What a week. It often feels like Monday through Friday move at light speed into the weekend, with barely a moment to sit and reflect. With the new workout schedule there is not much time for housework other than Monday nights after work, and I have more or less promised Kristen that we would keep Friday night as a “date night”. The rest of the week has been left to mostly dreaming and planning, and this week the dreaming and planning has led to needing to do more dreaming and planning. Explanation will follow below.
Monday
Workout – 8 miles easy on the perimeter of the neighborhood with Jessy. The hills make it kind of a mini-workout, but it felt really good. It was nice to be back to such a familiar route, as this used to be the only course that I would run (for fear of getting lost).
Project – Now that the fireplace side of the basement is complete, and the 3 main walls are done, it is time to get the last wall finished. The water meter and stairs have both caused the largest trouble with this. I figured that some of the woodworking skills could help in building a cabinet around the meter and boxing the pipe in. The stairs I conclude would look best by being sanded down and refinished.
Mini rant upcoming, I am not entirely sure when you have a beautiful wood grain stair with a bullnose routed in why you would paint over it. There is nothing appealing about this and it is now 50 years later causing a lot of work. More on that later.
Tuesday
Workout 1 – Ran 6 miles with Wendi through Saratoga on our old course. I paced her for the scheduled pickup in this middle, which she did great on. Another great Starbucks run.
Workout 2 – Lifted at the store with Adam. the trend continues of shorter and more concentrated workouts with a lot of emphasis on form improvement. I have very much enjoyed this change.
Workout 3 – Yoga at the Clifton Park YMCA. Weather turned this into a solo effort tonight, and it feels less intimidating each time. I am starting to feel the benefit in my hips already as the soreness is going away.
Wednesday
Workout 1 – Cancelled 8 mile run due to illness. Not sure what, but when you feel nauseous at 0400 and it doesn’t improve after 20 minutes or so, bed is the best option.
Workout 2 – Mentored the distance project for mile repeats in the Rockrose neighborhood. Paced Wendi, Brigid, and newcomer Monika for 3 of these. They all did fantastic, total workout was about 4.5 miles. Talked to Mark about adding a mile to the warmup as the temperatures make me nervous when they are this low.
Bonus housework – With my plan to refinish the wood on the stairs, I needed to do a couple housekeeping items. When owning a 50 year old house, it is always a good idea to check materials when making a change. Lead based paint was used often in the 60’s, and given that I had no idea when the stairs actually got painted, it felt right to test for lead just in case. With the test, Red means Lead. Looks like I will be dreaming some more.

Thursday
Workout 1 – Ran (mostly) 3 miles with Wendi from Starbucks on Broadway. The sidewalks were a solid sheet of ice, forcing us to stop and walk a couple of blocks within the course. Not a bad shakeout, and always nice to be able to get coffee in the morning.
Workout 2 – Mentored the distance project for mile repeats again in the same neighborhood. Worked pacing Jamie and Rachel for the 3 and 4 they needed to do. This was challenging as the pace they needed was not far off of my marathon pace, so it was a little more work than normal, but they did great. Total workout was just under 7 miles.
Bonus house work – Work schedule allowed me to polyurethane a small shelf that I have wanted to finish for some time. First coat done, can probably sand and finish tomorrow.
Friday
Workout 1 – Met Jessy for a semi workout on Hills Rd. Both of us were pretty exhausted this morning, but managed to get 3 repeats in. My legs were spent from the mile repeats the last couple of days. 5.5 miles total for the day
Project – Managed to get the shelf sanded and a finish coat of polyurethane applied. The shine and protection look great. Should be ready to hang tomorrow.
Saturday
Workout – Beautiful morning for a run. 30 degrees, freezing rain, roads iced over, a perfect time to connect with nature. Ran 13 miles with Jenn around the perimeter of Ballston Lake. The conditions really did suck, but after a few minutes it didn’t feel quite as bad. It feels like in weather like this that the suck comes in waves, gets bad for a few minutes and then settles down for a while. The trails were really iced over, the roads were alright when you could run in the car tracks. Glad I did it, glad to catch up with Jenn, glad it is over.