17 March 2009

Spring is Here! (?)

I'm pretty much completely dooming any chances of the wonderful weather the upper midwest is experiencing to continue, but despite that, the winter picture above has been replaced with something more "springy." This weekend was beautiful, and I got a little over excited and tried to put in some solid miles on the trails. While last Thursday the weather was fantastic and the trails were great, the warm weather took away the solid footing and turned it into mud. Any North-facing hills/valleys were still covered by a foot of sno-cone-like slushy snow, and the South-facing hills were mudslides (because they were exposed to the sun, Glaven.) In an hour and a half I covered about 8 miles on Saturday. Sunday I returned to the trails but cut the run short after 45 minutes, when I was completely soaked from the knee down. This morning, after reading that Helen wants to race the Chippewa 50k* , I knew I had to keep the mileage up, so I covered 5 in about 37.
As I mentioned, Ellie's birthday arrives tomorrow, and I've already gotten her a gift! D@mn I'm good! Last summer she took a business trip to San Francisco and visited a cousin of her's while out there. The cousin took her on a 42 mile road bike trip despite the fact she'd never--never--ridden a road bike. She absolutely loved it and has been asking for one since. Happy Birthday to her...and me.
You see, if only she got a road bike, she'd have nobody to ride with. So I needed to get one too. Just another example of me being a great hubsband.
And because she never reads this blog anymore, I can also share with all of you that I'm getting her another gift tomorrow, on her actual birthday. She has no idea it's coming and it's a good one! Fellas, you taking notes out there?

*A great goal for me, when it comes to running, is to finish in front of all the women. I have zero chance of winning anything, but if I can finish ahead of the women, I consider it a good run. It's only happened twice in a distance of 26.2 miles or greater (Madison last year and the Icebreaker this spring). I really don't stand a chance of beating some of the women already entered in the Chippewa 50K, but Helen's decision to "race it" (how selfish of her) really destroys my hopes. How thoughtful of an Irish woman to crush my dreams on St. Pat's Day. Looks like I wore this green tie to work for NOTHING.



Post-Post Edit: Apparently Parsenn has some Irish in him...which isn't surprising considering he's 100% Mutt.



15 comments:

Adam said...

She might beat you in the race, but wait until she drinks you under the table after the race. My goal is to dominate the post-race festivities.

Marcy said...

The REAL gift is when you just hand over your wallet and say "Here honey, have a great B-Day. And yes I'll have those dishes and trash taken out by the time you come home" :P

Only playin! That's super cute of you homie!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

That will be amazing, she'll love it... as will you! LOL

joyRuN said...

Sweet AND self-serving! The perfect gift ;)

Kidding! I'm sure she'll love it.

nwgdc said...

Oh, no need to kid about it. It's totally self-serving!

(I'm really hoping she doesn't read this...)

Helen said...

I must be the only person who didn't wear green today. I guess I am Irish enough.

Wow - the battle is on for Chippewa :) The post race beer collection was pretty impressive last year so I guess the quicker we finish the more drnking time we get... I have no doubt you're up to both challenges!

C said...

LOL at Marcy! It is a nice present though. She'll love it.

Rachel said...

Enjoy the weather out there. I love a nice Spring run! :-)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

and the South-facing hills were mudslides (because they were exposed to the sun, Glaven.)

Oooooooo, DAY-um!1! Suh-NAPP! Congrats on hitting me with the lamest, most confusing taunt 4EVAH!1! Sun on the south! That'll teach me!1!

Hah! Blogger thinks your "d@mn" is an e-mail address! It does that when you use an at-sign in the WYSIWYG interface, but ONLY ON THE SOUTH SIDE!!!1!

Happy birthday, Ellie! Don't drink beer from Nic's pint glass unless you want Parsenn's backwash, which I doubt Nic is willing to share anyway because it's got the yummy taste of dog-@$$ in it.

SteveQ said...

I stopped trying to beat all the women during my first marathon (age 15). I also stopped trying to beat the "old guys" (who'd be young guys now), the "gimps", and the "fatties" that day - they all beat me.

Nice B-day present! You're making the rest of us look bad. Then again, I'm still using the "I don't need to buy her love" line.

B. Kramer said...

And now I know why snow is in the forecast tomorrow. Way to go, dude.

Reason #4,098,324 why dogs are better than cats: they like beer.

Nitmos said...

Funny, I just had a birthday but didn't get anything from you.

Message received.

KimsRunning said...

MY b-day is the 22nd!!! Me and Ellie can pahhhtayyyy!!!! (Boston for party)

Anyway...so you have another freaky distance run planned huh??? You make my little goals seem so lame....LOL

KimsRunning said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nwgdc said...

No single freaky distance run planned...just a couple marathons and a 50k.
Hopefully...