Recent Happenings In Amy-Land

My youngest, getting a pirate makeover.

So this is just going to be a mish-mash of stuff that I’ve done lately.  Prepare for the excitement that only a suburban mom can experience.  Yep, I guess that's me.

Friday night was Family Fun Festival at my kids’ school.  I thought it was a bit tame this year, but the kids still had a good time for a couple of hours. Typical stuff – bounce houses, face painting, games that allowed them to win crappy prizes like pencils and erasers (I'm totally serious), and a Cake Walk, which was the crowd favorite, because at least a win there meant sugar!

Saturday morning, my oldest and I went for a run/walk that ended up being close to 5 miles. We didn’t run the whole thing, but it was still good. We decided to get adventurous and when we reached the 2-mile point, instead of turning around to make it an out-and-back, we foraged onward, cutting through the outside of our neighborhood and going along the state highway. This was perhaps a mistake. I knew there wasn’t a sidewalk for a short distance, but I figured it was probably only 0.25 mile or so, and wouldn’t be a big deal.  I didn’t account for the fact that the speed limit on this 2-lane highway is 55 mph and the roadside area was an overgrown swale with water in it – not exactly a trail. It didn’t feel safe to walk on the shoulder (cars were flying by), so we just waded through the driest parts of the “grassed” roadside area.  By the time we hit the sidewalk, we had stickers all OVER our shoes and socks. And we were still picking them off this morning, two days later. Below are some photos from our little adventure.

Me and my running partner!

Our shoes at the end of it all.

Butterfly!  I clearly need to get a bug identification book because we have major bugs here in Florida, and I never know what they are.  Pretty, though!

Florida Live Oaks - also pretty!

Live Oaks often have ferns growing right on the tree.  Way cool.

And then, in my first step toward completing an Ironman, I actually did 2 laps at the pool on Saturday.  That’s right kids, 100-whole yards.  Of course, I had to rest after each length, but that’s OK.  Baby steps, folks, baby steps :-).  

Our neighborhood pool.  Nice and empty so there was no performance anxiety.  I was able to flounder along with only the lifeguard to see me and laugh.  And if she laughed, I didn't see it, so it was all good.

Connor, recovering from his laps.  Or drowning.  Either way, he's a better swimmer than me.  It's nice to have a kid who's old enough to motivate me :-).

Oh, and in case you didn’t pick up on the sarcasm, the Ironman thing was a joke.  I mean, I’d love to do a triathlon some day (“tri” for us athlete types), but realistically I’ve got a LOOOONNNNNG way to go before I could even do a Sprint Tri.  Maybe next summer?  Oh, and for those of you not in the know, triathlons come in three main varieties:  Ironman, Half-Irons (HIM), and Sprints.

Ironman:  Swim 2.4 miles - Bike 112-miles - Run 26.2 miles (yes, that's a full marathon, after doing the other stuff - those folks are cray-cray)

Half Ironman (also known as an Ironman 70.3): Swim 1.2 miles - Bike 56 miles - Run 13.1 miles (these folks are only half cray-cray)

Sprint Tri: Usually swim 750-meter - Bike 20k (about 12.4 miles) - Run 5K (3.1 miles)

So as you can see, a Sprint seems like it might be doable for a newbie like myself. Once I can swim more than 100-yards :-). Plus, most triathlons have the swim in open water - lakes, rivers or the ocean, though you'll sometime see them in pools. Obviously, living by the ocean I could train in open water, but I have to be honest and admit that in all the times I've gone to the beach (which is regularly in the summer), I've never once tried to "swim". Boogie board? Yes. Body surf? Yes. But actually swim any kind of distance? Nope. Need to pencil that in on my to-do list, also!

Saturday night was our first firepit of the fall season. If you really want to call it fall. I mean, I know that technically it’s fall, but Jeez Louise, it’s still wicked hot here in northeast Florida. At any rate, in order to avoid the back-yard camping that my youngest wanted, I offered a compromise of some firepit fun. Only problem was it took us FOREVER to get the bloody thing going. I don’t know if it was the humidity, or what, but it was ridiculous how long it took.  Of course, I was just supervising (i.e. sipping my wine while watching). We were getting pretty tired of trying to get the thing going, so it’s quite possible that small quantities of gasoline were applied. Several times. You know the fire doesn’t want to be lit when even gasoline doesn’t work on the first try :-). Anyway, after several tries, the wood was finally convinced to burn and after we made enough smoke to stink up our clothes, hair and the house (apparently the back door was left cracked at one point), we called it a night.  All’s well that ends well.

Firepit!

Making the Running Happen

I had plans to run after work yesterday.  My goal of getting up extremely early (4:15 am-ish) to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays hasn’t really panned out.  I did it for a couple of weeks, but somehow 4:15 am still feels like the middle of the night to me.  I’m actually a morning person, so I’m often awake at that time and could get up and go if I were really committed.  But when I get up to run THAT early, there are two options:  1. Run outside or 2. Get in my car, drive to the neighborhood gym and treadmill it. 

Option 1? Running the dark scares me. 

via GIPHY

Me running outside when it’s still dark.

Yep, I said it.  I don’t have anyone to run with at 4:30 am, and even in my ridiculously suburban-type neighborhood, I get nervous running in the dark.  Not just because a bad guy could jump out of the bushes and get me, but even scarier: I live in North Florida.  We have toads. Snakes. And bugs. Big bugs.  I really, really have issues with the idea of a giant-ass toad being squished on the bottom of my shoes.   My Facebook friends have been regaled recently with some of the Florida wildlife that I’ve seen in my yard.  I dodge toads (lots of toads) every single morning when I walk the dog and in the evenings when I dare to step outside my front door after dark.  And that’s with me stepping carefully and with a flashlight app on my phone. Not only that, but when I was running outside in the early morning a few months ago, a guy who was running toward me warned me that there was a snake on the sidewalk ahead and it looked like a water moccasin.  Double bonus: both yucky and poisonous!  I guess if I bought a headlamp, that might alleviate some of my bug/snake/toad concerns.  Something to consider. 

Option 2? Treadmilling it at the gym. This is actually a decent option (and one I actually do, when I choose to get up early).  I like running on the treadmill for the most part, but my biggest complaint is the size of our little neighborhood gym. It’s tiny – like apartment-complex-gym tiny.  And it’s PACKED at 4:30 to 5:30 am in the morning.  IDK.  I just don’t love being in that tiny room when there are 10 other people crammed in there all wanting to use the machines. 

So all those excuses reasons are why I’ve been making a real effort to run in the evenings when I run during the week.  Of course, there are also challenges with that down here in Florida.

Ah, summer in Florida . . .

The image above is Northeast Florida pretty much every evening in the summer. That map was actually from yesterday.  The roads were flooded.  Torrential downpours on the way home.  I was worried the evening run wouldn’t happen.  But, I waited the worst of it out, and then felt like quite the badass when I did actually hit the road with my firstborn to do a nice 3-mile interval run / walk.  Connor (the aforementioned firstborn) often likes to run with me, and while we aren’t hitting the training distances I really need if I'm going to do more than stroll my half marathon in November, it’s still running.  And that’s the main thing for me.  To get and keep moving.  Plus, I like that Connor likes to run, too.  It’s something we can do together. 

At any rate, if its OK with you, I'd like to ignore for the moment the fact that the real badass runners out there wouldn’t think twice about running in the rain.  But I’m still regaining my running groove.  Baby steps, you know :-).

At the end of the day, we did 3 miles and were happy with it. 

Though, ironically, we finished after dark and spent the last ½ mile dodging toads and a small unidentifiable snake that was slithering through a sidewalk puddle.  Sigh.

Want to go to Mars?

Mars, showing Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system.  The above mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.
Image Credit:  NASA

I’m obsessed with Mars. The planet, not the candy bar. I’ve always been a space nut, but it morphed into a full-blown Mars Obsession about 20 years ago (was it really that long ago?), when I first read Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Red Mars” trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars). I’ve now read these books hundreds of times each. I’m not kidding. Below are photos of my paperback copies of Red Mars and Green Mars. Happily, I have them on Kindle now, so I usually read them in digital form when I’m in the mood for a Mars fix (except when my kids steal my phone and tablet and I’m left without technology!).

My battered copies of Red Mars & Green Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson

A recent new Mars book that‘s a fun read – and is now about to be released as a major motion picture- is The Martian, by Andy Weir. The movie will star Matt Damon, who seems to be perfectly cast as the wise-acre astronaut who’s stranded on Mars after an accident. No, that’s not a spoiler. You find out about it on Page 1 of the book. Seriously, read this book! I’m really looking forward to the movie, which comes out on October 2 – in just a few short weeks! 

So what makes me want to write about this today? Well, it’s really looking like we (meaning people) will be going to Mars fairly soon. Maybe less than 15 years from now. Yes, there’s another organization, called Mars One, that has been out in the news lately who seem to think they’re going to get a permanent settlement on Mars by 2025. I admire their chutzpa, but I don’t buy the hype. Not going to happen. They just don’t know enough about what they’re doing. If they did manage to launch someone up there, I think it’s likely those unfortunate souls would die in the process. 

Regardless of Mars One’s chances, it’s a definite fact that those with much more knowledge and chance of success (NASA, SpaceX) are talking about going in the near future. And not just sending up one measly mission – no, they’re talking permanent settlements on Mars! 

One of my favorite quotes by Elon Musk (SpaceX CEO) is that he’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact! I think having a second career on Mars would be awesome as well. Of course, whenever I say these things out loud, my kids freak out – they don’t want me to go to Mars. I tried to explain that if it did happen, it wouldn’t be next week – they’d be all grown up and on their own before I’d get a chance to go. Didn’t really make them any happier, so I figured I’d shelve the discussion until it’s more pertinent. 

Still, the question is there. What if I did really, legitimately decide I wanted to go to Mars at some point in the future? And what if Elon Musk has his way and starts shipping up colonists in, say, the 2030s? I’m looking at a situation where my age would be a factor. I’m already 44 (gulp). Almost 45. I’ll turn 60 in the year 2030. If I have a prayer of getting my butt up there (even if it’s just a visit!), I’d better make sure I’m in excellent health. Good thing I’m working to get myself back in shape and be healthier! Because you can bet your butt if I’m ever given the opportunity to go to space – even Low Earth Orbit or the moon – I’ll be all over that! 

Anybody else want to go up?

Still at it. . .

I haven’t posted much on here lately.  But it isn’t because I haven’t been doing much.

Sometimes I hesitate to put stuff out here on the internet, just in case I slip.  Don’t stick to my goals.  Massive fear of failure.  Public failure.  But then that kind of defeats the purpose of putting one’s training and goals on the blog – for public accountability.  That’s one of the reasons I started up the blog again when I decided it was time to get my “stuff” together.  But of course, making the decision to get one’s ass in gear doesn’t mean there won’t be slips.  Times when I fail.  When I just don’t feel like working out.  And that’s what’s happened this week. 

I rocked things last Saturday – ran/walked 5.8 miles.  Then, I relaxed.  Took Sunday off, deliberately, to give the feet a rest.  But then, when I had plans to get up and run on Monday morning, the 4:15 am wake up didn’t happen.  Or rather, I woke up, then decided I was too tired.  Then the same thing yesterday.  Then the same thing this morning.  Thankfully, I’ve only had 3 days of madness.  I’m stopping it now.

Yes, 4:15 am is an early wake up.  But that’s what it’s got to be to get to the gym and get my run in before getting the morning routine going for my posse. 

As I mentioned before, my running goal is the St. Augustine Half Marathon in November, which gives me 3 months to build up my distance and make myself ready for this bad-boy.  After my first half-marathon blog post a few weeks ago, which I assumed would be relatively anonymous, I discovered that thanks to Google+ putting it all out there, my dad read the post and emailed his concerns about whether I knew what the heck I was getting into.  He’s a former runner, who’s done half and full marathons in his past, and he knows how hard these can be.  So I figured I’d clarify my intentions.

My goal is to complete the half.  I’m not trying to set any land speed records.  I’m totally comfortable with the fact that some walking will almost certainly take place and that my pace may seem more like a trot than a run.  That said, I’m definitely taking my training seriously.  I’ve been running off and on for the last six months and consistently since early summer.  And I’m adding extra distance on my feet in the form of long walk/runs on the weekends.  The plan is for these to be actual runs as my endurance builds up.

I started out by following the Couch-to-5K plan, which works you up to doing a 5 kilometer run (hence the 5K), or 3.1 miles.  I’m not going to lie; I still don’t run 3.1 miles straight through.  I usually stop for a breather walk at about each mile or so.  But I’m cool with this.   However, now that I’ve hit August, I’ll be officially starting the half-marathon training plan next weekend (ready or not, here I come!).  I’m following a training plan by Hal Higdon – his Novice 2 plan, but with modifications.  It’s a 12-week plan that gradually builds you up to the 13.1 mile distance with runs on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  However, I find I need a little more rest on my legs (no doubt because of the extra weight I’m carrying), so I’m generally only running 4 days a week, not 5.  And my Sunday run is generally a run/walk, so my legs don’t completely die!

So far, its been awesome.  I remembered loving running back in the day.  I just needed to get consistent enough that the endorphins kick in.  So.  After taking several days off, I’m going to either run tonight after work or tomorrow morning before. 

Stay tuned . . .

I'm running a half marathon.

There.  I've said it.  Out loud.  Or as out loud as posting it on a blog with about zero readership can be.

This is NBD (no big deal, for you non-internet lingo type folks) for lot of people.  Including, I'd guess, many of my friends and compatriots from college.  I was in Air Force ROTC.  Fit as a fiddle.  Ran regularly, and enjoyed it.  But I never actually got around to running a road race at the time, even though I was more than capable of running a 5K - and probably even a 10K, if I'd have actually trained, rather than just "jogging".

Since then, life happened, kids happened, I gained weight and lost my mojo.  Until recently.  I've been running again and loving it again.  And as one of my bucket-list goals, I'm going to do a half marathon.  Specifically, I'm going for the St. Augustine Half, which will be on November 15th right in my neck of the woods.  This is the day after my 45th birthday, so I'm going to call it a birthday present to myself.

At the same time, I have a long way to go to be ready for this bad-boy!  I'm planning to start blogging about my running, along with other stuff again.  Nothing like putting it out there to help make myself accountable.

Stay tuned . . .

 

Set Your Alarms!!! It's a NASA launch!

Nov. 24, 2014 – With access doors at Space Launch Complex 37 opened, the Orion and Delta IV Heavy stack is visible in its entirety inside the Mobile Service Tower where the vehicle is undergoing launch preparations. NASA's Orion spacecraft is designed to take astronauts to deep-space destination such as an asteroid and Mars.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett via http://www.nasa.gov/content/the-road-to-mars-begins-here/#.VH8tvzHF_cg

Tomorrow morning, Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 7:05 am EST, NASA will be launching the first test flight of the Orion from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station down here in Florida.  This is the first mission since Apollo that will carry a spacecraft built for humans out of low earth orbit.  This spacecraft could potentially take us (actual people, not rovers) to asteroids or Mars.  If everything goes as they've planned, tomorrow's launch will have Orion orbiting the Earth twice and reaching an altitude of 3,600 miles before it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and splashes down in the Pacific southwest of San Diego.  

As a point of reference, the International Space Station orbits at an elevation of 211.3 miles, in the range called Low Earth Orbit.  Low Earth Orbit begins at 0 km / 0 mi and extends to 2000 km / 1244 mi.  GPS satellites orbit midway through Medium Earth Orbit - around 20,350 km / 12,645 mi.  Geosynchronous (GEO) and Geostationary (GSO) satellites orbit at 35,786 km / 22,236 mi.  The moon is WAY up there, at 384,000 km / 238,607 mi.  I found this cool graphic on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit)  that demonstrates the distances we're talking about.  (Note: you can click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see).

By Rrakanishu (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Doesn't that demonstrate just how amazing it was that we put men on the moon way back in the 1960s and 70s?  Look at how far it is, compared to the ISS, for instance.

Yay!  I love a launch.  I try to watch most of the SpaceX launches live on the internet, if I'm not where I can see them outside.  Tomorrow morning, I'm going to see if I can see it from my front driveway, which faces south.  Not sure if it'll be visible because I live about 15 miles from the coast, and about 120 miles from Cape Canaveral.  On the other hand, this is a big-daddy rocket.  I'll have my tablet outside with me, though, so I can still watch online.  And I'm determined to get at least some of my kids up early enough that they can step outside and see it.  They're usually in the midst of getting ready for school at that time - we just need to make sure we all have enough time for a 10 minute break for a launch-viewing!

I hope it goes well!!!

In other exciting news (joke, I'm joking!), after a week or so of excessive food and wine consumption (Happy Thanksgiving!), I'm really proud of myself for climbing back on the horse yesterday with the health thing.  I stuck to the clean eating and finished the day at a really great 1064 calories AND Connor and I did Week 3 Day 1 of the C25K.  We hadn't run for over a week and I really wasn't in the mood to go, but as usual, I felt so much better afterward for forcing myself out the door. 

So yesterday went well.  And I'm on-track to be good again today.  Packed a fabulous lunch salad (as I generally do), but today's looks particularly pretty - lots of color.  Lettuce, spinach, chicken breast, edamame, red and orange bell pepper, tomato.  Breakfast was a whey protein smoothie with blackberries.  Snacks I could eat today include an apple, almonds, v. low calorie semi-homemade veggie soup, boiled eggs (will try to stick with the whites (less calories), but boy I love the yolks too!  

  

My Buddy Orion

You know, I often feel grumpy about having the responsibility of walking our dog.  It was supposed to be my kids' dog, but, surprise, surprise, turns out she's my dog.  One of the things I hate/love is the last walk of the night.  I almost always am grumpy, not in the mood to suit up and go back out into the chill.  But when I get out there, its almost always fabulous.  Tonight was a good example.  Once I got my grumpy butt outside, I looked up and my mood reversed. 

Most people who know me well know also know that I am a space freak.  I can't even explain how awed I am by the night sky.  Tonight was awesome. Sky was clear. My bestie Orion was just rising in the south, Cassiopeia was up in the north.  Orion makes me happy, every time I see him.  Wish I knew where Mars was tonight.  Mars is my main obsession.  I so want to go there, I can't even put it in words.

I had my 6 year old with me, and I pointed out Orion and the Pleiades.  He fell behind, so I looked back, and he was playing "Clash of Clans" on my phone while walking along the sidewalk.  Guess obsessions aren't genetic  :-).

So now I'm back inside, but still happy I reconnected with my buddy Orion, same as I do all nights that are clear, and even better yet, in the mornings when its still dark, and crisp.  That's the best time to see him, at least here in Florida. 

Till tomorrow, Orion . . .