Week 4

Let's review:

Monday

Legs are sore from yesterday's "long" run.  Rest day.

Tuesday
Storm of the century coming tonight, legs still somewhat sore.  Let's just rest again.

Wednesday

Shovel snow for hours and hours on end.  I think I was out there around 5 hours.  From the marathon training perspective, this was another rest day.  Right.

Thursday
Never been so sore in my life.  Lower back is screaming.  No chance in hell I'm running today.  Rest day.

Friday

Let's see, three runs per week, three days left in the week, zero runs so far this week, looks like I need to run today.  So after a shitty morning at work I suit up and head out for a lunch run, three miles in and it's time to turn around and go back or do a loop of the arboretum first.  Arboretum wins, let's just turn this into my long run for the week.

Karma, as it turns out, would come back and bite me for this little decision.  No wait, it wasn't karma, it was a little dog.

On my way back I'm coming down a long section of sidewalk with no driveways in sight.  There is an older woman walking towards me with three dogs, each on it's own 8' leash.  Jack Russel type mutts.  Remember the storm of the century.  The sidewalk is 4' wide, with 3' walls of snow on each side, I have nowhere to go.

She does absolutely nothing to bring her dogs in while we close the distance between us.  I end up coming to a complete stop when one of these little things attempts to take a chunk out of my leg.  Now it is winter in Wisconsin, I'm dressed for it, the dog didn't come anywhere close to skin, but now I'm pissed.

The woman offers nothing in the way of an apology, does nothing to pull her dogs away.  Deep breath, I say nothing, and start running again.  Why?  I think Ron White says it best:

At this point in my life I'm realizing there is just no hope for some, you can't fix stupid, and I'm tired of wasting my breath on them.  The rest of the run was largely uneventful, although the wheels did come off at 9 miles and I ended up kind of run/walking back to the office.

Saturday

Back in Stoughton, running with my own dog, because I really do love dogs, it's the owners I can't stand.  Uneventful 6 miles.

Sunday

Stoughton again, this time dogless, for the time being.  I find myself running up Lincoln on the sidewalk, northbound.  When two little Taco Bell type dogs come out of nowhere in a ladies front yard and assault me.  Bit again, but again I'm dressed for Wisconsin winter and I'm not hurt.  But the woman at the house, looking annoyed because I interrupted her phone call, nonchalantly calling her dogs, offering no apologies, really pisses me off.  Don't waste your breath, just keep running, you can't fix stupid.

Recap

So despite a pretty major midweek storm I got all my runs done, outside, in Wisconsin, in February.  Three consecutive days, three runs, just shy of 22 miles.  And Monday it once again hurts to walk.  Shins mainly.  Apparently Ron is right, you can't fix stupid.

Skiing

Last week while downloading my empty plate picture I came across the following two pictures I took while cross county skiing at Lake Kegonsa State Park.  It was the first time I skied the White Oak Nature Trail this winter.  I knew there was a reason I had been avoiding it.

Random tree shot.

Another.

Looking at them now, they don't seem all that remarkable.  Which likely means I was completely gassed (from my 15 minutes of skiing) and needed an excuse to stop.  If I'm remembering correctly I tried to tackle a similar tree at the bottom of a hill just earlier.  When I went down I was pretty sure I had broken a ski (it's happened before).  But all seemed intact when I pulled it out of the snow bank and I continued on. 

It was also on this day that I wore my Garmin, purely out of curiosity.  Unfortunately it confirmed my suspicions, I can in fact run faster than I can ski.  So if I ever decide to actually do the Birkie, I'll be better off carrying my skis and running rather than skiing it. Sad I am.  Skiing is hard.

It was two days later when I returned to the state park that I noticed my ski was in fact broken.  About a foot from the tip, more or less in tact, but just sort of, well, limp.  It is still skiable for the most part, but it sucks all the same.

BAT

This plate held what was the best sandwich I've had in a long time.

I'm not a food blogger, nor do I really aspire to be, but had I known, I would have taken a picture of it before I took the first bite.  About 1/2 way through I realized the error of my ways.  

The sandwich, a bacon, I know, do you really need to hear anymore.

You had me at bacon.  Sniff.

Anyway it was a bacon, arugula, and tomato (BAT) sandwich from Marigold Kitchen in Madison.  Marigold is one of my favorite breakfast haunts, but I rarely make it there for lunch.  BLT's are also one of my favorite sandwich combos.  Crunchy, tangy, juicy, deliciousness.  And even though I wasn't thinking BLT when I ordered, that is basically what this sandwich was, but taken to a whole new level.

That new level held the mayo and replaced it with cream cheese and a wonderful pepper jam. 

So combine nicely toasted rosemary bread as a base, add crunchy smokey bacon, cream cheese, whipped, so the menu says, juicy tomatoes, and this sweet, slightly spicy pepper jam.  Yum.  The arugula, while certainly making the sandwich a tad prettier, kind of got lost on me.

I started thinking about the sandwich and the pepper jam again on the way home.  It is definitely something I'd like to experiment with.  I know there are vendors at the Madison Farmers Market that sell a very similar jam.  Where it goes from there I don't know.  But I'd be willing to bet bacon will be involved in at least one iteration.

The Itch

After shoveling snow for endless hours yesterday I'm getting it, the itch to ride my bike again, outside, in pleasant weather.

Queen said it very well:

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

That pretty much sums it up, and at this point I wouldn't even care which bike or where.  As long as it isn't twelve degrees, snow covered, and windy.  The trainer is even seeming like a viable option, a temporary fix.  Although a return trip to Ray's seems more likely provided I can find time.

As long as we're on bikes, Bel is well on her way to completion.  The final parts are on the way.  The checklist is now short.

 - figure out tubeless tire installation/inflation
 - install/adjust brakes/rotors
 - install cassette/chain
 - connect shift cables
 - adjust shifting

I think that is it, the big stuff anyway.  If I had any inclination I could be riding it anytime soon I'd say this would be a one night, two beer type of job.  But looking outside, I'm sure it will be a 4 week, 12 beer type of effort.  Sigh.