Weekly Mileage #168 and Lots of Leatherwork

Monday we dug out the portable puppy fence and let the chicks explore outside. They enjoyed it. I need to do a few things out in the coop, then we'll probably move them out to the brooder area in the next week or so. They're still much too small to be in with the older girls, but it's also time to get them out of the house.

I sewed the name patch on my tote bag. I had to do it by hand, so it doesn't match the rest of the stitching, unfortunately. This bag was a great learning experience, though, so I'm not super worried about it. I used a cheaper "utility side" leather that has a lot of marks and scars- cheaper materials than I'd normally use, but also already looking broken in. Doing it this way was also less expensive than if I was experimenting with higher quality leather.

I made a tool holder so everything's not jammed together in bins. It was getting so hard to find anything. The wood used to be attached to the newel post and held one end of the baby gate in the living room. The gates have been down for a couple years now and I'd taken the wood down and put it in the shed till I thought of something to do with it. It's not as pretty as some tool holders, but it didn't cost me anything and it's perfect for this purpose. Even better, there's room for me to drill more holes as I add to my tool collection.

After music lessons on Tuesday Sunshine had her first orthodontist appointment since everything shut down. She finally got four bottom brackets put on. We had to wait for her teeth to move around so there would be space for the brackets.

I worked on some covers for journals. I cut two with the Glow Forge, then hand stitched one and sewed the other on the machine. Honestly, I'm not super happy with the results, so there's more work to be done here. 

Machine sewed cover:

Machine thread is thinner than hand sewing thread, so it doesn't fill in the holes properly (I actually meant to not cut the holes, but remembered too late). I don't like how grubby the thread got, either.

The hand sewn version:

This one was also super grubby, and the holes didn't cut out as neatly as I'd have liked, which interfered with the stitching process.

Our AC stopped working Monday night, but the technician was able to get it fixed Tuesday afternoon. Turns out it was related to an issue we've had before- a poor design that is easily knocked out of place. Last time it was fixed they wired it weird and it eventually led to it failing again. He fixed it all and hopefully it won't happen again. Seriously grateful for the warranty on our heating and AC unit, since this is the second time we've had to get it worked on in the last couple months.

Since I wasn't happy with the laser cut notebook covers, I dyed some leather for a hand cut notebook cover. Though part of the problem is probably the type of leather I was trying to cut with the Glow Forge- I've had problems with it before. The veg tan leather I hand dyed would have cut fine.

Wednesday I did 10 easy miles on the bike. I had no pain while riding, though my knees felt a bit twingey afterwards. First exercise after my 50k, so I took it pretty easy.

I finally fixed my leather sewing machine. I knew the belts weren't lining up properly, but I wasn't sure why. I ended up having to take apart a few things- either they shifted or I hadn't put them in just the right spot to begin with. Regardless, it's running much better now.

I worked on the third version of the gather basket. I like how it turned out much better, but I want to tweak a couple more things before I call it good.

Thursday Jeremy and I went to Ikea (it's finally open again!) for our new pantry cabinet. So glad we didn't have to drag the kiddos along- wait in line to get in, wait to get our cabinet invoice in the kitchen area, wait to pick up the cabinet pieces.... They would have been all over the place.

Our current pantry is such a poor use of space and it's been getting less and less functional as time goes on. We realized a month or more ago that we could redo the pantry as a stand-alone project, and it wouldn't cost that much. Most of the rest of the kitchen will have to be done in one fell swoop (floors, bottom cabinets, counters, new sink, etc), but if we can improve the pantry situation, that will at least get us started.

We also got some more positionable lights and a new chair for my workspace. There is just not enough light in the basement and my previous chair wasn't that comfy. 

I sewed the notebook cover that I dyed while we drove to IKEA. I won't be doing that again: I got so nauseous. 

I like the design and all and it turned out better than the others, but the process of dyeing is too time consuming. I'm trying to focus on projects that don't take too much time so I can scale my production.

Earlier in the week I finished a course on how to sell your leatherwork. Courses can be hit-or-miss: full of fluff and not super useful, or full of actionable info. This one fell in the second category and has had me thinking about how to really take my leather business to the next level. I took advantage of this week's insomnia (it's that time of month again) to describe my target customer, write my mission statement, decide which products I'll sell (several ideas I had don't fit with my customer avatar, but I thought of some other, non-leather stuff I can add), where and how I'll market my products to my target audience, photo ideas to share on social media, and so on. 

I'm finding that having more clarity on where I want to go with this is helpful. I'm not sitting at my workstation, wondering what to work on next. I have a list of products I'm fine tuning, so I need to work on one of those. I have one more version I want to try on my gather basket, then I'm taking the two most recent versions to a friend who's in my target audience for feedback. I'll do the same as I dial in my other designs.

Narrowing down what I want to do is also helpful when it comes to figuring out what leathers to use and how I'll cut them. I don't like the char mess left by the Glow Forge, so I'll hand cut them. I'll cut acrylic templates where practical with the Glow Forge, which will make for more uniform cuts without the mess. I won't be dyeing leather right now. Maybe sometime in the future, but I'm happy with the leathers I can buy and don't want to deal with the mess and waiting around that comes with dyeing leather. That said, I am going to give alcohol dyes a try. I have some ideas that if I can get them to come to fruition, will be pretty cool, but I won't be using them on journals or bags.

Cramps had me sitting on the Biomat on the couch Friday, so I used the time to update my logo for my leather company. I've tried a few different logos over the years, but haven't been real happy with any of them. I've got it narrowed down to just a couple, so good progress. I need to do some acrylic stamps to see how the different logos I've come up with stamp on leather. That, I think, will be the deciding factor on which logo I use.

I also worked on clearing up my tabs- so many open tabs and my laptop wasn't happy. I still need to clear out my email inboxes- they're creeping back up again.

Saturday Sunshine had the first part of her virtual youth conference in the morning followed by a virtual campout with the other female Scout troops in our council.

At the same time, Jeremy had drill virtually. He had to attend formation via zoom, in uniform.

no idea what's up with Ocean's expression, and yes, he's wearing a t-shirt over his Sunday shirt

I had a blah day, but I worked on my logos a bit more and made my first set of acrylic stamps to test my possible logos. 

I also spent some time researching display options for totes and such. My business plan calls for me to attend homeschool conferences as a vendor, so I need to consider what my booth will look like. Obviously this will have to wait till people are meeting in public again, so while I concentrate on building my online presence I'll also start working on my booth here and there.

I cut an acrylic template for my gather basket. Getting the template Glow Forge-ready took a little more work than I'd planned, but I learned a bit more about how to use Inkscape in the process.

A note on my tote bag: I've been using it this week as I ran errands, and I love it! It's nice and roomy and the leather is stiff and stands up nicely. My old leather tote that I've had for 10+ (maybe as long as 12?) years is starting to show its age and is getting very floppy. 

I planted some hydrangeas two or three years ago and this is the first year they're really blooming in earnest. The blooms vary from pink to light purple, to this very pretty dark purple.

Sunshine has hit a couple milestones in the last week or so: she can now wear my shoes (we just bought her a pair of shoes that are the same size as mine) and she's finally as tall as me. She's been looking forward to this for sooooo long!

Weekly Mileage
Wednesday- 10.0 miles biked
total- 10.0 miles

2020 totals

22 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

146.41 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
160.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
317.41 miles total

Sunday Funny

Ocean's favorite phrase lately: "Yelling is not the answer!"

This is usually said in response to one of us yelling at him to do something he'd already been told to do 5 times before, but hadn't done.

Our response: "Being disobedient is not the answer!"

We were curious about the phrase, since it's not something either of us has said, so I asked him where he heard it. In Super Hero Girls (a show on Netflix) Green Lantern said "fighting is not the answer." Ocean changed it to "yelling is not the answer." Props for creativity.

Other variations we've heard:

"Folding your arms is not the answer!" (I was helping him fold his arms and he wasn't happy about it)

"Cleaning up the toys is not the answer!" (I asked him to clean up the toys strewn around the basement)

It was funny the first couple times he said, but I gotta say, the humor has worn off as he continues to use it.

Weekly Mileage #167 and the 50k Trail Run

starting line, 7:20 am

Monday I got up earlier than I have in months to run my 50k. The park opens at 7am and I was there shortly after that.

The first loop it was cool enough to wear a long sleeve shirt and I did the full back loop, which has the worst hills. That was the only time I did those hills and I kept to the flatter front part of the back loop and the front loop for the rest of the race. I didn't want to wear myself out unnecessarily on those steeper hills. I didn't get a lot of sleep Sunday night so I was feeling pretty tired this loop, but eventually got in my groove.

The lighting in the forest changes throughout the day.

It warmed up, so on the second loop I ditched the long sleeve shirt. I set up my aid station in the back of the car with everything I thought I'd need. I checked my moleskin (not as helpful as it's been in the past, unfortunately), added body glide, refilled water and electrolyte bottles, ate some food (granola bars, crackers, and cheese), changed my socks, and so on. I did spend longer than I'd have liked (about 70 minutes total throughout the race), but checking my feet each time took time.

At the halfway mark: 15.5 miles. 

I'd originally planned on four and a half loops with four aid stops, but during the fourth loop I decided to skip the fourth aid stop and just power through the last 11 miles so I could get done sooner. But then my Garmin gave me the low battery message, so I had to stop and charge it for a bit so it wouldn't die before the end of my run.

At the 26.2 mile/full marathon mark:

The last half of the run (15ish miles) was definitely a suffer fest, which I knew they would be. I haven't run more than 13.1 miles since September 2018. I knew I would be undertrained and was prepared for that, but it looked a little different than I'd expected, though I did have a hint of it after the half marathon a couple weeks ago. All that hill work left me with super sore knees (actually, my knees feel fine, it's the muscle attachments above and below my knees that are sore), and my feet struggled with the uneven surfaces of the trails. On the positive side, my right foot where I broke it and where I injured my big toe didn't bother me. I did get some pretty spectacular toe blisters and some of them felt like they had blisters.

I never felt super tired and exhausted, even when I was hobble-running through those last 11 miles. It was my feet and legs that were the issue. Admittedly, I kept to a very conservative pace (avg for the race was 20 min/mile), and that was definitely a good thing. Since my energy levels have been such an issue for almost two years, this is huge. While my pace did slow down a little over time (as would be expected), I was able to stay pretty consistent.

When I was almost done, I called Jeremy and he brought the kiddos and they had a crepe paper tape for me to run through :)

11 hours and 11 minutes after I started, 31 miles were in the bag!

I remember hitting the wall bad during the full marathon I ran back in 2008, around mile 20 or so, but I didn't hit the wall in this race. I'm not sure why. I do know that listening to podcasts helped keep my mind off how my body felt, so that's probably part of it.

I used my run/walk technique that I used during the half marathon a couple weeks ago: run half a mile, walk a tenth of mile, run half a mile, walk a tenth of a mile. A couple times the walk or the run was a smidge longer, but I kept to that pretty close. I was prepared to lengthen my walks during the last half of the race, but I didn't end up doing that. I totaled up all my running stints and they equaled 24.2 miles! Even when I ran my full marathon I didn't run that much. Yay me! (and yes, I totally tracked my running and walking during the race. partly OCD, partly to give me something to think about in the background. I jotted them down and totaled them up along the way in the notes app on my phone)

I was really hoping the Parks Department would re-open the bathrooms, but no such luck. That left me trying to find secluded areas off the trail not full of poison ivy, with enough cover that someone on the trail wouldn't see me. This was harder than you'd think because the tree canopy is thick enough that there's not a lot of ground cover to hide behind. Add in all the extra people on the trails these days, and it was a bit dicey, though I managed it.

It was a good day for a run. It wasn't quite as cool as I'd have liked (low to mid 50s are my preferred running temps), but honestly it was quite good. The high was 75 in the late afternoon and about 50 when I started. Most of the trails are shaded by trees; there's only a couple stretches where I was in the sun, and those were short or had sporadic shade. So I never felt over-heated and the humidity wasn't that noticeable either. So glad I did it Monday, since the rest of the week was hot and humid. I think we hit mid-90s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yech! I have a friend who flat out refuses to run in our hot and humid Virginia summers, and will only run from October to April. She's definitely got a point.

The last 5 or 6 miles I noticed that I was starting to wheeze. It was quite unlike any wheezing I've done before (which isn't that much, but back in high school I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma). It wasn't super loud and I doubt anyone who wasn't right next to me would have noticed it, but it was there. I didn't think the pollen count was that high, but I guess after 11 hours of running around in the woods I was bound to breathe in enough crud to make my lungs unhappy. My post-race asthmatic cough was lovely. My lungs definitely weren't happy that evening and they were still pretty gunky on Tuesday and a bit tetchy on Wednesday. They feel fine now, though.

Going into this, I was pretty sure this race would be a one and done. Having finished it, I can confirm that I'm good not running another ultra race. Maybe if I had time to train properly for it I would, but even then I don't know that I would. And I'm glad I moved up my race date- no regrets there. The long training runs were draining me more than I have the time and energy to deal with, so even though it meant I was more under-trained than I'd originally planned, powering through it now rather than later was what I needed to do.

It also confirmed that I really do like the half marathon distance.

From an endurance perspective, I'm really glad I did it and was able to push myself and accomplish a very daunting physical feat. It was definitely a good decision on my part to do a virtual/self-supported 50k rather than a race with a bunch of people. That would have been so much more stressful on so many levels. Regardless, I can now say I've done an ultra race!

I do plan on continuing to run on the trails which means I'll continue to have built-in hill workouts. I'm really curious to see how all the hill work affects my road 5k times once we start holding races in person again.

I managed to go to sleep Monday night without any problems! This was not a given, as I still had insomnia after my half marathon. I did take a bunch of ibuprofen to help with all the sore muscles, but that was it.

Tuesday morning I woke up sore all over, which I mostly expected. I wasn't expecting to be sore between my shoulder blades- I must have been tensing up pretty badly while hobble-running the last 11 miles. My feet felt better, and the blisters were less angry, and while quite impressive in themselves, not as numerous as I thought Monday night. Walking was a smidge easier, but stairs were so painful.

I was tired, but not as wiped out as I was afraid I'd be. I unashamedly took the day off (after the kids' music lessons) and just rested while zoning out in front of netflix.

By Thursday the toe blisters had deflated and I was walking normally again.

The finished basket I shared last week, with the handle on. The leather was not stiff enough to stand up on its own and the handle is too long. So I won't use this leather for this basket and I'll make the handle shorter: a good learning experience.

Once I'd spent some time recovering from my race, I buckled down and got to work on my leather projects. First, I made two leather notebooks, one an order and one for Ocean's speech therapist as an end of year gift. Then I had another go at the wood and leather gather basket. It's close to where I want it, but still not quite right. The next version should be good to go.

I thought it would look fine if the handle didn't extend all the way to the bottom. It doesn't. It needs to be a lot shorter or go all the way to the bottom, no weird in-between.

The first version I sewed entirely by hand, this one I sewed on the machine. I need to practice a bit more (leather is very unforgiving, so you can't make mistakes and then fix them), but overall using the sewing machine is so much faster.

Next I made my first tote bag. I hacked the pattern from one I purchased and a couple bags that I liked parts of to get one bag that I like. Constructing it was a learning experience but I'm pleased with how it turned out. This one is unlined, eventually I'll do a lined version, though the interior pocket will need to be different for that one.

Riveted pocket.

The bottom is a different leather than the top, but you can't really tell it on the outside. It's most obvious on the inside.

I bought an arbor press after seeing a leatherworker on youtube show all the things he could do with it. Super versatile, labor saving, and so much quieter than hammering on punches all the time. And cheaper than buying a press from Tandy. I'd rather have the pull down lever on the Tandy press, but the price on this press makes the turning handle something I'll live with.

The shiny square thing is a neodymium magnet that will hold my punches, like the one below, which punches holes for hand stitching.

Eventually I'd like to order a brass stamp with my logo for stamping my work, but I haven't decided for sure that I want to keep my current logo or change it up. In the meantime, I made an acrylic stamp with the GlowForge and it's doing pretty well when combined with the arbor press.

Well, I actually had to make two, because the first one I did I forgot to flip it so it was mirrored. That would be the top one. As soon as I stamped the leather I realized what I'd done and went back and fixed it.

Brass edges will stand up to more than acrylic, but like I said, it works for now and it's super easy to knock out another one if something happens to this one.

I forgot to sew the logo patch on the tote bag, so I'll have to do that on Monday.

I also made these cute little tags on the GlowForge, to be used like a hang tag that you'd find on a bag at the store. I'll probably change up the leather though. Depending on the lighting, it's kind of difficult to see the logo on this one.

Oh, and I don't think I ever posted a picture of my new leather sewing machine. It looks like a treadle on the bottom, but really it's just a giant lever to push on, which is easier than the smaller levers and buttons of my other machines.

~~~~~

Final thoughts on the 50k. While I was tired, I was not as wiped out as I thought I'd be and even the sore muscles didn't hang around as long as I thought they would. My knees are still tired, but they no longer hurt, and after 31 miles of hills, tired knees aren't unexpected. Overall, I've recovered a lot better and faster than I thought I would.

I'm so glad I did it when I did. It's been hot and humid ever since. I'm sleeping better, so mission accomplished in trying to minimize one of the stressors that contribute to my insomnia. And I'm working my way back to eating low carb, so again, mission accomplished.

I've never really experienced the letdown after a runner's high before, but I definitely felt it this week. It was probably influenced by the tired that accompanies doing a 50k while not fully ready for it and not fully rested because of chronic insomnia. I'm feeling better now, though.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 31.0 miles run and hiked
total- 31.0 miles

2020 totals

22 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

146.41 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
150.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
307.41 miles total

Sunday Funny

Ocean actually sleeping. Doesn't he look so calm and almost angelic?

Me (hollering up the stairs): "Little boys, go to sleep!"

Ocean: "I am sleeping."

Me: "If you're talking to me, you aren't sleeping."

Ocean: "I'm sleeping, it's my brudder who's not."

Uh-huh. Keep talking kiddo.

May Mileage

May was cooler than usual and I had some really good trail runs as a result. I've decided to classify my trail runs as hikes, since I do hike in between running. This is also helpful from a time perspective. I just don't have time to go on a hike after trail running for 3-4 hours. It is going to bump up my average hike length, but that will be counter-balanced by shorter hikes with the kids, which I need to be more consistent with. So it will probably equal out eventually. My average hike length is up to 3.32, which is above my goal of 2.25 miles.

I had fallen behind on the number of hikes, but I'm now only down by one.

My bike rides are still on track and my foot mileage is close to being back on track because of the longer runs I've been doing in preparation for the 50k.

May mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes/trail runs + 1 race + 3 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 21 hikes

365 mile challenge:  150.0 bike miles + 115.41 outdoor foot miles + 11.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 276.41 miles

April mileage:
0 treadmill workout + 3 hikes + 2 races + 2 trail runs + 1 outside walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 16 hikes

365 mile challenge:  120.0 bike miles + 78.68 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 206.68 miles

March mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes + 0 races + 4 trail runs + 4 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 53.38 miles

52 hike challenge: 13 hikes

365 mile challenge:  90.0 bike miles + 58.58 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 156.58 miles

February mileage:
2 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 0 races + 3 trail runs + 0 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 59.08 miles

52 hike challenge: 9 hikes

365 mile challenge:  60.0 bike miles + 37.20 outdoor foot miles + 6.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 103.20 miles

January mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 5 hikes + 1 race + 3 trail runs + 2 outside walks + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 44.12 miles

52 hike challenge: 5 hikes

365 mile challenge:  20.0 bike miles + 22.62 outdoor foot miles + 1.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 44.12 miles

Weekly Mileage #166 and Insomnia Induced Decisions

My insomnia game has been super strong lately, which was unexpected. I've narrowed the cause down to one of two things. I'm worrying about the 50k I planned on doing on my birthday or I'm eating too many carbs. Honestly, it's probably both. I never sleep well the night before a race, and even though it's still a month out, I think the sheer number of variables involved in this race is causing enough anxiety to ratchet up the insomnia. I fell off the low carb wagon back around Easter, but training for a 50k is not the time to cut back on those carbs.

Last week when I did my unintentional half marathon was a pleasantly cool week with temps in the 50s and 60s. Then the weekend came with temps in the 80s and increased humidity.

Add it all together, and I've moved up my 50k to June 1. Heat and humidity have a huge negative effect on my energy levels, and they're only going to get worse from here on out. I can't handle another month of insomnia and after the race I can get back on the low carb wagon. So I just need to get this done.

Monday I finally finished the last of my travel blog posts. I'm good till the end of July, so now it's time to focus on leather projects.

River asked me to take a picture while he posed 😂

Ocean's face.... he's trying to raise an eyebrow like his brother does

After music lessons on Tuesday the kids and I went for a hike and tried geocaching for the first time. It was fun and definitely something to do again. We found two out of the three we were looking for and there's lots more in the park still to find.

one was a microcache that was a giant spider

another looked like an electrical box on the back of a railing next to the road

Wednesday I just went for a short run to shake things out before my 50k on Monday. I also made a leather notebook as an end of year gift for Ocean's preschool teacher. While I was doing that, I looked out the window and saw this:

Such a creative kiddo!

Thursday I went to the chiropractor and then ran errands for the first time since the middle of March. Kind of weird, kind of itchy twitchy thinking about the germs I was coming in contact with. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

A leather project I worked on:

I love the look of the cross stitched seam.

I etched my company name on the bottom of the wood with the GlowForge. I found this pattern online, but it called for a leather bottom and the process to attach it was a bit more involved and time consuming than I'm looking for (time is money and I need to be able to produce items as quickly as possible while still having good results to maximize profits). So I substituted the leather bottom for a wood bottom. I rather like the effect.

I still need to attach the handle, so this isn't quite done yet.

~~~~~

I've been thinking about spending time outside and around people. I find I'm hesitant. Partly because I don't want to get sick, partly because I don't want Ocean to bring home something. This child has had cold after cough after running nose after cold since he could walk. As I mentioned awhile ago, he was on the tail end of a bug when we first started staying home. It cleared up and he hasn't been sick since.

Pretty sure it's the longest time he's ever gone without having some sort of crud. He picks up so many germs because he touches everything and licks his hands, sucks his thumb, etc. I'm rather worried about what he could bring home now. His primary class meets in a room that is used as a nursery by other wards, so there's toys in it. Pretty sure it's been the main source of a lot of the bugs he's had over the years- nursery toys are such a cesspool. If they don't take the toys out when primary classes start meeting again, he'll have to stay with Jeremy or I during the second hour of church.

We don't need that kind of exposure to that kind of germ load. I'm wondering how they're going to handle the toy situation. Even with never-ending efforts to sanitize nursery toys, they're never really clean and they're always getting new germs. And since we're currently in the 3rd time slot in our building, there's two wards worth of kids to get their germs all over everything. It wasn't quite so bad last year when we were in the 1st time slot, but the two years before that were pretty bad.


Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 1.5 miles hiked
Wednesday- 1.3 miles run and hiked
Saturday- 10.0 miles biked
total- 12.8 miles

2020 totals

21 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

115.41 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
150.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
276.41 miles total