June Gloom...

Cloudy and rainy lately but lots going on!  I'm too busy to be gloomy.  

There is something about these longer days in May which make for, uh, very long days!  it's easier to get up in the morning since it is so bright at 5:00 am and it's hard to get into bed at the regular time because it is so light out at 9:30 pm.  Add in World Cup, home renovation, training, busy at work and I cannot believe it's already past mid-June!  Happy Summer Solstice! 

World Cup:  we spend a lot of the day trying not to see results and then the evenings watching a lot of soccer.   I am loving every minute of it except for that horrible referee call in the US v Slovenia match. 

Home renovation:  After spending a good chunk of our lives renovating our old house ourselves, we are ready to call in a contractor to rebuild our crumbling porch.  We've found the contractor we want and will be setting up when this work will be done.  I cannot wait!  meanwhile, we have two large shrubs which need to be removed.  One shrub we planted shortly after moving into the house 13 years ago.  It was very, very happy in it's spot and was a shorter lived shrub and suffered the last couple winters we had.  I'd been planning on removing it anyway.  The other shrub is a beloved Kalmia (picture) which came with the house.  They are slow growing so who knows how old the one is outside our front steps.  It is blooming now and it is tough taking it down.  I researched a bit about taking a cutting but found it wasn't teh right season and Kalmia don't take to that all that well. 

Training:  The Seattle Rock n Roll Half is next weekend!  I am very excited.  Training has been going pretty well.  I've had some confidence boosting runs of late and feel that this race will help me move past the mental block I've had against racing longer distances.  It's not going to be a PR effort as I'm not in that sort of shape but I am hoping for a solid run.   Last year was rather warm, it'll be a big joke if this year's race is warm.  It has been a wet and cold late spring. See the raindrops on the kalmia above?  I kept waiting for a sunny day to take a picture but no luck.

I have been focusing more of roads of late but I had the best trail run yesterday on my favorite trail.  It's a really tough trail.  Overall uphill for 8 miles and then features a screaming descent for 1.8 miles.  I offered to mark the course for a Coach Lesley group run.  This way, I could get my run in and still see friends.  Since I have the half marathon next weekend, I knew I needed to keep this run super easy and marking the course (using colored chalk to put arrows down on trails to direct runners) is a very good way to keep it easy.  The fastest kid of the group caught me  at the end on teh uphill to Wilderness Peak so I had a good time chatting with this kid for a few slow miles.  Since I knew where we were going, he had to stay behind me!  I love how running can bridge a gap between such different people. 

And I finally realized what bothers me about my trail running shoes.  I've been wearing La Sportiva Wildcats which I like very much.  Good lugging on the sole and fits my foot pretty well. they are a little too stable a shoe for me but work well enough for softer trails.  I do not like wearing them on roads or even gravel trails.   I like the bumpers on the toe.  However, I hate the built-in gaiter (lace cover thingy in photo on left) on the shoe.  What is the problem?  It is supposed to keep out rocks and sand but for me it keeps me from cinching the shoe tight enough and i end up banging my toes at the end of the shoe.  It's not tight enough.  So I took a pair of scissors to that little problem and voila!  I can't wait to take the shoes out for the next trail run.  It's my first shoe surgery and I'm happy about it!

Last but not least, the kittens (but now over a year old) York and Keswick continue to amuse and delight.  the new treat is raw chunks of chicken necks.  York is a little mouthy and enjoys really gnawing at them.  Good stuff and supposed to be good for their teeth.  It looks like a workout when they are going at them.  And they do not mind the weather.  Good for sleeping.