Happy Birthday, Jon!

Geburtstagsausflug mit Jon, Stephanie und Shelly in die Busch Gardens Africa, Tampa Bay.

Wochenanfang

In the morning I went to Carole’s house to do some informal training with her and meet Jeremy, the other new agent she’s responsible for. He’s a funny guy with five kids who’s working at his dad’s insurance office.
To get my Monday recovery swim in I went to the base, ran three miles and used the pool in the fitness center. I was glad that it has warmed up again and the pool is heated. The sun came out while I was swimming and I found it very relaxing.
As I was already so close to the ocean I had lunch on the beach before I went back home to do some house cleaning and office work.
When I got to the barn later in the afternoon I noticed that I’d forgot the key to my tack closet so I borrowed a halter from Stephanie (well, I just took it, but put it back in its place) and went for a walk with Brownie. On the way back I climbed on his back and the plan was that he should carry me back to the barn. That worked pretty good for a while until he got scared by an old truck tire sitting on the side of the road and all of a sudden jumped to the other side. Riding bareback I couldn’t hold on and fell off him for the very first time. Although I fell on the hard street I didn’t get hurt seriously, but just bruised my hip and shoulder. We weren’t very far away so I continued walking with him. I also met Gwen who was walking Endre. We went back together and she told me everything she’d done with the horse the last few days. It seems that the arab really likes her new home.
I said good-bye to Shelly who’s leaving for boot camp tomorrow and called Jon on the way home to give him cooking instructions. We cooked dinner and spend some time together before I went back to do some more office work.

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Hal Scott Trail Ride

Shelly is joining the army and off for base training next week, so we loaded the horses in Stephanie’s big trailer and hauled them to the fairly close Hal Scott Regional Park & Preserve for a last farewell trail ride.
We were a party of 4 girls, 4 horses and 1 dog: Stephanie rode her older mare Patty and brought along a neighbor, Susan who I had not met before riding her thoroughbred mix JD. Shelly rode Stephanie’s other mare, Patty’s sister Bita and my Brownie had to carry me of course. Stephanie’s australian shephard Joseph is just a perfectly behaved dog and you barely notice him at all on a trail ride.
The ride was fun, great company and an awesome, exiting, breathtaking gallop within the sandy horse-friendly trails along the Econlockhatchee River and flat-wood prairie.
Back at the barn we met Gwen, a new boarder and went to Canaveral Groves with her to pick up her shagya arabian mare Endre, a horse with the best endurance bloodlines. She’s 6 years old and Gwen is just breaking her right now. She bought her only 3 weeks ago, so she hasn’t been on any trails yet but is definitely interested.
I didn’t want to ride the bike back home, because we still had some grocery shopping to do, so Jon picked me up and we stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home.
I ran my 8 miles, starting nervous and stressed out, but after a while the relaxing component of running in the rain kicked in and when I finally came home I felt great.
It was also time to start making dinner, because we had Stephanie, Shelly and Jeremy over. The first time we had real guests at our new house.
Everybody liked the burgers we made on the grill, the cheesecake the Stephanie brought was just so delicious and we had a lot of fun looking at each other’s photos of prior events and horses.
It was a great, full day and a fun night.
Looks like those weekends at home are not as calm as they used to be before we met those guys…

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Abgekühlt!

It got cold today! I ran with a warm shirt, long tights, gloves and a hat in the morning and did the same on the bike in the afternoon. I can’t believe how cold it was. We even had to turn the furnace on in our house, for the first time since we moved in in June.
For Shelly it was good that it was so cold. She had to run a mile in 10 minutes which she had just barely accomplished on Monday. Today her instructor was there to take the official time and due to the cold she was able to run the whole time and do the mile in 9:42 with me pacing her.
I also worked a lot today, went cold calling with Ashley and got my spreadsheet updated. That took a long time, but now I’m back on track.
After running with Shelly Jon and I made a good hot stoup – thicker than soup and thinner than stew – that warmed us up pretty good and I went back to work. It’s been a busy day today.

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Happy New Year

The first day of the year started at Shelly’s and Jeremy’s house after a night of partying with plenty of alcohol, firecrackers and a bonfire.
Shelly and Jeremy were nice enough to get out their air mattress for us so we didn’t have to drive home drunk late at night.
In the morning they made us pancakes for breakfast and let Jon play with their new Wii while I cleaned up Brownie’s pen and went on a short trail ride with him.
Back at home we basically spent the day relaxing and recovering from New Year’s Eve before I went running my 8×800 intervals at the nearby middle school track. I was glad that those intervals were only run at 10k race pace, so I didn’t have any problems doing that.
Cooking the chili turkey burgers took us a long time today, but Jon was nice enough to help me clean the kitchen, too.
Tomorrow we have to go back to work. It looks like the lazy christmas break is finally over.

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Silvester

I can’t believe that we went swimming at the outdoor pool in Cocoa Beach today. It was 74, so not really hot, but still warm enough to get a 30 minute recovery swim in. Jon couldn’t swim that long with his broken toe, but it’s healing very good.
We were also able to go for a little 30 minute bike ride in Rockledge in the morning and his foot felt fine. I really like working out with him and him looked so hot in his cycling shorts!
After swimming we had sandwiches on the beach for lunch and went grocery shopping before he dropped me off at the high school track.
Shelly was supposed to run a mile in 10 minutes there as a test for the army and needed my support. Before she got there I ran 2.25 miles by myself to get my own run in. Unfortunately her instructor never showed up although she tried to call him on his cell phone several times.
We ran the four laps around the track anyway and she managed to run the mile in 10 minutes, but was very exhausted after that. She’s just starting to run and I am really encouraging her because I believe that she can be a great runner once she stops smoking, starts eating healthier and of course gets used to running a little more.
She drove me home and there was a sick cat sitting in our driveway. We tried to take him to the vet because he had a nasty infected wound on his leg and his eyes were also messed up pretty bad, but the vet’s office was closed and the next emergency office was too far away. While we were gone Jon talked to the neighbors and found out that it is a straying cat that they are feeding. They had talked to the humane society about the cat before and are going to call them again. Straying pets are a big problem in our area and this cat wasn’t even fixed. I see him all the time just lying on the street. I think his time is almost over.
For now, the cat just walked away and Shelly went home.
We’re going to spend New Year’s Eve with her boyfriend Jeremy and her over at their place where Brownie is boarded. We’ll have a bonfire and maybe some firecrackers. I think it would be cool to go to the beach at midnight, but we’ll see what happens. Their neighbors are also having a bigger party, so we might end up there.

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Startbereit

I got up early, called my parents, rode my bike 8 miles in the foggy morning with hardly any traffic, cleaned up the bath room and made waffles for breakfast. It’s still very warm so we could eat on the back porch.
Jon and I drove to Carole’s house in Viera to pick up a shelf unit that she doesn’t need any more but we do. The truck is a good vehicle to do that.
After putting up the shelf in my office I drove to the barn where I was supposed to go on a trail run with Shelly, but she wasn’t there – she’d got lost in Orlando as she told me later. So I cleaned up Brownie’s pen and rode in the arena and the four acres of land right next to our barn. It was so warm that Brownie was soaked with sweat when I got done, so I gave him a little shower with the garden hose and went home to go run for three miles, the last run before the ultra marathon tomorrow.
I’m still in the process of packing and getting ready for the trip and since Jon is now able to go with me we’ll be leaving town here pretty soon for New Port Richey on Florida’s west cost. The weather for tomorrow is supposed to be warm and humid, too. We’ll see how this is going to effect my run.

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