Witty title

Ok, I couldn't come up with anything to call this post, so I went with "witty title", hahaha.  That's as good as it gets right now.  I've been super busy.  Let me see if I can sum it up.

Last week I ran on the Charles Monday and Tuesday 7 and 6 miles, nothing super speedy, but I got it done.  Averaging between 10:00s and 10:30s and keeping an eye on my heart rate.  Wednesday was the weekly Ayer run with Kim.  We did 5 miles with the whole family - her husband Bill pushed their daughter Ryann and I ran with their dog Daisy.  We were a little slower than usual, but that could have been partly because we had to stop a few times for Daisy to "do her business".  It was fine by me.  The weather was pretty hot and humid and I was all set with the slower pace.

Thursday I had to take a rest day because I was suppose to have an electrician come over to do some work, so I just chilled on the couch when I got home and waited.  He was working in my neighbors house first and eventually called me at 5:30 to say he wouldn't finish early enough to do my house too.  Oh well, good excuse to not run.  I went to bed early and then the fire alarm went off at 9:30.  The electrician had set it off by accident, but if it goes off in one unit it triggers all of the units and it woke me up out of a sound sleep.  Scared the crap out of me and took me a few minutes to figure out what the heck was going on.  I opened the doors and windows because I thought it might be carbon monoxide, then I started fanning the detector trying to make it stop, then realized it wasn't even my unit causing it to go off.  Had to call the fire department to come reset the system and of course they had to come through my house to get to the panel.  I wish I had cleaned up a little first.  Oh well.  Needless to say my heart was racing and I didn't get right back to sleep easily after that.

Friday was a little rough waking up for work, but I survived and made it through the day.  After work I went for a bike ride.  Just a nice easy 18 miles.  I haven't really been on my bike much this year.  It's not for lack of time or anything.  I could easily make time to fit it into my routine.  I'm still a little anxious about getting out on the roads.  Yup, it's been over a year since I was hit and I still get sick thinking about it and have a really hard time gettting out there.  I have time when I get home from work, but then I start thinking it's rush hour and there are a lot of cars on the road and I get nervous and don't go for a ride.  It's frustrating.  I have this sweet new bike and I'm afraid to ride it.

Anyway, Saturday Kim and Shannon came over at 6:15 to run a quick 3 miles before Cherie and Erin joined us for the 10.75 mile loop from my house.  We wanted to get the miles in before it got too hot out.  It was a little tough getting up and out the door that early, but it gets easier the more we do it.  Considering the heat and humidity we all did pretty great.  Averaged 10:30s for the total of 14 miles.  After the run, I had a few errands to run and then I went to Kim's to hang out by the pool with her and Shannon.  I'm not usually one for sitting by a pool or on a beach, but I'm slowly learning to enjoy it. 

Sunday, I watched some Tour de France coverage and got inspired to get out on my bike.  I was originally just going to do my 18 mile loop, but it was so nice out when I got out there I just kept riding.  I didn't bring any food with me, but I brought some cash in case I wanted to stop.  I guzzled my water and ended up meandering through some weird back roads in Andover to a cemetary that I knew had water faucets for watering plants so I could refill my bottles.  When I finally made it home I had gone about 40 miles.  It was awesome except that I forgot to put sunblock on my lower back right between where my shirt rode up and my shorts slid down.  So I now have a nice tramp stamp sunburn.  Oh well.  Happens to the best of us.

Monday the electrician resceduled and came over to rewire an outlet and fix a few other little things for me.  He was there from about 3-6 and then I was so excited to move my TV to the new outlet and start watching Tour de France that I shoved the TV stand right into the pipe that feeds one of my radiators and cracked it.  It was leaking all over the place!  It's never ending with my house.  I asked the electrician if he knew a plumber and he called a few friends.  I got the information for one of them.  Luckily I don't need heat right away so it's not an emergency fix, but I needed to get all the water to drain from the radiator.  I shut the valve to the radiator so I figured I would just be swapping tupperware containers until the water IN the radiator drained.  Well, I did that until about midnight with no sign of the flow of water slowing down or stopping so I went ot the basement and tried to figure out how to shut the water off completely to the heating system.  It took a few attempts of trial and error to figure out the right valve.  Then I was up until 2:00am waiting for the last of the water to drain out.

Tuesday was REALLY rough at work.  I almost considered calling in sick because I got less than 2 hours of sleep, but I had way too much to do and there's always coffee to keep me awake.  I felt like a zombie.  I had meetings most of the day and tried not to fall asleep at my desk the rest of the day.  Towards the end of the day I was actually a little nervous about driving home, but I made it and put my PJs on and closed the blinds immediately.  I couldn't fall asleep right away, but just laying on my couch doing nothing felt pretty awesome.

Yesterday was the 4th, holiday = no work = YAY!  Only it's a random Wednesday and I had to work today so not too exciting.  I spent most of the morning cleaning and watching the Tour de France, then I went for a bike ride.  25 miles.   It was another steamy day with the threat of thunderstorms looming overhead.  I was dripping sweat.  It started to rain when I was still about 8 miles out from home so I stopped at the Andover Fire station to ask for a ziploc baggie to put my phone in.  Naturally, after that I made it home and it didn't even rain, but whatever, I now know one more Andover Firefighter and I can stop there for water any time I want. 

After the bike ride I decided the day was young and I'd turn the bike ride into a brick workout by adding a run to it.  I threw on my sneakers and my garmin and did my 6 mile out and back up the giant hill by my house.  THANK GOD there is a church right at the top of the hill with a hose outside.  I doused myself with water and took a few sips before heading back down the hill towards my house.  I was definitely super slow, but I didn't care.  It felt great.  I was absolutely soaked when I got home.  I friggin love that feeling.  Completing a tough workout and having a puddle of sweat beneath you to show for it.  AMAZING!  I may try and do it again today.