Arguing Against Moderation

My mother, in all her infinite wisdom, has one thing wrong.  She always used to tell me, and probably still will, that I should remember to do everything in moderation.  Too much of a good thing, she would likely argue, turns it into a bad thing.  I, respectfully, disagree.

Here's why.  If you don't like something in excess, why waste your time doing it (or eating it) in moderation?  I hold the firm belief that the fastest way to figure out if something is worth doing is by doing absurd amounts of it.  Country music songs for example.  Sophie and I have a habit of listening to songs on repeat.  Some say this is stupid.  The nay-sayers argue that we will "just get sick of it faster."  But if it really is a song I will love for the rest of my life, no amount of listening to it will make me sick of it.  So, listening to it in excess is the best way to determine which songs I really love.  Easy.

Two things I love in one picture: Pink AND maple flavored things.  I made this cake for a little dinner we had at the Caldwell's.

 Using this logic, I've discovered I really love the color pink.  I have a ridiculous number of pink outfits.  It's girly, stereotypical, and always in excess.  But I like it.  And every day I wear pink, I feel just a little happier.  Same goes for maple.  There can never be enough maple flavor in anything.  And the only way I figured out I love maple is by putting it in everything.  Like the above maple bundt cake with maple whipped cream frosting.

Megan and me probably at mile 45. We got really tired, but still managed to get the biking done in under 5 hours! Cruising.

Smiling after 100 miles.. excessive miles but loving every one (except for mile 67-not fun for me).

 Road biking.  In the past 8 days, I think I've done 11 hours of road biking.  This is a little above normal levels, due to my participation in the prouty, a 100 mile bike ride starting in Hanover.  100 miles is in excess--but I was still smiling after 100 miles, so I must really like biking (although I did have a sore bum).  Just yesterday I did a 3.5 hour road bike with the SMS training group, and I can honestly say I enjoyed the entire thing.  We had a great group with a lot of people, so conversation was never dull and never absent.

The Carins!  Soph, Packer and I built one.  It wasn't nearly as cool as some of the other structures, but still pretty neat to help the cause.

 Rocks (hi Isabel).  Although I hold no where near the love of rocks Isabel holds, I can appreciate them.  On Route 30 in Vermont a man started building carins (the stone structures you see above) in memory of his dog.  He would spend hours building them, and eventually the Bondville population caught on and started helping him.  It was truly amazing and inspiring, and a great example of something in excess being completely necessary and happy.

Red looking for some breeze during the "hot week."  I, like Red, don't like heat in excess.  And having a week straight of it was a pretty fast way to figure that out.

 But not everything in excess is good.  A prime example of this is the absurd heat wave we experienced last week.  Every day was practically a million degrees with 2000% humidity.  I could take one day of this, but having it every day for 5 days proved to me that tropical climates were not my thing.  Training was sweaty and gross, and I couldn't walk any where without breaking a decent sweat.  Luckily, there are ways to combat excess.  We started workouts at 8 in the morning to try and avoid the worst parts of the day, and at night we made a plethora of summery meals (i.e. a lot of grilling and cold salad type things).  It's raining today, which is also not good in excess, but one day here and there is much appreciated :)

Henry being goofy.  This is immediately following his successful remembrance of his Exeter email password.  Val intelligently pointed out that most passwords are case sensitive, something Henry had evidently forgotten.

 But back to positive excess.  I miss my Minnesota family, and because I'm not experiencing an excess of it I miss them even more.  I recently facetimed (I can use technology.. yes) with them, and they are doing very well.  Henry is attending Exeter Academy in the fall for a PG year, and I'm really excited to have him out East next fall.  I still won't get an excessive exposure, but better than nothing.  Absence, as it turns out, really does make the heart (hart...punny) grow fonder.

Isabel and Soph.  I've also had a lot of exposure to them this summer, and because I still want to be with them I'd say an excess of Caldwell's is something I like.

GET IN MY BELLY

GET IN MY BELLY (Megan style).

 Probably the biggest argument against moderation comes in the form of blueberries.  Sophie, Isabel, Megan and I went blueberry picking yesterday, and probably picked around 20 pounds among the 4 of us.  For the first part, I had a "pick one, eat one rule."  This morning, I swear, I woke up with a little blue tint to my hair.  Yet even after eating probably 5 pounds yesterday, this morning Soph and I made waffles with a blueberry topping.  So, I obviously love blueberries.  And no better way to figure this out than eating 7 pounds in two days.

Erika, Soph, and me before some really hard level 4 uphill striding intervals.  They were really hard.  

Rudy project helmets (and safety)..both things better in excess.

Finally, training and friends.  If I didn't enjoy training and my training buddies (and best friends) so much, there is no way I could be doing the amount of training I've done the past two weeks.  We've had a big two weeks of volume and intensity, but (most) every day I leave the workout really happy.  And, this week we have an easy week.  Recovering is part of training, so I will probably do a lot (maybe even an excess) of recovering this week.

Good things don't always need to be in moderation.  So with that, I probably will go snack on some more blueberries.

hugz and kissez

Adventuring

I like (love) adventuring.  Adventuring keeps things interesting.  A life without adventures, would, quite frankly, suck.  Luckily, I've done my fair share of adventuring the past couple of weeks.

One of the adventures involved driving up Putney Mountain Road to Megan Killigrew's (Dartmouth ski team graduate and future teacher of english to 11th grade kids (!)) graduation party.  Driving can always be an adventure, but this road was ridiculous.  There really is only room for one car--but obviously it is a two way--and the steepness is ABSURD and the road is windy and bumpy with absolutely no room for error.  If a car comes the other direction, you both would have to play chicken and wait for the other person to back up to one of the few "extensions" into the woods.  And then god forbid a car comes along as you're backing up..scary stuff.  But adventurous none-the-less.

This is Michaela.  She is going to be a junior at Dartmouth next year and is also on the ski team.  She spent the last term in Spain so I'm really excited that she's back!

The Boys (Left to Right Ben, Simi, Andy, and Skyler).  They coordinated their outfits very well, without even calling and planing.  Or so they say, I'm not convinced.

Michaela and Austin!

Isabel and I had semi-matching skirts/outfits.  Twins!

Some Dartmouth Women Skiers (Left to Right: Michaela, Megan, Me, and Julia)

After Meg's party, I drove (less adventurously) to Hanover.  One of the highlights of last summer (which I spent at Dartmouth) were the over distance runs.  It worked out that the weekend I was in Hanover, the team was running Franconia.  It was beautiful.  And definitely an adventure.  In part because it was unclear at what point it would start thunder storming.  We have had so much rain the past couple of weeks.  So. Much. Rain.  But it remained lovely for us on the ridge, and afterwards we stopped for ice cream!  

At the top of Franconia.  

This is the ice cream I got from Fat Bob's.  I really like sprinkles.  But normally ice cream places only put sprinkles on the top, but Fat Bobs did a wonderful thing and put some surprise sprinkles on the bottom.  Good move, well done Fat Bob.

People in the East are also really into jumping into bodies of water.  It's not really my thing, but I do enjoy tagging along and watching (most) people make total fools of themselves trying to do flips.  Simi is not one of those people.  Skyler, Simi, Ben and I on an off afternoon went to the quarry near Manchester, VT.  It wasn't very crowded (because it was raining naturally) but there was a group of die hard jumpers who probably thought Simi was a god.  They even tried to imitate him, and they failed.  I was a little worried one of the guys was going to hit his head on the rock trying to flip.  He didn't, but he should probably remember to always adventure within rational boundaries. 

Simi about to do some amazing trick, probably.

Skyler wasn't quite as excited about this adventure.  It was raining and not super pleasant outside.

Because it has been raining so much, the trails around Stratton are more like streams.  We had a longish run up Mad Tom Notch (I think that's the right name) and by the end everyone was completely coated in mud.  But it did make the 2 hour run go by a lot faster, because I kept trying to avoid the largest mud puddles and just hit the smaller ones.  Adventure runs go by a lot faster than a 2 hour pavement pounder. And are a lot more fun.  Especially with good company.

Isabel really excited pre-running adventure.

Isabel and me being fierce after our adventure through the rain forest (or the AT trail in Peru, VT..pretty much the same thing)

 For the fourth of july, Isabel and Sophie abandoned me.  Isabel went with David (and is still actually there) to his family's place in upstate New York (I think), and Sophie went to Nantucket with Dan.  It's ok though, because Hanover isn't far away so I went up there for some more adventures.  We went and explored the ledges with the intention of swimming, but the water was way too high and quick (thanks to all the rain) so instead we just kind of hopped around on the rocks and threw them.  It was beautiful out however, so a lot of fun.

Boys and Backpacks ready to throw rocks at other rocks at the Ledges near Hanover

It was really pretty driving home from Hanover on the 4th.. I feel like this could be the cover of a country album.

 The last two weeks have been pretty big weeks of both training (a lot of intensity and also a lot of volume) and adventuring.  All of this training and adventuring is tiring.  I've been getting better at recovering correctly, but I still get pretty antsy and want to just get up and go do something.  So to counter that I've been trying to do a lot of reading and in general just enjoying life and the sun (whenever that comes out).

Recovering.

Skyler's dog Brady.  This picture has nothing to do with adventuring or recovering, but it is adorable.

 Other great ways to recover correctly include (but are not limited to) fireworks and eating food.  We've had a lot of good food lately.  Sverre brought home raspberries from his parents house, which were amazing and gone way to quickly.  We also made s'mores at Andy's cabin, which I hadn't had in a long time, and were still delicious.  Also, as it turns out, both of the Annies (myself and Annie Pokorny) have things we love to make...Annie P makes waffles and I make muffins.

Fireworks are lots of fun, minus the mosquitos.

Jessie trying to achieve the coveted golden brown.

Annie Pokorny's waffles (she made them, I ate them)

My muffins.  Blackberry, Raspberry, Dark Chocolate Oat.  Quite delicious.

It has been a great two weeks of adventuring, and on Saturday I'm biking 100 miles for the Prouty, a ride sponsored by the Norris Cancer Center to help raise money to cure cancer.  A great cause, and undoubtedly the ride will be another great adventure.

hugz and kissez