Visit to Ellis Island

October 30, 2015

This week, I got to take a trip to Ellis Island for work and we were given a bit of a “behind the scenes” tour. We got to walk through the buildings that are still in ruins, the ones not part of the normal tour. It was absolutely fascinating, not only the things that happened in those buildings a hundred years ago, but how the buildings have weathered since then.

For those of you unfamiliar with American History, Ellis Island is a small island off the coast of New Jersey and New York where immigrants to the United States first landed. It opened in the 1890’s and closed in 1954. Twelve million immigrants were processed through Ellis Island.

Ellis Island was essentially abandoned in the 1950’s, and then in the 1980’s, restoration began. But that means that the buildings were virtually untouched for all those years. An abandoned building anywhere else would have become damaged by the human element, but these were damaged only by nature. It’s amazing how much still remains. I was amazed to see so many intact lightbulbs, for example. Of course, there isn’t power to the buildings, so who knows if those bulbs still work, but anywhere else, they would have been shattered long ago.

An artist came in and placed photos from Ellis Island throughout the buildings. It created a fascinating mix of the old and the new, and I will be hunting down his book to see more.

The gloomy, rainy day really set the mood for our trip.

Thursday Workout Recap

October 29, 2015

I have worked over 32 hours in three days. I am tired. And very behind on everything.

I did get in my workouts last week though!

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – Trainer workout plus strength work. Legs no longer work.

Wednesday – Treadmill hill work. This one wasn’t pretty and was way slower than it should have been, but I figure that it was better than nothing.

Thursday – Team Fight swim practice. Hooray!

Friday – 60 minute trainer tempo workout.

Saturday – 8 mile run

Sunday – Cheering all day, 90 minute bike ride when I got home. Good job, self!

Official MCM Cheer Squad

October 26, 2015

The lead vehicle at MCM. Appropriate that the Marines use the Duck Boat. If only it could fly. Land… sea… air?

For I don’t know what year in a row, I was out with friends cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon. If you’re a local and haven’t done this, I highly recommend it. If you’re not a local, come cheer with me! The MCM Cheer Squad can’t be beat! Or cheer at a local-to-you race. So much fun.

One thing we make a point to do is stay there for the slowest runners. We park ourselves just as runners come off the dreaded bridge. We’re usually there for most of the 10k runners (though not the super fast people) and then every single one of the marathon runners who beats the bridge. We also make sure that we save snacks for those runners. Because no one needs animal crackers or cheese balls more than runners who are gutting it out.

This year, we had beer and what were essentially plastic shot glasses. Not good beer by any means – Natural Light and Bud Light. But the looks on people’s faces as they realized that there was beer to be had… it was glorious and clearly worth it. By the late runners, people were shocked we were giving things away. Which made me wonder if they had rarely seen people out handing out treats. The slow runners need love too, people! The looks on their faces makes it entirely worth it.

What were the winning snacks? The pretzels were a huge hit, as were the cheese balls (good thinking, Liz!). Chocolate was always a win. People really wanted mini-Snickers, but I could only find a mixed bag, so there were also Milky Way bars and Twix bars. A close second, I’m sure.

You just never know what will taste good after 20+ miles of running, I guess.

Congrats to all the MCM runners, regardless of your finish time or even if you finished. You showed up, and that is awesome!

Wed…Thursday Workout Recap

October 22, 2015

Well, now that we’re officially in the future, it’s time for me to catch up on my workout recaps. For the past two weeks. Because I have been lazy.

Week of 10/5

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – Easy 3 mile run. Did this while talking on the phone. I think perhaps I go a bit too easy.

Wednesday – Bike Speed Workout. It’s a good thing I love my trainer because looking ahead, I’m going to be spending a TON of time on it this winter.

Thursday – Team Fight Swim. I was so fatigued throughout this entire swim. I did it, but man, I was tired. Usually I perk up during these, but not today.

Friday – Massage and Army Ten Miler expo

Saturday – Easy 10 minute shakeout

Sunday – Army Ten Miler!

Week of 10/12

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – I was clearly starting to get sick by this point. Skipped my workout and went to bed.

Wednesday – Skipped life today and spent it on the couch.

Thursday – Did an easy 45 minute bike in hopes that I was recovering. Was definitely still exhausted.

Friday – Late choir rehearsals. Where I had no voice.

Saturday – Easy 90 minute bike ride. Felt good to sweat it out, but this was harder than it should have been.

Sunday – Choir concert where I had 90% of my voice back. Then sleep.

One thing that I’ve learned going back through my workouts is that I can clearly see where I was getting sick. I think that by the Thursday before Army Ten Miler, my body was fighting something off. Swim was much harder than it should have been. I probably should have upped my Vitamin C and made sure I was getting a ton of rest and fluids to try to ward it off. It also explains why my ATM was more sluggish than I anticipated. I wasn’t pushing by any means, but I thought that a natural pace would have been faster given my training.

(Also, Timehop has shown me that I apparently get a killer cold right around this time every year. I should mark this on my calendar and just wear a face mask through all of October.)

It’s here! Back to the Future Day!

October 21, 2015

Source

It’s here! We are in the future!

I admit, I have had this date in my calendar all year. Mostly because of all the hoaxes that have come in the years before. But now we are officially here. Which means that all of Back to the Future now happens in the past. Crazy.

But what did the movie get right?

Well, we don’t have Jaws 19. But 3D movies are really big.

No hoverboards or self-lacing shoes.

Sadly, no flying cars. Or Mr. Fusions. We’re still stuck on gasoline for the most part.

We can’t pay by thumbprint. Or can we? There’s Apple Pay, which is kind of similar.

The news used drones to film events. We sort of have that going on, though not in the same way. But it’s happening.

Flat screen tvs, video chat, virtual reality glasses, those all exist.

But I don’t believe there were any cell phones in the movie. There was a fancy payphone though. And lots of fax machines. Lots and lots of fax machines.

Sadly, our kitchens are not up to speed with BTTF yet. No food hydrators to make tiny pizzas into giant ones. No magical fruit tree coming down to give me a snack.

One thing I love is that the movie predicted the Cubs would win the World Series. And they’re still in it. I might have to cheer for the Cubs for this reason alone.

Apparently, a bunch of companies are getting in on the celebrating. Pepsi is releasing special bottles of Pepsi Perfect, and there’s a trailer out for Jaws 19. Nintendo is also putting out Wild Gunman, the game Marty plays in the diner.

So if you haven’t already done so, go back and watch Back to the Future II (and I and III) to celebrate. I might have done so this weekend as “research” for this blog post. The future is now, people. The future is NOW.