Rain Runnin & a Snowshark!

As I promised the other day, I am not going to miss another run due to the winter weather. I was going stir crazy when illness/iceness forced me off the roads. So yes, I ran every day this week…I just had to make some adjustments.

Luckily, we had some warmer weather that melted all the ice/snow. So I has happy to get back to my typical sunrise run routine. Even if it meant running in the cold rain.

As I was swatting the rain that was stinging my face, it occurred to me how sexy I was probably looking.

But then guess what happened. Yup, another cold front came through and froze all the rain. And then dumped a bunch of snow on top of it. Luckily tho, the sun came out and would melt enough in the afternoons for me to run…before it refroze overnights. So I had to adjust my normal sunrise runs to mid afternoon runs. Felt weird, but I got it done.

The best part of running in daylight was seeing all the snowmen in the neighborhood. One, in particular caught my attention. I promptly ran home to get the kiddos to see it.

I didn’t even tell him to pose, he just gets it!

She was scared at first, but warmed up to the killer snowshark.

Felt good to shake out the legs this week. On to more!

How bout you? Seen any snowsharks? Are you able to run outside yet? How foxy am I in that photo?!?!

-Scott

Snow Won’t Let Me Run…Me Hate Snow!

I just ain’t been myself lately. Last week I was sick and  so I had to miss some runs. This past week the weather really went south and so I had to miss some runs. Needless to say, I wasn’t jumping with joy.

Before I go further, you should know that I grew up in Ohio. So I’ve had my fill of cold yucky snowy winters. Been there, run that…

One time in high school the newspaper photog caught our track team training in the ever-present cold (I’m the one with the bandana face)

Now I wasn’t completely all humbug about it, mind you. In fact, we did take the opportunity to teach the kids how to make snowballs and snowangels.

Any time you can add violence to an activity, the boy will like it.

She looks about as thrilled as I was.

But after the novelty wore off (about 45 minutes), the kids were over the cold wet stuff as much as I was. But that didn’t make it go away. Nope, freezing temps kept the roads icy. I can’t run on ice. It was so bad, that they had to cancel a big race over the weekend…kind of. The Cowtown 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2, & Ultra was scheduled to go down, but they had to cancel all but the 13.1 due to icy roads. Bummer.

Yuck.

I did however, make it to yoga class. I was one of a handful who braved the elements. I saw a running friend in class, and we talked about how we both felt ill from not being able to run. I get it ~ if you are used to doing something every day, and then suddenly stop for a couple weeks, you’re going to feel off.

I feel like I’m about to go cray cray. I’m not missing another day. I don’t care what’s out there, I’m hitting the roads.

In the mean time, I’ve been comforting myself the best way I know how. With tacos…

Vegetarian tacos will warm me up.

We do what we gotta do, right?

How bout you? Weather, illness, etc. affect your workouts lately? Love or Hate the snow/cold? Who else is thankful for tacos in desperate times like these?

-Scott

Hit the Running Reset Button & Blogiversary

I feel like I’m a sleepy bear that’s been hibernating in a manly cave the past week or so. For the first time since I “Nancy Kerriganed” my own knee a year ago, I’ve missed a few workouts. There’s a couple reasons for this.

1. We got iced. This happens about once a year in North Texas. We never seem to get snow days, but rather ice days. No joke, there’s like an inch of ice on the ground right now. It blows. Though the kids don’t seem to mind getting a few days off school.

A rare opportunity to play outdoor Texas hockey.

I know the pictures look like snow, but trust me, that is solid ice. Muy dangerous. I’ll run in the dark, past skunks, over the hills and through the woods, but I won’t run when there’s ice around.

Why won’t this white stuff make a snowman?

2. I have been sick now for over a week…I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks. I did go on one run since I’ve taken ill and it wasn’t a good idea. Muy lightheaded, batman.

So between the ice and the illness, I decided to Shut.It.Down.

As much as I wanted to join my friends for a long run, go to yoga, run trails, hit the gym, etc. I decided to take a mini-break to get better and let the weather get better. Sometimes you just gotta do that.

Since I shut it down, I’ve gotten a ton of sleep. My nagging runner aches and pains have faded. I cleaned out the DVR. And any sense of burnout is gone – Since I haven’t run for a week, I am so friggin itchy to get back out there!!! Here’s hopin’ the ice melts so papa can hit the pavement!

Other than that, WordPress says I had my 6 year blogiversary!

6 Years

So yay for us!

How bout you? Ever shut it down? Anyone else sick? Do you think we’ll survive #Icepocalypse2k15?

-Scott

We’ve been BLANCHED!

I know some of you fancy yourselves to be amateur cooks, so you should know what blanching is.  For those who don’t – for example, it’s when you’re boiling asparagus until it gets nice and bright green, then you immediately remove it and put in a bath of ice water to stop the cooking.  Well that’s what happened to us here in Dallas.  It was 80 degrees (American) one day….the very next day we were covered in ice.  Yup.

The little monsters exploring the ice-snow.

So yeah, we’ve been blanched pretty good.  I guess we were done cooking.

Anyway, pretty much the whole city shuts down whenever we get any bit of snow or ice.  They even cancelled the Dallas Marathon.  Bummer for everyone who spent the past few months training.  And bummer for me because I was going to use part of the race course for my 19 mile Dopey Challenge training run on Sunday.  Not sure what I’m going to do now.

Today called for 4 miles which I begrudgingly did on the dreadmill at the gym.  I much prefer the outdoors, but I don’t want to step on an icy patch and take a nasty spill.

I’m supposed to do 9 miles on Saturday before the 19 on Sunday.  Here’s hoping I can do it outdoors!!!  Come on sidewalks and streets, de-ice yo-selves!

Also, I found an old pic from a newspaper in my hometown in Ohio.  It shows some of us high school track and field kids winter-training down the coldy snowy streetys.  I’m the one on the right with the bandana on my face – I can’t remember if it was to fight the cold air, or if I was going to rob a stage-coach afterwards.

Hardcore, baby!

Those were the days before all the fancy tech-thermal-moisture-wicking-temperature-regulating gear that folks wear now-a-days.  Back then it was cotton and wool.  You probably like my sweats and wool cap!  The cool http://raceitliveitloveit.com/ blogger recently talked about those days on one of her posts.  It wasn’t that long ago!

What about you?  Did you get blanched?  Do you run in ice or snow or stick to treadmills?  Ever run in sweat pants and shirts? 

My Watch is a Jerk (& Dopey Training)

So the previous couple weeks I wasn’t able to follow my Disney Dopey Challenge (5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2 in 4 days) training schedule due to some sudden weird ache in my knee.  But since I’ve got it rested and taped up, it’s been much better.  I was able to jump back into it the past few days, and that makes me happy.

Dat my RockTape job.

This may change, as the weather here is supposed to go from righteous to growdy.  Today it was 80 degrees (American) and sunny.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 30’s and sleet/snowing.  What?   And then it gets worse.  Supposed to get colder and colder and icier and icier.  That could mess with my weekend training.

Click to enlarge.

As you can hopefully see, I’m supposed to do 4, 9, 19 on Fri, Sat, Sun.  This weekend is also the Dallas Marathon, and they came out today and said that if the roads are too icy, they will cancel it.  That’s a bummer.  Especially for all those people traveling here and all those who have done months of training.  Here’s hoping the weather dude on TV is as accurate as he normally is (not very at all).

Anyway, since I’ve been able to run again this week, I was trying to be smart and take it easy.  Take it a little slow.  Well, when I got home from one of my runs and plugged the Nike+ GPS TomTom watch into the computer to record my run, it gave me the following message…

Insult me then try to get me to buy stuff, is that your game?

Yes, my training device is mocking me.  It’s insulting me.  It’s taunting me.  Why?  I can only conclude that it is a big stupid head jerk.  I already know I’m running slower than normal…that’s by design you butt-clown!

Ahh well, I’ll get him/her back (somehow) soon enough!!!

How bout you?  Ever been insulted by a robot?  Do you think we’ll be able to run this weekend?  How you doin?