Back to school almost made me forget my vacation!

This is our first week back to school with the kids and so far it’s going great! It’s amazing how much the kiddos can grow and change in 5 weeks. To get ready for the new school year, the other speechies and I have been digging out all of the old crap in the speech room and replacing it with new toys, books, games, and materials:

Speech therapy, anyone?

Of course being back at work distracted me from writing about the awesome vacation I had a couple weeks ago! Derek and I spent a few days with my friend Meg and her family in Southwest Harbor, Maine. We stayed in a little cottage by the water and it was absolutely adorable.

View from the cottage

Even though we were only there for a few days, we did a lot! We all went on a nature cruise in Bar Harbor, and saw seals, porpoises, and bald eagles. It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

We also walked around at the top of Cadillac Mountain and got ourselves some blueburry soda.

It turns out Mount Desert Island is a great place to train for a triathlon. We did plenty of biking, running, and not so much swimming.

Biking the carriage lanes in Acadia National Park was another favorite part of the trip for me. There are over 50 miles of gravel lanes that extend throughout the park and offer some breathtaking views. Highly recommend!

We did some running after a couple long bike rides which was pretty easy since I was surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth. I attempted a swim in Echo Lake, but I royally freaked myself thinking about what was lurking below me and just couldn’t do it. I’ve been really freaked out by open water lately and it’s something I’m slowly getting over I guess?

We also played a round of Cards Against Humanity – I laughed so hard I was wheezing and had sore abs by the end!

I had such a great time being in Mount Desert Island and getting to see Meg and her family. There’s nothing better than getting outside in the beauty of nature and surrounding yourself with good people. No amount of technology, gadgets, money, or things is more healing.

Is this how Free Willy feels?

Remember like 3 months ago when I bought my wetsuit? I finally mustered up the courage to try it on last week for a swim at Walden Pond.

The suit is an Xterra Vortex that I got on super sale. Wetsuits are friggin expensive, but I get emails from Xterra every now and then with a coupon code for 40% off. I highly recommend joining their mailing list if you’re in the market for a wetsuit – don’t buy one at full price unless you absolutely have to!

It wasn’t too bad to put on – a lot of pulling, shimmying, and crotch adjusting – but overall manageable. When I got in the pond I could barely feel the water around me and I was already sweating inside my suit! It’s definitely going to be necessary for the frigid waters of Maine.

I was also pretty shocked at how fast it made me – it seemed like every stroke got me so much further than usual. I’m going to have to get used to the resistance on my arms and shoulders, though.

Peeling the wetsuit off my body later – not as easy as getting it on. Gotta work on that one, too.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Maine for a few days with Derek and one of my bosom buddies, Meg! We’re staying in Southwest Harbor, right outside of Acadia National Park. I ran the Mount Desert Island Marathon there last October, and I am so excited to train this week!

In other news, I spilled my coffee all over my pants on the train ride home tonight and it made me feel like this :

Womp.

1st thing on my packing list – the wetsuit!

See ya later, Boston!

Protect your melon!

Today I treated a patient a couple of years younger than me who has a trach, no movement in his left arm, and a metal cone around his head that screws into his skull. He has significantly impaired memory and problem solving skills and has to be reminded daily of the date, time, and place. All of this is because he crashed his dirt bike into a tree and wasn’t wearing a helmet.

WEAR YOUR HELMETS, PEOPLE!

Look, Keanu wears his like a champ.

That’s my public service announcement for the day!

Schwimmin’

Happy Tuesday!

Today after work I headed over to the Charlestown YMCA for a 45 minute swim sesh. Probably the most awesome perk of having a YMCA membership is that I can go to any Y in New England – and there are plenty of locations to choose from! I find the Charlestown Y especially awesome because 1.) it’s a ghost town and 2.) people who work out there have the most gritty Boston accents ever. Loooove it.

When it comes to the swimming portion of my training, I really have no idea what I’m doing. I know that 18 laps is equal to 450 yards, which is what I’ll need to do at my triathlon. Today I swam 3 sets of 18 laps each at varying speeds and called it a day. I’ve gotten the breathing part down but my form still feels really awkward. Don’t really know how to change that and maybe I shouldn’t.

I’ve decided to make swimming my primary focus for training since that’s the area where I’m the least experienced. I’m hoping I can just swim the whole length of the race without stopping however long it takes me. But mostly, I’m hoping that I don’t get bitten by a shark.

…Which is a perfect transition to shark week related memes:

Hope you’re having a great week!

Respect the distance (however long it may take you)

Today I ran the longest distance since the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 5th.

When it comes to the running portion of my triathlon training, I’m kind of just doing whatever I want, and today I was feeling good. I did a hilly 8 miles in the countryside of Maine.

Eek! 9:15 pace? Just a few months ago I ran 18 miles with an average pace of 8:30 – a lot can change when you don’t put in the work!

I was feeling good until mile 5 when I started to get really, really thirsty. I also fell directly on my coccyx hiking last weekend and that ish was throbbing the whole time.

So now, post run, my butthole hurts, I’ve got wicked chub rub, and my feet are angry – and it feels AMAZING. The feeling you get after a hard run is seriously like a drug. I’ve missed it lately!

I’ve got my sippy cup full of water and a good book and I’m going to embrace the pain with arms wide open.

Amen!

Tri-training, sort of? A new job and guess what breed my dog is

Oh hi there, August…what?!

Seriously, where is the time going? I’m finishing up the third week of my 8-week triathlon training plan and basically haven’t done much of it at all.  I thought doing a sprint tri would be way easier than training for a marathon, but let me just tell you, it’s a lot more difficult to make time for swimming and biking. I used to be able to just lace up my shoes and run where ever I was and squeeze in runs in the morning or at night with no problem (unless I was just feeling super duper lazy, which happened like 3 times a week). It takes so much more planning and organization to remember all my swim equipment or plan a route for biking since I live in the city and people are cray cray on the road. I’m actually really scared to do a “real” workout on my bike on the streets of Boston.

I have a bike trainer at home and have been using that here and there when I feel really guilty about my lack of biking, but man is it boring. Maybe I should find another trashy show to watch besides The Hills? I’ve basically memorized every episode at this point, anyway.

In other news, I got a per diem job at a rehab hospital here in Boston and have been doing loads of training this week. It could not be any more opposite of what I do at my full-time job, and I’m a bit overwhelmed. It’s good to keep yourself on your toes, though, right?? I’m enjoying the change, but I’ll admit it’s a bit out of my comfort zone.

We also just got back from a 4 day trip to Baxter State Park in Millinocket, Maine. The trip was friggin awesome and I’ll definitely put some photos up sometime soon.

So a couple of weeks ago my extremely talented neighbor took this photo of Chuie, my fur baby:

He’s clearly a mix – as my mom likes to say, he’s a “Mr. Potato Head” with parts from all different dogs. Totally the case. Any guesses on what breed he might be? Everytime we go for a walk, someone stops and asks what mix he is and they never believe the jack russell – chihuahua – shih tzu combo that I was told when we adopted him. We recently bought a DNA kit off of Amazon so I’m hoping that gives us some sort of clue….but seriously, does it get much cuter than that face? erhmagerhd!!!!!!!

What are you doing this summer? Have any trips planned?

Have you ever trained for a triathlon? How did you get yourself to the pool and do workouts on the bike?

What kind of dog do you have? Could he be friends with Chuie?

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