An Eventful Week

It's been a week that's been anything but dull for me, both in life and in running.

I had a great workout at the CMS dome on Friday afternoon, running 16x400m in an average of 76 seconds. I ended the workout with a pair of 74s, my best set of 400s so far this winter.

Saturday is where things got interesting. I was going out to Watertown to run with some friends that I hadn't run with in quite a while. I was meeting them at 7:00am but I never made it there...my car broke down on County Road 6 on my way there. Janikula had to come pick me up and we had to call a tow truck. Long story short, I never returned home until 11:00am while waiting for the tow truck, contacting insurance, etc. Also, we never got to run! By this point in the day I was so worn down that I just didn't have the energy to complete it.

Sunday went a lot better, simply because I did actually get to run. I went 14 miles with Brett and Kraig out at the lakes in Minneapolis. It was a pretty relaxed pace (about 7:30 per mile) but the distance run was good. The first half of the run was into a very strong headwind. On the way back it felt really easy and it ended up being a solid workout.

Monday was relatively uneventful other than the fact the extent of my run was to go to the auto repair shop to check on my car. We found out it was the timing belt and water pump that went out. Fortunately, they got it done right away that day. Unfortunately, it cost almost $500 to get fixed! However, it got fixed so no more worries about my car.

Tuesday I was having some issues with my left hip so I took the day to ride the stationary bike instead of run. The weather was already getting a little nasty out so I wasn't entirely disappointed by it. The positive that came out of Tuesday was that Jen and I met with our realtor for the first time and the official house search for us has begun! We're looking for homes in the Plymouth/Maple Grove area and we've got a great realtor helping us out. We're hoping to be in our first home by the early part of this summer. It still seems a long way off but we both know it's going to come fast.

Finally, that brings us to today. I think everyone in Minnesota has a story to share about their day today. Mine began with Jen getting a phone call at 5:15am alerting her to Buffalo having a snow day. I eventually got my phone call alerting me to Wayzata's snow day, but it never came until I was over halfway to school in my car. I turned around, went to Caribou and returned home to enjoy my first snow day since I was teaching in Watertown. It led to a run in the snow later this morning (nearly an hour of running). I ran some up tempo segments during my workout to break up the monotony of a run through untouched snow. I don't think my heartrate was ever below 160 from the moment I started but I really enjoyed the run. The hip didn't bother me at all which was good.

What's to come next? Well, tomorrow is a long day with parent-teacher conferences until 8:30 in the evening and then Friday is the Treadmill 1 Mile World Championships at Gear West. I will be competing around 5:45pm Friday night and I'm looking forward to what should be a very fun and unique event! Come check it out at Gear West Friday and Saturday if you're in the area!