64 Degrees

It was 31 degrees, according to the not-very accurate (I am convinced) thermometer at Northeastern High School, for my four-mile runs on Saturday morning and last Wednesday night.

According to the same digital display, it was 64 tonight.  Yikes.  I'm not convinced that it was quite that warm, but t was at least 20 degrees warmer when I headed out for my run at around 6:30 tonight.

I like running in cooler weather, as anyone who reads this blog knows by now, and any other week, I would probably wait it out for cooler temperatures, or run 2 miles tonight and four (which is my current long-run distance) another night.

Except that we're predicted to have 5-8 inches of snow on Wednesday. As much as enjoy running in cold weather, I loathe snow. If I don't get my run in today, who knows when I might?

So I ran it.  It wasn't fun.  My legs felt a lot more tired and I felt a little more out of breath than I did on Saturday, and I'm going to blame the temperature for that, but I'm happy I got some miles in.

Now I'm debating, should I run tomorrow or keep my legs fresh for shoveling? :-(

Last Chance, First Impressions, and One Year Ago

Last Chance!
I'm sure you're tired of reading about it, but this really is the last day to enter the First and Last Annual Earn Your Donuts Bad Race Photo Contest (Brought to You by Road ID). I thought I'd give it one more mention since I usually get more page views during the week than on weekends.

If your bad race photo is voted the winner (by commenters or poll voters, not me) you get a $35 Road ID gift card. 2nd prize is a $10 Dunkin Donuts gift card. You can either leave a link to the picture in the comments of this post or the original (below), you can e-mail it to me at earnyourdonuts@gmail.com. I won't post your full name on my blog or spam you or anything.

Go here for all the details:
http://earnyourdonuts.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-annual-earn-your-donuts-bad-race.html

I'd like to get the entries up for voting later this week, but this is kind of a crazy week. I don't think it would be fair to both of our contest entrants to extend the deadline, though!





First Impressions
Ok, with administrative matters aside...as far as actual running, last week was kind of a washout. After Monday's three, I didn't run again till Saturday because I was sick on Wednesday and Thursday, and by the time I felt better on Friday afternoon, why bother? Saturday is a regular running day anyway. I ran four miles again, which was my plan all along. I was a little slower than last week, and felt the most out of breath since starting to run again, which I think was just the remains of my cold or allergies.

I'll go for three miles tonight, most likely. It is supposed to be in the 60s today, which is great, I suppose, except 1) I can't stay healthy the crazy fluctuating weather we've had this winter -- I have never been sick this much in one winter; 2) I actually like running when it's in the 30s and 40s; and 3) I suspect this is going to come back to haunt us in a really hot summer. If this week goes well, I'll try for five this weekend.

I did my leg program for the first time yesterday (finally getting to the "First Impressions" mentioned in the title). It included leg press, leg curls, leg extensions, hip abductors, hip adductors, calf raise machine, and I did abs, too. The fact that I'm largely pain-free today probably means I need to add a lot more weight if this going to actually do any good.

One Year Ago
This is a week of anniversaries. One year ago today my wife ran her first half marathon, the 2011 Disney Princess Half Marathon. She did great, but she wasn't sure at the time whether she'd run that distance again. We know how that turned out...in less than a month from now she'll be running her third half! Congratulations again, Princess Chris!

Friday Haiku, Volume XV

The water rises
And my confidence declines
Time for a comeback

This is has been a tough week for running. I crashed at 10 on my alleged 14-miler last Saturday. This week, I got my Higdon-proscribed 4 in on the treadmill. I tried for 8, which my plan called for, on Wednesday between rainstorms, and just didn't feel well at all (stopped at 6.3). I skipped yesterday's 4-miler because I figured I should shovel as much of my driveway back into place as I could.

This week's long run is 15 miles. I'm not sure I can do that right now, between they way I've felt this week and the rainy humid morning we're supposed to have, and my sort of sub-par training over the past two weeks. I can't get hung up on that, though. I just need to focus on doing the best I can to get back on program as much as possible. 13 miles -- I'll take it! 14 or 15, I'll be thrilled.

I also need to STOP WHINING! I've been very negative lately. About the weather, about running, about work, and probably other things that I can't think of right now. Some are in my control, and some are not. Running is one that is -- to a point. I've been at or above mileage and long run mileage every week all summer until the last two weeks. I can't let myself get too frustrated when there's still plenty of time to recover.

Waterskiing, Anyone?

Because I don't think I'll be getting a run in anytime soon.


Lake Driveway isn't the only new water feature we have in our yard.


Here's the Side-yard River, a popular destination for white water rafters from all over the country.

I would love to send all this rain to another part of the country where it's actually, you know, wanted.

I'll probably just skip my run today, and do another four on the treadmill or, if I'm lucky (I'm not lucky), eight outside tomorrow, weather permitting.

Update:
The flooding here is really, really bad. York County made the national news. Harrisburg's City Island and the city up to 2nd street are going to be flooded when the river crests on Friday, and the waterfront in Wormleysburg is also going to flood, among other places.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44432466#44432466

I'm hoping the Conewago has receded since I drove by at around 5:00, some of the homes along the creek were in the creek, and more were about to be. This is usually a pretty calm part of the country...we could sure use some slow news days right about now.

Irene'd

Thankfully, it seems like overall, Hurricane Irene's impact was not as bad as predicted. Speaking only of our own property, there wasn't any flooding in the front yard and the water in the basement was much less than I expected. But, we've been without power at our home since 2am Sunday morning. Since we have a well, no electricity means no water.

We're at the point where we need to decide if we stick it out at home for a few more hours, or if we need to find somewhere else to stay for a night or two. I called Met Ed to see when the juice would be back on, and got this recorded message:

"The Met Ed Customer Service Center is closed due to outages from Hurricane Irene."

That's sure not the answer I was looking for, but unfortunately, I guess it is an answer. Looking for more information, I went to Met Ed's website and was surprised to find an informative outage map.

If you look at York County, we have 2,000-5,000 outages, which I was surprised to see was more than counties closer to Philly. However, I think it's because other utility companies service those areas. Compared to Berks County (Reading area) and it's 12,000 outages, York County got off relatively lightly with just under 5,000.

A quick drive around Manchester last night made it appear as if it were just our street that was without power, but there's 144 customers without power in Manchester.


This, along with Met Ed's own outage, makes me think the lights won't be back on for quite awhile.

If you're reading this from somewhere within Irene's Path of Devastation, or in our case, it's Trail of Inconvenience, I hope you fared well and/or wish you the best of luck with any repairs.

Update: Moments after posting this, I got a call on my cel from Met Ed's automated system to verify whether power had been restored. (Hit "1" for yes, "2" for no.) I felt like this was a huge cause for optimism, but since I'm not at home, I called my wife, only to find that the power is still out.