Winter Weather Wednesday AND A Bit About January

This car was a little buried at work eh?

January was cold and snowy but it's over now and we're one month closer to spring! (even if it doesn't feel that way after last nights blizzard!) So here is how January shaped up, and I think it went pretty well for a start to the year

Miles Ran - 107

Longest Run - 8 miles

Highest Mileage Week - 31

Weight at End of Month - 151

Races - 0

Treadmill Runs - 1

Current Shoe - Brooks Glycerine 7

Most Listened to Pandora Station While Running - Eric Church

Pre-Run Snack - Toy Story Fruit Snacks and Apple Cinnamon Nutragrain Bar

Current Guilty Pleasure - Snyders of Hanover Honey Mustard and Onion Pretzel Pieces! They're like little bits of Heaven!
 
Reward for Getting up Early for Speedwork - Panera French Toast Bagel Breakfast Sandwich

Running Want - Trail shoes! Thinking about The Brooks Cascadia

Newest Bit of Excitement - Registering for Chicago 2011!

Ben's Cabin in da Moonlight part II

Following my afternoon run and shower on Saturday I got back into vacation mode! On the stove was a GINORMOUS pot of chili cooking on one burner and a perfectly blended spiked cider on the other. What better way to warm up than with a couple glasses of warm cidery booze! The chili still had a few more hours of simmering left so I snacked on some fruit and granola bars for my post run dish.

I'm the Bald Bearded one on the right

Chili Dinner

Our footprints onto the lake

Ben and I

Random new beer we discovered on a beer run!

Obie likes to dance

Someone fell down haha

Bloody Mary anyone?

We had every intention of doing some ice fishing but were lacking in a few key supplies apparently so that never happened. Instead we spent the rest of the afternoon watching classic movies like Dumb and Dumber, and Canadian Bacon. Okay so maybe I'm using the term classic very loosely but hey they were great. After a few games of Apples to Apples and a couple more drinking games the long awaited chili was ready to be served and let me tell you it was worth the wait! My friend Ben is one hella good cook and I'm pretty sure most of the time he just throws shit together. I managed to eat myself into pain three times throughout the rest of the night by devouring copious amounts of chili with a healthy dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheddar. That's right it was that good!

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

I'd also like to point out that I wasn't the only one who did this. During dinner and the subsequent trips to the chili pot we watched a couple bits of the Red Green Show, which if you don't know what that is then you are so missing out of some good ole Canadian humor. After learning new uses for duct tape we watched one of the greatest movies you could watch while in a cabin in the winter in Michigan while drinking beer....That's right the one and only Escanaba in Da Moonlight! Written by and starring Michigan native Jeff Daniels (who was also in our other feature film of the day Dumb and Dumber) this movie is a funny slightly exaggerated tale of a family of Yooper deer hunters on opening day. Between the Canadian accents in Red Green, and Canadian Bacon, plenty of beer and now the exaggerated accents in Escanaba it was no time at all before we were all rockin yooper/Canadian accents eh! We finished the night off with more outdoor festivities on the lake which was basically just running around throwing snow at each other and playing with the dogs.
It was a great weekend and when I got back home Sunday I knocked out 8 miles with no real problems. I had some slight soreness still in my ankle but today I didn't notice it so hopefully that's that. I took yesterday off from running and I think that made all the difference. This morning my indoor speed work went off without a hitch. Much better than last weeks debacle! I'm glad to not have to run again til Thursday seeing as how we are currently going through blizzard by every definition of the word! If you notice on the left side under the upcoming races heading you'll notice I added the Chicago Marathon!

That's right I'm all registered and looking forward to knockin out 26.2 in the Windy City! It also looks like our Ragnar Relay team is almost all set so I'm pretty stoked about that bit of good news as well! The race calendar is beginning to fill up nicely! I'd like to find a half marathon at some point between Ragnar and Chicago so I'll have to start looking into that. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Ben's Cabin in da Moonlight part I

The ingredients for a great weekend

• 8 Friends
• 2 dogs
• 1 cabin on a frozen  lake
• 1 extra large pot of chili
• A whole lot of beer

Mix gently and enjoy!

This past weekend was a great mini vacation with some friends to a cabin in the middleish part of lower Michigan. We had intentions of ice fishing on the frozen lake but that just didn't happen. What did happen was a great time was had by all and I still managed to get both of my planned runs in this weekend!
Friday evening Obie and I met up with my friends Travis, Brent and his wife Caesy at their place and then we all car pooled about two and a half hours north to a small lake near Clare, Michigan. It was close to eleven by the time we got there but watching Super Troopers on the laptop during the drive made it fly by like no time at all! The four people who went up before us had been there a few hours already so it was time for us to catch up. We spent the rest of the evening playing a few drinking games, and running around on the frozen lake.

Saturday morning hit me over the head like a hammer so maybe we played more than just a few drinking games. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast and some sort of gravy. While everyone continued to wake up and started drinking bloody marys and beer, I started to attempt to hydrate and fuel up for my run. My one condition I made with myself before deciding to go on this trip was that I had to...absolutely had to get my runs in. While I hydrated I started reading the latest issue of Runners World which lucky for me arrived Friday afternoon. Since it was getting close to 1:00 already I knew it was now or never so I suited up and headed out the door. My friend Ben who's cabin we were at informed me that the road the cabin was on made a two mile loop around the lake so I decided I would run three laps and see if I felt like a fourth or not. When I started out I felt rather sluggish and my head was still pounding but I put myself in this position so I was going to have to deal with it. Thankfully I remembered to pack my Yak Traks! I haven't worn them too often when running close to home because the road has been mostly clear but up this two mile loop of road was covered in snow and the only "plowing" done is however much snow gets packed down when cars drive over it. One thing Ben didn't mention was that there were about three fairly decent hills on this circle of road and they definitely brought the difficulty factor of the run up a bit. The next bit of challenge came from the four dogs who were absent of any restraints that felt the need to chase me down the road when I passed their domiciles. Two were actually pretty cute, but two were anything but and I actually thought at one point I may have a problem on my hands but luckily I was worried for nothing. My phone running app wouldn't work without a cell signal apparently and I left my watch at home so I'm not sure of the time for the run but it felt like a good work out. The only thing I'm not liking is the soreness I now feel in the tendon that runs down the outside of my right ankle to my foot. I doubt it's anything serious and is just from the added stress of the uneven terrain but never the less I shall keep an eye on it.
I felt pretty good that I kept good on my word and got my workout in and could now enjoy the rest of the weekend without worrying about it.