Not available in winter white anymore

Hey guys!! I hope you've all had great weekends full of awesome weather!

Friday night we grabbed some yummies from a local pizza/grinders place and then stopped by a pet store a mile from our house to see what they had. This time of year is full of tons of thunderstorms and this weekend has been no exception. On our way to the pet store we heard one of the National Weather Service bulletins with a tornado warning for the next county over. We went to the pet store anyway, and right as we were checking out their power briefly went out. While their systems rebooted I had plenty of time to fill out yet another form for yet another little discount card. Between grocery store, shoe stores, burrito shops, athletic stores and even pet stores I am full up on little cards to keep in my wallet. Can't the government issue one that's compatible with all retailers??? Anyway, we made it home before the storm really hit and watched some of the lightning. It was pretty spectacular and we were spared any severe storms or hail.

Saturday am we got up at a respectable 8:00 am and got ready for our training run. Two packets of oatmeal down and we were ready to roll. We headed out from our house since it was only 10 miles and we were planning to focus on hill repeats. It was 70 degrees when we started out and not a cloud in the sky! We went through one newer subdivision which is usually the "trail" portion of our suburban runs if there has been rain in recent history. Since the subdivision is so new any amount of rain makes these people's lawns wash straight into the sidewalk, and it can be deceptively deep. We each got clobbered with mud a few times, but the mud felt so cool compared to the hot sun! As much as I've wanted it to be warm lately I've forgotten how hot it can be! There's no shade yet since most of the trees are just starting to bud, and with no clouds in the sky we were feeling the heat. They're blasting one part of this subdivision to build more subdivision, and it was just too inviting not to explore. So this was the off road portion of our run. Pretty fun! Dirt Runner suggested Brent get off the sidewalk and explore some vertical trails.....so here ya go! Advice well taken. All of the exploring made our first two miles fairly slow, so from there we headed over to our hills. This weekend we did 3 repeats. Each "lap" is 1.2 miles round trip. Going up is fairly steep, but there are some flat sections and some slight dips as you wind up to the top of the subdivision, which is also where a water tower is. (It's also pretty funny how at various angles it looks like the water tower is exploding out of the room of one house.) You can see this water tower from all over, so it's pretty neat to know how to get up there. The view of the houses below is also nice. The first lap was pretty tough, but each lap got a little easier and we were SO glad to be done with the third one! We took some pics as we wrapped it up which was a nice break. From there we headed into some flat open stretches through a new subdivision and then through the neighborhood park. Around here I noticed Brent was slowing down so I decided to keep moving at my pace and we went our own ways. From the park I did the one mile loop past the stinky cows. Luckily the downhill section smells like cow poop, I don't think I could handle uphill + cow poop. I met Brent heading up hill and we gave high 5's. From there it's back to flat most of the way back to our house. As nice as it was there weren't very many people out. I met one couple running with their big dog, who tried to jump at me and completely tripped the lady. I made it back home and we ended up with 10.3 miles. I ran inside, grabbed Pippin and some cold bottled waters and we met Brent as he was finishing up. We sat in the cool shade on our front porch for a couple of minutes before running inside to do some errands before places started closing on Sat morning (the post office closes at 12).

It was too beautiful not to enjoy the day. Brent took the top off the Jeep and we loaded up with Pips to have a picnic. We drove over to the little park and scoped out a picnic table not in the sun. Pippin was dying to pee on everything so once we finished eating we walked around for a while, enjoying the little creek and some ducks chilling. Tons of people started showing up and it turns out my coworker was having a birthday party for his kid. We were both tired and hot (and so was Pippin...) so we headed home.














I had already noticed I was starting to get red.....I knew it was hot while we were running, but I didn't realize how hot it was.....By mid afternoon I was starting to have some interesting markings. We went to Publix and they were having a "health foods fair". I think they seriously need to evaluate what they call health foods. I don't consider the 100-calorie packets, bacon, caramelized rice cakes, meatballs, or regular yogurt to be health foods. Most of them are really processed with lots of sugars and other artificial junk in them. Anyway, the meatball guy looked at me and asked if I was a member of the Red Cross. "No.....that's just where I was wearing my ipod nano running this morning." "Wow! You got all that sun this morning. How far did you run?" "10 miles....around an hour and half." "Well, I guess that will do it!" The comments and questions about my strange "marking' went on and from people all day yesterday. I even managed to get the backs of my legs burned, but not the fronts! Ugh! Anyway, lesson learned. It's time to start adding sunscreen to the list of running prep items. I'll have to post a pic...it's quite...unusual.

Sat night we went to Otter's on Music Row with friends P&S. It was a perfect night for sitting on the patio, people watching, and socializing. We talked about the Matthew & Mary Winkler murder thing (we all went to college with them). They didn't know them either, but P's cousin was both a groomsmen and paulbearer for Matthew Winkler. We also talked about all the strange publicity it's given our small college. Anyway, I still find it strange that no one is talking about why she did it. Since when has anyone ever been able to keep a secret from the media? We did not spot any famous people (last time we saw this loser) and afterwards we hung out at a bookstore for a bit. (Side note: Dean Karnazes will be there on Monday night signing Ultra Marathon man so Brent & I are going to meet him! Yeah!!!! If any of the Nashville runners plan to go let me know and maybe we can do dinner afterwards!)

Today's run....did not go so well!! I had eaten a really gross low fat muffin for breakfast that was not settling well for me. Along with the time change and being woken up to thunderstorms early this morning I wasn't feeling well rested. We started out for our run at noon. That's just asking for trouble when it's 80 degrees and humid as hell. The plan was to do some tempo runs. We marked off .25 mile increments on the track at the hospital and right when we were around 1 mile my stomach decided to revolt. It was BAD. Brent ran ahead and brought the car back. I couldn't run, I couldn't walk. I was in dangerous territory. I briefly considered going behind a tree but this path is pretty popular and in plain view of a major road. There's no telling how many security cameras on on this track either. I sped home, used the facilities and drove back. I abandoned any hopes of speed work and just chugged away for 2 more miles. I managed 9.30 miles. It just wasn't pretty!!!

We had MORE thunderstorms this afternoon, and of course we got caught out in those as well! We were at Sonic when the storm hit and the winds were blowing strong enough they pulled the trays/order board straight off of some of the poles. The weather bulletin said winds were blowing at 60 mph in some places, and considering all the stuff blowing across the parking lot I believe it! Luckily we were not in the Jeep!!

I hope you all had great weekend!!