Martha's So-Called Life

running update

Up until this weekend, a friend and I had been planning to run a marathon on August 17.  Then summer came and we played instead of going running.  The most notable lapse in training was skipping our 17 mile run this weekend in lieu of catching fish to fill the freezer for the winter (and only running 11 miles total last week instead of 30).

After some discussion, we decided we would switch to the half and try and run a full at the end of September instead.  

This weekend we were supposed to run 18-20 miles, which seemed like a huge jump from the 12ish we ran two weeks ago...that's what you get for skipping a long run during marathon training.  I'm feeling pretty good about the idea of cutting back for a couple of weeks and then building up again.  

Hopefully this plan sets us up to run a strong marathon and is not a recipe for more procrastination!!!

new archive page

This week I started coding all of my blog posts into a nice little grid, organized by topic.  This process takes a lot of time, but the payoff is totally worth it. 

(Click the image to see my progress)

So far I have made it through about a years worth of posts in one category.  But I will continue to plug away at this task until everything is nicely organized.  I'm not planning on archiving every post this way, just the important ones.  

You can still view the archives by date if that is more your style.  

I have made a few other small tweaks here and there to keep things looking spiffy around here.  As always, if something doesn't work properly or there is something you'd really like to see here, let me know!  

for the love of salmon

Last week/weekend I headed down to Kenai with some friends to go dip netting.  We headed out late in the afternoon on Thursday.  The goal was to fish mostly on Friday so we could beat the weekend rush. 

As always, the drive was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, it started raining when we got near Soldotna.  Not a good sign.  We stopped for dinner at the St. Elias Brewing Co. and then headed to the river.  The plan was to park, sleep, and get up and fish in the morning.  When we got to the parking lot around 9pm, we learned that parking was from midnight to midnight or noon to noon, so rather than pay for parking until noon the next day and then pay again, we decided to hang out somewhere else (the Safeway parking lot) until midnight and then pay for parking for the whole next day.  

We were all very tired and had a hard time staying awake.  Finally midnight rolled around and we parked and went to sleep.  I had a cozy bed in the back of my car (foam pad + sheet + sleeping bag = cozy bed).  I actually slept better in my car than I have in my bed at home in months!  

Friday morning we got up around 6, had some breakfast and coffee and begrudgingly got dressed for fishing in the rain.  It wasn't raining hard, but it was breezy which made things worse.  We hauled our things down to the beach and got started.  There was much discussion about how ridiculous dip netting is.  Basically you are standing around in chest deep water holding a net and waiting for a fish to accidentally swim into your net.  It's cold and a lot of work, but that doesn't stop us crazy Alaskans from doing it year after year.  

I got six fish on Friday.  We fished all day but took several warm up/dry out breaks, so I felt pretty good about how things were going.  

At one point I was so cold I had to get in my car and turn the heat up to full blast.  Of course I enjoyed some cashew clusters and dark chocolate while I warmed up...

Around 6pm, it started clearing up.  We ended up quitting around 8pm due to the fact that we were tired, still cold, and kind of soggy.  I had no intention of fishing on Saturday and threw all my wet stuff into a garbage back to deal with when I got home.  

We ate dinner and headed to the place where our other friends were camping and where we were planning on spending the night.  We got there late, around 11pm, visited for awhile and then headed to bed.  

Saturday morning the weather was gorgeous...and I got talked into staying and fishing ("let's just see how the fishing is...") another day.  

The parking lot was slightly more crowded than the day before, but the beach was pretty empty for a weekend.  The fishing was still pretty slow, but appeared to be slightly better than Friday). Since the weather was amazing, it didn't really matter.

I ended up getting four more fish.  Despite the fact that the weather was better, I think I worked harder for those four than I did for the six I got the previous day.  The fishing was good when the tide was out, so the walk out of the water was longer.  For those of you who are not familiar with dip netting, you have a 5 foot wide round net with a really long handle (5+ feet).  You stand in the water with the net on its edge and wait for a fish.  When a fish hits, you turn your net and back out of the water and drag it up onto the beach, then you untangle it, bonk it, and do it all again.  Here's a video I found to illustrate this process.  

So I had the extension on my net making the pole 10 or 12 feet long, plus the extra long walk out of the water...it was a challenge and there was A LOT of swearing!  JRW said he was sorry he missed that part.  

I had planned to drive home on Saturday evening after fishing (since I wasn't planning on staying at all on Saturday in the first place), but ended up staying the night because it got late and I got tired and driving home didn't seem like a safe/smart idea.  

While everyone else filleted their fish, I stood around and got bitten by mosquitoes.  I had no energy or muscle control to fillet fish.  I figured I would probably lose a finger, so I opted to take mine home and deal with it the next day.  

Yes...we used our ski waxing bench as a fillet table...

JRW filleted while I vacuum packed.  

I also defrosted and brined fish from last year so I could smoke it.  That batch of fish is currently in the smoker while all the new fish is happily in the freezer!  I also have some fish to can and some to pickle.  Maybe I'll be done processing fish in time to go fishing again next year... #AKprobs.  

busy busy busy

Ack!  I'm still alive!  

The combination of having only one or two days off of work in a row (I know that's normal for most people), plus school, plus training for a marathon has left me quite busy!  

Have a great week!

the inside of my training log

Way back in January when I posted about making a new training log, someone commented that they were all excited to see what the inside looked like...but I never showed it.  I pointed out at the time that there was nothing inside.  Well, now the inside is filling up and I can share the way I track my training.

I've been through may iterations of how exactly I want to write down my training.  I like data (miles, time, etc.) but I also think that noting other details (weather, how I felt, etc.) is important.  At first I had a monthly page and then weekly pages set up, but that caused me not to record my information in a timely manner because I needed to actually draw the lines and make the pages.  

Recently, I settled on a weekly overview + daily info.  This requires the least amount of setup, but allows me to put in all the important info.

I put my scheduled workouts in the little grid at the top of the page.  I record my daily information in narrative style on the page below that.  Then at the end of the week, I record my totals (miles, hours, and yearly total) at the bottom of the page.  

Simple and fast (unlike my current running...so not fast right now)!

when sleep eludes me

There is nothing more frustrating than being exhausted after a 12 hour shift of herding cats delivering babies, going to bed, falling asleep, and then waking up at 2:30am. Most days my alarm goes off at 4:30am, which is bad enough, but to get barely 5 hours of sleep because something in my brain decides to click on at an ungodly hour and not turn off until I give in and get up...that's pure torture.  

Sleep has always been my defense mechanism and I'm a pretty good napper.  Unfortunately, my place of employment does not support nap time and I am forced to maintain my critical thinking skills for 12+ hours on barely enough sleep to make coffee efficiently.  

Don't worry though, if anything emergent were to happen, I'd wake up.  Adrenaline is a powerful drug.  I'm sure that anyone in the field of health care has seen someone half asleep on their feet snap into action when an emergency pops up.  That's pretty much what some of us live for.  

Alright...off to another day of herding cats delivering babies.  

barely awake

The only problem with having 8 days off in a row is having to back to work afterwards.

My body apparently doesn't mind getting without an alarm at 5:00am after going to bed around 10:30pm, but getting up at 4:30am by alarm clock after gong to sleep at 9:30pm is the worst. thing. ever.  

The coffee hasn't kicked it yet (as evidenced by the fact that I am writing this post 3 minutes before I need to leave, risking being late if I make any spelling errors). At least I remembered to pack my lunch.  

Speaking of food, apple, carrot, sausage hash...make it for breakfast, you won't be disappointed.  

Breakfast by the light of my iPad.  I've pretty much deemed anything fair game for breakfast food by putting eggs on it.  It's a pretty good system.  I went one step further a couple of days ago and decided anything can be breakfast food if you eat it for breakfast...and then I ate leftover BBQ chicken and cauliflower rice.  JRW was not terribly impressed (he says that rule only applies to pizza), but he just looked the other way as he often does.

Off to get my butt kicked for 12 hours.  Happy Thursday!

the internet is a slippery slope

I have fallen off the slippery slope of the internet and into a giant river of self doubt.  Allow me to explain.  

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I realized that in the 18+ years of attending school I have developed ZERO study habits.  Why? This is going to sound totally arrogant and conceited, but it's because I never needed to study.  I made it through nursing school with a solid B average and spent very little time outside of class actually studying.  While all my classmates were trying to memorize every word of our textbooks, I was watching movies, writing blog posts, hiking, fishing, and skiing.  Yes, I could have done better, but my motto has always been one of minimum input for maximum output. 

Obviously I absorb knowledge from somewhere or else I would not be a walking vessel of useless and random facts.  The question is, from where? And, how do I purposely absorb this knowledge?

While I was trying to wrap my brain around neurophysiology (see what I did there?), I sent some frantic text messages to JRW proclaiming my studying ineptitude, at which point he suggested I google "how to study" and see what I could learn.  After reanalyzing my problem, I came to the conclusion that it would first be more useful to find an outline for what I was studying.  You see, I have three textbooks for this course and a list of objectives.  Having multiple texts makes it very difficult to take notes in any sort of meaningful manner, so I thought an outline would at least put some order into the chaos and lead me in the direction of learning.  

Googling pathophysiology outlines somehow led me to several blogs written by medical students (I was immediately attracted to the photos of their color-coded notes).  After being distracted by their notes, I got distracted by the content of their blogs.  The most interesting was one written by a Canadian RN who had been working in very rural areas and decided to apply to medical school.  Reading her blog made me wonder if I made a mistake.  Should I have applied to medical school instead?  Every time I skip over something in my textbook I think gee, I sure am glad I'm not a medical student because otherwise I would have to know that. But then I feel like maybe I am taking the easy way out.  

Applying and going to med school would definitely be a hardship (I'm pretty sure you can't work three 12s and go to school at that level), but would it have been the better option?  I guess I don't know the answer and the only way I'll ever know is to either do it, or don't and see how things turn out.

So thanks Google, for making me doubt all my life decisions.  

step away from the modpodge

Give me 8 days off and I get all crazy with the ModPodge.  I've taken my upcycling and weird obsession with words to the next level...

Several photos of my own, some scraps of paper, ModPodge, and metallic silver paint.  This still needs a few finishing touches and some trimming/flattening, but my creative brain is satisfied.  Now if I could just get the other 10,000 things in there out, maybe I'd feel slightly calmer.  

Oh yeah, and I made this with the leftovers of the photo I cut the flowers from and some more paper bits...

The two sides are completely unrelated...I started by writing the word of the day, because it was fun, then I found a fun heart and printed it...and then I found a poem that had an awesome bit about hearts...and then...I went running...

 

 

around here

Trying to enjoy the nice weather (but it's too hot)...

Eating mostly Whole30 even though the challenge is over.

Loving the summer colors (but missing monochrome winter).

Hiding from fireworks and trying to stay cool on the 4th.  

Suffering from inspiration overload (not the worst problem to have).

Enjoying the 8 days I have off from work. 

Planning fall/winter adventures.

Wondering where all the time is going.