Dog poop doesn't melt...

Wednesday, September 19, 2014
The rain was falling quite heavily as I drove home, though I still swung past the park on the off chance it would stop long enough to do a dry run.  No such luck.  I drove home and went inside for a ride on the trainer.  Sixty minutes later, soaked with sweat, I headed for the kitchen to prepare dinner.

I heated the oven and pulled the Amish casserole from the refrigerator I’d put together the night before.  When the oven dinged to tell me it had reached 350 degrees, I put the casserole in and headed upstairs for a shower. I returned to the kitchen in ten minutes, enjoying the aroma of my dinner, when my cell phone rang.  It was my next-door-neighbor, Pat.  “John – Mike’s putting up a new garage door opener and I’m going over there to watch him while I drink a beer.  Want to join me?”

Mike lived next to Pat and was quite mechanical.  He would, however, need some needling to make the project go more smoothly, and we were just the neighbors to do it.  “I’ve got dinner in the oven, but there’s 20 minutes left on the timer so I’m good,” I said.

I took Dakota and walked the two houses to Mike’s.  He was, in fact, putting up the opener.  It was all laid out, with instructions at hand and looking like a bit of a puzzle.  “I put one of these up thirty years ago and don’t remember a thing about it, so I’m here to look pretty and lift anything heavy,” I offered.

While standing there, Dakota felt nature’s call and squatted for a good dump on Mike’s front yard.  She likes to go in Pat’s yard, but Mike’s would do in a pinch.  I grabbed the scooper and cleaned it up while sharing my fondest childhood memory of poop scooping.  “So I was like ten and we had this big collie.  I took care of her including cleaning up the poops.  That first winter, it snowed heavy and often and I was thrilled that her shit disappeared and I didn’t have to clean it up.  I was pretty sure it was gone forever, I guess thinking it would melt into thin air with the snow, come spring.  Let me tell you, I was pretty disappointed and disgusted when the snow melted and the yard was blanketed in soft, mushy dog shit,” I said.

With that precious story, I left for home and my Amish casserole.  I thought I owed myself an extra-large helping because of the ride…and I also figured ice cream on warm apple pie should be included.  I’m starting to think that if I don’t get my riding up to 200 miles a week here real soon, I’m going to weigh 300 pounds.

Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120 bpm.
Calories Burned: 850.

Love the mud...

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
It was fifty and sunny…what a day for a ride, kayak, run, Survival Workout in the park, or eating a big bowl of ice cream and pretending to do all of those other things.

I opted for the Survival Workout with the hopes of getting home in time to get in a ride outside.  The trails remain sloppy and will likely stay that way until, oh, June.  We need a long stretch of warm, dry weather to solidify them; something Northeast Ohio has in short supply.  This time of year, I tend to pack a pair of mud shoes in the car and just recognize that I’m going to return from a run covered in mud…and so what?  As a child, I’d have splashed in slop and covered myself in filth with no apparent concern.  Partially because I wasn’t the one cleaning the stuff I was wearing, though I would have been smart enough to take the shoes off before entering the house (I tend to lose sight of that every now and again these days and track mud throughout the house up to the point I get my assed kicked).  Even with my mud shoes on, I still try to avoid the puddles on the trails until I hit one that completely soaks my shoes.  Once that happens, I start running through them on purpose.  Its fun, easier, and I can turn in a faster time on the course.  In other words, I can remain a child.

I completed the Survival Workout with slimy shoes and drove home still thinking I’d have time for a ride.  Once there, the side-tracking began.  I went to the computer and answered some emails, pulled out the salmon I was planning on making for dinner, had a discussion with Jack about working out, and spent some time with a neighbor.  And then it was too late.

The salmon turned out well and my neighbor appreciated my pontification on whatever subject I was pontificating about…so that was good.  I’m continuing to look forward to those long summer days when I have three hours of daylight after work.  Soon… 

Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

Monday, March 17, 2014

St. Patrick’s Day.  There was a time when this was such an important day in my life and that of my family.  My mom was half Irish, and she took that heritage pretty seriously.  We’d celebrate St. Pat’s with all our food and beverage dyed green.  I could never understand why the milk didn’t taste better – I figured it should be rich and sweet, like chocolate milk.  The first time Holly joined us for a St. Pat’s dinner, she later admitted that the green mashed potatoes and green milk gagged her.

Then came the years at the Cleveland Athletic Club and a thousand drunken members and their guests filling the facility to bursting.  We’d feed them all day long with our brunch and dinner buffets, preparing 500 pounds of corned beef and providing an endless supply of beer and alcohol.  I don’t imagine many of the participants had any recollection of the day.

It’s calmer now.  My sister called and suggested I come over for a traditional St. Patrick dinner.  She’d made corned beef and a concoction of turnips, cabbage, carrots and potatoes as a side, which I enjoyed, but only for a day. 

I put in another run on the trails before eating.  They still have some lingering ice and snow and where it’s melted I found lots of mud.  I had to tread carefully crossing Clear Creek on certain portions of the trail, but was able to run the same course I’d done in 40 minutes a week ago in 37 minutes.  Nothing to do with my conditioning, mind you, but only because it was a little easier to run.

Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and fifty.  I’m hoping to get on the bike for an outdoor ride and hoping that I will soon be driving only part of the trip to Warren; planning to park the car halfway and then ride the remaining distance.

Run duration: 37 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories Burned: 625.

Trails still icy...

Sunday, March 16, 2014
I arrived at the North Chagrin Reservation for a Survival Workout early Sunday morning.  The trail was frozen from an overnight dip in the temperature, which eliminated the mud issues, but would likely make it exceedingly difficult to pick up stuff frozen to the permafrost.  Dakota came along for the trip and the cold, frozen conditions did not affect her workout in the least.  That, and she was sparkly clean from yesterday’s bath. 

I pulled off my first several sets without a hitch and moved down the trail.  At my second station, I was greeted by rocks frozen to the earth.  I tried jumping on them to loosen the grip of the frost, and was marginally successful in freeing some.  I lifted those while Dakota wrestled with sticks frozen in the ground which she was sure I wanted to throw. 

My logs remained cemented to the earth and I had to find other things to lift along the way.  Crossing Clear Creek presented an issue in that the water was high and the rocks I’d normally walk across were covered in ice.  I could have tried them and would have likely ended up taking a spill in the icy water, but I was smarter than that.  I moved upstream and found a downed log across the water, which I used to cross.  Dakota simply jumped.

The trail remains partially covered in ice in places of highest hiking.  Hikers and runners pound the snow down in certain areas and they may remain frozen for a week past the general snow melt.  I found similar conditions in the Adirondacks, but there the snow is packed a few feet thick, which means it can still cover the trail as late as the end of May.  Anyway, I managed the rest of the workout, but was also kept from doing some of my lower body activities by the slippery conditions. 

Spring is five days away.  Warm weather is sure to follow and I promise not to complain about the heat (I’ll bitch like hell about humidity, though).  Still, how good it feels to get out and challenge the elements to some degree.  Looking ahead, I may be able to ride tomorrow and the next day before lousy weather returns.

Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.

First day of work on the 'Miss Ellie'

Saturday, March 15, 2014

I was heading for the woods to do a workout when I received a call from my nephew, Nathan.  “Hey Uncle John.  I can be there in 30 minutes if you’re ready to head down to the boat to do some work,” he said.

He’d texted me the previous evening that today was the day we could get title to the ‘Miss Ellie’, the name my dad had given his 1968 Chris Craft Sun Skiff, after my mom.  “Sure…I’m ready now,” I said.

We drove to Eastlake and the Captains stadium where the current title holder of the boat was working.  After walking around the stadium and smelling hot dogs being prepared for season ticket holders and those there to buy tickets (it was the first day for ticket sales), we found him, picked up all the information on boat maintenance that my dad had saved over the years, as well as some old pictures of the boat, and headed off to Fairport Harbor.

I’d brought along rubber gloves and a box of heavy duty garbage bags.  We’d been inside a month earlier and knew the condition of the interior and that we’d be filling a couple of dumpsters with the garbage.  We drove across the open, muddy field; the boat graveyard, and pulled alongside our boat.  Dakota had come along for the ride and bound from the truck to explore the surroundings.  We climbed the step ladder we’d acquired through eminent domain; it had been laying under the boat in the grave site next to ours, and hopped aboard.

I climbed down into the hold beneath the deck that housed the fuel tanks and started hauling miscellaneous shit out.  There was almost nothing of value.  

The pattern continued in the quarters and we quickly filled 6 large garbage bags.  We could see that there was very little that we would be salvaging.  The deck’s integrity was sketchy and water had infiltrated most spots in the cabin, rotting out wood and soaking all cushions, fixtures, flooring and basically everything.  We pulled down the stretched ceiling material that covered the cross beams supporting the deck above and decided it wasn’t going back.  I could strip and sand the beams and leave the natural wood exposed while painting the ceiling panels in between.  We decided we might do the same with the wall panels, giving it more of a rustic look and feel.  After stripping off the cushions glued to the sofa/bunk bed (the back of the sofa released and swung up to become the base of the overhead bunk for sleeping), I realized I may as well just disassemble the upper and lower sections and take it home to use as a template to make new ones since they both had water damage.  I also took a table top and a drawer with chrome trim home so I could begin remaking a table top and to figure out how to remove the trim so I could refinish all the cabinet wood work.

My sister stopped by with sandwiches and pea soup, which I devoured.  I discovered that Dakota had found a dead animal to roll in while we’d been working and the smell added a special dimension to the work we were doing.  We loaded Nathan’s pick-up to overflowing and drove our debris to the marina’s dumpsters, filling two.  With the windows down to protect ourselves from whatever Dakota had rolled in, we drove home and washed everything, including Dakota.

It had been a full day and I had plans for dinner and a movie at my sister’s place.  I took a hot shower to wash off the mold and try to warm up from working outdoors all day in freezing temperatures.  Though not a workout in the true sense, I probably burned more calories through the day than I could have in a 60-minute ride on the trainer.  It was good work and offered us both a great deal of satisfaction in the knowledge that we had a truly worthwhile project that would someday garner big results.

Trails are a mess...

Friday, March 14, 2014

I landed at the Park on the way home with every intention of doing the Survival Workout, but when I arrived and did a short excursion down the bridle trail, decided that without waiters, I would not be doing it.  Instead, I made myself run the roads again. 

I hate running on the pavement.  There was a time when I put all my miles on the roads, but since figuring out how much better trail running is, I almost never go there.  But it was run the roads or go home for a ride on the trainer.  The roads were definitely too full of snow melt for me to ride, but okay for running.  I parked the car and began the trudge up Rogers Road Hill.  I’d run this same hill several days ago and was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it seemed on my second trip up.  It was still boring, though, and I’m looking forward to the complete melt and a return to the trails.

I ran reasonably hard for forty minutes and returned to the car dripping with sweat.  I toweled off and drove to Heinen’s to get ingredients to make Jack and me Chicken Alfredo for dinner…again.  I could make that nightly and he’d be happy, though we’d both gain fifty pounds from all the fat in the sauce.  During dinner, I received a text from my nephew, Nathan, telling me he could get the title to my father’s old 1968 Chris Craft tomorrow and we could go and begin cleaning it out.  I’m thinking it could take the better part of the day and may not leave much time for a workout, but it is something I am truly looking forward to doing.

Run duration:  40 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.

Calories burned:  700.

Sort of a double...

Thursday, March 13, 2014

After two days of either no workout or unstructured (snow shoveling), I wanted to get back in the groove.  I’d received a text from my son Jason asking me to join him for dinner, which was going to cramp my time.  Still, I had to get something done.

I’d already completed a hike in the North Chagrin Reservation with Dakota and it had been a decent workout.  We’d hiked off-trail through deep snow down to and out on, the marsh.  I checked my pulse and found it was over 90 bpm, or about 20 beats higher if there had not been any snow, and realized I was breaking a sweat in spite of temperatures in the low teens.  The storm the evening before had left evidence of the ferociousness of the wind.  Even in the deepest and most dense part of the woods, trees were plastered with frozen snow on the side that had faced the blizzard conditions.  Now, with the sun breaking through and beautifully deep blue skies overhead, it was a winter wonderland.  Dakota didn’t notice a thing; running merrily from one stick to the next, but I marveled at the tranquility of the setting.

Descending to the marsh was particularly treacherous.  I couldn’t get good footing because the snow below last night’s fall was frozen and slick.  I half skied/skated down and had to work to keep from going over the edge on Snowman’s Ridge; a precarious 100-foot drop.  Dakota assisted me by trying to grab at sticks protruding from the snow that I was grabbing to keep me from slipping.  A stick is a stick.  If my hand is on it, she figures I’m going to throw it and lunges for it.  Thankfully, I made it down without her sending me into the ravine.

We returned to the car after an hour of hiking and I drove home quickly, switched into my riding gear and mounted the trainer for a 45-minute ride.  It was all the time I had before heading to the restaurant. 

Not quite the double I’d envisioned, but a decent workout.  Temperatures are returning to the fifties tomorrow, but I’m thinking an outdoor ride may be hampered by extensive snow melt.  Cold will return over the weekend, so regular outdoor riding is still day to day.  I promise not to complain about heat this summer, should it ever come back.

Hike duration:  60 minutes.  Bike duration:  45 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  80-90 hiking and 120 on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  300 hiking and 625 on the bike.