#mar-kicksass

[trivialbob]

This evening I ran exactly six miles in precisely 60 minutes. My Ragnar teammate MAR might look at that watch and think it was just 1:00 minute.  But it really was 1:00 hour. I could have finished in 58 or 59 minutes but I slowed near the end just so I could finish at that time.

Yesterday I put some new songs on my iPod. That music kept me in good spirits for this run. I especially liked the theme song from Justified - Long Hard Times to Come.

[myprettypurplecrush]

i want to move in with mar-kicksass. we would be beautiful together.

[snapthistiger]

mar-kicksass replied to your photoset:i received some chipotle peanuts from Santa in my...

So she was enjoying them? I am surprised she would want to eat those. :)

snapthsitiger:  yes.  Sandy acted like they were delicious.  the peanuts are spicy, but not scorching.  Sandy seems like she will eat almost anything.

[threadparty]

mar-kicksass replied to your photoset “Hasty photo of the completed back. I was pretty eager to start basting...”

Love the back, that looks great. And cute helpful Corgi! :)

Aw, thanks!

(and yes, he's quite the little supervisor)

[katehikerun]

mar-kicksass replied to your photo “So I was 6 inches away from being hit by a car while I had the right...”

Glad you are okay. I had a really close call with a cop car last year! She didn't even look to see if I was ok.

:/ holy crap. I'm pretty sure my guy was on his phone. Wish I could've gotten his license #.

[read-run-knit-drink]

mar-kicksass replied to your photo“Post 20 mile ride. A friend is training to complete the Philly...”

Have you tried out the handcycle? I am curious about how hard it is, what it's like.

I have not tried one, but there are things I've observed and she has told me.

1. You can get momentum on a straightaway and really use that to your advantage, but it's not the same as coasting on a bike.

2. The momentum you gain going downhill does not always translate to uphill momentum the way it does on a bike. She tends to work the downhills much more with the handcycle, where I coast on my bike.

3. Any uphill is a bitch. You know how you can be running along a street that has a slight incline and while you never noticed it in your car or even if you were just walking, you start to really feel it in your legs if it's at the end of a run? With the handcycle you need to work for every foot of progress on a road like that. So, when I'm running with her, as opposed to biking, I like those roads...they slow her down and I can keep up.

The steeper the hill, naturally, the more difficult. And yesterday we had a nasty, nasty headwind heading up a bunch of those hills. (To give you an idea of how windy it was...they were postponing flights out of Philly because of the winds.) There were two hills where, on an average day, she can get up with effort. Yesterday I had to get behind and push her. There were also two places where the incline of the hills were just impossible to get up. One we used as an excuse to turn around at that point (mile 9) and the other we only thought about after we had gone down it, and just acknowledged that I was pushing her on the return trip. (Side lesson learned on that one...walking down a steep hill in bike shoes is a little scary.)

4. It's all about the core. Just like you need your bike seat set at the right height to make sure you're not going to blow out your knees, you need the foot rests set right so that you're not slouching in the seat. If you don't have proper use of your core, you're going to be expending a lot of extra effort.

I have often run with this woman while she cycled, just 5 - 10K and on paths where we just agree, she's going to speed the downhills and wait for me at the bottom (the flip side being I end up walking uphill to stay with her). It was really interesting to to bike with her yesterday. At times it was difficult because it was definitely a slow pace for biking. But it was cool to see what she can do when she's not slowing down to my pace.

It's also interesting to hear how many people say, "whoa...I want one of those."

[threadparty]

mar-kicksass replied to your post: a modest start: a small stack of hexag...

Why did you cut the tips of the triangles off?

I'm sewing them to the edges of the hexagons. I trim 1/4" off the tips and then the flat sides match up perfectly with the sides of the hexagons. I don't know how it works, but it works.