Trail Note: A bit too much enthusiasm?

I ran again yesterday, and I'm a little sore from my recent return to the trail. I'm also very tired and hungry. I bought a loaf of bread for us to eat with dinner last night on my way home, and I've already eaten at least half of it myself. Mmm... Essential Bakery..

It was raining pretty steadily as I ran yesterday. I left Gas Works Park heading west, sticking as close to the water as possible. I turned around at NW Ballard and Leary, running back along Leary for a loop I like to call 6 miles (probably a little shorter). What's funny is that I got a lot of smiles as I ran along, perhaps laughing at the silly girl running in the rain, or perhaps they noticed that I had half a grin on my face. While I haven't been feeling all that great while I run, I'm having fun again, which is nice.

Trail Note: Back. With Enthusiasm.

I finally hit the trail yesterday after a full week's break while I was down with a bad cold. This is the longest I've gone without running that I can remember, including the week following the marathon last fall. I had been feeling really burnt out this winter, and really haven't been enjoying running. Rather, I've been doing it out of obligation and fear of choking in Boston. Taking a week off, however, made me realize how much I miss it when I'm not doing it. This past week I found myself avidly reading Runner's World, flipping back to running blogs I haven't visited for a while, aching to get back on the trail.

Yesterday I headed out to do the short, 3.5 mile loop around my neighborhood. The weather was what I'm thinking is my favorite running weather: overcast and damp (very occasional mist) with temperatures in the low 50's. After a week of very cold dry weather (very atypical for this area), it's nice to have the air feel and smell like spring again. The cherry trees are starting to bloom and the crocuses are all out. The azaleas in our year were starting to bloom, but the freezing temps last week literally nipped them in the bud. Anyway, I was excited to be out running. My legs didn't feel as fresh as I had hoped, but I had just biked up my hill earlier in the afternoon (I biked to work Tues and Wed). I didn't really feel like I'd lost too much fitness. We'll see over the next few days as I slowly start to ramp my miles back up.

"I Cannot Go to School Today, Said Little Peggy Anne McKay" me

So, I'm sick. I fought hard against whatever it is that's going around (everyone in the office, my sister, my classmates, etc. has had it), and by Tuesday I began to realize that it was a losing battle. What's been so hard about this is not running. I went on a short (3.5 miles) jog Tuesday night, but since then, I haven't really felt up to it. And since I have a cough and sore throat, following the "below the neck rule" means that I should be taking time off. Fine, in a normal winter when running is only about staying in shape and an excuse to eat ice cream, but I'm just reaching the peak of my marathon training. I was beginning to get those marathon legs again and was supposed to do a 19-miler this weekend. Guess I just need to follow the Penguin's advice and correct and redirect.

Note: if you're interested in how to minimize the spread of germs, check out these tips, including my favorite: "During flu season, never let anyone lick your keyboard"

Second note: this was originally posted on Saturday morning, but mysteriously disappeared today so I'm reposting. Odd.

Lost in Moderation

When I switched blog templates a month or so ago, I also switched over to Blogger's comments feature. Then I started to get some spam in the comments, so I enabled the moderating feature so that I could approve or reject any prospective comments. Then I stopped getting comments. It wasn't too odd, as my posting has dropped to the point that any but the most loyal readers (i.e. real life friends) had probably stopped browsing by, but then Jeff let me know that he'd posted a comment that hadn't appeared. Seems that I had told Blogger not to post comments until I approved them, but then didn't give them my email to let me know that I had comments, nor did I go into the "moderate comments" section of Blogger. Sure enough, there were the handful of comments that had been left over the past few weeks waiting to be approved.

Once I fixed that little mix-up, I figured that I was all set. But then last week I was trying to respond to a comment and was out-foxed by the Blogger security system. I couldn't even post a comment on my own site! One of these days I'll get it all figured out.

Until then, a big apology to those whose comments have been lost, misplaced, and/or unanswered. Eventually I'll get it all figured out.

You know you're reading a lot for class when..

you're so used to Acrobat Reader that you keep pointing, clicking, and trying to push words up the page on every internet site you browse. Where's that little hand when I need it?

Sunbreaks

Seen on the back of a car as I biked home today:
Seahawks' 12th Man: the fans
Steelers' 12th Man: the refs
See you next year!

Funny.

Everything seems a little funnier and more pleasant today as the days are getting longer and we've had a couple of gorgeous sunny days here in Seatown. I've been out of sorts (read stressed and cranky) all winter for some reason. And no, I don't think that it's the rain. Rather, I've been feeling like there's too much to do and not enough time, and I just haven't felt very productive. Sort of like those dreams that I sometimes have where I feel like I keep running in place and can never get to where I want to go. But, internship leads are still there, classes are seeming to make more sense, marathon training seems to be going okay, and there's only a month left until Spring Break! And everything smells like spring. That's a good thing.

For the Hopheads in the House

"Way back when, IPAs were loaded with hops to stand up to oceans, elephants, finicky Colonists, and spicy curries." From the label of Pyramid's Thunderhead IPA.

I love the reminder of IPA's origin, and the beer lives up to the hoppy hype.

(BTW, you won't find beers like this at any Steelers' parties this weekend; I can't believe those light lager drinkers call us pansies...)