I never would have thought

Day 355 - December 21, 2009

...The roads would be worse two days after the blizzard than they were the day it snowed. Man is it icy. I guess it is a good core workout trying to keep your balance. At least I didn't fall today.

I wish someone from Pennsylvania would come down here and teach these southerners how to plow. You do in fact have to drop the plow down to the road. Leaving two inches of snow on the road only makes it worse.

Today was harder than yesterday

Day 354 - December 20, 2009

No plows yet anywhere near here today, so that meant another snow covered road run today. Yesterday, the snow was deep, but fresh enough that traction really wasn't an issue. Today, with cabin fever setting in around the neighborhood, lots of people tried to get out and about. All that accomplished was the snow packed down and iced over. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Fortunately I only fell once and luckily I even had an audience to witness it. I'm sure they thought I was crazy to be out running when they clearly were not enjoying shoveling their driveways.

Two feet of snow was a nice novelty, but I'm ready for some melting.

Weird weather day

I mentioned in my last post that we had an ice storm coming and sure enough, we had over 1/2 inch of sleet and freezing rain. I was able to slide through a short run yesterday while the storm was in progress without too much difficulty because at that point it was all sleet and snow. But then the freezing rain came and put a 1/4 inch glaze on everything. So today I waited as long as I could for it to warm up and melt a little before heading out. At 4:30, I noticed the temperature had climbed above 35 but it was still raining - or so I thought. I decided that was going to be my last good opportunity to run before the refreeze. As I headed out the door, the sky looked as if it was clearing off and it was then that I realized the rain was actually melting ice falling off the wires and tree limbs. Ok, cool, it shouldn't be that bad of a run. And it wasn't except for the several patches of unmelted slush and ice. The wind was swirling and it was the most bizzare wind I've ever encountered. At times, it would blow out of the north and was quite chilly. Then it would switch directions and it was like standing downwind of a campfire. I would say the wind out of the south was easily 70 or 80 degrees. It felt like a summer breeze. As it would blow by, the ice on the trees would melt even faster and it was like a downpour. Then, the wind would switch back and it would get cool. I checked the temperature again when I got home and it had warmed to 41 degrees in 28 minutes. I'd expect that at sunrise, not as the sun was going down. Very, very weird.

running before the storm

With all the winter mess headed this way, I decided I needed to get a longer run in today. I was hesitant to do this run prior to today due to all the hills, but I took it slow and enjoyed the run.

I'm hoping the winter weather doesn't prevent me from getting to 100 miles this month. I needed 25 miles after Saturday and I've clicked off nine of those already, but icy roads could be a problem.