready for that. I didn't plan to run fast at all, and I certainly didn't. I brought Phoenix along with me. I stopped to pick her up or leash her a lot along the way so that she didn't bother anyone. I let her run off-leash otherwise. (By the way, if you don't like unleashed dogs, don't run here. Haha. EVERYONE had their dogs off-leash). The weather was PERFECT. The trail was muddy in parts, but not that bad. It felt SO good to be out running on the trail at first, but then the ache started. By mile 6, my tendons felt exactly like they had before I took the time off. I was cursing myself a bit for doing this. All that time off just to be back where I started. So dumb. But I can't say I regret it. I needed this badly. Mentally and physically. And it felt so good otherwise. Phoenix was really good, and I just enjoyed running the trail with her.

8 very slow miles in 1:29:04 (the last time I did this I ran it in 1:16:07, and I was hungover). 1,169ft of elevation gain. It was mainly the climbing I wasn't ready for, but I did make an effort to focus on activating my glutes which I was able to do. Yay! So there's a positive. But unfortunately, it sunk me into a depression that lasted 2 days until I got myself back on the treadmill.

Boston skyline 

Like I said, I stopped at Stoneface after. Snagged the only seat left at the bar. I had a free beer token from Six03 that I was planning to use. The bartender accidentally poured me the wrong beer so he gave it to me for free and then poured me a 6oz of the beer I ordered. Since I had a second free beer, I ordered another one. They were all excellent. Got two free $9 beers! Only charged $4.50 for the 6oz and $5 for the eggs. I totally scored since my bill came out to just over $11. I still left an $8 tip. Watched Scrooged almost in its entirety while I was there. I probably looked like a weirdo sitting there cracking up at the movie all by myself, but I didn't care AT ALL. This was a day I needed.

Sunday, 12/23

I honestly didn't think I was going to be running again for a month, but much to my surprise, my tendon pain was gone by Friday afternoon. Didn't even bother me during my Insanity workouts that morning. But I still gave it two days before trying again on the treadmill.

I couldn't believe how good I felt. Huge sigh of relief. I had to force myself to stop at 4 miles. I tested out where I would begin to feel the pain, and it was at a decent speed. 30:27. 7:37 avg pace. Felt easy. I'm not as out of shape as I thought, it turns out. It wasn't like I was doing nothing. Laugh all you want at Insanity Max 30, but it's the reason I still have some decent fitness.

Workouts for the Week 12/17-23

Like I said, I continued with Insanity Max 30 and the Booty Core workout this week as usual. The usual spin bike ride on Monday.

Monday- Spin Bike-Climbing Intervals for 30 minutes and then 21 Day Booty Core Day 20 for 30 minutes.
Tuesday- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Cardio & Max Out Abs, Booty Core
Wednesday-Insanity Max 30: Max Out Power, Booty Core
Thursday- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Sweat & 360 Abs. In all fairness, this probably didn't help my run that afternoon.
Friday- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Strength, Booty Core
Saturday- Insanity Max 30: Friday Fight Round 2 and Ab Attack, Booty Core
Sunday- Insanity Max 30: Pulse

Hikes/Walks for the week 12/17-23

Monday, 12/17- Ambulance bay walk for 30 minutes. Always includes at least 20 sets of stairs.

Tuesday, 12/18- Cathedral Ledge hike with John and Phoenix. The original plan was to walk up the auto road and then come back down the climbers' trail, but it was SO cold and windy that I decided to shorten it by just going up and down the climbers' trail. Brr. John wasn't phased by it, though, so that was good. 2 miles total in about an hour and a half. 626ft of gain which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's over maybe a half mile. Haha. Had to warm up so we went to Frontside for coffee after the hike.

Glare ice isn't my favorite.

Love this shot so much that it made my Instagram cut. Haha.

Wednesday,12/19- Ambulance bay walk for 30 minutes.

Saturday, 12/22- Plan was to ski Dugway Rd where it was closed at the gate. Since John still has no ski boots, I gave him mine and my skis to use. I decided to use my skate ski boots with Bryan's old skis that were the same as mine. Stupid me didn't test them out before we got there. Parked. Then carried the skis out to the road. First realized that the boots didn't fit into the bindings. Then realized that the bindings were broken! Grr!! Bryan hardly used them. How the hell did they get broken?! I was so upset that I had a little breakdown moment. I had wanted to ski so badly, but now, I couldn't. Yeah, it was a poor me moment in front of John. Pitiful, but it only lasted 2 minutes max and actually cleared my head enough to come up with an alternate plan. I'd just walk through the slop while John skiied. I can't say that I enjoyed myself much because walking in my ski boots wasn't easy, and it was nothing but thick mashed potato snow. But it was a beautiful day, and John seemed to be having fun. It was actually hard work so I was ready to turn around before we even hit a mile. Haha. So it was 1.8 miles total. Over an hour and 15 minutes.

The deluge of rain the day before made the Swift River even more swift! Haha.

Came home to this in my mailbox. No idea who it was from but probably a neighbor.

Sunset from my window as I baked

Sunday, 12/23- We waited until later afternoon to hit the trailhead on Thompson Rd for the hike up Peaked Mt. As always, it was the right decision. Ran into very few people and had the summit to ourselves. Another beautiful day. The sun on the summit was warm on my face. John asked to do the flat walk around Pudding Pond instead, but once he knew I wasn't budging, he never complained and had a really good time jumping off the trail into the snow and then running down the trail on the way back. 3.4 miles total. 1,154ft of elevation gain. 2:45:39.

Her play "bite"

Other Random Photos from the Week

Someone donated stuffed animals for the ambulance so I set this one up like this so that it would be staring at you from the cabinet. I wasn't surprised to find it turned the other way the next shift. Haha.

Came home to John's art work. Haha. Love it! I left it there all day.

Trying to be festive

John's Christmas present and stocking from me under the tree. (Shocker. It was a new gaming headset! Haha)

With my girl in the warm sun. Look in the mirror. Haha.

Another one to look in the mirror. Haha.

So a weird week, but a good one if I had to generalize it. Happy to be back running. Ready to get back to the land of the living, though. Other than at work and with John, I've been completely isolated. I was really sad to make the decision NOT to run Nooseneck. After Thursday, I knew that it would be too much. Too many hills and too many miles. Not that I couldn't have done it and still probably come in 2nd female (slow times for the women this year), it would have hurt and not been worth it. I was bummed to miss hanging out with the people the most, though. I had taken the day off work (well, traded it with Thursday instead), so I had to come up with a plan that would make me happy.

Week 12/24-30

Very strange week since my schedule was different. I worked the regular Monday 24. I had taken off Wednesday for Nooseneck, but picked up the Thursday 24 instead. Then, when I found out that John wouldn't be home until around 2pm on Christmas, I picked up a 10 hour shift in Tamworth. I ended up not having a partner at all. Someone did offer to come in later in the morning, but it really wasn't necessary, and I didn't want someone coming in after I had just spent 2 hours doing the truck check all by myself. Speaking of, I was reminded why I can't work down there anymore. It's awful. I was used to coming into a horribly stocked truck, but this was hands-down the worst I'd ever seen. Just like old times, I hadn't been there 20 minutes before I lost my shit. It's indescribable the laziness, the lack of work ethic, the embarrassment of being associated with that base. Horrifying. It baffles my mind even after years of dealing with it. One of the people who had been on the truck the day before had the misfortune of being there that day, so when I finished that truck overhaul, I laid into him. I took that sheet, put in front of him and said, "This is what you left me. TWO HOURS! That took me TWO HOURS! No one should EVER walk into a truck like that." He made some excuses for it. Some were valid; I'll give him that. His partner is the laziest there is. This truck disaster was cumulative, not just from him.They were super busy all day. And he has been taught not to know any better. But ignorance is NOT a valid excuse for what I dealt with. Careplus should lose that 6-town contract when it's up in 2020 if those townspeople know what's best for them.

About an hour into the check, I literally grabbed onto the ceiling bar, hung upside down and kicked the ceiling. hahaha. I wish someone had taken a photo of that temper tantrum. Haha. Although I was able to fix most of the problems with the truck, that also means so could the crew prior to me. No real excuse for that. Empty main O2. Empty cot O2. Only one small bottle of O2 in the jumpkit. I took a photo of the sheet (I hadn't completed filling in the "added" section when I took it). And it wasn't just the stuff missing. The whole truck was a MESS. There were 8 INcomplete IV kits thrown into cabinets, 7 SAM splints, piles of non-adjustable c-collars under the bench seat, redundant supplies taking up space in cabinets that barely have room for what we needed. Full dirty trash can. Just completely unorganized. But what it comes down to, is that that truck was technically OUT OF SERVICE when I got on it. Looking back at documented truck checks, the last one had been done on 12/1/18. A "monthly". It looked like they had just gone through and put a check mark in every box without actually checking it. The last truck check before that was in mid-November.

So anyway, all of that negativity I had from working down there was right back within an hour, but at least my coworker, Jen, made us breakfast and Mike made me coffee. So I was able to settle down and actually enjoy the day. Jen and I gabbed for hours. Much needed on my part since I hardly talk to anyone other than John. We had ZERO calls before I left at 5pm. Honestly, the 911 calls stress me out way less than just working out of that base, so when my 34 hours was done, I found the only store open on Christmas, Cumberland Farms, and bought myself a bottle of wine. Haha.

When got home, John had already opened his present from me so we didn't actually "do" Christmas but that was ok since he had a great time with his dad's family. He had a whole bag of stuff, including a loaf of Grammie's homemade bread. I was so excited since she's always made good bread. Two days later, I found it missing out of the cabinet. John said Bryan had come into the house, gone in my cabinet and taken it. WTF. He's so disrespectful and always will be. He didn't even get John anything for Christmas but proceeded to give his parents, his sister and brother-in-law and all three nieces gifts right in front of John. (Granted they were super weird gifts from the Army Barracks). Nothing for John. Reminded me of my second Christmas with Bryan when he did the same thing to me. His excuse was that, "Christmas is stupid." When I told John that story, he said Bryan said the exact same words to him. I can almost always finish John's sentences with EXACT words when he's talking about Bryan. He's always shocked when I do this and says, "That's EXACTLY what he said!" Haha. Trust me; I know.

I got a few things for Christmas. Money from my parents and grandmother. Half of it paid my overdue oil bill. And honestly, I consider that a HUGE gift. Haha. I was able to splurge on a few other things, as well, which is always nice. Also got an unexpected $30 Starbucks card from a friend and those wall lights from Erika that I mentioned in a previous post. All nice things that I don't deserve but appreciate. I still have the tree up and lights on since I love having the tree in there until it has to be tossed.

Running for the Week 12/24-30

Yay! Got over 20 miles over 5 runs. I'll take it! Felt pretty good except for the run outside. It was a disaster. Has me wanting to hide on my treadmill all winter now. I was able to pick up more speed and distance as the week went on, but I'm still hesitant to tack on the bigger miles.

Monday, 12/24- Instead of getting on the spin bike like I have the last 8 weeks, I got on the treadmill for 3 miles. I didn't really want to run two days in a row yet, but with my odd schedule this week, it just worked out that way. And I would end up not following through on that by the week's end anyway (oh, and as a reminder, the week's end is called Sunday; it's part of the weekEND, but if you want to follow some religious calendar because Jesus is your Savior and call Saturday the last day of the week, that's your prerogative...even though I will still fault you for it. 😊 Haha).

3 miles in 22:33. 7:31 avg pace. Felt ok. Progression run. Kept the grade at 1%.

Wednesday, 12/26- Another treadmill progression run. Started at 7.8mph, increased .2 every mile to end at 8.6mph. Stayed at 1% until the last mile when I tested out 2% again. Felt alright. So maybe I can start adding that in.

5 miles in 36:44. 7:21 avg pace.

Friday, 12/28- Very grateful for my treadmill today since we had a snowstorm overnight and into the morning. Also grateful for my snow tires which made a HUGE difference in just getting home from work that morning.

It's not easy for me to do since I have to manually input times  on my phone as I'm on the treadmill, but I kept track of my splits for this progression run. 5 miles at 1% grade the whole way. 36:20. 7:16 avg pace. Splits: 743, 724, 714, 705, 654. Felt good to run some faster miles.

Saturday, 12/29- So I thought since it was warm-ish that it would be nice to get outside for a run. Boy, was I wrong. Probably one of the worst runs I've ever done. I spent 3/4 of it running in slush or on ice. Ran through freezing cold puddles. Just a bad decision on my part. Ran from home into Conway Village with the intent of doing 6 total, out and back. By the time I got into the village, I was already done and decided to cut it short so I planned to loop it back via Cranmore Shores in hopes of some bit of pavement. I cut over like I often do via the footbridge over Pequawket Pond. As soon as I stepped on the bridge, I went down hard. It was so fast that both of my elbows took the brunt of my fall onto the cold, wet metal. So now I was soaked and in pain. I actually had to take a quick breather from that fall because it hurt really bad. I was lucky I only ended up with bruised elbows and not broken arms. I got about a mile on pavement before hitting the icy section and then headed home. Took over 2 minutes just to get back across Rt 16 because of the insane traffic. I was about to flip my lid. Just a seriously awful run. 4.4 miles in 34:02. Surprised I was able to run even that fast considering I was running on ice and slush for most of it. 7:42 avg pace. My tendons actually hurt after that which pissed me off even more. The ONLY positive to the run was the run back up the steep hill into my neighborhood. I was physically able to squeeze my glutes and really felt the surge of power I got from them. Although the activation isn't coming naturally yet, just being able to do it and feel the difference is awesome.

Sunday, 12/30- Nice redeeming run today on the treadmill and felt really good. 6 miles in 43:03. 7:11 avg pace. I ran 1.5 miles of it at 2% grade which made my HR really shoot up. The progression in speed didn't cause much of a jump. Felt good with the 2%, though. The rest was at 1% grade. Comes out to approximately 396ft of elevation gain for the run. Not bad at all. This was my first run with the HRM strap. Heart rate was definitely a little high on avg at 165bpm, but it doesn't surprise me since I'm not in running shape. Really happy with this run. Although I'm out of running shape, I at least have fitness from the cross-training.

Workouts 12/24-30

So this ended up being my last week of the 8 week program for Insanity Max 30. Like I said I don't plan to stop here, but it was cool to see the major improvements strength-wise in these last 4 weeks of it. I had some very noticeable physical changes very early on in the program but it became less noticeable as the weeks went on. It's more that I am definitely stronger and more full body fit than I was before. My weight is a little high, but that's mainly because of weight gained from eating poorly or whatever. Weight did fluctuate the entire program. Started at 123.5, got down to 118.5, then back up to 124.5 until on the last day it fell at 122lbs. Definitely on the heavy side, but I'm not worried about it at all. I'll even out the diet with something healthier, yet non-restrictive, as I always do after the holidays.

I only took a few final photos over the last 2 days. You'll see the backs of the thighs need work. Haha. I'm happy with it in general, though. I love feeling and looking more fit in my upper body.

A relaxed pose pic

The thumbs up was for completing the program. Haha.

I started cutting back on the Booty Core workouts this week. I'm thinking 3-4 days now is sufficient since at this point I'm just maintaining. My glutes are solid, and I'm able to activate them while running which was the whole point. As long as I'm getting in at least 3 of these a week, I think they will maintain what I've gained. If not, I'll just add on more days again. With running and doing Insanity, it's just taking up a lot of extra time that I'd rather spend out hiking or walking.

Monday, 12/24- 21 Day Booty Core Day 20. 30 minutes.
Tuesday, 12/25- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Cardio & 360 Abs. 45 minutes total. Did this at work before starting my next shift.
Wednesday, 12/26- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Power. 30 minutes.
Thursday, 12/27- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Sweat & Ab Attack. 40 minutes total. 21 Day Booty Core. 30 minutes.
Friday, 12/28- Insanity Max 30: Max Out Strength. 30 minutes. 21 Day Booty Core. 30 minutes. Snow shoveling my driveway. 2hours14minutes.

Saturday, 12/29- Insanity Max 30: Friday Fight Round 2. 30 minutes. Huge breakthrough in this week in that I took hardly any breaks. Still suck at push-ups, but the improvement is huge.
Sunday, 12/30- Insanity Max 30: Pulse & Ab Attack. 30 minutes total. 21 Day Booty Core.

Hikes/Walks

Wednesday, 12/26- I'll admit I was a bit depressed today since I wasn't doing Nooseneck. I had looked forward to that race for months. Not doing it was the right decision, but the right decision don't always feel good. I knew I had to do something to make up for it. It was going to be a beautiful day so I wanted to get out for a hike with Phoenix. The only problem is that I hate sharing trails with people. Being vacation week meant this would not be an easy task. So I pulled out my maps and focused on the area  near the Presidentials since I thought maybe the Sugarloafs would work, but with the road closed, it looked much farther than I wanted to hike today. Then all of a sudden, I spotted a trail up a mountain I'd never heard of. The Cherry Mt Trail up Mt Martha and Owl's Head in Twin Mountain. I've driven so close to this many times but it never hit my radar until today. The distance was right. I also had a good trail conditions report from someone online from 3 days prior. Looked good. I figured there would be a few people but not the crowds. After the hike, I'd go into Littleton to get my nails done and get some beer.

I wasn't exactly sure of the trailhead once I got up there and almost passed it by because not one single car was in it!! Did I really luck out? Did I? Did I? Well, it turned out I did!! The trail had seen about 1.5 inches of fresh snow overnight and not a single human footprint had touched it today until mine. I had this mountain all to myself! Ok, well, I shared it with Phoenix. The hike was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. The hike up was a lot of elevation gain but didn't feel like it. We were on the summit of Mt Martha in less than an hour! The views up there were awesome. You could see the entire Presidential Range. Although half covered in a cloud, it was still pretty. A walk past the old fire tower posts gave a view of Franconia Ridge where the wind was whipping a cloud so hard that it looked like smoke coming out of a chimney. I was lucky to be in the warm sun up there.

I decided to hike on to Owl's Head even though the description said it was posthole city and very icy on Owl's Head. He wasn't wrong. But it wasn't quite as bad as I expected...except the ice on Owl's Head. I actually didn't make it to the summit. I could literally see it, but the climb was steep and completely covered in glare ice hidden under the fresh snow. I couldn't even climb around it because the brush was so thick here. Once again, didn't even think twice about turning around. Probably only .05 from the summit, but I didn't care. I wasn't risking it by myself. Microspikes don't touch that kind of ice. So back we went for the climb back up Mt Martha and then down to the trailhead as the sun began to set. What an awesome hike. I loved it. I want to come out and run this end-to-end since the trail continued past Owl's Head back down to to 115.

5 miles total. 2:28:27 for elapsed time. 2,407ft of elevation gain.

Part of the old fire tower

Cloud gusting over the Franconia Ridge

Presi's

Presi's

My favorite photo of them all. Phoenix with her snow beard.

We drove over to Littleton where I had my nail appointment. The timing was bad, though, since it was around 6:15pm when I walked out of there. I was worried Schilling would be packed. Sure enough, line out the door and the bar was jam packed. No thank you. Got back in my car and drove over to the new Littleton Freehouse Taproom and Eatery. I should have known any place called an "Eatery" would be ridiculous. I walked in and snagged a seat at the bar. The decor was nice. Very spacious. I liked this part until I looked up at the tap list to find your typical generic New Hampshire "tap house" menu. Just like Barley & Salt's menu but about 1/4 of the number of beers, if even. Boring menu. Could buy all of it in the store. And $7 a pour for it immediately turned me off. I was starving, though, so I looked at the menu. Also boring stuff, and...NO appetizers. (That "Not Just Sandwiches" section on their online menu was NOT on the paper menu handed to me there Wtf). The cuban panini caught my eye, but so did the price. $12. I thought that wasn't horrible until I saw the fine print that it came with no side. $3 extra for fries. I set my menu down, grabbed my jacket and walked out. I'm not spending the very little money I have on a bullshit place like this. "Locally sourced"= Overcharge. Fuck you; I'm out.

I gave up at that point and decided to head for home. The only other place I wanted to try was Rek'lis Brewing in Bethlehem. Although normally closed on Wednesdays, they were open for the vacation week. I assumed it would be packed and drove on by...then did a quick u-turn and parked. The place had people there but it wasn't packed. I went right up to the upstairs bar where I had the actual bar to myself (there were people at the tables behind me). The ambience here was amazing. The menu was awesome. I ordered Huevos Con Negro Frijoles, like a bean dip/huevos rancheros with corn chips. $8 and definitely more food than I should have eaten. I had one full beer and one half pour. Both excellent beer! I was so glad I finally stopped here at this fantastic little place. The bartender was great. All of the people seemed to be locals/regulars so the atmosphere was almost family-like. You could just feel the good vibes here. Such a good decision to finish off my day here. Although I was still moping and lonely after missing Nooseneck, my day out made up for it.

No Fall Zone. Really good stout.

Lovejoy Smoked Double Brown. Probably the best brown ale I've ever had.

Saturday, 12/29

We got a late start so I opted for a snowshoe walk at the Albany Town Forest with John and both dogs. The temperature was so mild that I figured snowshoes would be best for the trail. John really didn't want to wear his so I let him walk ahead of me so that I could pack down his footprints. A lot of people had bare-booted the trail for awhile and then we had fresh snow to walk on. I was loving this until some people appeared behind us. Grr!!! Go away!! Haha. I ended up veering off onto another part of the trail to avoid them. By the time we got back on that section, they had passed by but had ruined my trail breaking fun. Oh well. Haha. We did the 2.2 mile loop. John loves to stop every minute so it took us almost 2 hours. I unfortunately had to go to Walmart after. It was a mad house, but I followed my list and was in and out fast.

Sunday, 12/30

Another beautiful day, but COLD. I really needed to get spring water from the Sandwich spring so that meant our walk would be over there, too. Again, I didn't want to hike with massive amounts of people so I had a hunch Mt Katherine from Ferncroft would be the place to be. I had no idea if it had been packed down yet, so we carried our snowshoes down the icy road to the trailhead. The trail had NOT been packed down. Worse. It had been torn apart by bare booters! People who had walked in it when it was soft the day before. And now, it was a frozen footprint mess. I was actually glad we had the snowshoes to wear over it! The snow had frozen so much, though, that we barely made a dent in it, but they still kept us from stepping in all of the footprints.

Frozen footprints

This is a really easy hike that has little elevation gain. John mentioned that he and his schoolmates did this hike but came up from the Red Path and then down the way we were coming up. I asked him if the way back had a shorter road walk and he said yes, so I decided we would go back down the Red Path to avoid less of a walk on the icy road.

Like the day before, John stopped A LOT. He loves to play with sticks and try to smash ice. I love it that he loves to do this, but it leaves Phoenix and me just standing in the cold for long periods of time. Haha. So I had to move him along without ruining his fun. It's always like a compromise which seems to work out well enough. We didn't stay long on the summit since the sun was setting quickly. Took the Red Path down and then took a short cut through the woods completely forgetting about the wide, raging brook that was impassable. I asked John about the way they went and he said all the way down the road almost to 113A and back up. I was like, "What?! You told me it was shorter." He said, "I thought you meant the other direction." Hahaha. So we're walking through the woods headed towards 113A when lo and behold right in front of us is a pedestrian bridge coming from one of the camps. Score!! So we crossed there, cutting off probably a half mile or more. It was a pretty good hike. I can't wait until they groom the ski trail up it so I can ski it again. Came out to 3.3 miles total. Shared the trail with no one. Haha.

Future snowshoe runner? Haha.

Cool woodpecker hole

These snowshoes were purchased 20 years ago this week!!

View of Mt Chocorua

Other Random Stuff

I worked with Craig on Thursday. Craig has been with this company a long time. Has the highest seniority in our division. About a month ago, we realized while talking that I have the 4th highest seniority in our division right now! Crazy! So anyway, if you work with Craig, there's always a trip to the Met Coffeehouse.

Also, if you work with Craig, you'll hear the same stories you've already heard 4 or 5 times, but it's just Craig. Surprisingly, though, we managed to have some decent conversations all day... as long as politics is left out. Craig is a HUGE Trump supporter so if that gets brought up or you ever try to argue anything, it's a lost cause. So I was thankful the conversation didn't take that turn. Haha.

The shift was quiet until our manager called ordering us to do a transfer from Memorial Hospital back to Mineral Springs. Craig just happily agreed over the phone. I was BULLSHIT. We are strictly 911 for the Town of Conway, not a transfer service for Memorial. Unless you have a backup crew to cover 911 calls we aren't supposed to do these. So I made Craig call him back to ask who was covering town while we were doing the transfer. Well, he didn't have one. And although this doesn't surprise me at all, he told us to lie and sign on with 700 (our local 911 dispatch) to say we were going out for medical aid in order to cover up our violation of the contract!!! Oh like hell we are! Craig had to hold the phone out so Danny could hear me yell at him that that would be fraudulent when I had to put that in my report while Medicare gets billed for a transfer. Medical aid is a 911. Complete falsification. This is the same manager I got into the screaming fight with. The same one who doesn't do shit. I absolutely refused to say that, but I had no choice in doing the transfer even though it was wrong. I came really close to saying right over the radio that we were ordered by management to do a patient transfer and to have Conway Ambulance cover town while we were out of service violating the town contract. I'm *almost* that ballsy. It would have started a shit storm. A much deserved shit storm, but I'm not ready for that...yet. So we did the transfer. I BEGGED for a 911 call to come in while we were doing it. Conway would have had to cover us and that would have started the shit storm without me having to do it, but, no. Careplus ALWAYS gets away with shit. Rarely does this company get caught. I wrote in my report that my manager, Dan ------, ordered us to do it. Just to cover my ass. The transfer was super easy. They always are. I didn't mind that part. It was the blatant violation of the contract and then telling us to LIE about it that sent me over the edge.

Just some other random photos from the week...

Snow coming off the roof perfectly in line.

I unfortunately couldn't keep following him.

Kind of a strange two weeks. Weird schedule. Back running but not fully. Looking forward to getting back to some racing soon. I miss hanging out with runners! Also looking forward to skate skiing and hopefully mountain running. I think things will look up from here. The holidays are depressing for me so I'm happy to see them go. Ready for later sunsets and a new year. 2018 can fuck off.