Today it occurred to me that if anything could force me out of the city, it would be honking.  I’m not talking about the kind of tap, tap honking on the horn that lets the person in front of you know the light is green, no, I am talking about the kind where a person lays their fist on the horn and doesn’t remove it for blocks.  The horn is only part of the gesture, there is almost always a dirty look followed by some choice words being mouthed and inevitably a physical gesture that confirms all that was being mouthed.  The whole scene is disturbing to say the least.  For anyone who hasn’t lived in a city, you might be thinking that something warranted this acoustic, verbal and physical assault but, you’d be wrong.  Nearly always, it is absolutely nothing or something incredibly minor (i.e. someone who is one or two cars behind someone that is yielding to a pedestrian is more than enough to set off the tirade).  There are many things wrong with the scene I describe, not the least of which is the person who suffers the most is the person walking down the sidewalk who had nothing to do with it but is feet from the blaring horn with nothing to muffle the sound (i.e. me).  It is my least favorite thing about the city.  On the upside, I love being able to walk pretty much everywhere I need to go - even if it means enduring a little honking.

The past two weeks have given me a lot of confidence in my fitness level.  I have had good runs, quite a few miles and the minor aches and pains have started to show some improvement.  I finished last week with a 26 mile long run and 63 miles total for the week.  This week was even better yet.  I was able to run with Fleet Feet on Monday which was the first time in a while.  I finished the week with a long run of a little over 28 miles and a total of 72 miles for the week.  On Saturday, I met up with Chris for part of the run.  One other notable on Saturday, I got to witness a guy proposing to his gal on the steps near the planetarium (overlooking the lake and the city).  He was down on one knee and she was sitting on one of the stairs holding a big stuffed bear on her lap - it appeared that she said yes : )   On Sunday, Rena had the urge to join me on what was a miserable weather day but it didn’t seem to deter her at all - in fact, I think it was the weather that made it so appealing.

As I eluded to, I have had two little aches/pains.  Last Wednesday, I started to feel a slight twinge in my left heel.  With icing and stretching, it has all but disappeared.  Also last week, my right knee started to ache in the same spot as two years ago.  I had gotten lazy about stretching and it didn’t take long before my body reminded me of its importance.  I have been diligent for the past 10 days or so and it seems to be turning around already.  It doesn’t hurt when I run, which is good, but when I have been sitting too long, it is pretty tender.  

I feel excited that things are going so well and am looking forward to this week.  Next weekend is the Chicago Lakefront Ultra 50K, should be a lot of fun!

Rena Bustin' A Move In The Snow

It started with a text message, “I have a crazy idea, you up for it?”  Maybe, but first tell me what it is?  The text message was from Rena and her idea was for me to run over and pick her up and then us run together.  Doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea on the surface but here is the background - its 31 degrees out, 25 mph winds, blizzard like snow, and Rena hasn’t run outside for several months due to some funk in the foot.  I didn’t know what to think but I went along with it anyway and I’m glad I did.  She was all smiles when I showed up, though my mood had already soured considerably with my soaked and very cold feet.  But, she was not to be brought down and continued on enjoying the slop.  We headed downtown to watch the Shamrock Shuffle 8K.  We got there just in time to watch them start the race and couldn’t believe that people were wearing shorts and singlets (one guy didn’t even have a shirt on).  We didn’t see Mike at the start but did catch up with him at mile 2.  

Buoys Covered In Snow

When we saw him, it was clear he was taking it easy due to the less than ideal conditions - a smart move if you ask me.   By the end of the race, the plowed roads had a fresh two inches of slop on them which Rena likened to running in a slurpy (grape flavor I believe).  The weather channel was predicting 12 foot waves on Lake Michigan and 5 inches of snow - the waves were surely larger than normal but no where near 12 foot but they definitely got the snow part right.  The harbor is preparing for the spring season with buoys stacked up but as you can see from the snow on them, it doesn’t look much like spring today.  By the end, my mood had improved (though my feet were still cold) and we had had quite a bit of fun in the process.  Good run Rena and nice job Mike, you both looked real tough out there!

Mike Looking Tough In Less Than Ideal Conditions

Moffett, The Hawkeye

My boy Moffett is a die-hard Gator fan but you’d never guess it.  He has an “I Heart The Hawkeyes” mouse pad at work.  And last night, he was seen drinking a beer from a Hawkeye cup.  Now, he’ll tell you that he “just needed a mouse pad and this one was here,” and “Come on, I ordered a draft and they brought it out in this cup,” but seriously, are you buying it?  Mouse pads are a dime a dozen.  There is no shame in being a Hawkeye.

This is what was waiting for me when I went to check the weather for this weekend - 12 foot waves on Lake Michigan, are they serious?!

This week, I noticed that I have been feeling tired and my eyes have been bothering me.  At work the other day, Dave asked me what was wrong with my eye - it felt like there was something in it.  I thought that maybe it was because I haven’t been sleeping as much or because it has been really windy this week.  Both of those may be factors but then it dawned on me… finally - allergies.  I have had allergies all my life so you would think that I would recognize the symptoms and yet it doesn’t occur to me for several days.  Yesterday, I was exchanging text messages with my friend Kristen, who is a pharmacist, and asked what she recommended - Zyrtek was her response.  I stopped on the way home and picked up a bottle.  I’m looking forward to my eyes not itching!

When I lived in Iowa City, I was fortunate enough to become friends with Jean and Joe Dwyer who owned the local running store.  I worked there part-time for a number of years and loved the family that I developed with Jean/Joe, the staff and the members of the running community that came to the store.  Running Wild is where I met Melissa Arnot.  At that time, she was in Iowa City working part-time jobs to make ends meet.  She was always a lot of fun to be around and didn’t seem discontent at all, who could have known that she had such fire burning within her.  She left town to go back West and started studying emergency mountain medicine.  Soon she was guiding on Mt. Rainier.  Last year, she stood on top of the world - Mt. Everest that is.  Today, she is somewhere on the South Face of Everest in an attempt to become the first American woman to summit without supplemental oxygen and the first American woman to stand on the summit twice.  Outside Magazine did an interview with her recently, here is the link.  I admire her for following her dreams.  I can also say that no part of me wants to trade places with her - up there on that cold and windy face, waiting for days in a tiny tent with the wind whipping outside, hoping for a break in the weather so that she can make the final push - yikes.  Best of luck to you Melissa, I’ll be watching your progress!

Melissa, How Far You've Come!

The Temptest Rehearsal

What a fun night!  Charlie, the managing director of our team, is on the board for the Steppenwolf and invited us to a technical rehearsal for the upcoming production of The Temptest.  We left work around 5:30 and stopped at the Landmark for a drink before heading over to the Steppenwolf for a cocktail hour and discussion with the creative team for the production.  They described some of the behind the scenes that had taken place to make the show come alive.  Then we got to sit in on what they called a technical rehearsal.  I had mistakenly thought this meant that we would see something akin to a dress rehearsal where we got to see the whole production in a less formal way.  In reality, it meant they were still working out the details of how the scenes would look and working on sound and cues, etc.  - a wonderful surprise actually.  I have seen a lot of plays (thank you Rena) but rarely think about how much work and the number of details that have been decided upon to get it “production ready”; it is truly amazing to witness.  The crazy part is that we only saw an hour or so and this had probably been going on for months.  I was happy to have had the opportunity to experience the Steppenwolf from a completely different perspective.

Uncle Julio's Hacienda

Afterwards, a group of us went to Uncle Julio’s Hacienda  for dinner.  I’ve heard about this place but have never been.  According to Moffett, the frozen drinks are delicious but, on this night, I did not confirm his assertion - maybe next time.  What I can confirm is that they have about the best chips and salsa I’ve ever had!

An added bonus to the night occurred on my train ride home.  I got on the Red Line at the North/Clybourn stop along with three other guys.  One guy was alone and further down the train.  Two of the guys were together and looked like a father/son duo, they got on my car.  We all sat down and the train started to move.  A couple of minutes later, a young punk-ish looking kid came busting through the emergency door into our car from the car ahead of us.  I’ve seen this before and was waiting for him to start aggressively asking people on the car for money but as quickly as he busted in, the father/son jumped into action.  They unbuttoned their jackets to reveal bulletproof vests and badges and quickly took the guy into custody.  I don’t know how it ended because my stop came up and I got off the train but I saw enough to get the idea.

Fleet Feet Chicago does a wonderful job bringing the running community together through races, sponsorships, their racing team, and their weekly fun runs.  They actually do multiple fun runs each week with one of them being exclusively for women (Tuesday nights I think).  They leave from the store which is located on Wells in Old Town and do a little out and back course through Lincoln Park/the Lakefront.  As a lead up to major Chicago races, they will do training runs geared toward those races - right now its the Shamrock Shuffle 8K.  Tonight, they teamed up with NikeTown to have a fantastic evening event complete with bagels afterwards.  

It was super windy tonight but the temperature was moderate.  I did a 7 mile tempo run and felt great.  This was my second run of the day and only my second double of this season.  I wouldn’t want to run doubles everyday but I do actually enjoy the fact that I get to see two of my favorite times of the day while running.  I get to see the sun rise in the morning and watch the city begin to illuminate in the evening as the sun sets.  The other thing I love about doing doubles is that my body feels so fluid and running begins to feel effortless, possibly because I only do them when I’m in shape or maybe there is more to it.  It was a great evening and now I’m off to bed.

As you may know, I am quite fond of movies.  As an outflow of this affinity, I singed up for Netflix a couple of years ago and have subsequently watched a ton of movies.  This weekend, Rena asked me what movies I had that we could watch?  My list included: Cashback, Dust To Glory, and Down in the Valley.  She immediately replied, “Where do you find these movies?  I mean some people watch unheard of movies that are foreign or independent but these are just … unheard of.”  That may not be exactly what she said but it captures the essence of the message.  I’ve heard it before, so I wasn’t surprised but it made me chuckle.  I’ll admit, I am not all that picky about what I watch, even if I don’t enjoy every movie, I am still generally glad that I watched it.  So, where do I find them?  All over.  I look at the recommended movies that Netfilx recommends, I keep a list of movies I hear other people talk about, or I look up less well known movies of actors I like, and then I throw them all in the queue. Teague would now ask, “How do you have time to watch so many movies?”  Part of the answer, I rarely sit down and watch a whole movie straight through without doing something else too - multi-tasking.  I may water the plants, clean the house, respond to emails, go through mail, surf the internet, or type a new blog entry.  Last night, I watched one of these lesser known movies, Cashback and it was a delightful movie.  That is the reward for taking a chance once in a while - a surprise joy.