Midyear

The kick in the ass to the mileage count really started in May so 2020 miles in 2020 is back on track.

Six full months into the bastard year 2020 and I am taking stock of my New Year goals when things looked a lot different than now.  It is day 182 so the real midpoint of this leap year is tomorrow, but 6 months seems a nice demarcation.

I planned on 52 commuter runs either to or from work.  So far, I’m at 48 and feel on track to go into surplus in two weeks.  24 of each, right now, but TO is easier than FROM in the darkness of Autumn and Winter.  Of this year’s miles so far, 468 are from commutes.

The GVRAT map as it stands 30 June 2020

Malaise, illness, other priorities, and just plain laziness had really seemed to doom the 2020 miles goal for 2020.  But, I ran 63 out of 72 days of the Total Lockdown and have run every day since May 2 (in large part due to the Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee).  My mileage at 31 March was only 355 but today stands at 1042, well past the 1010 halfway point.  Monthly, it looked like this:

January	120
February	89
March	146
April	151
May	251
June	285

An ultra is probably off the books for this year; I really can’t consider the GVRAT counting as one since it isn’t all in one go.  I had planned on the Liverpool-Leeds Canal Race at the August Bank Holiday but despite their hopes of holding it, I can’t count on the pubs along the way being open so my nutrition strategy from The Ridgeway would have to be completely retooled (as of today, the pubs have been closed 102 days and will almost certainly go down again the way everyone is behaving).  An alternative in November, a 24 hour ‘race’ tracked by GPS to see how far from the Centre of England you can get by any route, is sold out for this year.

The planned Weekly World Tour of Local Shop Bevvies didn’t even get started until Lockdown but now stands at 37 (all beers, now, although I have made it through a dizzying array of Russian and Polish white liquors, too):

Poland: 20
Lithuania: 8
Russia: 5
Latvia: 2
Slovakia: 1
Czechia:1

Refurbs continue on the new home, but the supply line disruptions put kinks in the overly ambitious original plans.  We have yet to start on the major electrical work or the wood floor refinishing (both being coupled).  The 2nd fireplace is still intact and the 1st one still awaits an insert.  But, the upstairs bath is done, the garden has come along, and the WC/laundry is nearly finished.  We won’t be finished with the full list by Christmas but could easily be by this time next year.

Finally, though not part of the original goals I started mapping Canal Furniture and other interesting waterway items.  The map has categories for Bridges (and Aqueducts and Tunnels), Locks, Gauging Stations, Graffiti, and Misc Points of Interest — each of which can be toggled on or off.  The project should continue to grow although there are some tow paths I tread with dull regularity (see “commuting”).

 

2020 Commute 48 of 52 (From): Pain and Pleasure and #GVRAT

The weekend beat me badly and every muscle I have is sore.  The run home was slow agony.  And, yet it was vaguely pleasant in the gusty, cool wind and occasional sunshine.

 

At the West Brom end, I veered to Carter’s Green and picked up some chillies, cilantro (coriander), and limes to make some salsa for the nachos planned for supper.  The entire journey came in at 12.5 miles (bringing the GVRAT total to 529.8).  This leaves me about 800 feet from Home plate lined up with right-center field of the West Greene HS Baseball field.

 

Summer Skip and #GVRAT Run

The Pile had reached the top of the fence to the left and the middle of the Firing Squad Wall to the back.

I’ve mentioned The Pile more than once, but after pulling down the brick wall of the shed then denuding the dining room it became a dangerously high and unsightly mess (yes, pot calling the kettle black).

I called in the skip for noon and it arrived only an hour late.  We’ve reclaimed our patio area, now, and it is still unsightly but it is no longer a builder’s tip.

The old woman across the way added the suitcase and subsequently her nephews finished filling it with a few bits of fencing materials

It was three hours, non-stop filling the thing with about 2/3 of the volume made up of brick, tile, and cement-affiliated materials like mortar and render.  We have scrap magpies that sense a skip from miles away and anything metal that we set aside got spirited away in one or another white van; so, we didn’t have to make room for the old washing machine, bathtub, or the radiators.

I’m really glad I got out for the run before starting to load the skip.  GVRAT mileage now stands at 517.3 which would have me seeking rest in the loft of this barn for the night:

Dining Room Floors Uncovered

Saturday, I spent 6 hours softening and scraping the last of the old Artex from the dining room ceiling.  We used the old laminates, which we hate, as a built-in drop cloth then started to pull them up, as well.  Above, you get an idea of the layers we went through to get to the 1¼” thick, 113-year-old quarry tiles beneath.

Between the laminates and the lino lay some pads.  As we lifted the pads, a musty odour lowered our spirits.

Not all of the black is mould, but some of it was.  These old houses are like living beings and the flooring is meant to “breathe,” which means that the moisture from the earth below permeates the tile and the porous grouting (when that even is used as most of these floors are laid tight enough that it is unnecessary) and is carried away by air flow.  Rising damp occurs when a vapour barrier drives all of this moisture to the walls (a modern damp-course being beyond the ken of 19th- and early 20th-century architects).

Several moppings later, the rinse water was still drying cloudy from old cement based adhesive and the black that remained was obviously a bitumen based adhesive.  As a result, I spent another 6 hours, Sunday, chiselling scree and wire brushing bitumen, tile by bloody tile.  The middle 5 rows still await this first pass, some of the bitumen will require solvent or a heat gun, and the entire floor will benefit from an acid bath to finish the lime removal.

But, with plans to lower the floor 40mm to meet the old veranda and simultaneously install underfloor pipework for heating, we can live with this for a while.  Watch this space in a few months for excavation, lime-crete pour, underfloor heating plumbing, and final tiling.

 

 

Perla Miodowa — Neighbourhood Beer Tour #37

At 6 miles out of 7½, Sunday, I stopped in a Polish shop for a beer.  This Perla Miodowa was surprisingly good and surprisingly honey-flavoured (unlike most domestic honey ales).  Refreshing and energising morning-run treat.

Weekend #GVRAT Short Runs

The first of the wildflower seeds spread out along the hedge a month and a half ago has bloomed…a cornflower (known back home in the South as a Bachelor’s Button).

Speaking of ‘back in Dixie,’ the GVRAT runs continued despite hard full-day house refurb efforts on both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday, I got as far as some car dealerships a little southwest of Morristown:

And Sunday, just past Morristown at an intersection of two divided highways.  The only interesting thing, to me, here is I am now just over 80% to completing to full crossing of the state and can actually consider if I want to see how far BACK Across Tennessee (BAT) I can get before the end of August (I don’t think there’s a chance in Hell I can make it ALL the way BAT).

Baltijos Dark Red — Neighbourhood Beer Tour #36 And #GVRAT Shirt and Update

Home from the labs mid-afternoon, I settled into the remainder of the work week with a cold bottle of Baltijos Dark Red, a hearty darkish beer worth seeking out (I’ll definitely give it a second look).

The postman brought a package from the States: my tshirt for the GVRAT which I can’t wear until I finish the first crossing (or, failing that, until DNF is scrawled across front, back, and both sleeves).  Not much chance of that, though, as I continued the running streak started a couple days before joining this trek.  I ache all over and wouldn’t mind stopping in to the chiropractor next to today’s endpoint:

2020 Commute 47 of 52 (To): New Graffiti

Clever new graffiti is always welcome.  The revolver girl caught my eye at the mural gallery on my way into work this morning.

Just after (and possibly in reference to it), someone used a black Sharpy with a yellow one for contrast to mark up existing artwork.  Usually, this is just an annoyance but this scrawler bothered to work with the existing material and leave inspired, competent, and funny (if a bit non-PC) additions.  Well done.

Earlier, I noticed the overflow from the upper branch of the canal the early side of the Smethwick junction.  It has never been in use when I passed by and I thought this would be the defining photo of this episode of the 2020 Commutes.  Feast or famine.

Zelta — Neighbourhood Beer Tour #35

The birds are singing, the kids two doors over have crafted a rudimentary wading pool from a tarpaulin and some cinder blocks, the sky is cloud-free, the temperature 31ºC (88ºF), and I just chased up some more outstanding invoices whilst enjoying the breeze beneath my garden umbrella.

I’m sure there is a risk assessment (RA) I should file for drinking in my garden whilst working for the Uni but desperate times lead to rash means.  The RA would also require a COSHH for this bottle of Zelta (a Latvian lager); I’m currently assessing the safest way to dispose of the bottle’s hazardous contents so that risk to others is mitigated.  I’ll be through in about ½ hour.

Krušovice Královská 10 — Neighbourhood Beer Tour #34 and #GVRAT Update

Another day of sunshine and heat as the temperature headed to 30ºC.  I got out early for a N-E-S-W-NE loop then settled into the work day under the garden brolly with laptop and cold beer.  First up was Krušovice Královská 10, a full bodied pilsner from the Czech Republic (only the 3rd Neighbourhood Beer Tour entry this month, so far).

It wasn’t a long run but it got me out of (virtually) the suburban bleakness my stop yesterday landed me in.  My GVRAT break for the day is at 483.7 miles just past the wee town of Strawberry Plains following (parallel to right now) US11E, a fine blue highway worthy of a long bike ride or a lazy summer drive (there is some decent BBQ to be had in just about every town along this stretch).  None to be seen, though, in the Streetview where I would be: