A number of years back, we had a winter that seemed to last an awfully long time toward spring...well that happens fairly often. But, this particular winter/spring, Deb and I were approaching Earth Day Half Marathon in late April and had yet to have one day nice enough to break out the shorts. On a particularly snowy morning, Deb had remarked, "Well, pretty soon we'll be wearing shorts!" There did not seem to be one single sign that shorts weather was coming! After this, we've started saying earlier and earlier that pretty soon it will be nice enough for shorts :-) I thought of this on Thursday and Friday this week when I jumped on the treadmill to avoid the -35 degree windchills. It's always 70 and while not sunny, brightly lit with incandescent bulbs in my basement. You can tell this is an "after" photo by a special someone's attention to the knees LOL! One of my indoor days was a walk plus exercise circuits, the other was a 3 mile run plus circuits, so not a lot of time on the treadmill, but I was thankful not to miss out on those workouts. I've seen some posts lately on Facebook on how to do a treadmill run without getting bored. My comment to the group was that if I need to do a long run, I'll tape a piece of paper over the display and then not peak under it for a certain number of Netflix episodes. Nothing makes the time drag like checking my progress about every 40 seconds. Even on a 3-miler, I'll lock the display on calories and then pick a number at which time I'll let the display scroll again. I can also admire all the taxidermy hanging around the room. There are 3 fish and two deer hanging up for my viewing enjoyment. While the weather cooperated with getting outdoors, this week's long run was a doozie! Twelve miles with the final three at race pace PLUS a 10 minute walk which was expressly listed as not part of the 12 miles. Other than forgetting to start my watch at the beginning, it went off without a hitch. The final 3 miles were 8:51, 8:23 and 8:28, so I was quite pleased. This week coming up is listed as a "Cutback Week." Workouts will be shorter and easier to rest up for even longer runs and more work at race pace. Since we completed 12 miles this week, there is no doubt that we can finish a half marathon, so the next weeks will be about trying to do it faster, stronger and uninjured. Deb and I have agreed that we seem to have fired up some muscles that were not being used often enough. It will be interesting to see how much that might help! My youngest son is an aspiring mechanical engineer. He likes to chat about building and improving things and always has interesting ideas, plus he fixes lots of stuff for his mom. When our school was rebuilding its playground, we had lots of chats about safety and how today's playgrounds are much safer, but some of the adventurous play structures that were common in the 70's and 80's would be considered dangerous. I found this meme that pretty much summed it up. Keep in mind that one of the favorite games on this item was to lay on one's belly with your head hanging off and then dropping a piece of litter such as a discarded pop can and yelling "Dropped it!" and the next guy tried to pick it up and yells, "Got it!" If anyone remembers how we ever won or lost at this game, please comment! I hope shorts weather is coming soon to an outdoor run near you, or that you can enjoy your treadmill until that day arrives. If you have a great old-school playground in your neighborhood, be sure to jump on the merry go round and spin a couple laps on your belly. Happy running! Missee
1 Comment
Sandie
2/18/2020 05:46:48 pm
I thought the slide was more dangerous especially when Steffy was hanging from one foot when she decided to go down the ladder instead of the slide. I was very scared especially since she still had stitches in her chin
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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