It’s that time again! Juneathon starts in a month.
We’ve had some wonderful running weather this Spring, but this week it has been cold, windy, and downright Wintery. Tonight we have a frost advisory, which means I have to cover up the tiny plants I’ve been transplanting outdoors over the last two weeks. And so it goes through these weeks of ‘Sprinter’.
Before I discovered Janathon, I would put on weight every January. The holiday seasons have never been a problem for me; I’ve rarely overindulged in Christmas party buffets. Then when that was all over, I would start indulging, possibly giving in to post-holiday doldrums. But the past two years, Janathon cured me of that, and staved off the new year’s weight gain. Until February, that is. My January weight gain has now apparently become my February weight gain, which then folds into something to give up for Lent. This year I’ve successfully (so far) given up pizza, and eventually resumed my daily yoga and mile. I ordered several pizzas in February, which means I ate several pizzas. Pizza orders are a leading indicator that I’m on the slippery weight gain slope. Then eventually even my ‘fat jeans’ start feeling snug, and then I know it’s time to stop indulging and step up the activity.
And now Spring is here, with light in the evenings for running, and milder temperatures. All is good. I did my mile after 7pm last night, and it wasn’t dark out. I can’t say enough about the daily 15 minutes of yoga stretches in the morning, and a mile run in the evening. The distance is nothing to brag about. Some (me included at times) wouldn’t even count it as a run. But making it part of my daily routine is, along with the yoga, making me faster. My posture is better, my stomach is tightening up, and I am energized with good spirits all day. These things become evident after less than a week of the routine. How can this not be a good routine? I will have to start building in some weekly long runs, because I’ve got a few races planned this year; the first in early June. But for now, I’m celebrating the success of this seemingly small daily effort. It is making me feel good.
And then there was a superb tribute band that came to town.
Last month while stuck indoors during one of our winter storms, I cleaned out my stash of yarn, needles, patterns, and pieces. The knitting muse struck. It was time to use some things up.
My inspiration piece was the lower back of a sweater that my grandma had started knitting in some prior decade, but never finished. I had several balls of the main color yarn, but none of the accent colors. I cut her piece in half vertically (after using the sewing machine to zig-zag on each side of the cutting line). This made two lower sleeve pieces.
Then I started knitting the body. The needles were Size 15. I used 3 or 4 yarns at a time, and worked in a k2-p2 checkerboard pattern. That made the sweater extra-bulky. When it was time to connect the sleeves and form the shoulders and neck, I adapted to this crochet pattern.
The crochet pattern is a free download from here, once you’ve registered (for free) with Lionbrand.com.
I used a crochet shell stitch in Grandma’s main color, to bind the center front edges and make the sleeve seams. The plastic buttons were my only purchase for the project. They came in multi-colored sets of six for under $2.
The sweater is heavy enough to be a light coat. It will be just right for some of our upcoming Spring days.
The sweater still needs to be steamed and blocked, particularly the waistline and edging. There are a few loose ends to tuck in.
My grandma was my life’s example of using what you have. I can hear her laughing now, at how I “finished” her sweater. I think she would approve.
Much of this project was knitted and crocheted on Sunday nights, while I watched this season of Downton Abbey. My grandma would have been the age of Downton babies, Sybil and George. And now a glimpse of what their grandma, the Countess of Grantham does in the off-season:
Just like that, it’s gone. I really don’t know where February went. I was terribly busy, but on what? On watching Downton Abbey (and knitting) on Sunday nights. And then there is basketball. Lots of basketball. What a season! And then I’ve been blessed with lots to do at my “day job.” All is good.
It is still Winter, judging from this past weekend’s ice and snow, and frigid temps. I do hope this is the last blast of the bitter, bitter cold for the season.
I did a 3.5 mile run-walk on Sunday evening, when the outside temperature was 7F/-14C, with a windchill of -15F/-26C. I bundled up in a hooded down parka and pants, with a wicking layer underneath, and suede ugg boots, with face and hands well-covered; yet another strange ensemble, but it worked. I took along my ‘good’ camera, and cradled it like a football while running. The boots are not waterproof, but it was too cold for anything to melt and soak in. My feet, and the rest of me, stayed toasty warm. I ended up sweating quite a bit inside the down layer, but that doesn’t mean I wore too many layers. I needed that level of protection against the cold, because I quickly got cold when taking a walk break. This kept the walk breaks short and infrequent–not a bad thing, since I really don’t need them as much as I’m just using them to change up the pace, or to pause and admire a view with my camera.
The only signs of life I saw on the entire 3.5 mile loop, were an old pickup-snowplow making his rounds, and this guy, who had a faaabulous coat.
Once again, I got started too late, and finished in the dark. This is becoming a habit. There is a captivating vibe, being out on foot on a snowy road at night. It is a beautiful stillness that belies the upset routines and daytime chaos of vehicles trying to conquer the snowy streets. The bright snow and occasional street lamps make it just light enough to see.
Apparently, I’m not the only one March has snuck up on. *smile*
This weekend, if the forecast holds, I’ll be back in my cropped tights. I’m crossing my fingers for that, and imagining the warmer air.
By David Crosby and Carl Gottlieb. First, a Crosby song to play while reading if you choose.
Man, I really disliked this book for the first 150 pages. I’m not sure why I kept reading. Those early pages covered his days growing up as a school boy, so it shouldn’t have bothered me so much. Heck, nearly every memoir starts out with the childhood. But I found him particularly cold and unlikeable as a youth, and that bothered me. I felt the written account was either lacking something to make me see his human side, or that he had more problems than just the well-publicized addiction of his adult years. I almost stopped and gave up on the book several times. But then I started to get into it, and eventually it became a compelling read for me.
The book was co-written in a unique format. It was a compilation of recollections from the people in David’s life, and then David’s take in his own words, on these same events. This was often confusing, in that it required effort to keep track of who was telling the story at any given time. But it was interesting, being able to read parallel versions of the same events; and sometimes hilarious, when two versions of the same story were wildly different. There were many moments when I was reminded of this old SNL skit.
He wrote about his beloved boat and his love for sailing. He wrote about the significant women in his life, the way he used them, and how they used each other, and the impact of a devastating personal loss. He wrote about his guns, band mates, producers and managers.
This video opens with a taste of his stage persona in 1967.
The hardest parts of the book came in reading about all of the times David shafted his friends who reached out with their own personal resources and support, with staggering generosity, to save him from his addiction. David has had some amazing, loyal friends in his life.
The most insightful parts of the book were his description of his progressing addiction from the addict’s point of view. Those stark truths would give anyone cause to reflect. The most fascinating aspects of the book were reading about all of the other famous rock and roll legends that David has worked with or hung out with in various settings throughout his career. This book covered a mind-boggling who’s who of 1960s and 70s California rock music, and in David’s case the connections were real.
This book was published in 1988, not long after David’s release from prison.
David has since written a second memoir that is still on my to-read list.
Well, just when I’ve begun living with my decision to not renew my Runners World subscription, I stumbled on this offer to renew for $5.99 per year. So what the heck, that’s pretty darn cheap. I signed up for another two years. This $5.99 offer is apparently good until midnight EST tonight, January 31, 2014. To get the deal, click here, and then at checkout, enter the discount code “MAVIS“. I don’t get anything out of this; I’m just passing along the discount for anyone interested. Discount and link are courtesy of a very cool blog called OneHundredDollarsAMonth.com. And a big thank you (or make that curse you), to the blog owner Mavis, for the discount.
I’ll miss Janathon. It’s been a lot of fun this year, and I did pretty well until my 6-day travel odyssey. Today and the next few days I’ll be wearing screw shoes and maybe even Neos again. So Janathon may be over, but winter is still here.
Yesterday I’d planned to run my lately-much-neglected 3.5 mile loop. But word in the neighborhood was that there were bald eagles in the area. So I took along my ‘good’ camera, and made it a 5-mile loop. It felt great to go more than a mile, which has been my daily distance through Janathon. So anyway, there was a lot of walking, i.e., eagle stalking, mixed in with the running. I need to perfect my eagle stalking technique, because I never got very close before they would see me and fly away. I also need a more powerful camera lens.
And Canada is invited to come and retrieve their geese, hehe. 
The miserable and obnoxious cold symptoms continue, but thankfully there has been no fever. I bought a new running skirt-cropped tights combination in the after-Christmas sales, and thought I would have to wait at least two more months before the weather would be conducive to trying it out. But it was a lovely sunny warm day yesterday. I wore a long-sleeved fleece turtleneck, which was too warm for the conditions, but intended to keep my neck and chest extra warm. It was a real treat to run in cropped tights in January, and be perfectly comfortable.
My unplanned 6-day rest from running probably helped my ankle sprain get stronger. It did start feeling tender at about 3.5 miles, but that is better than on the first step out the door, as it had been in the days right after I got the sprain. I feel a strong, healthy Spring coming just around the corner, with lots of miles.
Well, I just couldn’t keep it going with a daily run and/or yoga while on two back-to-back trips that lasted a total of six days. Unless you count carrying luggage and a ton of walking …where we definitely saw some interesting sights along the way.
We went to a museum where even the benches were informative.
(For us evening runners, I think it’s a few more bugs than that.)
And in another museum we were solemnly reminded of September 11.
So now I’m back home; still buzzing from my trips, but anxious to resume my fitness routine and normal life. And wouldn’t you know it, the cold weather has returned.
I am still smiling from yesterday evening–first, a very exciting basketball game, and then some great local bluegrass music.
Today we’ve had a gorgeous day for being outdoors–working in the yard, and giving the car a good wash and wax. It was also perfect for meeting today’s Janathon requirement. I did a jog to the grocery store and walked back home with my trolley of groceries, 3 miles total. Tomorrow morning I visit the podiatrist.
Last night and this morning, I also experimented with bread recipes. I tried combining this no-knead bread recipe with this recipe for whole wheat potato bread. The results were quite encouraging. I have to tweak it to get it just right, and when I do, I’ll post what worked.
run | sew | read 