Miscellaneous rambling:
- We were originally supposed to return to the office on September 13, but now that is delayed until at least November 1. No complaint from me! Whenever we do go back, I feel pretty certain I will never work five or even four days per week in an office again in my lifetime. Likely only 1-2 days per week, at most. COVID has shown us there is just no need for it.
- After a week of vacation eating out for every meal and most days having big portion ice cream sundaes (one of my weaknesses), I feared stepping on the scales upon my return I would hear "One at a time, please", but was pleasantly surprised that I didn't gain any weight at all.
- Returned to work and immediately checked how much vacation I have remaining for the year. (That's the first priority, right?) Four weeks; that's a good place to be going into September. I paid my dues for many years at the office and am happy with my work/life balance now.
- My family vacation wasn't the one originally envisioned, and reminded me of the Rolling Stones' lyrics "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need". Back in late spring and early summer, I was armchair traveling while surfing and dreaming up vacationing in the partially reopened Europe and then dialed that back to a maybe a western US trip, and then when my head wound still didn't heal and it was obvious I had to reset to a shorter and closer trip in order to get to the hospital each Tuesday we chose northern New England plus nearby Canada, and in the end the latter didn't work out either. But what did I really "need"? I needed a mental health break from work and complete disconnect, some quality time with my family, and at least get out of RI/CT area as I felt I had cabin fever cooped up during the pandemic. I got all that and more!
- Speaking of the Stones, was sad to hear of Charlie Watts' passing this week. I later learned he had already hand-picked his successor in the band and the show will go on. Maybe someday I will see a Stones concert? Guess I shouldn't delay too long.
Monday: 7
Final day of vacation. :( It always goes by too quickly. Always.
Ran solo from the house down to the beach, with interest to check out what the beach area looked like after yesterday's Hurricane Henri. Fortunately nothing like Superstorm Sandy from 9 years ago. The beaches were closed, some businesses still boarded up, and no power, but no visible damage.
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| This is a picture I took (on a run 9 years ago) looking down Atlantic Avenue just after Superstorm Sandy! Fortunately Hurricane Henri yesterday left very little damage to the beach area by comparison, despite being a direct hit on Westerly. |
Tuesday: 9
AM: 2.5 mile shakeout with Brady at Woody Hill from Fallon Trail. Slow, short, and easy.
Followed up the shakeout with Week #19 at the hospital Wound Care Center. For the second week in a row, the wound size has increased, this time by 50% in volume. Ugh. I try to think positive thoughts and focus on the outcome to keep myself from getting depressed. The doctor spent a lot of time with me (and Jana, as she's the one that he gives directions to regarding cleaning my wound and changing whatever dressing and bandage he prescribes). He said he had peer reviewed my case and my stalled wound healing with other doctors, and wants to start me on a completely different and 3-pronged therapy this week:
- Medihoney Calcium Alginate Dressing, with active honey from Australia and New Zealand, reportedly with demonstrated efficacy on forming a gel and aiding in wound closures similar to mine.
- Juven powdered nutritional drink specifically formulated with collagen for wound healing. The stuff tastes only mildly better than whatever that powder they give you to clean out your bowels before a colonoscopy, but at least doesn't have the same deleterious effects. (Hope you're not eating while reading this.)
- Compression on the wound itself by applying a tight band over the wound and down around my chin to secure it, for 2-3 hours per day.
Today's debriding with scalpel was quite painful and I got home to find blood and liquid honey trickling down my forehead and matting into what little hair I have left. Maybe I should just shave the rest of it off? No, I will not be posting pictures. This is all a bit odd and uncomfortable to me, and I'm hoping it's not snake oil, but I'm game to try almost anything.
PM: 6.5 miles total at Battle of Stonington. Separate race report to follow.
Wednesday: 7
Grills damage assessment run, with Brady. In the wake of Hurricane Henri, WLT asked CCC leaders to divide and conquer reviewing our wooded properties with trails. I opted for Grills. It was a pretty miserable experience, due to the horrendous bugs, overgrowth, and the widespread tree blowdowns.
I ended up swatting and killing 44 deerflies. Forty-four! One week from today is September, and I was really caught off guard by how many there were and how aggressive they were. At one point, I was on the racetrack trail in the swampiest part and I stopped momentarily to try to free up and move a downed branch. They attacked me mercilessly, and I swatted and killed three on my upper arm in one fell swoop. Forget the branch, let's get moving and get out of here!
Back in the parking lot at the end of the run, I went into the sunlight because they hate sun and typically scatter. They did, except for one on Brady's ear. When I killed that one, blood splattered out. I felt bad for Brady as I am the one that brought him on this "adventure".
I marked 16 blowdowns and hangers on the Grills trail map, to be used for cutting these down when CCC resumes September 14. Hopefully the rest of the nasty deerflies will be long gone by then!
Thursday: 9
Burlingame loop with Brady around the pond, plus North Camp tacked on to give Brady a swimming and cool-off opportunity. There was an older couple at North Camp Beach with their two Australian Shepherd dogs playing in the water. Other than Brady wanting to take their toys, they all played together well.
Friday: 6
Final day of heatwave. Humidity 98% when we (Brady and I) went out for a morning run from the Burlingame campground. The campground was closed from hurricane damage, and empty except for crews operating chainsaws. Six miles was enough. I was a sweaty, disgusting mess.
Today I actually went in to the office! And into my office for the last time ever, as I cleaned out my personal effects. What a mess; it had been turned into a dumping ground for paper mail received as it's now scanned and electronically delivered but awaiting some sort of policy on destruction. Anyway, for those that will NOT return to the office for 3 or more days per week (like me), they lose their dedicated office or cubicle and instead will use "hoteling" whenever they're on site. A very small price to pay for working from home and one that I'll gladly accept.
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| Farewell to my old office and working in a concrete jungle, as I cleaned out the few photos and personal effects on the credenza. |
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| I like my current office much better anyway! |
Saturday: 20
Low motivation, but I got it done. Fortunately I had mapped out a route the night before, so I was [semi] committed to a plan. Slept in and was seriously looking for excuses not to run or at least not to run the full twenty miles. I don't know why sometimes I'm psyched to get the run started, and sometime the interest just isn't there.
Anyway, once I actually got my lazy butt out to West Beach to get started, I was good to go. I snagged one of the very last spots at the free DEM lot, and since I saw DEM Police there walking around, I made sure to park appropriately (some spots were labeled only for vehicles with trailers, some only for vehicles with cartop recreational boat carriers, some only handicapped, etc). I was looking for spots labeled "reserved for those doing marathon training runs", but couldn't find that section, so I just took the last general spot.
The whole Quonochontaug area was teeming with active people (kayakers, runners, walkers, bikers) and I was happy to see that, as well as the beautiful scenery. I never looked at the pace at all, and didn't look at mileage run or mileage remaining (more on that in a minute) until second half of run, and I think that helped me mentally stay engaged instead of "I've only run xxx miles so far?!" or "I'm only running a x:xx pace?!".
Crossing over Route 1 to the north, the volume of people out exercising slowed to a trickle, and I would see very few again until I re-crossed Route 1 near the end of my run. I remember lamenting the traffic lights on Route 1 being deployed at the intersections of East Beach Road and West Beach Road a few years back, but today I appreciated and planned my route around them as the Route 1 summer traffic is still busy and I didn't feel like taking my chances playing "Frogger" (remember that video game?) getting across four lanes of fast and busy highway traffic. While I was waiting for all lanes of traffic to be stopped and get my own white light to cross in the crosswalk, I was surprised to hear my name. Melanie Diamanti (multiple times an Ironman) and a small group of bikers blew by me on Route 1.
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| Not worth the risk of crossing traffic today; I pushed the button and waited for the crosswalk light. |
There were at least five hills of 100' or more ascents, but I did fine with 4 out of 5 of them. It was only a long hill on Route 216 on my return that was giving me trouble, and that had more to do with where it was placed on my run (about Mile 15/16).
I am still just scratching the surface of functionality on my relatively new Fenix 5 Plus watch, but what I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING about it is the navigation feature. I know I've mentioned this in the past, starting with its debut on a Bar Harbor run, but since I'm a picture guy, here are a few snapshots I got while replicating the course run driving part of the course on the way back:
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| First, select the course you want from your list of Strava routes (either self created or borrowed from someone else) |
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| You're always shown the distance to the next intersection (the purple is the route, the blue triangle shows my current position and direction, the red triangle shows North, and in 277' I should turn right onto Sea Breeze Ave). |
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| I couldn't catch this in time even while driving slowly and stopping to take a pic, but as you get closer to an intersection, you get an audible alert as well as additional turn arrows (right in this case) appear prominently on the screen. |
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| Now if you missed the visual AND audible cues and went off course (in this case, I was intentionally turning off course to head home), you now get new audible and visual alerts that you're off course! (It's telling me not to continue on my present course, but instead make a 180° turn and I'll rejoin the intended route in 142'.) |
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| You can also get instantaneous stats like this, advising 1:33:24 Estimated Time Elapsed, 8.78 miles remaining, and an ETA of 11:45am. There are other screens more valuable for mountain hikes and run, including an elevation chart with elapsed and remaining elevation gain. (This pic taken from a Fenix 5 Plus review.) |
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| You can also zoom in, zoom out, and pan as desired. (Again, this pic is one I found on a review website.) |
Maybe you already have this stuff, or maybe you're just not as geeky as I am, but I find these navigation features to be SO cool and SO helpful! OK, truth be told, with the familiarity I had of today's route, the benefit was more entertainment than helpful. However, in the case of last week's Bar Harbor run, there is just absolutely no way I personally could have followed the route without the watch. One of my planned upcoming test cases is Big River Management Area. That should be really interesting, as I almost always get lost there and don't finish my actual intended route.
Finished up my run very dehydrated (no fuel or water for 20 miles; obviously that's no one's fault except my own) and just sat on the rocks at Quonochontaug Breachway for a while downing cold water while watching fisherman, kayakers, minnows, and even crabs walking by. Really neat place.
Sunday: 10
Low tide barefoot beach run with Brady. I just love these! There is something so pacifying about running alongside the mighty Atlantic Ocean and carefree running barefoot through the waves. Brady adds entertainment for me as he runs in and out of the ocean playfully. There were quite a few dogs on our beach run today; some on-leash, some off, but all very friendly and a few came over to play with Brady. Only had to stop once; when a man threw a ball to his two dogs and Brady turned around, Brady outran the two dogs and got the ball himself. Fortunately, the man was laughing and when I told Brady to drop, he did so right away and we resumed our run.
Weekly mileage: 68
Weekly synopsis: Always a bit depressing to come back from vacation, but running-wise, I got it done this week!
Weekly highlight: The most fun was the beach run with Brady, but the most rewarding was getting my second 20-mile training run in. Time to buckle down a bit and add in some speedwork sessions (which I do not enjoy), but I'm happy for now that I got in a hilly 20 mile run.
Weekly lowlight: My finishing time at the Battle of Stonington 5K (18:45).
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