The guy from Scotland made me do it

I got into work today and one of my colleagues (who is a beginning runner himself, I am glad and proud to say) asked me if I’d run today. He knows I’m a die-hard, I guess. Or just insane, take your pic.  It was 21 degrees this morning around 5:30 a.m., and with 20-30 mph wind gusts, the wind chill temp was 7, according to my iPhone’s weather channel app. I laughed and told him, “yep, because a guy from Scotland made me do it.”  So, this is my shout-out to Mickdo100 (as he’s known on Twitter), or the writer of the Nowhere Fast Revisited blog I have on my blogroll.  Funny how people you’ve never met in person can inspire you. Well, I guess that means almost all of you reading this blog, in my case!

I was sitting on my couch this morning, watching my dog Ruthie, who’s oh-so-cute, sleep all curled up on her chair, with her blue blankie wrapped around her (she will put up with anything from us as long as it means she’s getting attention, including being treated like a human baby), and listening to the wind howl. And I mean howl. We have chimes hanging on our one deck and you could tell from the lovely sounds that they made, that the wind was pretty strong. And when I took Ruthie out to relieve herself at 4:30 a.m. (imagine that being your rude awakening to the day), she could stand on top of the snow without breaking through. It was that cold.

So, the idea of getting out there and running (especially since I was afraid that somehow there’d be more black ice like yesterday when I was an idiot and didn’t wear my Stabilicers, thus forcing me to abandon my run for a power walk with Ruthie) was not really an appealing one. I mean, on the one hand, I have this good volume of the Vampire Diaries saga I’m reading (this book series is so much better than Twilight and mind you, coming from me, that’s saying a lot), or I could write some of my own fiction (really liking it the more I do it), and on the other hand, I could freeze my butt off.  (Oh, my other hand [I know, this gives me something like 4 hands right now if you've been adding them all up] had the option of decorating our Christmas tree.)

So, what do I do? I start whining about it on Twitter. And the power of the Internet, Mickdo100 , being 5 or 6 hours ahead of me, time-wise, and who also had the day off, and is injured, well, he tells me to get out there, dress warm, and remember that even if it’s only for 20 minutes that I get out there, it’s still better than nothing.

So, I thought about it. For a few minutes, and thought, “well, now or never, I’ve got to be on time today, I’m covering the reference desk first thing.” So I started getting dressed. Not a quick proposition with our weather. Three shirts, a pair of tights, one long pair of pants, a neck muffler, heavy thermal hat and warm gloves, smart wool socks, sneaks with Stabilicer Sports later, and I was ready to go! (Oh yeah, and my Road ID, or Road Kill ID, as I call it with iPod were worn also but those go without saying.)  For any of you who are wondering (and still reading), I do wear a headlamp in the dark. I want to live.

Running with all that gear can make it hard to move.  It was not my fastest run, but I didn’t wear my Garmin either.  I didn’t want to have to stand outside and wait for the thing to pick up satellites, it was that cold.  So, just two laps around my nearby lake, which means about 3.4 miles, and that was it for me.  But I got out there, and I did it, and I’m glad for that. Because sooner or later this season, those temps are going to feel downright balmy to me. (Oh, and I did stop about halfway to remove the Stabilicers, they just weren’t needed today. Luckily they are pretty lightweight so I put them in my pockets and started up again.)

While I was out there, I looked up at the sky, as I do many times on my runs when I can’t wait for the sunrise. The moon was very thin this morning, and of course the sky was completely cloudless (helping to keep the temps down.) This reminded me of another of my Twitter friends, TurtlePower1 (if you are on Twitter, I highly recommend following him. He has some great sayings, and perspectives.  He protects his tweets but just send him a request to follow and if you’re lucky, he’ll agree to it.)  He’s a runner that keeps his eyes on the heavens, watches for meteor showers, and has taught me a lot about the International Space Station and how you can see it in the night sky.  I think he would have enjoyed the pre-dawn sky I saw this morning.

Anyway, have you ever noticed that the moon sometimes seems to move further upward in the sky as the sun tries to take over?  I thought of it as an epic battle that gets fought every day between the sun and the moon for control over the sky.  We all know how it’s going to end, yet it gets repeated day after day. It’s one of my favorite reasons for being a morning runner.

I leave you now with a picture I took of the Cape the last time I was down there. Don’t worry, there’ll be no shortage of my opportunities to take more snow pics and post them up here for you! LOL

Grey's Beach, Cape Cod

Ok, gotta go and decorate my tree now – thanks for listening!

By the way, anyone think this post wins the award for use of most parentheticals or run-on sentences?! 

 

Trying to “rush acclimate”

I’m stupid. I know.  We FINALLY got sun today.  It’s been a week. A weird June, to be sure, and beginning of July. By this time last year, Lis and I were so used to sweating like farm animals while training with TNT.  (I can see Lis right now, clearing her throat, saying “ahem, Terri, it was only YOU who sweated like a farm animal, I just tried to make sure I didn’t kill myself by falling in the sweat puddles you left behind.”) Sorry, Lis. It was only me.

My biggest fear for next week’s Boilermaker is no longer the monster incline (which I’ve nicknamed THE BEAST) between miles 3 and 4. It’s that it’ll be a million degrees and humid out, as it usually is in upstate NY.  When I first signed up, I just figured I’d be acclimated by then.  However, there’s been this really freaky weather pattern that has found its way over Boston and New England for the past several weeks. It’s felt like springtime, as in early April, all last month.  Let me make this abundantly clear. Last night, when I walked into the convenience store, around 9ish, a guy walked out in long pants, shirt and  fleece. July 3rd. That just ain’t right.

Other bloggers out there are saying it’s 100 degrees where they live, and that they have drought conditions.  My husband picked up our welcome mat off of our deck to put it in the sun to dry out.  He said that water literally ran out of it.  (Guess that’s why it’s started to grow weeds this week.)

So today seemed like the perfect time to go for a run at noon, right? Hey, nobody said I always had common sense every day. I was supposed to do 4-6 mile repeats. Note I said “supposed to.”  Did I forget to mention my Flovent steroid inhaler just ran out on me, and my doctor’s office was closed, so my pharmacy couldn’t contact them for more?  Ah yeah. I can be a dummy sometimes.

I did the first interval just fine. 8:15.  Second one, not so good. More like 9ish, and with walking involved. I know, I know, not supposed to happen.  That brought me back home.

Then, I realized I could run laps around my block, which is about .45 around. I did that 4 times for a total of 2 more miles. That was it. I couldn’t take it any more. At least the .5 mile repeats I did I was able to consistently speed up, to 4 minutes per .5 miles.

Tomorrow, I am getting up before the butt crack of dawn, and leaving the house by around 5:30 or 5:45. Why?  My running group, the Merrimack Valley Striders, is hosting a 4th of July race.  I volunteered to help with registration before thinking of how early I’d have to be there. There’s a 2K, a 5K, and a 10K.  The 2K is for the kids, of course. I’m taking tomorrow off from running, and then doing my long run on Sunday instead.

On a completely unrelated matter, I just got the older version of the iPhone.  My employer gets a 10% discount on the monthly plan! SWEET!

So now I just have to figure out what the apps are for Twitter.  I hope to not get addicted to my phone, but people  tell me I just might.  I like the fact that there’s a map feature, as I usually can get lost driving in places with which I’m not familiar.  By the way, for those of you who read this blog, and want to follow me on Twitter, feel free to do so. I’ve got my updates protected for now (was getting sick of all the porn followers and the like), but if I can tell you’re a real person and not someone just trying to sell me something, I’ll likely accept you.  My name is “middlepackgirl.”

Have a great 4th everyone!

Photo by BL1961, flickr.com