I am not a happy camper. I camp under duress for the love of my father but don’t think I’ve morphed into someone who willingly goes days without a shower, electricity and enjoys sleeping in a tent. Graduate school is proving to be difficult in unexpected ways and my kids are already out of school for the summer. Someone please call for help…after you read this of course.
WEEK OF JUNE 3, 2019
RUNNING
I’m having good days and bad days with running but I’m grateful for all the days I’m able to run. Honestly. Between my counseling classes at grad school and hearing about elite runner Gabe Grunewald’s death at only 32, I’m nothing but grateful. I’ve always had a sense of it since my mom died when I was 17 but, diving into my counseling program has given me an entirely new perspective in humility.
Tuesday: 800m sets on the track | 3:12 splits | 5.71 miles total
Wednesday: run warm up before strength and swim | 1.44 miles
Friday: long run | 9.1 miles
Sunday: 5311’s | 3x (5 min Z3, 3 min Z4, 1 min Z5, 1 min Z1) | 8.01 miles
Total = 24.26 miles
CYCLING
The one day I had to ride this week it poured and was about 60 degrees so I opted for the trainer. I got smart and put my road bike permanently on the trainer and I’m keeping my triathlon bike assembled and in the garage!
Thursday: 1 hour | 16.4 miles
SWIMMING + STRENGTH
As usual I had my one day of swimming and strength training with Antwan. My new fenix 5s plus has an app for strength training! Crazy, right? It actually counts your reps (by arm or leg movements), rest time in-between sets and overall workout time plus heart rate. I’m sure I’m not using it to its full capacity but having some data to build on is pretty cool.
And this is just a taste of the insanity that goes on during a strength training session for me. This rope/kettlebell pull was done as part of a circuit. I did this pull about 15 times.
CAMPING
Yeah, so I need to go into a camping weekend knowing that it will suck for me but be amazing for my kids and father. Sometimes I do good things people. Because there are too many ways in which I hate it, I will say there are a few things I love: spending time with my family, campfires and drinks around the campfires, SUP and kayaking on the nearby lake and spending more time in Vermont.
Don’t let the pictures of my husband fool you. He is a true diva and spent zero time in a tent and could barely handle being at the campsite because of the bugs…and also refused to apply bug spray. He wisely stayed at our nearby condo and brought me pescatarian meals. #blessed
COLLEGE
Getting a degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling is some heavy shit. In fact, it’s pretty hard for me to even shift gears here and go from writing about racism, sexism and white privilege to fitness and camping adventures. I seriously contemplated not doing a blog post this week but I needed the mental and emotional break.
The summer course I’m taking is Counseling Diverse Populations and my first two papers were on white privilege, sexism and racism. I have been immersed in some of the most eye-opening content you can imagine and have feelings of shame and despair, fear and hope, anger and deep love. It’s a roller coaster.
If you are white and for one moment you don’t think you benefit from white privilege, I beg you to read Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack or one of Tim Wise’s many lectures. They have been life changing. Now the question is, what am I going to do with this information? I have some ideas.
One more suggestion (and I could give you 100) is to watch the Netflix series When They See Us about the Central Park Five. If you somehow have never heard of them it’s a group of black and hispanic boys, ages 14-16, who in 1989 were wrongfully convicted of beating and raping a white jogger in Central Park with almost zero evidence.
Now, more than ever, we need to tune into this reality and do something about it. We have an election coming up.
READING
I haven’t been able to read for pleasure since starting class, but I did make time about a month ago to mostly listen to the highly acclaimed book The Last Romantics. I don’t know who you people are that loved this book but it was one of the most boring, uninteresting stories I have ever wasted my time on. I kept listening because I thought something was going to happen. It never did.
Luckily, I snuck in one last amazing book Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. A complete page turner and although I figured out what was going to happen, I could not put it down. It kept me guessing for a while but wholly interested the entire time. I highly suggest reading it on the beach or, should you find yourself unluckily by the camp fire, it just may save your sanity this summer.
TELEVISION
Oh there is SO much goodness on television right now! From season 2 of Handmaid’s Tale and Big Little Lies to How They See Us and My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, I’m so glad I made time to watch Always Be My Maybe with Ali Wong and Randall Park! Go watch it immediately. It’s hysterical, timely, a great story and Keanu Reeves may be the very best part of it.
What are you waiting for? Do you hate laughing?
RANDOM PICTURE OF THE WEEK
My favorite part of “camping” was dinner out at Jackson Gore!
Coincidentally, the same night we were there was the finish line of the B to VT bike race! These amazing cyclists rode 149 miles from Massachusetts to Vermont in one day with over 9,000 feet of elevation gain! I’m SO doing this next year. Who’s with me?
Here’s to the start of summer! I hope to see you on the other side…
How was your week?
Thoughts about camping?
Have you heard of Peggy McIntosh or Time Wise?
Seen any good tv lately?
So I take it you are no for backcountry camping this summer? 😉 My BRF Kyle is a counselor so it seems we are always doing run/talk therapy for all the issues she sees or we encounter in our personal lives. It’s been eye opening for sure
How awesome to have a counselor as your running partner!! Love that. And no, no backcountry camping for me thank you very much. Is there a 5-star hotel nearby? LOL!
100% agree with you on The Last Romantics. I kept reading it thinking, the good part has to be coming, right? Not so much. What a disappointment.
I also 100% agree with you on camping. Now glamping, that’s more my scene. Or the condo, like your husband did. I’m glad that at EMPOWER camp we’ll be sleeping in cabins.
Planned Parenthood is asking for donations in honor of Trump”s upcoming birthday. An anonymous donor will match all those donations! LOL!
THANK GOD someone agrees with me about that book!! I should have known you would feel the same 🙂
And camping – just no. Glamping? Yes – sign me up but I need a shower and flush toilet please!
I’m definitely looking into those donations. That is amazing.
I am so not a camper myself either! I like to enjoy my activities outside and then retreat to the AC and real bathrooms lol. I agree that we have to take the good days and the bad days with running that is just the way it is and we have to appreciate everyday. Thanks for linking up and have a great day
Exactly! I love being outside and I don’t mind getting filthy dirty…as long as I can shower afterward!
Well, I’m a diva, too. Any thought about camping makes me instantly flick off the imaginary bugs creeping on my persona. And mud? Trust me, I can run through mud, but choosing to live among it (even for a couple of days of family bonding) would not be pretty (literally & figuratively). Huge Mom (and Daughter)-of-the-Year accolades to you!!
Nope. Camping is just dirty and hard for no reason. I love the outdoors but I need to also have a reprieve from them every 12 hours or so – LOL!!
That’s how I feel about camping too… I like the outdoor activities but I’d prefer to retreat to a hotel afterward 🙂 I love the pride photo! And that invisible knapsack book is great, I read it a while ago. Always be My Maybe is next on my netflix list.
Thanks for reading…and agreeing about camping 🙂 I hope you love Always Be My Maybe as much as I did!
When I’d last camped (a billion years ago) we’d just gotten the site all setup when it began raining torrentially. Needless to say we packed it all back up and high tailed it outta there pronto.
Oh but that pic of your kiddos around the fire is priceless!
Yep, it’s unpredictable. I was praying for a weekend of rain and thus, a cancelation, but it was sunny the whole time!
I’m a total camper – but we’ve upgraded to camping in a trailer, which is a million times better than camping on the ground in a tent! It’s more like a hotel on wheels. I mean, it has A/C, a microwave, a shower and a big fridge. I’m not missing anything! I haven’t been watching much of anything on TV because I do all of my TV watching on the treadmill. Now that summer is here I’m running outside all of the time again.
A trailer is definitely a game changer! When I was a kid my family had one because that was the only way my mom would camp 🙂
I love camping: the drinks and food around the campfire, the fire itself, the outdoors, all of it (except the bugs)! Although I will say that when we upgraded to a huge tent with standing room and an air mattress this summer, I didn’t really miss backcountry camping too much. We were going to camp one more time, but it might be just 30 minutes away in case I find third-trimester camping uncomfortable.
I’ve actually never gone camping – I think the only thing I could do is “glamping” which would involved a cabin with air conditioning and electricity, lol
Always Be My Maybe was such a cute movie! I laughed so hard – I might actually watch it a second time 🙂
I think I have to watch it again too – so funny! And if you’ve never been camping, you’re not missing anything.
My husband and I camped across the US a few times when we were first married. My rule was that we had to stay at campsites that had public showers and electricity. I kind of wish we’d taken our kids camping…
Those are two very good rules! And you should have definitely taken the kids – they bring a whole different level of excitement 🙂 It’s not too late – LOL – I’m 44 and still going with my dad!
Your class and papers sound so interesting! I would love to read them. White privilege? Absolutely!!! Makes me so angry. I have heard about the movie “When They See Us” but don’t think I can watch it. I got angry just reading about it. Does a walking trek to Machu Picchu count as camping? A group of us spent about 3 days walking in Peru and at night had to sleep in tents. We had no electricity nor running water.
I think it’s telling you’re the only one who mentioned that part of my post! Thank you for acknowledging it for what it is and I agree that “When They See Us” is extremely difficult to watch. There were a lot of tears.
And YES that “walking” trip definitely counts and seems brutal. Hope it was fun!
That rope/kettlebell pull… yikes! 15 times!!
I’m not a camper at all. When I was young we were kind of forced to go with my parents. i really didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of bugs or mud or pooping in the woods. Not. At. All. Sure, I love the campfires and the yummy breakfasts cooked on the fire after a shitty night of sleep, and I love s’mores. But the rest? No thanks. Book me a cute little cottage on the edge of the woods and then I’m happy.
Always Be My Maybe is now on the list! When they see us… I was so angry and upset already at the first episode. And thinking back on it all, knowing they were totally innocent it makes me feel like we are so so far away from where we think we are in regards to racism and profiling. It’s painful.
Your course sounds so intense. But you really seem suited to it, so I think you’ll do amazing.
Sign me up for the cottage on the edge of the woods too! That sounds more like what I would love about the outdoors 🙂
Definitely watch Always Be My Maybe – you will love it. And yes, When They See Us is infuriating and outraging but I think that’s kind of the point. It was VERY hard to watch and I did cry a few times but I feel like everyone should watch it for the exact reason you wrote – we think we’ve come so far where racism is concerned but that was 1989 and racism rages on today. So painful but now I’m empowered to do something about it and awareness is the first step! Thanks for adding to the conversation!
Ha, I’m totally with you on camping! I love doing all of the outdoorsy things and will happily spend all day outside, but I prefer to have a nice shower and bed at night. My husband refusing to go “glamping” – typical Marine attitude! 😉 – and the few times we’ve gone camping have not turned out that great haha
I’ve been wanting to watch When They See Us, but I honestly feel like I have to be in the right mood to watch it since the news and world can be so depressing these days. I almost need to tune out sometimes to keep my sanity, which is a total white privilege thing to say, I know it. But on the topic of graduate school (congrats at going back by the way!), I was forever changed by the sociology and women’s studies classes that I took in school. It gave me such new perspective of things I never even thought about growing up as a blond haired, blue eyed white girl. I think that one of the major problems in society today is this close-minded attitude to anything that doesn’t affect a person directly. It’s like we’ve lost our ability to be empathetic. It’s truly scary, and I’m already nervous for the 2020 election!
So many things I want to respond to but I loved reading your thoughts on school and women’s studies – so eye opening – and the fact that you’re very AWARE of your status and privilege as a white, blonde, fit, educated woman. You’re still marginalized as a woman but white privilege has obviously played a big role. I also hear you on having the protect yourself a bit in choosing to watch When They See Us. My class was overwhelming at times and I needed to watch comedy or read something very light to counter it!! I hope you watch it when you’re ready too because there are so many powerful messages, but it is extremely hard to watch. Thanks for writing all that you did!!
Hi Allie, enjoyed reading your blog.
We love hiking, camping, anything outdoorsy. We have 2 girls (teenagers) so it gives us opportunity to spend a lot of time together.
I prefer traditional form of camping – tent, sleeping pad and sleeping bag. However there is a new trend – glamping. I wonder if this would be more suitable for you. Cheers.
I have been “glamping” and I MUCH prefer it!
So glad you can enjoy camping, especially with teenagers. It really is a great way to connect and survive/thrive in the outdoors 🙂
I’m an outdoors I love every form of especially one where I’m in control. A road trip easily turns to a hike or camping. There no sense of freedom like an adventure, seeing new places, experiencing the wild and nature. I love that you’ve shared yours. Thank you.
Yes! I definitely love adventures…and being in control. Thanks so much for reading and commenting. Here’s to more outdoor adventures!
Yeah sometimes the waves can get crazy I was stuck with my kayak when mother nature decided to give me a shake and it was fighting but fortunately, I make it safely to the side… and yeah the rocks are looking good, thanks for sharing yah