Spring, Act 2 Scene 1

Let’s hope, and pray, and do dances to God/the gods that FINALLY, finally…we might be blessed with spring in the cold northern Midwest. We didn’t get the snow predicted. We had rain storms, thunderstorms in fact, and then yesterday was sunny (but cool) all day. And today…today…well, it’s been sunny and hit at least 67!! That had been the forecast and amazingly it held!! I had some errands to run and decided I would go strength train at the gym while out and maybe go to the nursery and get some flowers to plant…Well, as I’m loading up my car, I notice my bike and think, hmmm…why drive just to get there fast, on such a gorgeous day? So I drop stuff back inside and get my bike out and bike the 5 miles in about 25 minutes to my gym (remember, I’m on a mountain bike and no cages or clipless pedals, it’s a down motion, that’s it). I did 40 minutes of strength training and ab work and then got on the bike to hit Target and the grocery store. Yes…on bike. It was about 3 miles to the grocery store, where I just bought the reduced sodium chicken bouillon for grandma (she’s on a restricted sodium diet now due to the heart stuff, hopefully gets good news next Monday when she meets with the surgeon as far as the surgery she may need goes). Since I was on bike, I didn’t have room for the frozen pizzas and/or ice cream that I might also have bought!! At Target I realized I didn’t need much of anything there, but some frozen dinners and potatoes…so I bought a small bag of potatoes and only 3 of the frozen dinners (just like to have them on hand to bring to work on occasion) and hopped on my bike to head home…leaving the cheese popcorn and a few other things I thought about bringing with me behind…I was only on bike!! (not only did I burn calories, but didn’t come with snacky things to eat at home…double bonus!!) I did end up with some chocolate…but oh well. 3.5 miles and 20 minutes later I was home. Yes, I like THAT close to Target (at least with the bike highway I can take part of the way). Not just Target, but Super Target!! When I got home I hung up the bike, took a bit to relax, had a bite to eat (an apple, yummy wheat crackers from Trader Joe’s, and low fat cheese…good mix of carbs and protein!) and then went off for a quick, what turned into, a 4 mile run. It was a good workout day. I did some yoga when I got done. My legs were burning during the run, guess they worked today! And now I’m vegging and going to chill for the rest of the night. My heel…haven’t mentioned it for awhile…but it’s still sore…but seems to almost feel better during my runs. In fact it starts a bit sore, but loosens up and feels better shortly into the run. I said I was going to take it slow starting back and I ran 4 days this week, ok, 5 but one day was just 1 mile to warm up so I could do some plyometrics, so I don’t count that…and just did 19 miles. I’ll build from there over the next two weeks up to 30, take a cut back week and should be back to 40 miles by early June, just in time to start my real marathon program mid-June.

Oh, and I think I detected the scent of flowers in the air, there are buds and some real green leaves on some of the smaller bushes and trees. So spring, MIGHT be here…oh and to Molly and Nicole, you’re right on the move to the south…in MN snow does happen in May…I do remember one year where we had an inch on the ground on Memorial day (OK, yes, it melted right away, but it came down enough to make everything briefly white). I just live with the hope that we’ll have summer…