every walk is a sort of crusade
We were supposed to head to Baltimore this beautiful fall weekend to see my sister and Joe and go for a mudrun, but med school tightened its death grip and we stayed here. And did uneventful things. Hence the boring post.
{molly and joe post-mud run in baltimore, sans us. sad face.}
{tomatoes in the backyard… still hanging in there}
{heeeere, batter batter}
{pumpkin loaf, a seasonal favorite…the office wolfed it down. recipe here}
{cruisin the hood with spikeman}
The really upsetting part about the above picture is that a person I had met a few times who coincidentally works with one of my friends saw this picture on my friend’s phone at work and was like, “Oh wait, I know that girl, she works at the triathlon shop, right?”
October = sloth. Time off from training combined with approaching holidays and travel over the past few weeks has resulted in…tighter pants and a real knack for convincing myself that I’d really be better off staying on the couch with my pumpkin beer “recovering” (from what, I don’t know) than getting up and going for a run.
Enter: Operation New Leaf.
A number of my friends (namely triathletes) are taking major steps to improve their diet and nutrition as the new season approaches. So I decided that in the spirit of turning things around and making healthier choices next season I am going to start early and do the same…sort of.
Here is our office:
OK, that’s a blueprint of the Dunder Mifflin office, but it’s not SO far off. We even have a Michael, Stanley, and Phyllis that work here.
Our office has these:
Everywhere. All year long. Not just for Halloween. (And this is a small bowl…but I didn’t want people thinking I was a weirdo taking pictures of the office candy.)
Here is me:
I love sugar. Here is how our office is set up:
The orange line denotes the path from the front door to my desk, the green line is the bathroom to my desk, and the pink dashed line is my alternative route. The angry tornadoes are, obviously, baskets of processed sugar. This is the challenge I face every day-after-sedentary-day. And pretty much every day I lose.
So my major, revolutionary, dietary life change? I’m not going gluten free…or sugar free…or even candy free…just NO MORE CRAP AT WORK. Today was my first day. I made it.
Baby steps to the elevator.
{Celebrated a wedding with old friends in Colorado…}
{…and the life of an old friend in Seal Beach…}
{…some trail running in Barea…}
{…and Kentucky football games at Commonwealth Sadium…}
{…a little pumpkin baked deliciousness at home (recipe here)…}
{…and domestic adventures in canning…}
{…seasonal reading (yes, this book is from the “required high school reading” section of the library and is labeled “teen” on the cover)…}
Throw in some coffee, advil, and a port a potty and this pretty much sums up my weekend. Full race report posted here.
Why, you might ask, does UKs campus look like a refugee camp? Maybe the President is coming to talk? A Nobel Laureate?
Try the first basketball practice of the season.
Yes, practice. Not game.
Rupp Arena doesn’t allow people to camp out in front of it until 3 days before the event. So everyone camps out across the street for the first few days, so they can get a camping spot in front of Rupp as soon as they open it up for camping. This is all to get in line at 2am the day before for free event tickets.
It’s called Midnight Madness. They introduce the team. Coach Cal is there. It is a VERY. BIG. DEAL.
Go Cats.
…and they’re arriving. Our garden finally started producing vegetables during the month that Paul was in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, Paul was gone during that month, and I don’t like beets. So I gave this one to Marsha.
We also have baby watermelons, gallons of tomatoes, peppers, carrots (which Paul thought was parsley, so he picked it too early), cabbage, broccoli (which went bad because I wasn’t sure how to pick it), colonel mint, and strawberries. The blueberry and raspberry plants are also growing OK, but probably won’t produce any fruit until next year.
RIP corn, lavender, the blackberry plant that Spike ate, and Paul’s edamame that he planted on bald spots IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAWN (a landscaper unexpectedly cleaned up our back yard last week and mowed over them. That’s what you get.)
Recipes to follow.
Last weekend, after the inferno bike ride, temperatures PLUMMETED to the mid-50s at night with highs of 65 during the day. And it started raining.
And just like that–BOOM–it’s fall.
Jersey’s back on devil dog. You know what this means.
Tailgating. Cornhole. Campers. Wildcat blue mini dresses with big belts and cowboy boots.
First homegame of the season. And absolutely beautiful weather.
We can hear the whole game announced from our house. Louisville is next weekend.
Go Cats.
Late, I know.
Lexington has been making an effort to do more community events, and the Friday of Labor Day weekend was a good one. Welcome to the Fest of Ales.
Look at all those beer pourers. For $25 you got a mini glass and 20 tickets (about 7 beers, if you used them all…which no one did) to try out a whole bunch of different brews. The whole town was out, it was great. And people wore great shirts.
Unfortunately, the Fest underestimated how many people would partake (and how many of their pourers would adopt a “one for you, one for me” policy) and ran out of beer a little early. So a group of us headed to a bar for one more drink.
It was there that I witnessed one of the more amazing mobile apps currently on the market: Roqbot. For a fee, it lets you re-arrange the order of the queue on the jukebox in a bar. So obviously Paul’s friend who had the app started playing “Who Let the Dogs Out” every other song. He is already responsible for having the app banned in 3 bars in town.
Anyway, it was there that things degenerated pretty quickly.
We left before it got too ugly.
The previous week I had told a friend that I would join her on a bike ride Saturday morning with the Bluegrass Cycling Club. BCC was offering a 10 mile (family ride), 30 mile, and 56 mile option. My friend and I were doing the 56 mile ride (even though I hadn’t been on my bike since Steelhead, it got a little jacked up on the trip home and I just got it tuned up last week).
Paul was going to do the 30 mile option, since he hadn’t ridden his bike in like 5 months, but after some mild harassment he gave into the 56 miler too. So we pulled our not-unhungover selves out of bed at 7:30 and headed out to the country.
The weather was gorgeous.
…but then it got hot. Really hot. And the shade disappeared.
We were getting baked. Paul started to suffer. The last 15 miles weren’t pretty. The rest of the weekend was recovery.
Oh, and I came in from my run today and decided to turn on the local news while I stretched and this was on TV.
Apparently I’ve been away from local TV for too long, I had NO IDEA stuff like this was seriously still on. The soundtrack was amazing.
Most Kentuckians sit around only dreaming about Calipari. This farmer in Corbin did something with his dream. And his corn field.
Thank you, Paul, for this discovery.
A group of friends needed anther person to complete their team for the 2011 Bourbon Chase in October, and guess who they invited to join?
That’s right! The Bourbon Chase is a relay race across Kentucky through all of the major bourbon distilleries, starting at Jim Beam and ending in Lexington with a bourbon celebration. Score. It’s almost like an urban hike…but running and in rural Kentucky. Right?
Time to fire up the running shoes again…
Update: Our team name is Jim Beam Me Up.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 
