March 2007 Archives

In college, my friends were throwing a party. $3 got you a cup and all you could drink. It got out that I didn't pay for a cup. I thought I "earned" it by being friends with the hosts. I was berated by a unknown senior for not paying my friends a measly $3, if not more. "How could I so cheap?" he asked. It was an early lesson in karma and it changed the way I live.

From that day forward, I took the scolding to heart. Ever since, I've never thought that I deserved something because I was a friend of the host, or something was in my town. I pay because the occasion requires it. I tip more because someone just brought me food that I told them to do. And they do it with a smile, no matter how I treated them. I pay because when I do something good to someone else, good will happen to me.

I was running home from swimming. I arrived at the intersection just as a cyclist was accelerating. He was dripping in sweat, completely soaked through his jersey.

"How was your ride?"

"Great. Just a month ago I got frost bite," as he mindlessly scratched at his recently frost-bitten neck.

And thus it was great. A second day of record-breaking highs near 80 degrees has made this March feel less like spring and more like summer. I have a feeling the predicted highs in the 50s this weekend will close March like spring. Not that anyone's complaining.

Tuesday started different than other spring days. There was still some snow on the ground. It quickly dissipated in the light rain and warm temps. So much so that it really created a heavy feeling in the air. Eventually the sky darkened in response and a few brief, heavy storms rolled through featuring some sweet lightning.

After the storm blew through, I headed out for my run along Lake Monona as usual. The closer I got to the lake, the thicker the fog got. Just before the Monona Terrace, I thought about taking my eyeballs out and wiping them on my shirt, like you do with glasses. I thought that the cars were going way too fast for fog this thick. I continued, squinting because I thought it helped and then stopped.

It was gone.

I stopped and turned around. Whoa. I saw a wall of cloud behind me. I took one step into and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees. The combination of warm weather, high humidity and cold lake had hit a sweet spot. The frozen lake was sublimating. The light northerly breeze was blowing the vapor directly over land. (The swim entrance for those of you that have been to IM WI.) It was too think to be considered fog. It was a cloud.

And then it happened again. Sunday, I went out for another run. And again, the ice was evaporating so fast that it was pouring out over the land. It was so thick, I was worried that I wouldn't be seen as I crossed the road. Sight distance was less than 100 feet. On the other side, it was warm, sunny and a completely different world.

A challenge was put down to run for every day in February. I figured I needed the to kick my running into gear, so I took it. And there's no better way to run faster than to go out and run. So I did, except for Thursdays. On Thursday I play basketball. I counted the games as speed work.

After 28 days, I'm proud to report that I ran on 26 of them. I missed two; one because of a blizzard, and the other because my body said it just wasn't going to happen. Both were in the last week. I started at a 9:05 min/mi pace with a average heart rate in the mid 150s. I ended the month with the same relative effort at a 8:25 min/mi pace with an average heart rate below 148. Throw in a PR for a 5K in 10 degree weather (22:01 in case you're wondering), and you've got a great month of running. I covered 102 miles in 22 runs + 4 basketball games, one of which I played the entire forty minutes. Now it's time to concentrate on the bike and let the running muscles recover for a bit.