winter wonderland
George Herbert once said "Every mile is two in winter." it can certainly feel that way. we got 4 inches of snow last night so instead of running in the wee hours of the morning, i shoveled the driveway and sidewalk. i brought gear with me to work and headed out over the noon hour, with my ipod. (gasp!)
i ended up running mainly in the streets facing traffic. thankfully much of the roads i was on weren’t heavily traveled. the first half of the run was especially tough as i was heading into a headwind while trying to maintain reasonable footing. i opted for a out and back loop on the Christopher Columbus Causeway to avoid traffic. the snow plows hadn’t been down the road so i ended up running in the tire tracks left by the folks who had driven through before me. nearing the point where i turn around, the snow had drifted over the road making it nearly impossible to take a step without getting a blast of snow down my shoe.
as i headed back, some yahoo in a minivan came tearing down the CCC. i saw him coming and moved off the road to let him pass. he did a few doughnuts in the snow drifts then came tearing back down the road. i again moved way off to the side, not minding much as i ended up just running in the fresh tire tracks that he had left.
the effort on the way back was much easier with the wind pushing me along. admittedly, i wasn’t quite as careful with my footing and leaped over a few snowbanks. regardless, i shuffled into the locker room to the astonishment of one of the guys i know. he grew up in mexico and doesn’t like the cold. he admired that i was out-n-about in the slop and headed to the treadmill for his workout.
in the end, i mustered all of 5 miles. i didn’t have my watch so i’m not real sure of the pace. perhaps it was for the best.
no cop no stop
i wasn’t feeling up to par this weekend and had alot of things to do around the house so i didn’t get out to run on saturday or sunday. i brought gear with me and ran during lunch today. we got an icy mix of rain/snow/sleet on saturday and there still were folks that hadn’t shoveled their sidewalks yet. i also got to hop over mounds of snow at intersections which is always fun.
i ended up with my regular five miles at a slower pace than usual, likely due to the extra clothes and snow/ice in spots. heading back, i was a few strides away from entering an intersection where the car to the south had a stop sign. this person in an SUV with a cellphone glued to their ear must have seen me coming and did a "california roll" right though the stop sign. humorous.
watch out for geese
i stayed up too late last night watching football so i brought gear and ran during lunch. i headed on my normal route along lake michigan. i approached a group of geese that were distributed on both the left and right of the sidewalk. i think they saw me coming and were planning on an ambush…but i outsmarted them by running around them on the gravel.
regardless, i managed five miles in a little over 40 minutes. looks like i have my work cut out for me in december if i am to hit 2000 miles for the year. i think i had to run a comparable amount of miles last december to make 2000, so it’s certainly still possible.
MTD – 131.5
YTD – 1820.5
Odometer – 26,148
stop signs are optional
i stepped out of the door to temperatures in the upper teens with clear skies. i did take a quick look at the stars as my GPS was syncing, but admittedly didn’t pick out anything i could recognize. i initially headed south on comanche then headed north on university. the wind was gusty from the west which made for a crosswind for most of my effort. as i passed uw-w, it was awful windy as there aren’t as many homes to block the wind. i turned for home after 3.5 miles and about 30 minutes elapsed.
heading back i approached the intersection of madison and university, which is fairly heavily traversed during daylight hours. from the opposite direction, a car was approaching the intersection at a high rate of speed considering it had a stop sign to contend with. i rolled through the intersection (without stopping…of course) the car did the same – pausing just enough to let me pass. it must be a case of "monkey-see-monkey-do" or something.
regardless, i made it home in a little over 59 minutes and hit the shower.
surfs up on the CCC
i brought gear with me today and headed out for 5 miles that included a mile on the breakwater. heading out, the wind was at my back and some big waves were crashing in on the shoreline. i wound around to run a mile on the causeway and caught some of the spray from the crashing waves as i made my way back. the wind was a bit challenging to run into on the way back in but at least the rain held off.
today was the first day i had run this week due to being sick with a cold/flu/virus…whatever it was.