quickly, now!

Let's talk about RUNNING! it's been a while since I discussed that. it's not that there hasn't been any, it's just been sporatic and not all that interesting. not nearly as interesting as dead duck dude, I'd say.

at any rate, finally got my lazy butt out to do 9 yesterday. I am sneaky and don't feel like paying for a new metroparks pass since I will be moving away from the only metropark that I run at in a month, so I parked in the adjoining state park (which I did buy a pass for because even when I move i'll use the state parks) as close to the connector as I could and then just trotted my way over to the happy metropark loop, which I like a bit better than the state park path, where you can hear hunters firing their guns at poor unsuspecting people animals (are we seeing a trend here?).

at any rate, I am out of shape. it took like 3 miles for me to feel comfortable and by that time it would have been silly for me to just turn around so I forged on and completed the loop. about half of it was clear from snow but there were still quite a few icy spots which is always GREAT for building your stability as you go flying in every direction possible. I at least had the forsight to wear a pair of lighter trail shoes, which have a little more traction than my regular trail shoes, but they don't have enough sole support for running on the paved path in the areas that were cleared, so my joints are feeling a bit wonky today.

winter running and I are having an off year, I guess you could say. normally I like it, but right about now i'm finding it very fickle, and I am fickle enough by myself, I don't need external forces complicating things (file also under: reason why I don't date all that often). for instance, I noticed it was nice and bright out yesterday when I took off to run, so I switched the lenses in my oakleys from the "cloudy" lenses to the "sunny" ones. I pretty much hate this task, in case you didn't know, because I have small hands and am SUPER DUPER STRONG so i'm always afraid i'm going to break the lenses as i'm shoving them back in the frame (yeah, I don't know where the "small hands" argument fits in either). anyways, by the time I got to the park, it was very cloudy and too dark to wear the "sunny" lenses. hmph. so I had to switch them back.

the same thing happened with regards to temperature control. I wore my gore-tex jacket and a long sleeve technical and I alternated between totally frying and feeling like I was going to freeze to death. grrrrr.

anyways, 9 miles yesterday, nice and slow, but don't know the time at all because I realized yesterday that I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE where either my garmin or my timex are. sweet, eh?

this afternoon I finally took a break from doing some programming (have I mentioned that I am a geek?) and headed out to get a few trail miles in at the local state park. it was gorgeous. the trails were totally snow covered, but I just threw on my yaktraks and took it extra easy and I was fine. it was just one of those runs that pretty much just flowed, and being in the middle of the forest, surrounded by all the snow covered trees was awesome.

oh. I also lifted back yesterday, and now my back is sore. booooo.

ok. I have to get dressed because my dad is coming up to watch the Patriots/Colts game with me out at one of the local bars. It looks like he's finally figured out that the way to get me to love him more is with football and beer. Oldest bro and I have some money riding on this game, so there should be some excellent jabs sent via text during the game.

and, well. let's just face it. Tom Brady? well, you know...