Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Happy

Sawyer River Trail Run
I know! So gross! I can't believe that I did "one of those" photos. Haha. But we are two very happy people together. It's crazy how close we've gotten so fast, but how could I not fall for someone so amazing? I still can't believe this is real, but we just have this intense connection, and every second we spend together is awesome. We've had such a great time in the last two weeks since my last post, despite his ex's ill intentions.

I hate even giving her the time of day, but when someone continues to spread lies about you, you can't help but defend yourself. She did end up posting a few more times claiming the "truth", but what she wrote is NOT true. It's a fabrication in her fucked up mind.



"He can abuse me by posting about his mistress..." For the 100th time, I was never his "mistress"! And how can one be abusing someone else by posting a photo of the woman he's with AFTER they were divorced? SHE IS LYING. I'll be honest that I busted out laughing when I read this because of just how ridiculous and desperate she is. I thought for sure people would finally be able to see just how crazy she is, but nope. People believe this deranged person. I watched my FB friends list dwindle by at least 50 people. Ryan also lost quite a few "friends" as well, and that really hurt him. No one even fucking questioned that this bitch just might be wrong. We don't want those people as friends anyway. It's nice to see the few who do still support us. It sucks, though. Knowing that the two of us honestly did nothing wrong but still stand accused and automatically guilty doesn't feel good, but fuck those people who will believe a pathological liar like her.

Even though the things she continued to post really hurt Ryan, he stayed quiet without feeding the troll. It was really hard for him to do, but it was the right thing to do. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to, but how do you stand up to the internet mob? We've just continued on being as we are, happy together and having fun.

Moving on from the negative now because I don't want that drama to taint my post. For so long I assumed I was too stubborn and set in my ways to ever really allow someone in my life taking up my free time, but I guess when you find someone special, everything changes. We've been taking walks and running together. He's an awesome cook and has been cooking for us. Am I in a dream world? He's totally spoiling me. It's definitely a shift to have someone doing things for you when you're used to doing everything by yourself. Hard to feel worthy of being treated well, but I'm loving it. I'm getting to know someone I thought I knew before but didn't at all. I found this photo in my archives from NYE going into 2016 when I randomly ran into them at Hobb's Tavern. I cropped her out, of course. (Sorry to the nice couple that got cropped out with her. Haha). Never in a million years when this photo was taken would I have thought we'd end up together. Yet, here we are over 4.5 years later.



We've been having a good time doing some running together. About 2.5 weeks ago, we met up with Dave Dunham and Rich Fargo for a sunrise run up the Mt Washington Auto Rd. Dave sent out an email with the plan, and I emailed right back that I was in. I invited Ryan and Rich to join us. It was an early start at 3:30am in the darkness with just headlamps. The weather was perfect and just got cooler as we climbed higher. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Skies were completely clear with the moon and venus visible above the sunrise. As we got to the top, we lucked out with the cloud inversion. It was stunning! You honestly can't get a better sunrise than this up here. 1:46:11 for a nice casual pace (even though I still felt it and fell back a bit a few times). We stayed on the summit for as long as we could before getting cold. As we ran down we had the best show of the sunrise. Gorgeous.







Me, Ryan, Dave and Rich


Fun time. I was really glad Dave set this up. Ryan and I went to Sunrise Shack for breakfast after. Breakfast beers were had. The place is so different than when I last went there with John on his 14th birthday. The outdoor area is really nice, but it's just so weird how it's changed.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. John went to his friend's house for the overnight, and I took the dogs on a walk on the Jackman Pond Trail since his friend's house was nearby.


I finally got off my lazy ass the next day and mowed my yard...I mean, my field of tall grass. I always let it go this long so that it takes me hours, but it had been so hot out, and I'm lazy, so it just didn't get done. I kind of enjoyed it, though, and even got motivated enough to buy a weed wacker after I picked John up. Finished so late that I bagged my original 4000-footer plan to just run from home up Heavenly Hill to Tin Mountain. 5.8 miles. 1:16:36. 1,199ft of elevation gain.


The following week, I got in two decent mountain runs and two Crossfit classes. Crossfit has made me pretty sore in a good way the last 2 weeks, so it's been tough on my running, but I still really like it. Feels good working all of those dormant muscles.

I got in a few good runs during the week. Stanton, Pickering and Langdon out-and-back. Did this one last year on junk legs. This time around it felt just as hard, but I ran it a lot faster. 8.7 miles. in 2:05:33. 3,135ft of elevation gain.


That night, Ryan and I took the dogs on a sunset walk in the Bolles Reserve and sat by Chocorua Lake for a few hours until dark. When we got to the lake, we spotted a rainbow. It was pretty cool.


Thursday, I went right to Green Mountain after work to run the triple. The weather was fantastic. 8.2 miles in 1:53:06. 3,501ft of elevation gain. Did Crossfit at noon and then John and I went mountain biking around Pudding Pond and on the pump track in the afternoon. Not many miles, but I'll take what I can get with him this days.




I worked a lot this week by picking up an extra Saturday shift at the hospital, in addition to my Friday shift. And I also picked up the 6p-6a shift at Conway on Sunday. So this week was a little much. Still managed to get some short runs in Friday and Saturday. Saturday was also my dad's 80th birthday. Since I was only waiting on one more Covid testing patient at work, I had time to join in a small family video chat to wish my dad a happy birthday. That was fun. My sister organized it.


Accidentally cut my mom out of the shot
Ryan came over Saturday after I got off shift to make John and me dinner. He asked what I wanted so I chose chicken piccata, not realizing it wasn't that simple of a dish. He pulled it off nicely, though. It was SO good. Have I mentioned how amazing this guy is? Haha. And I failed to mention that he did all this after running close to 20 miles from home to the summit of Mt Chocorua and back.




Sunday, we drove down Sandwich Notch Rd to do an out-and-back from the road to the summit of Sandwich Dome on the Algonquin Trail. It was pretty muggy out, but it was nice to share some miles together. I don't usually like running with people, but this is different, and I'm really enjoying it. It's making it so much better. 8.2 miles in 2:03:43. 2,792ft of elevation gain. Quite a decent week with elevation around 9.600ft.





I was sad to have to go into work that night since it meant basically a 36 hour shift (1 hour free in between the two jobs), but I do need to follow through with the fire department and help out when I can since that's why I was hired. We ended up not having any calls. I was tired as hell, but I hung out chatting with Matt for about 45 minutes before I zonked out. I honestly wish I worked with him more often since he would be a huge help for my lackluster IV skills and anything else Advanced-wise that I haven't used much. He's a hard ass, but I don't mind that at all because he's also willing to help me out to get better. I was relieving Marissa when I got there. I miss seeing her all the time! She had accidentally bought some bifocal eye protection and gave them to me. They still fog up with the mask, but it's nice only have to wear one pair of glasses instead of two so I can see to read. Of course, they do make me look like a huge dork, though. Haha.


The following week, I continued with 3 days of Crossfit, ran 5 days and worked much less. I was short on time a few days so I did a road run. Crossfit has had some days with 400m runs put into the workout. Those are hard since I'm not doing any kind of short distance like that, but I like the challenge of doing them in conjunction with strength training. I've been really sore now for about a month. Haha. Unfortunately, I've had some bad falls lately while running. A stupid fall on Cabot got me good. It's been awhile since I've fallen to the point I had to take a breather and attempt to walk it off. The knee hurt BAD. Ryan had to actually help me up. And it took a bit to get over. Luckily it was only a little swollen the next day but with no issues. The fall I had this past Sunday was a different story. We were a half mile from finishing an out and back on North Twin. Rock hopping across the river. Almost at the end. All of the rocks were dry. All of a sudden, my feet went right out underneath me and I landed hard on the boulder with the outside of my right quad. I was jammed in between 2 rocks but quickly got myself out and made it to the other side. I was HURTING. My first thought when I went down was that I broke my femur. But as soon as I moved, I knew I didn't. It happened so fast. Had I fallen just a bit higher up, it's likely I would have broken my hip. Scary. It hurt, but I was able to run the half mile back to the car fine. After sitting in the back to change, though, I could barely get out of the car or walk. The pain was pretty bad. Ryan offered to drive, but I was ok to do it, and it probably helped to keep my leg moving around a little bit, but damn, when I got back it was excruciating. I was still able to take John and the dogs on a walk which helped, but I was dragging a dead leg. I've had to take 3 days off from running and Crossfit so far this week, but I think it will be good to go tomorrow maybe. We'll see.




I ran up Mt Chocorua this week via the Piper Trail, which I rarely ever do. I was pysched to run my fastest time ever up Piper by 4.5 minutes, just missed breaking an hour. My watch had 1:00:21 at the summit (1:00:07 for the Strava segment). Decided to try the Saucony Peregrine 10 since I'm not too happy with the Merrell Cirrus. That's what's in the photo. Super comfortable like the 8s, but I need to roughen up the tread more.

Decided to try the Saucony Peregrine 10 since I'm too happy with the Merrell Cirrus

Took a walk with John and the dogs on the RR tracks on Tuesday, then Ryan joined us on our walk to the Chocorua River on Thursday.




On Friday, I got out of work at Memorial at 2:30pm so I decided to do Crossfit at 4:30 and ran to and from. That workout was so hard that I regretted the run back. Haha. At least I got some slow miles in. About 3.4 total. I was sore for days after that workout.

We had an awesome weekend of running despite my fall on Sunday. I'd never done the Sawyer River Trail to Sawyer Pond so that was nice. Kind of rainy so very few people. Mostly flat and fast, too. 10.4 miles with great views of sexy calves. Haha. And at the end I got the smooching photo at the top of this post. 😊 



The next morning we hung out around the house because John was supposed to go to a friend's house at noon so I took Ryan and the dogs up Heavenly Hill via the trail we built when we moved into the house. I've never taken anyone up there other than Mel Elam when I had some girlfriends over for brunch 2 days before I told Bryan I was divorcing him back in 2014. 


Unfortunately, just as John got in the car to go to his friend's house he saw a text from his friend saying it was a no-go now. I was so bummed out for him, but he seemed ok with it. 
Ryan and I drove up to run Cabot so I could mark that one off my 4000-footer list. As we got closer, we realized it was crazy windy and neither of us brought anything warm for the summit. It did end up being pretty cold up there. My hands were frozen for half the way back down. The run started off well. I felt pretty good, even though I was sore from Crossfit. But as we climbed on, I started to feel clumsy and then I totally bonked for the last mile-ish. I was suddenly all done and stumbling around like a shit show. It wasn't really a surprise that I fell just before the summit on a mostly smooth trail. Haha. I hobbled to the summit which isn't too exciting, but still pretty.



We didn't stay long at the summit since it was so cold. The run down seemed like forever, and we were both starving by this point. So I was a stumbling mess. Didn't fall again, though. 9.4 miles. Somehow snagged a few Strava CRs, but not for the full summit. I was way off of that one by over 8 minutes. Haha. #42 on my list was done. I'd like to do that run again, but the loop next time.
The following week I ended up really busy and it kind of messed up getting to Crossfit so I only made it there one day. I'm trying to get in at least 2 days, but that's been tough. Bummed about hurting my leg this week, but I still think I'll make it here 2 days. John had orientation for high school on Tuesday morning then we took a walk right from the high school down the Conway Rec Path to the river and back. 3 miles. I can't believe John is in high school! He's grown up so fast. I'm excited for him to venture into this new part of his life, even if it has been tainted by Covid-19.







After our walk, I went for my planned run. 6.1 miles on the Mountain Division Trail. Purposely ran it quick-paced since it was short and flat. Pretty crazy how easy it felt. 43:17. 7:03/mi avg pace. Made a stop at Saco River Brewing and ran some other errands before going home. Ryan made pizza for dinner and had brought some peppers along so I tried one of the red jalapenos. OMG. I was dying. I tried drinking milk then had to stuff a slice of bread in my mouth which finally did the trick. That was a fun night.

Thursday was another short run day, but I made it to Crossfit. This was a really good workout, and my abs were sore for 4 days! I actually ran from work in the morning on Ossipee Lake Rd for an out and back. 7.1 miles also at a decent pace. 51:54. I had all of my exercise done by 10:30am. There was a special reason for this... I finally made the appointment to get the tattoo I'd been planning for 2 years. I never heard back from the other two tattoo shops in town so I decided to try White Mountain Tattoo again. I'm so glad I did. Mandy Gillespie was great. I loved what she came up with for a design when I told her what I wanted. And not only is she really nice, but I love her style. And her playlist for the 3 hours was nothing but great music. It really made the pain session even better. The tattoo isn't quite finished. I'm going back next week for the shading of the leaves, but I absolutely love it so far. First pic is while it was a work in progress.



When I got home, John and I had to dig up the cover to the septic tank. That was fun. Sarcasm. Haha. My tank was completely full. It's needed pumping for the last year, but ever since my kitchen faucet/hot water pipe started leaking badly, it really filled up. Luckily the septic finally was pumped yesterday and the plumber is coming tomorrow to fix the leak. Glad these issues happened after I finally started making a living wage. Haha. After John and I finished digging, He, Ryan and I hung out on the big deck and in the old pool kicking the soccer ball and shooting hoops. John also saved a whole bunch of frogs stuck in the "pool". It's been a long time since we actually used that space. Kind of a weird part of my property.

I had planned to do Crossfit on Friday, but I didn't feel like doing the late class so I decided to do a very short run up Black Cap after I got off work at Memorial. I had only run up the "Tourist" trail once other than in winter when I ran with two other women. The winter runs were in snow and part of a longer run. Today, I wanted to do "speed work" from the parking lot to the summit. Almost exactly a mile and 651ft of gain. I went hard right from the start, even passing two mountain bikers who started about a minute before me. I actually pushed it to my max because it was so short. Felt good to do a quick workout like that. 12:14 to the summit. I hung out at the summit for a few minutes since it was so nice out then ran down easy using the other trail from the summit to make a lollipop. Only 2.3 miles total. 23:28 total moving time. Short but quality workout.

Saturday morning, we got out earlier than usual to do a run in the Green Hills so I could show Ryan where to link up the Outer Limits to the backside of Middle Mountain. Ran a loop from the secret Redstone parking area around Twilight Zone up to Middle and then back via the lower mountain bike trails and Redston St. 8.6 miles. John was going to his friend's house after we got back, and we headed down to Goffstown to hang out with Ryan's biological family. We stopped at Bass Pro Shops where we didn't fit in a at all since Ryan needed to pick up something for the farm, but they didn't have what he needed. That place was super weird. We also stopped at Bert's Better Beers to pick up something to bring with us. Pretty neat store. Unfortunately, one of the 4 beers we got was skunked and tasted exactly like Halls honey cough drops. So gross. We didn't want to drink to much anyway so we just split the 3 other beers. His family was really nice, and the house was super cute. We sat out by the fire for awhile before we headed home. I had a good time.

The next day, we got a pretty late start so the plan to do a North Twin/Zealand/Hale loop turned into an out and back to North Twin. It was pretty crowded, but not too bad. It was a really nice day. This climb was relentless. I ran in front for awhile, but since I'm still not really used to running with people, having someone behind me starts sending my brain into race mode so I had Ryan go ahead. It was easier for me to run after that. I was still pushing pretty hard, but I find it easier to follow than to lead. I know I'll get more used to it the more we run together. Made it to the summit in 1:08:30. We didn't hang out too long since it was getting chilly and there were a lot of people up there. Ran down easy... until I fell on the rock. So glad it was near the end. 8.3 miles total. #43 on my list was done. I have Owl's Head, the Bonds and Zealand left. I think we're going to do the Bonds and Zealand in one swoop, even though I'm completely out of shape for that. Haha.


Even though I could barely walk, I had to get out with John for a walk with just the two of us so I hobbled a loop through the Albany Town Forest for 1.5 miles. It was nice talking to him and loosening up my fucked up muscle. Plus the dogs appreciated it, I'm sure. Ryan made us chicken stir fry for dinner when we got home. Have I mentioned yet that this guy is an amazing cook? Haha. 


Monday I woke up barely able to walk. I honestly didn't think I would be able to do my job, but as luck would have it, I randomly got moved to the transfer truck with Michelle. That meant a power stretcher and no patient extrication. And it was really fun! Michelle and I did transfer together for years back in the day at North Conway Ambulance. I spent about 9 hours total in the driver's seat and drove 6 miles in the breakdown lane to get around the dead stopped traffic on I-95, but we had a great time. Finally got to go to Trader Joe's while we were in Portland, and our manager bought us Chinese for dinner after the second transfer. As much as I hate transfers, I wouldn't mind doing them again for one of my shifts.
Yesterday, I was sad to miss seeing John off for his first day of high school. I asked him to send me a selfie so he did. I thought it was cute.

He ended up having a decent day. I hope it goes well for him. So far so good, even though the Covid stuff is putting a damper on things.
Since I couldn't run or bike or do Crossfit, I just took an easy walk in the Bolles Reserve with Chill and Phoenix for 3 miles. It was slow, but it helped loosen up my leg quite a bit. It was actually really nice having the easy going day instead of worrying about getting my run in. 




I decided to pamper myself a bit and finally get my nails done again. I have missed them so much, but I was not going in there until the tourists were gone. And this was the day. It feels great to have that part of me back. So dumb that the nails are that important to me, but they are. And it felt good to be pampered. And then I got pampered even more when Ryan showed up with flowers! Omg. Pinch me because I must be dreaming. Haha.

So, you can probably tell that I'm feeling pretty happy right now. I thought I was going to be single forever and had finally accepted it. Then a month ago yesterday, I took a chance on Ryan, and it's been amazing ever since. Ok, well, for the most part. The crazy bitch kind of put a damper in things, but we have no control over the lies she continues to spread. We're just keeping on the high road because we did nothing wrong. And life is good.

So the new blogger format won't put my YouTube videos up on the mobile version so I'll just have to put them in his links.


Stairway to Heaven