A Week in the Life #1

I'm starting a new series called A Week in the Life - it's so much easier to take/share photos with you!

And because I'm a total slacker, A Week in the Life will become something more like A Few Weeks In the Life...

Week of October 14th, 2012

Run for the Animals
Sunday - Oct 14 - We took Ted to the Run for the Animals 5k to benefit the Humane Society. People brought their dogs and pets -- it was so cool! Ted met lots of other puppies and I took lots of photos of him.

Dancing in the street

NIRCA Regionals
Saturday - Oct 14 - I have had nothing but my responsibilities as NIRCA Event Director on the mind for the past few weeks! It's called October = high stress and no time on my hands!

I went to Ames, Iowa and Ben went to Colorado Springs (luckyyyy!) for Regional meets on Saturday.
Ben had only to be there by Saturday morning and left on a 7am flight Friday. After volunteering to give up his seat on an oversold flight twice, he picked up over $800 in Southwest Airlines vouchers with time to take a nap before his flight (bonus: we got to see each other at the airport as I was arriving to IND and leaving on my flight to Des Moines later that day). Win!

Mountain West Regional - Colorado Springs, CO

Iowa's not as bad/horrible/boring as I had envisioned. I actually enjoyed myself running on the Iowa State XC course before the races! It's an awesome course, very professionally marked and managed. It's challenging and and hilly, like IU's!

Super serious men's race

Me & Greg

Greg, (his buddy) Kris, and I ate at a restaurant called Hickory Park. In addition to amazing BBQ pulled pork sandwich, there was a WHOLE MENU devoted to dessert!!! We took at least 15 minutes trying to decide what to order. I would definitely recommend/go again.

Ames, IA was so nice I considered changing my plane ticket home to stay on Sunday morning and run the Des Moines Marathon... but not for a change fee of 200 bucks. Must remember that for next year...

Fall is Finally Here

The end of summer always comes with mixed feelings of relief (from no longer having to run in the heat and humidity) but disappointment that it's no longer t-shirt and shorts, nap-out-on-the-balcony weather. The cooler weather also means that our paddleboards haven't been out in weeks - and probably won't be back until spring. Despite these earlier signs of the season changing, though, the official beginning of Fall (according to me) was this weekend!

The mums come out: first signs of fall?

Ben, Jaz, Jose Carlos and I went to Beasley's in Danville, IN. It's an apple orchard, but they also have a you-pick pumpkin patch, a market (produce, baked goods, and other goodies), and a Fall Festival each year. The Fall Festival includes fun stuff like bouncy houses for the kids, craft fair tents, a puppet show, food stands, hay rides, and a corn maze. It's a little bit nickel-and-dime since each of these activities is a pay-to-play, but it's still a lot of fun.

It was supposed to be sunny, but was kind of cloudy and breezy all day. How very fall.

Of course, we kicked off the whole day by grabbing an "ultimate" burger at the FFA tent: a burger topped with bacon and BBQ pulled pork. 3 meats, one bun. It was delicious. (Ben may have gone back for a second...)

After finishing our breakfast burgers, we walked over to the pumpkin patch, about a half mile walk. We passed a bunch of apple trees, and I thought this was a cool shot. (Hmmm... An Instagram-ed version of this might end up on the gallery wall above our sofa.)

Ben brought his frisbee-disc thing and was throwing it around. That's the hayride in front of us... it's a $3 ride, so we decided to enjoy the nice-ish day and make the short walk to the pumpkin patch.

It was kind of really muddy. This is what my boots looked like before the pumpkins... (a year later, and I still love Vivobarefoot boots from NYC!)

Ok, so you're definitely NOT allowed to pick apples off of the trees anymore. Is this a recent realization of the liability - from people climbing and falling out of trees? My mom used to take me and my sister apple-picking in Cleveland every year when we were kids, so although picking out pre-packaged apples in the Beasley's store was fun, it didn't even compare to grabbing one off of the tree at will. I did it anyway. From ground level. I live on the edge.

We finally got to the pumpkin patch after walking past the windy windy orchards (so glad I found glittens - glove mittens - in my car). JC was pretty pumped too.

Then, the picking frenzy began!!!! The ones you see in the photos were pre-picked and dragged to the aisles because they were enormous(ly heavy). Most of them were still on vines and you had to break them off of the vines if you chose to take it home with you.

It was really muddy from the rain we had earlier in the week (where was all of this rain during the drought?!?!?!). I was so glad I wore boots. Ben rolled up his pant legs so he wouldn't get all muddy. A few years ago, we were rushing to catch the hay wagon back after we'd picked our pumpkins, and the stem of my pumpkin had been stuck or was too long. So Ben punch-kicked the stump off of the pumpkin we chose... and to this day I thought it was the most hilarious thing, ever. He did some more kick! this time too to get some stumps off again. He found a nice roundy one.

I know now that I'm not the one who kicks the pumpkins. See, I found the perfect tapered, egg-shaped pumpkin (it was unique!) and was really pumped about it. Ben told me to kick the stem off, except after 5 whiffs, I kicked the ENTIRE stem off completely! Sad face. I spent the next 20 minutes looking for another oblong pumpkin, but apparently in this field they're pretty rare.

This one was a pretty good second choice.

We got to the baby pumpkin patch and I decided to unbury a smaller pumpkin to bring home, too. This one was buried under some brush but in perfect condition.

I totally took a stealth picture of this little kid as I walked by. The scale of the pumpkins surrounding him, plus the tiny pumpkin in his hand made me laugh! He was also (I think) one of 5 kids that his mom brought to the pumpkin patch. FIVE.

I'm making us sound like bad people but we caught the hay ride back... it would've been a long chilly walk otherwise! See that tiiiiiny little thing at the base of the pumpkin that's front and center? That's a baby pumpkin. It looks like a tiny unripe grape tomato. They threw it in at no charge (ha), saying that "the deer are gonna be pissed," since apparently they like to eat baby pumpkins. Don't we all?

We took some fun photos while we waited for the hay ride wagon. Dang you, camera bag!! I'm photoshopping it out of this picture first chance I get.

And then, we paid for our pumpkins. They kind of just eyeball how big they are and a guy in a tent tells you how much you owe. We paid $12 for the two big-ish ones and one small one. I heard pumpkins cost a lot this year because of the drought, but this didn't lead me to believe that.

Then we got to the market (it's inside the wood building you see in the background). They were selling HUGE gorgeous and colorful mums for only $7. They were easily twice as big as the ones I got at Menard's the other day for $4! And way more colors.

We bought a gigantic spaghetti squash and a peck of cortland apples (my fave). 

More gourds... some all warty, and others that apparently looked like headwear!

...and at this point we partook in the apple dumplings a la mode, while Ben got another ultimate burger. It was also delicious. We stood around for a bit here, so Jaz & I took this picture in front of the pretty decorated cart.

I thought this was kind of a cool shot, too. What you don't see is the row of 10 portajohns right next to me. 

And then, corn maze time!! Rather than follow the directions and clues, we decided to wing it and took turns  leading as we randomly called turning directions for each decision point, sort of Indian-run style.

"Why are there bags on everyone's feet?" you ask. Well, it was crazy muddy in the maze. Solution: bags. Also, notice the corn isn't too high, again, a little stunted and thin due to drought. I don't think any NBA players would find this maze too exciting.

Not to downplay the genuine challenge and intricacy of the maze, here's how the rows were planted at the beginning of the growing season:

 But seriously, a fall festival isn't complete without a ridiculously large bag of fresh kettle corn. I did my best, but we didn't finish it. It did, however, eat kettle corn until my tongue went numb and I thought I was going to die of thirst. It was so worth it!!

So that was our welcoming-Fall adventure from the weekend. I'm still planning on continuing with the autumnal madness by going all-out on pumpkin. So far: pumpkin turkey chili, pumpkin spice yogurt, and pumpkin-granola parfaits. And, with the OSU-IU football game this weekend, I'm pretty sure my season will be feel complete!

How do you get your fall fix? Know of any good apple or pumpkin recipes I absolutely have to try?

Ps- check out the fall wreath I made the other day! Easiest, quickest craft ever.

August Update

Lots going on this month, and we're only just starting to get to the busy season! Here are a few of our life updates:

1. We got our Doyle paddleboards!

If you remember, we discovered this new activity in Salt Lake City on our work-cation out West. Although they're not exactly the cheapest hobby (but far less than ALL other water sports), I bought 4 boards. I'm going to rent them out and do free demo days with them, so if you'd like to try it out, give me a shout! No one has fallen in yet. Since Fall is fast-approaching, Ben and I have spent every minute of our spare time at the lake on our SUPs (stand up paddleboards). It's a huge improvement from the pre-SUP weeks that I spent thinking about paddleboarding with every minute of spare time I had.... Needless to say, it was extremely exciting when the 11-foot long boxes arrived.

We've already gotten tons of questions and strange looks for boaters out at Lake Monroe. And yeah... it's nice to be out on the lake when it's not hot as blazes! Bloomington is extremely fortunate to have such a fun destination within a few minutes' drive.

"How do you get these things to the lake?" you ask. At Outdoor Retailer we also discovered a new product call Sea Sucker, which are essentially gigantic suction cups that attach to the roof of your car -- no special roof rack, no permanent installation required. It only takes a few minutes, and they're solid. They also make easy-to-install bike racks, too!

Basically, paddleboarding is amazing.

Christening the boards

Ben getting brave

2. We welcomed Ted Jones into our home!

Ted Jones is a mini goldendoodle we are fostering while his owner (Danny, a friend of ours) lives in a pet-free apartment. Ted looks like a little teddy bear and is 75% miniature poodle, 25% golden retriever. He's barely older than 3 months, so he's still learning and testing us. :) And he wants nothing more than to play!!!

Don't let those cute puppy dog eyes fool you.

I accidentally caught some video footage of Ted hearing thunder for the very first time. Photos of him are adorable, but this video truly captures how much of a puppy he actually is. By the way - he adores this little stuffed puppy... he shakes and chews on it (and it squeaks) until he falls asleep snuggling it each night/afternoon.

Fozzie Bear (Ted's new nickname) weighs only 8 pounds, and is mostly fluff. Here's a wet Ted - isn't he tiny?! Even better, he doesn't aggravate Ben's allergies to dogs and pets any more than Todd does, which is minimal. Of course, we still keep a "safe room" for him if he has a reaction.

Meanwhile, Danny is great at taking fun pictures of Ted and getting him to sit still. Go check out some of his photos on Facebook, at Ted Jones Puppy (I love how he is listed as "Entertainer").

So why not combine two of the latest, most fun things in our lives? We did it.

We also taught him to swim by tempting him into the water from a boat ramp with pieces of hot dog.... this all happened before the paddleboard adventure. He didn't like going under his first time, but darn it! He wanted that hot dog! He got it, and learned to paddle.

Ted fell backwards off of a paddleboard a few minutes later. He had not actually swum (?!) by himself, without Ben holding him in the water at that point. Sink or swim? Puppy's head went under and before we could jump in and catch him, he came up paddling and staying afloat by himself in three feet of water! They grow up so fast....

3. Thanks, Foot! (Foot Injury & running update)

I officially have no idea what was wrong with my foot. I wore the boot for about 3 weeks (unfortunately, during vacation in Colorado/Utah) and and, it gradually became ok. 

I started back run/walking .25 mile/.25 mile at a time, and the first few days, my foot was sore. I upped my running : walking distance to .4, then .6 miles, and then 1 and 1.25 miles at a time before a .25 mile walk -- and still felt ok. A couple of weeks ago, on a work trip, I stayed in Carmel, and started my run at dusk. As it got dark on the Monon, I started to worry about all of the things that you see/hear in the news (although unlikely in Carmel, I'm not going to bet on it). In the end, I finished a 7-mile run without stopping. And fast-ish.

I'm just about back to running 6 days a week now. It's been a little frustrating that I had to start over again with the heart rate training; I have a really hard time staying under 10-11 minutes/mile at 80%, especially in the heat. Patience... not my best quality. Just need to keep on remembering that I could be not-running otherwise! On the same token, a year ago, at this amount of mileage, I'd be coming up to near my injury-capacity at 50 miles/wk. So, at >35 miles each week - slowly - but with no pain, things are good.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

  -Albert Einstein

What am I doing differently?
I talked to Dr. Mark Cucuzella and Ian Adamson at the Newton Retail Summit, and they noticed I had a bunion on my foot/feet (?). It sounds grosser than it is, I promise. Anyway, the full name for it is hallux abductovalugus - a condition where the last joint of the big toe starts to point outward, usually caused by improper shoe shape. The foot takes the shape of the shoes. It looks kind of like this, but mine's not this severe... I would have noticed a problem if I had toes crossing over!

The big/great toe is supposed to be able to withstand several times the amount of force as the other metatarsals, but with the great toe compromised like this, the brunt of the force goes onto the other parts of the foot/toes. The theory is that the pounding down Boltinghouse during the RER, plus this condition, may have triggered a stress reaction, a precursor to a stress fracture. Too much impact and force on my toe bones!

So, with the duck feet I have already, it's been REALLY hard to find shoes that fit properly. I've been running in Altras for zero drop and for the ample space in the toebox. Also, we sell these things at the store called CorrectToes, which I've modified and have been using with Injinji toe socks. (Ps - they're much better than they used to be! I refused to wear them until the new ones came out.) Moving bones isn't  gonna happen overnight, but if it helps place the stress/impact where it should be, then good!

Meanwhile, I'm excited that this cooler weather is making it a little easier to run.

4. BARA Fun Stuff

BARA (Bloomington Area Runners Association) has been doing some fun stuff lately.

This morning, a small group of us ran with some dogs at the Bloomington Animal Shelter. We took three dogs out, because sometimes they can get super excited and your arm can start to get sore from keeping them in a straight line. :)

I ran with Alicia (yellow shirt) and her friend, Carol (black jacket), and we took the dog in this picture on a four mile run on the Rail Trail. He probably could've gone so much farther! His name is Gage and he's a mastiff-husky with amazingly clear blue eyes. Unfortunately, after our run, we started to do the math and figure out that he might be deaf -- not once during our run did he respond to his name, nor audible signals or noises (no sign of the ears-back-listening pose). 

Gage was SO friendly to other dogs and runners on the trail. Never aggressive, and he thinks he's a lap dog! He knew exactly what the car was when we took him outside and hopped right in like it was his. This guy would be an amazing running partner, and could  serve double-duty as a runner-bodyguard by his size and the way he looks (although if people actually knew him he'd be more likely to lick someone to death).

So, our partnership with the shelter has been a really good one, since we're now three events in. They said they were having trouble finding dogs to send out with us because they're adopting so many! ALWAYS a good thing.  :)

If you don't know about the Bloomington Animal Shelter's ASPCA 100k Challenge our shelter is doing, it's a contest for the most number of adoptions. There are different awards and prizes -- for example, community engagement awards (so events like ours count toward their goal) and region awards for the most number of adoptions in three months. They have been adopting out nearly double their typical rate, and just hit the 500th adoption today (below)! In fact, one of the dogs we ran with this morning was adopted at an event only a few hours later - what a great day!

Tomorrow is the low-key (emphasis on low-key) Bloomington Half Marathon. We're going to set up the course right now, so catch you later!

Summer Vacation 2012

Vacation is not an accurate word for what just happened. We went on a work-cation.

Now… if only I could figure out how to make every day of “work” like this…

End of July:

Started the week working my paying job, customer visits in Indy and NW Indiana. Someone hit my parked car in a parking lot in Indy, which was a bummer. It was drivable.

Anyway, vacationing out West is a bummer with a boot on. So many missed opportunities for hikes, runs…. oh myyy. We have to come back again.

Flew out of Chicago Midway, and Tom and Ben in Denver (they flew in the day before from Indy). We went straight to Fort Collins.

 

Honestly, FC would be way cooler if you didn’t get accosted by SOMEONE wanting something from you. We were approached by people wanting a petition signed. More hilariously, a bunch of brainwashed-like cult-follower-esque high school girls followed us and wanted to pray for me because they had a dream that told them they should pray for someone with an injured leg (wrong, it’s a hurt foot). We took refuge at a local restaurant where we had a delicious lunch. It’s a cute-sy town. Cool shops, good restaurants, local artists. Boulder without the stigma.

Then we headed to our home-away-from-home in Boulder and caught a sunset on the way.

 

Caught a Rockies game. It rained almost the whole time. We go because of the sunsets, so unfortunately we missed it on this particular day. And the Rockies lost.

 

As a consolation, we got ice cream from Little Man Ice Cream in Denver. I got salted oreo + caramel ice cream.

Farmer’s market in Boulder… we bought some RIDICULOUSLY good peaches. The Bolder farmer’s market is a highlight every year because their food tents are the best you can get.

More scenery from atop Flagstaff Mountain. We drove up. Ford commercial, much? (We were actually very impressed by the Ford Escape and the Ford Edge we rented during this trip)

Pearl Street mall

  

My favorite store on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder – Bayleaf.

 

COOLEST IDEA EVER. Vending machine for energy gel, bike tubes, and other good stuff.

So then, after 2 days in Boulder, we checked into the St. Julien for the beginning of the 2012 Newton Retail Summit.

 

The next few days were filled with seminars, panel discussions, and breakout sessions that were really really interesting. It’s always nice to network with other retailers and see how they do these. We grilled a couple of the guys we met. :) We at REALLY well during this entire event. Like I said last year, probably best if I don’t get used to this type of VIP treatment!

Stuffed prairie dog for sale in the mini bar. I wanted it last year, and still wanted it this year. SO I KEPT IT. ($20 worth of kept it… ech)

I ate my weight in food daily. Don’t ever let people tell you runners eat very little. Lies.

Coffee with Craig “Crowie” Alexander. He wins stuff.

 

View from the hotel room

Oh! and we each got a limited-edition pair of Newton Gravity. The Newton logo is glittery!

After the Summit, we went to Park City. 9 or 10 hours in the car… AHHH – my longest road trip EVER to date! We took is leisurely and stopped a few times on the way.

Tom the geologist found a bunch of rocks that were really exciting. I can’t remember exactly why, but I thought it was photo-worthy. :)

More ridiculous views on the trip to Park City, UT.

We ate at a place in Steamboat Springs called Freshies – it was really good! They display pieces made by local artists. We also saw the HQ for Honey Stingers (but it wasn’t photo worthy).

Ben almost hit a deer or elk or something.

It started storming. After a few attempts we captured the lightning on camera!

Park City – arrived SUPER late at night and stayed at the Marriott.

We got up in the morning and headed to the park where the Outdoor Retail Open Air Demo was taking place.

Here’s where we got acquainted and began to love geogaching.

Vendors were giving samples and trials away, like free shoes, demo runs, and the like. Most of them were extremely friendly and willing to share about their product, but a few of the more stingy types would see what type of retail business we had before speaking with us, or wanting to give out samples. That was really weird.

During the rest of the Open Air Demo, we got to try out gear. There was:

- the ElliptiGo (you ride and steer it like a bike, except pedaled with elliptical motion),

- the SkiMotion (similar to rollerblading, except the “skis” are attached”),

- some kind of skateboard-y paddleing thing (which I only saw but didn’t try),

- fly fishing (we learned how to do it but I am not very good at it),

- and stand up paddleboards (SUP).

They also had surf boards, kayaks, paddleboats, and more watersports. There was even a 5k trail race there in the morning!

OHHHHHH SUP!!!! It’s a way of life, a culture, and an attitude. For us from the Midwest, it’s just a different way of thinking. It’s that super laid back surfer-type lifestyle.

…which was really strange, because every SUP tent that we passed was really kind of closed off, as if they didn’t really care to let us try their product or tell us about it. Finally, we stumbled across the Doyle tent, and the guys there were all really relaxed and willing to chat.

So I finally got to try it… and yeah, it’s been on my bucket list since we discovered it in Maui a few years ago. I thought I would like it, but I didn’t expect to be obsessed with it…

And now I have literally thought about paddleboarding every day since this adventure. There were kids out there (3 on one board!), a woman paddling with her dog, … SUP is so much fun! I felt comfortable within about 5-10 minutes on the board. And it’s actually kind of hard to tip them over. Think canoe width. I mean – look. I’m wearing normal clothes. They’ve only had 3 people fall in in the ten years they’ve been demo-ing. That’s good stats, right?

After a crazy fun day of new experiences, we went to Park City and Brighton. It’s a cute mountain town on top of a hill. Dinner was excellent.

Some ski slopes.

Look! Boots are handi-capable! One good picture out of a few not-pretties.

Unfortunately, I lost my sunglasses somewhere around here as we were sightseeing on this mountain.

Um, what were we doing?

Then we saw a moose.

Ok, so after this we went to Brighton (Park?) and walked it. We were looking for a geocache, but never found it after about an hour and a half. I wonder if it’s still there?

After having no luck in finding the geocache, we headed to Salt Lake City in the dark.

Next day: Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake.

Pictures aren’t really allowed… so I’ll just say the place was packed. It was like learning your way around a new city!!

After two TIRING days at the show, we met up with Danelle and Andy and baby Piper for dinner. Danelle’s one of my besties from Ohio State. :)  <3 I love her even more ‘cause she makes me feel tall. :)

 

And then… we finished out the night with a successful geocache hunt through the University of Utah campus and area, of course!

We spent a few hours at the show on Friday, but had to catch a flight to Chicago in the afternoon.

That weekend – Alyssa and Brice’s wedding! Ben was a reader. That didn’t really go off as planned, but it was all good.

 

Most beautiful wedding and reception I’ve been to – unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of photos because it was dark. But, the reception included an Irish dance performance, which was cool to watch. It took place on a nature preserve. Very pretty!

Running is a dangerous sport.

And that pretty much sums up our Summer work-cation and travels!

 

SO: Have you ever tried paddleboarding? ElliptiGo?