Spring has sprung

 

Well, we had some false starts - including our most heavy snowfall of the winter - in February and early March, after an otherwise mild winter. But there are now buds on the shrubs, the trees will leaf out any day now, my chives are happy (i.e. tall), and there are baby bunnies inconveniently nesting in my flower bed. 

Now I'm just waiting for temps consistently above 50 so that I can clean up the yard without displacing the pollinators, and so that I can continue the good cycling trend I've recently been on.

The weather this weekend was pretty amazing. I got some shorter distance bike rides in, but rode with more intensity and sought out hills. And I got some nice long walks in with Haley.

3 weeks ago - many layers!

Today! 

My hip was bugging me going into the weekend after being in DC this week for work and doing A LOT of walking (yay!) but doing very little of my PT exercises (boo!). But after doing all the stretches and the exercises tonight, I'm feeling pretty good.

In the third week of March, I went to Zion with the sister and brother to whom I'm fully blood related. We did a lot of hiking (the second and third days I used hiking poles, which helped my stability and my hip on uneven terrain), and talked about how much my dad would have wanted to be right there with us. We all miss him so much. 

Early on day 1 - wondering if we'll
survive vacation together. (Also, I didn't 
get their permission to share this photo. Whoops.)

Day 1 - we walked down this
river valley, further than the hoards.

Day 2 - a less crowded area of the park,
with lots (>50) stream crossings.

Day 3 - super isolated hike - - 
other than the evidence of coyotes
and mountain lions.

Day 3 - it would be oppressively hot
on this trail in the summer. We lost the 
trail a few times, but found it again.

It was a great trip - so good to be moving, hanging out with people I like, and getting a mental break from work. Nonetheless, I was feeling pretty discouraged after the trip, due to the discomfort despite all the effort I'm putting into getting that dang hip better. But with some recalibration by my PT person, I'm now feeling much more optimistic about the future, including my ability to comfortably-enough do the fundraiser 5-day bike ride.

Thank you so much for your donations to the MS Society of $1,225. I am optimistic that I can meet my goal of $5,000. I found this interesting image on the MS Society website about its research initiatives. They're doing really good work. (And they don't just do research; they also provide services and engage in advocacy work to ensure that people who are affected with MS have health care, access and protections, etc.)

You can help support them! Here's the link to donate for the 5-day bike ride I'm doing in July. https://events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/Go-Maggie-Go

A bit of fresh air

Today was very warm for Minnesota this time of year and, since I will be in ATL soon, I thought I should compare the two.

After doing some chores and a bit of work, I went for a 30ish-mile bike ride. Nearly 2/3 of it was roads that I haven't yet been on in 2024. 

Some highlights include seeing my brother's M-I-L walking and stopping to talk with her for a while; seeing at least a dozen boats fishing at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers; seeing several eagles: and discovering that my idea of making fruitcake, cutting it into pieces, wrapping them individually, and freezing them was a great idea. 

A couple of cars underestimated my speed, but only car put me in a true, unsafe situation. Lacking originality, the license plate on that car was "DevlDog"

It was a great ride nonetheless!

https://events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/Go-Maggie-Go

February Frolic

 Well, today was a mostly sunny, dry, and pretty much zero-wind day, which made for the perfect first bike ride of the year! 

I've commuted with studded tires and have ridden my fat tire bike in past Februarys (Februaries?), but it isn't usually the month in which I pull out a road bike and tool around the city. 

It was 32 when my friend Matt and I started riding this morning at 10:15, but we warmed up quickly and had to stop a couple of times to adjust our layers before the temp rose to 45. We rode our slower bikes, which have racks for panniers, so that we would have a place to stash our shed clothing (and our spare, lighter gloves). 

We rode up along the Mississippi (and saw some snow under the bluffs), took the #9 bridge over to the U of M, took the transitway to Como Park, Wheelock Parkway to Lake Phalen (where I used a disgusting biffy), and then Johnson Parkway to Mounds Park. Instead of coming back through Lowertown St. Paul, we detoured over to Upper Afton Road so we could take the beautiful winding trail through Battle Creek Park (so pretty) and through the weird but cool fishery area to Warner Road/Shepherd Road. We started at Fireroast Cafe so that we could also end there and have a tasty lunch.

What a pleasant day! This is the third weekend in a row that I have not worked after working a totally unsustainable amount of hours over the past six months and it is so nice to have days off. I forgot that weekends matter as much as they do.

Matt and I had a nice catch-up chat about all the important things in the world, such as why Red Delicious apples were so popular in our youth, Killers of the Flower Moon, hamburgers, foods that have hard outsides but soft interiors, bicycle chains, the number of years we've ridden together (11, but it seems like longer in a good way), board games, music, and the Crusades. You know, typical stuff.

It was a 39-mile ride for me (because I rode to and from the coffee shop). I just spent (wasted?) a bunch of time downloading all my ride data from my Garmin from last year. I normally track my rides week by week in a spreadsheet, but didn't do that last year because I was hardly riding due to my hip/femur injury. I thought my longest ride of last year was my first ride of the season (36-mile ride with Matt on a not totally dissimilar route as today's ride), but it turns out that I did get a 42-miler in at the end of the season and a grand total of 1200 miles. (Normally I do about 3x that, or more, with a few 75-100 milers tossed in for good measure, although there have been a couple of 2k years, I see, looking through the archives.) I realized I rode a fair amount after I first went on my crutches, following the letter - but not the spirit - of the law laid down by my doc. At some point, I must have realized that wasn't actually going to be all that helpful and discovered that it is fun to swim at Lake Nokomis. Anyhow, the point: I think it will be a good year for riding and it was great to have a reminder of how liberating it is to be out there cruising around. 

I'm even more excited about the week I'll have off in July for the BikeMS TRAM. Thanks for the donations that you have been making to support the MS Society! https://events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/Go-Maggie-Go 

2023 - An Interesting Year

Between my last blog post and now is definitely the longest I've gone without posting something, several times over. I thought in the spirit of the dregs of 2023, I'd jump on the bandwagon and do a year in review of sorts. 

Did you think I'd actually pay for a photo here?

In January, we were able to visit Dan's family in South Carolina, which is always a treat. In the beginning of February, we had COVID and rebound cases of COVID and I had to miss a work trip to DC (I love DC), but then I was able to join work colleagues at the end of February/beginning of March for a super interesting and fun conference in San Antonio. By that point, I had decided that I would do a half marathon in the end of May, so I was glad to have the opportunity to run by the Riverwalk - - once my delayed luggage arrived. (I got to wear my Oxford comma t-shirt for two days straight, including at the first day of work meetings; sorry for the stench!) 

In March I went and spent some quality time with my stepmom Beth, who needed an extra hand with some things. Then, a week later, she and I met my sister Molly and niece Sylvie at my sister Lori's and brother-in-law Shane's house for an always-fun southern California escape. In the end of April, Dan and I went to a small town in Wisconsin for a Bluegrass festival. It was still kind of cold and snowy at that point. 

Then, in early May, I had a trip for my side-hustle work project to San Diego. I had to stay the night that the meeting ended, due to flight issues. At this point, sometime shortly after my 10-mile training run (I did 10 miles, guys!), I could barely walk. But with my free afternoon, I rented a bike and showed the pre-judgey snooty bike shop guys not to be that way. And then I had some delicious sushi and the (handsome) bartender gave me a free extra cocktail because he thought maybe he could have done a better job making the first one. A week after that, I went to Wisconsin to dog sit when my mom had her knee replaced, and then helped with my mom's transition home. When I was dog-sitting, their dog and I went for a rather uncomfortable walk and got up close and personal with a very large black bear. That took my mind off the discomfort, but then I called the doctor in tears because I could barely walk and realized that I had a serious problem needing some urgent attention.

Okay, this is not the exact bear.
This is a much larger bear: the 2023 Fat Bear winner, a brown bear from Alaska.

The next week, after a frustrating visit to the orthopedic clinic that required some extra advocacy on my part to get an MRI in addition to an x-ray and a lot of calls from me to get information about what the results meant, practically, I was ordered to be on crutches for a couple of months, beginning the weekend I was supposed to do that run. So, we cancelled our Beercycling trip to Belgium (doctor's orders), and went to Grand Marais, Minnesota and to Decorah, Iowa instead. We had a lot of fun on those little trips, despite my crutches.

It was a million degrees and super dry in Minneapolis,
but cold and rainy in Grand Marais.

They call this an e-bike. I mean, I guess technically.

A rare moment of sun on that trip!

My sister and aunt and uncle also came to town in June for my nephew's high school graduation, and that was super fun. In the end of July we kicked of Home Remodeling Extravaganza 2023. As of today, we have a completely new kitchen, front and back doors, upstairs bathroom sink (because I broke ours during construction), and everything in a completely new basement bathroom except the mirror, which will get installed next week. We also had to fix our sewer pipe, something on the chimney, our gas line to our dryer, and our furnace thermostat. While we're at it, we decided today to get new gutters and are getting ready to do a second radon test because the first, short one was not great.

In August, I visited my mom and stepdad Terry, and my stepmom Beth came to visit. And then I got to meet the U.S. Surgeon General in DC. A lifetime highlight for sure! 

In September, we went to Grand Rapids and saw Jason Isbell play there, and my cousins from St. Louis visited for Oktoberfest, and I guess I had another work trip! (Atlanta.) It was a work trip kind of year.

Love this sweatsuit that I bought
on a whim in 2020, because 2020.

In October, I visited my sister Molly, and her friend Kate and I (oh, and my sister, too) stayed at a beach house and watched dumb movies and did crafts, and then I did a trip for my side project to St. Louis and got to have lunch with my aunt and uncle before coming home. I had a work trip to Omaha, where I got to see my college-freshman nephew and see the band Wilco the night before doing a presentation before the National Association of Attorneys General. It wasn't my best presentation, but I got a lot of street cred with the other attendees who are Wilco fans.

In November, I visited my mom and stepdad Terry again, and had work trips to DC and to Des Moines. It was great to meet some new people on that DC trip and see some old work friends, and I got to carpool to Des Moines with a person I didn't really know before (from my old workplace), who I really like! 

Terry and his buddy at dinner.

In early December, we went to Mexico to see Wilco and other bands. It was very relaxing. I also went on this sailboat thing and went snorkeling for the first time. I'm a fan.

We just went to visit Dan's family in northern Minnesota for a short Christmas trip, and have some upcoming trips to Wisconsin to visit my stepmom Beth and some of my siblings and then my mom and stepdad Terry, as a makeup for Christmas.

When I started writing, I assumed I would write one paragraph along the lines of: "I was on crutches, we had work done on the house. I did some swimming, did less biking than normal but got out more than I would have on my own due to some very patient friends. And I worked a shit-ton." (I spared you all the gory details of the non-travel aspects of work.) But it actually was a good year, now that I think about it! 

And of course, a lot of time was spent with this cutie pie, who barks a ton, but makes me laugh and is always happy to see me.

So... next year? I have a couple of fun weekends and some non-major trips planned. I'm going to focus on work-life balance and my health and wellness (and go back to the doctor to figure out some lingering issues with my injury from last year), and I'm going to bike! Yahoo! I signed up for the weeklong BikeMS ride in July, which is in a fun part of the state to visit - Northfield, Red Wing, St. Peter, etc.

As always, you are welcome to donate: https://events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/Go-Maggie-Go 

Minnesota (and Iowa?!?), Mend Me

Who needs to go to Europe, anyhow, when she can instead stay right here for her vacation, possibly still on crutches for extra fun? 

Yes, friends, the MRI I had about 10 days ago not only confirmed my frayed hip labrum and hip impingement detected in the x-ray and physical exam, but also indicated that I have a precursor to a stress fracture at the top of my femur. (Running schmunning...) So, no walking, no cycling that is remotely challenging, no standing.

We toyed with the idea of trying an e-bike for our scheduled bike trip in Belgium later this month, but that is not going to solve the mobility problem for a variety of reasons. Plus my doc doesn't want me on a plane. So we, sadly, have backed out of that trip.

We are going to still take vacation since we had committed to paying the dogsitter and both need to recharge in our own ways. What are we doing, praytell?!?

Going to Iowa. 

Yes, indeed. We are going to Decorah to visit a brewery. And then we will be home a bit (and go to a bar that has a lot of Belgian-style beer), and then go to the North Shore (of Lake Superior, in MN) for a couple of days to rejuvenate.

Which makes me think of this song, "Minnesota, Mend Me": https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4na4o1Avy4k&feature=share

I listened to that song one day last year on a great day of a BikeMS ride from the Iron Range of Minnesota to Two Harbors, on the shore of Lake Superior. That was a perfect day.

I could have real problems, but I don't. This is a disappointment, but not a big life problem. As of right now, my new goals for the summer are (1) to get off crutches, (2) to do the allowable light cycling and light swimming and extra-light PT until I can do real PT and then do that, (3) not drink too much beer, and (4) be recovered enough to ride my bike to Hastings at the end of the summer. My other goal is to watch my new wisteria vines grow and figure out how to best use them as a shield from the alley. 

Not the summer I planned, but things could be much worse. 

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2023

Maggie or 2018 Honda Civic?

1. Sporty.

2. Greyish silver.

3. Eco-conscious to an extent.

4. Messed up wiring.

5. Not that old.

6. Low to the ground.

7. Fuel efficient. 

8. In need of a shower.

9. Seat covered in dog hair.

Maggie: 2, 3, 4, 5(!), 6?, 8, 9

2018 Honda Civic: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Biking tonight was a little painful, but we'll chalk that up to a lack of sleep, it being windy, my being on my heavier bike, and having an injection today into my hip joint for a very targeted MRI. I'm most definitely NOT doing the half-marathon this weekend, but will keep trying biking. I'm scheduled for PT and am optimistic. https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2023

(T)h(r)ill Seeker

So, yeah, it is appearing more and more UNlikely (but never say never!) that I will be capable of running the half-marathon in two weeks. If I can't, I am sort of considering trying to solve my hip issues very diligently so I can run a 10-miler in the fall. (I have found an amazing stretch!) Since people donated to the MS Society in support of my running goal, I would like to deliver. But maybe I'm  not supposed to be more than a casual runner and should try to do something ambitious on my bike. (Hmm.)

This running respite has allowed me to focus a bit more on cycling, which is good, since our June Belgium trip will involve a hilly, 7-day ride and I haven't ridden hardly at all this season.

After my San Diego meeting ended, I had a free afternoon and didn't want to sit in my hotel room, despite its amazing view.

So I rented a bike, wearing sweat-inducing jeans and a backpack, and did this ride after being talked out of riding to and through Coronado Island. I found some hills (with very respectful cars) in Balboa Park before riding in the most industrial, trafficky "bike lane," which had a fair amount of debris. The cars were very respectful there, too (except for one bus), which is evident by the fact that I'm still alive. On the way back from the southernmost point where I took the photo of the water, the bike lane evaporated and I had to ride the bike as fast as I possibly could because I was taking the full lane and it was rush hour. The bike's front brakes were slightly on for most of the ride, the right pedal had a concerning "gonna fall off?" squeak, and my handlebars were slightly twisted off center. It was still a great ride though. I was tired and had a delicious dinner.

I got home mid-afternoon on Thursday and, that night, did the women's ride that I started doing last summer, led by the super encouraging, super optimistic, super friendly Laura. 

I'm not sure when she took that photo of me riding, but despite my goofy mouth, I like it. I like seeing my form is pretty decent after I got my bike re-fit last summer. 

I was very focused on self-care this weekend, but did go out for a ride after the rain stopped today. I tried to find hills on a short 25-miler. The first climb was on Highway 13 to Cherokee Park (are they renaming that?) in West (?) Saint Paul. Highway 13 felt a lot harder than it looks on that elevation chart. You can't tell from the map, but I went down Ohio Street, turned around, and went up and down Ohio Street again. I then skipped the gentle grade of the MRT from Lilydale to Mendota and went up the big hill that probably has twice the elevation of the gradual uphill trail. Some decent hills without going far. Good thing I did a bunch of hill training in 2019 and know where they are hidden for future rides.

When I was at my meeting in San Diego, I gave out these cute animal affirmation cards. 

I highly recommend them. There were only about 5 dumb ones in the box of 50 and they will totally make you (or others) smile. I credit them for enabling me to just regroup a bit this weekend before I leave town again to help my mom for her knee surgery.

Here's hoping my hip mobility improves so that I can walk her dog without too much pain. Ideally zero! 

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/GoMaggieGo-2023