My Day (and my 20 miler)

Occasionally, someone will ask me what I do everyday if I don't work. Since this varies a lot each day, I'm not able to come up with a concrete answer. I am, however, able to detail what I did today while the hubby is off changing the world. I am changing our world at home, one dust bunny and dirty hand print at a time.

8:00am
Up with the rain (?).

My back was really stiff when I got up, so I decided on a soak and a stretch. There's something therapeutic about starting my day off with a soak in the pouring rain.

8:30 am
Breakfast and an overview of my day.

It may seem sort of silly to keep a planner around to schedule myself, but it is what works for me. I love lists and planning and keeping things neatly organized. After years of agenda books and daily planners, I find it hard to function without one. Also, I really like crossing things off the list when I finish. With a job like mine, it's easy to push things off because there's always tomorrow. I believe that it takes more focus to have a life without clear deadlines than it is to have one with them. This list makes me accountable for my laziness as well as accomplishments.

9:30 am
Grout cleanup, Aisle EVERYWHERE.

Yeah, I know, didn't we do the grout last week? Instead of doing all the kitchen counters in one day (and leaving nothing for food preparation, dishes, etc), we did the dirty work in two parts. The grout dust is ridiculously messy and leaves my entire kitchen coated in a sandy film. Acetone is to clean up accidents, so I just used my nail polish remover.

10:45 am.
Rug Time!

The other day, Matt and I finally got new mattresses for ourselves. That finally gave us something to put into our guest bedroom : a bed! Never before have we had guest accommodations other than a lumpy old futon. My focus this week has been decorating it. I'm crocheting a rug in this photo while I watch some Gilmore Girls on DVD.

1pm.
Lunch!

This is a pasty (pass-tea). I basically grew up on these things. Brought over from Cornwall, England by miners coming to my native Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan, it was the perfect compact little lunch that the miners could take to work each day. There are many variations of pasties, but the "Traditional" ones are meat, potato, rutabaga, onion, and carrot. The one in my photo is a veggie one with cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and cheddar cheese inside. As a teenager, I learned to make these with my church group. Each year, the ladies of the church got together to bake these delicious things and sell them to the parishioner before Lent. Every Friday in grade school, we had pasties for lunch.

2pm
Floors

This is my least favorite job so I usually do it last to get it out of the way. Every floor in my house is tile or wood, so it ALL has to be swept. And like the kitchen counter, the grout doesn't match the tile in height so I have to sweep the grout separately. Within a day or two, the kitty manages lose a few more hair clumps and I'm back to the beginning. I have to do this nearly everyday to keep it clean. BOO! I have only one rug to vacuum (the one in this photo). Good thing too, since my vacuum has started making a really bad noise. I spent nearly an hour removing screws and parts to find the problem. I think it's the filter. Must buy a new one before the vacuum becomes obsolete and I can't find a replacement. GUBHHHH

3:30 pm
Piano

Unfortunately, my piano skills peaked my freshman year of college. And it's all my arm's fault. I like to believe that I could be good again if I was just patient and worked hard at it, so I continue to practice, hiding the accomplishments of my former self on the shelf where I can't see them. I get music books from the library to keep things fun as I try to retrain my left hand to cooperate. One major accomplishment I have had recently is that I can stretch my fingers to play an octave. Along with crochet, I find that challenging my left hand with music is the best way to keep it from becoming arthritic (which I think may be happening in my left thumb already) and seizing up altogether.

4:00pm
Writing this blog!!

4:30pm
Honey comes home and we're going on a 10-mile run in the rain.

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Now, as promised, the details of my 20 mile run. After a few weeks of being really disappointed with myself, I decided that I'd let Matt take the reins and become my coach. He pulled me out for a grueling tempo run at 8:00/mi on Monday, and by Wednesday, he had me suiting up for a 20 miler. The rain was expected to be really bad, but when we got to the trail, it was surprisingly dry. What replaced it was even worse : 25mph headwind (gusts to 40mph). Just like the 20 miler two weeks prior, we were running just ahead of the front. As we neared the turn around after running 10 miles straight into the wind, I lost my ambition. I stopped, sucked down a gel and growled. Really. RAWR. My game face, growling at the wind. Matt laughed and joined in. And you know what? It helped, my pace quickened, and soon after, we were heading in the other direction. My pacing was ooodles better than it was before. If it weren't for the wind, I would have done fantastically. Matt told me that he read somewhere that running into a really strong wind requires 15% more effort. To make myself feel better about the 9:30/mi average we kept, Matt told me that it was more akin to running 23 miles in that time, at an average 8:15/mi pace. Whether that is true or not, it sure was more work and I was surprisingly pleased that I could run that fast with how windy it was.

Out for another 10 today to round out our first 40 mi week. (This was to be the second, but we nixed some miles last time around to recover from the half marathon.)