Category Archives: August ~ 2014

Mileage Recap ~ 24 – 31 August: Seattle

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Happy Labor Day!

This week’s mileage recap comes from the beautiful city of Seattle.  I had the opportunity to visit last week as we took our daughter to a local Performing Arts College.  I passed through Seattle some years ago on my way to Ft. Lewis for some military training and all I could remember was the rain and temperatures in the 30s at night ~ during June.  Not fun for a Southern girl.  This go round was different, temperatures and weather was very pleasant.  Although I didn’t run much through the city I enjoyed my visit.

To me, Seattle gives you the big city life but not as busy as New York City.  It was easy to move about the city on foot or car.  Parking was crazy expensive.  Here a couple of photos to share:

Walked to the needle from the hotel.

Walked to the needle from the hotel.

I’m a foodie so the public market was amazing.  I think I could go there every day for the fresh veggies, fruit, and food!

The Market

The Market

Fresh veggies

Fresh veggies

Hanging peppers

Hanging peppers

photo 5

Fresh fish

I ate at a restaurant at the market and these crab cakes were great.

Crab cakes from a local resturant

Crab cakes from a local restaurant

How can you not sample the local brew?  Thank goodness I still have over 9,000 miles remaining:)  I could eat my way through Seattle.

IPA from a local brewery

IPA from a local brewery

Totem down by the water

Totem down by the water

I did pay a visit to the city’s Chinatown.  Not bad but nothing compared to San Francisco or New York.  Either way stopped for some really good Vietnamese food.

Chinatown

Chinatown

Visited the town Leavenworth, Washington that has a large German immigrant population (or did).  The town is modeled after towns in Bavaria.  The country side is breath-taking and riddled with wineries and orchards.  Just beautiful.

Reminds me of Bavaria

Reminds me of Bavaria

I tracked three days of mileage in Seattle ~ running, walking and elliptical and was able to pick some cycling up when I came home.  Total for the week came to 26.77 miles with a total of 106.95 miles for August. ~ 9,770.85 miles gratefully remaining.  Happy miles to you.

You’ve Got Spam!

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I’ve had my WordPress blog for about a year-and-half and I’m fascinated by the spam comments that pop up from time-to-time.  If you have a WordPress blog you know exactly what I’m talking about. I can remember getting excited when I first started blogging that I had a comment, only to realize it was spam. I would just delete them automatically without giving them another thought. Then I started reading some of them and frankly some of them are too funny.

So, what better place to start this from than the fine city of Seattle. If you’re old enough you’ll catch on right away. If not watch the movie Sleepless In Seattle.

First up –

Select comment Johnd218
johnd637@gmail.com
111.161.126.89
Submitted on 2014/08/14 at 7:39 pm
Your goal is to breed all the different dragons available to you adfedbeefcbd

Not Spam | History | Delete Permanently
Mileage Recap ~ 1 – 14 June: Four Hump Chump
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Reply – thanks John. That is quite the lofty goal, not only to breed a dragon but different kinds too?!!  Unfortunately, I have no dragons to breed, nor do I know where obtain any. But thanks for the tip.

Mileage Recap ~ 10 – 23 August

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I love redemption from injuries.  After I pulled my calf muscle a couple of weeks ago I laid low with the running.  I gave my legs a much-needed week off.  This week I concentrated on my cycling and had some great mileage success.  The legs felt fine and I have passed the 500 mile mark for the year.  I have a long way to go before I meet the 1500 mile goal for the year, but let’s hear it for little victories.

All three days of riding were lovely.  Today was a little hot but wonderful none-the-less.  I chose to keep it on the bike trail this week.  It has a good amount of small hills and flat terrain.  It was enough.

Mon ~ 17.76

Wed ~ 18.02

Sat ~ 18.11

Total for the week 53.89 miles

Not giving up with out a fight, eh?  9,797.62 miles are happily awaiting.  Happy miles to you!

 

Meatless Monday ~ The Occasional Vegetarian’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, and Apple with Candied Walnuts

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When I was a kid I can remember sitting at the table many hours in front of food I didn’t want to eat; peas, lima beans, and Brussels sprouts.  Hours.  Thank goodness for Daisy the dog.  Parents stepped out of the kitchen and that food went straight into that sweet little dog’s mouth.  I still don’t like peas and I detest lima beans, but I was willing to give this recipe a try.  Mainly, because I saw this beautiful butternut squash and I bought it thinking I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with this but knew I’d figure it out.  After perusing many recipes I came across Yummly.com.  Great site ~ I highly recommend.  It was surprisingly easy to make.  A little time-consuming because you have to peel the squash, but other than that not bad at all.  The tartness of the granny smith apples offset the bitterness of Brussels sprouts and the candied walnuts added a flavorful texture to the dish.  Find the full recipe here:  The Occasional Vegetarian’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Apple with Candied Walnuts.

Happy miles to you.

 

Here's my go!

Here’s my go!

Mileage Recap ~ 3 – 9 August Bad Bad Soleus

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Last weeks mileage was very light.  Very light because I have injured my left calf muscle.

**Disclaimer ~ I am not a doctor or physical therapist.  All injuries should be diagnosed by a doctor**

Whew, got that out-of-the-way.  It is undeniable I have injured my left calf or the soleus muscle to be exact.  To what extent I’m not 100% sure, but I imagine from all the reading I’ve done it is a moderate injury.  Ankle is swollen and calf is tender to the touch with some pain walking.  So says the armchair doctor and of course all hail Web MD!  I went on a 5 mile run on Wednesday.  Everything was great and around mile two I felt a pop and that was all she wrote.  Fin.  What made matters worse I was half~way into the run and it was raining.  I don’t run with a phone so I hobbled on home.  Awww Shucks!  Quite the downer.  This is the first time I’ve ever had a calf injury, so I started doing some reading.  There is plenty information out there so I won’t list it here, again don’t believe everything you read on the internet. For the most part the sites I visited I’m fairly certain were giving me sound information, never to be replaced by a professional advice, of course. 

Interesting article take-aways.  If there is swelling minimize the amount of massaging the affected area due to possible clotting   Massaging the area could release any clots that might be forming which isn’t a good thing.  Massage should happen after the acute injury phase.  And calf injuries tend to increase with AGE (what!).Ooookay, I definitely wasn’t following the massage advice in the beginning and there is no doubt I felt this injury coming but kept pushing.  Needless to say I will be more aware of how I treat injuries in the future.  I acted a little callous towards the possibility I may have something quite severe.  Lesson learned.  Now time to heal it properly so I can continue. 

Good news is I can still bike, slowly at first.   Not the news I wanted to report, but there it is in all its crappy glory.  Maybe I should be more positive and grateful that this is all that happened, I can adjust fire and continue running after I heal.  Ok…I’ll take that route.  Five of the hardest miles completed with 9,851.51 miles (hoping without pain ~ highly doubtful) remaining.  Happy miles to you…no matter how painful.

Mileage Recap ~ July 28 – August 2

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Another wonderful week completed.  Mileage is holding steady but not as much as I would like to have under my belt.  My goal is to complete 1500 miles this year.  Too much going on I guess, but I’m still going to try to reach that mile mark goal for the year, a daunting task with all the little pains that seem to keep cropping up.  One thing for sure is I push through the pain.  Right or wrong I continue.  It’s just my nature and for the most part I guess there really is no use in explaining.  I know when the body isn’t a 100% it’s good to slow down, but I swear if I couldn’t bike or run I’d probably crawl.  I accept that’s how I am…don’t judge!:)

Weather was good for running this week.  I put some time in at the track and completed a run around the hood for a total of 6.48 running miles.  Slow but was able to complete without too much strain.

Saturday was a great day and I decided to get in some cycling.  I walked out of the house in a frustrated mood, so needless to say I was off my game.  I have pedals with the straps, no I haven’t graduated to snap in pedals yet.  As I made my way to the bike trail I have to stop at one of the busier streets.  Like I said off my game, I stopped too short ~ ok I need to pay attention.  There’s a car behind me and I can just sense he’s (yes it was a he and I didn’t even have to look) irritated with me waiting for me to cross the street.  I finally can cross and for some reason I can get my feet in the stirrups for the pedals.  My foot slips and I almost fall off the bike.  Sooooo, how many cool points is that?  I finally get across the street, the driver’s pissed ~ I’m pissed, I was just ready to get off the road.  When I finally got to the trail there was a lot of people biking and my mood slowly began to change for the better.  I love riding on the trail because I can listen to my iPod.   Music and speed are a great combination.  I usually have some blood pumping songs but for some reason I included the Flower Duet.  Such a lovely song.  Greatful to have completed 24.29 miles this week ~ Happy Miles to You.