Running Chick

Happy Easter, or Happy Zombie Jesus Day, whichever you prefer.  We are having ham later on today, depending on if I packed my roasting pan.  We’re moving at the end of the April so we’ve been packing like crazy and my life currently looks like this:

Our new place is on 10.5 acres about 5 miles outside of town, and our only neighbors will be critters and trees. It’s going to be so awesome.  Packing up the kitchen has been interesting.  I take something out of the cabinet, try to decide if I’ll need it in the next month, decide that I won’t so I pack it up.  Two hours later either Josh or I are standing in the kitchen trying to figure out why we can’t find the thing that’s now packed away  on the bottom of a large, sealed box.  So far, I’ve only had to break into one box.

Anyway, since it finally stopped snowing, I had a much better running week than the last two.  Last week I was only able to manage 15 miles. 5 miles on Monday right before Snowpocalypse IV hit and then 10 miles on Saturday.  This week, I finished up with just over 25 miles, including a 10 miler in a steady drizzle that turned to sleet half-way through.  The roads were slippery, but not too terrible.  Running in frozen clothing was unpleasant.  Check out the ice on my glasses, compliments of a MUB bathroom glamour shot.

Weekly recap: (last week) Monday, 5 @ 10:16; Saturday, 10.25 @ 10:11. (this week) Tuesday, 5 @ 10:12; Wednesday, 5 @ 10:00; Friday 4 @ 10:38; Saturday, 10.50 @ 10:33.

March (good riddance) ended up being 83 miles @ 10:30, and so far for 2013, I have 178 miles.  Next week is a big one. I have 28 total miles on the calendar, with a long run of 12.  Woot.

Thanks to the bunch of snow we got early last week, I was only able to complete two out of my four runs.  I had a not-so-great run on Thursday where I felt like the upper & lower halves of my body just couldn’t get in sync and then a 10-miler on Saturday that was pretty okay, aside from having to climb into a snow bank for a potty break. Incidentally, the snow is up to my knees on the side of this road.

It’s not looking good for making my runs this week, either, seeing as we’re right in the middle of Snowpocalypse IV.  I did have a really good on Monday just before the snow started, so that felt good.

Weekly recap: Thursday, 5.14 @ 10:23; Saturday 10.14 @ 11:05 for a total of 15.28 miles.  This week I’m supposed to do 23.50, but it’s unlikely I’ll make that.

Happy Snowy Saturday, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy March and Happy every other day I missed since my last post.  Let’s jump right in with the updates, shall we?

Training officially started at the beginning of February, and I’ve been using the same schedule that I did last summer, running four times/week.  I had an okay fitness base built up from December & January, but it still felt like a bit of a struggle to hit my paces.  Combined with lots of snow and some cold patches which forced me to have several dates with the treadmill, and that equates to February turning out to be not that pleasant of a month.  Still, I only missed one run and ended the month with 61.50 miles.

I’m feeling a lot stronger and peppier now, and so far this month I’ve logged 27 miles, with a little over 20 miles this week.  The roads are mostly bare now, which is such a welcome state after spending the last couple of months slogging away in the squishy snow.  There are still some spots which are super icy and I had three close calls this morning on my long run where I slipped and ended up skidding on the ice, arms & legs flailing around.  I had to remind myself to proceed with extreme caution because I’m currently helping Josh as he recovers from this:

You can hop on over to his blog to get full story, but the short version is that he crashed his bike and broke his collarbone.  He had surgery last Thursday where they inserted a plate to repair the bone.  He’s bionic now, but laid up for the next few weeks.  Sounds like it’ll be about three months before he’s back to full strength, so I’ll be running on my own until probably May or June.

Random photos from my phone.

Pippen is now 1.5 years old.  Here he is at three months, when we first got home.  See how cute and teeny?

Here he is now.  Godzilla!  He barely fits in my lap anymore, and when he stretches out, he’s as long as my legs hereby proving that everyone’s taller than me.

Found a great new brewery in Marquette, Ore Dock Brewing Company. The place is pretty small, but the beer is really good.

We had a pretty good blizzard at the end of February that closed MTU for 1.5 days.  That was pretty significant because MTU does not close down frequently.  The last time was in 2007 and that one was on Josh’s birthday!  I forget how much snow that storm brought us, but it seemed like we were shoveling a couple of times a day for a week straight before we got a break.

I found the most enormous bottle of Sriracha I’ve ever seen in the hospital cafeteria.  That was about the only interesting thing I found there.  I might add that it also did not look like the cafeteria in Gray’s Anatomy, nor did any of the doctors look like McDreamy. Such a disappointment.

I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled weekly posts starting next week. Until then, think Spring! And don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight.