Sunday, 2/12/12 to Saturday, 2/19/12

I ran 4 times this week, 17.8 miles.

Sunday, 2/12/12: Rest day.

Snow made a return to Rochester this morning. We woke to light fluffy snow that continued until around 1PM. My ex had called and was afraid to drive down to Houghton to pick up my daughter so I had agreed to do it. I came pretty close to calling her to cancel. But ... I went out, cleared 8 inches of snow off our car and south we went. Christine and I saw about 10 accidents on I-590S and I-390S as we made our way south. At one point on I-390S we were behind a congo line of 4 slow moving snowplows which were plowing the entire width. The snowplows exited at Lehigh Station Rd, then the road became completely bare about 2 more miles farther south like a switch was flipped! The rest of the drive to and back was uneventul except for the occasional wind blown snow on the road from an open field. Oh, except when we were about a mile from home when a trooper's lights warned us of a car in the median and slowed us down before we got that part of the fast lane ... a good thing.

After a late supper, we watched the latest NCIS and NCIS: LA served up from the DVR.

Monday, 2/13/12: Up & down Seneca Ave, 4.65 miles, 36:51, 7:55 pace, 30F, night, a bit windy, no stops, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for Up & down Seneca Ave - 2 loops

Christine needed to run and I kind of needed to run. So I suggested just up and down Seneca Ave. It's a busy street with a shoulder so Christine felt safe plus there was no ice on the shoulder. She did 1 loop and I did 2 loops. She said she felt good and so did I. So it was all good.

Tuesday, 2/14/12: Happy Valentine's Day, 5.25 miles, 40:47, 7:48 pace, 34F, night, calm, no stops, a bit of right knee pain.

I was a little sneaky this morning ... and sneaked a bottle of White Shoulders perfume into Christine's running jacket before I left for work. She used to wear that perfume back when we dated in college. I love you, honey!

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Ridgeway tempo run, 8 loops, a bit lost at times

Christine and I headed out to Fleet Feet Ridgeway for her No-Bo run and my Tuesday night temp run. I didn't have much time to stretch but out we went. I had a pain in my right knee for about a mile. I was a bit concerned but I went onward. The pain went away and I started to pick up my pace as I went round and round, 8 loops. I got a bit lost and ended up on Ridgeway Ave out by I-390 so I had to run back on Ridgeway Ave, oops! Christine was really stoked about running 2 miles. So it was doubly sweet! I downloaded the Pizza Hut app onto my phone. It was used on the way home to pick up a medium thin crust, Pepperoni Lovers' pizza on the way home, nice!

Wednesday, 2/15/12: Snow Cheap #5, 2.41 miles, 21:45, 9:01, 36F, night, no stops, no pain.



It was a Snow Cheap Wednesday so Christine and I headed down to Riley Lodge at Cobbs Hill. It was relatively warm so I just wore pants, a long sleeve tech shirt, light gloves along with my Brooks Racing Team and arm warmers. Some people wear a lot more but I have found it best to be a bit cold at the start since I warm up quickly. If you overheat your body will stop you ... which is not a good thing during a race. Christine talked me into wearing her ear warmer ... which was a good idea.

The start

I am the third runner

I started out a bit hot. I was happy that the course curled to the left. We had done this course before and it didn't have any steep ups. I was surprised by the depth of the snow in the woods and definitely surprised by the slush and water that we slopped through at one point. It was early in the race so I knew my feet would be wet the rest of the way ... but it's called trail racing, baby! I took a wrong turn for a bit and led some people the wrong way but very shortly got back on track and finished the race. I was pleased that I did not walk at all during the race.I did OK. I finished in 21:45, 34th out of 174 overall. I was 24th out of 139 in the No Snowshoe, link here. I was 2nd out of 9 in my M50-59 No Snowshoe age group, link here.

After a bit of grocery shopping at Wegmans, we ate a very late supper (10PM) of yummy rotisserie chicken and salad. Definitely a great day!

Thursday, 2/16/12: Rest day.

A definite rest day for Christine and I. Christine from running Monday and Tuesday. Me from running three days in a row. We ate leftover chicken and watched the latest Battlestar Galactica episodes off the DVR.

Friday, 2/17/12: FF Ridgeway run, 5.49 miles, 41:54, 7:48 pace, 32F, night, calm, light snow for a bit, 1 stop, bit of pain.

I had a running dream this morning ... I dreamed that I slept through Johnny's 5 mile run (I think), only it was held in Newark, and I was going to run it twice. Hmm ...

A brief burst of winter came back to Rochester in the late afternoon. Some fat, fluffy, wet snow fell along with one clap of snow thunder! Later, it snowed during the Friday night happy hour run.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Ridgeway run, Pickdale + Barbara

Christine was still on a rest day so I headed out to Fleet Feet Ridgeway solo. I started out a bit late so I started to pick off runners, 19 total. Not as many runners run from Ridgeway. I felt some minor left hip pain at mile 4.25 so I stopped to walk for about 100 feet before I started back up a bit easier. Still it was a sweet run!

Saturday, 2/18/12: Rest day.

I was feeling sleepy still so Christine went out to her No Bo workout solo in the morning. I really didn't get back to sleep until after she came back. Then I slept until noon.

Christine and I just hung out. I got out to Tops where I picked up 4.5 lbs of spare ribs at $1.99/lb. I got home and Googled "spare rib recipe". I picked Sylvia's Ribs from allrecipes.com and told Christine the ingredients. About 2.5 hours later ... we had some really tasty ribs!! It was 10PM before we ate again ... but they were well worth the wait!