A blessing in disguise

Believe it or not, I actually have something running related to talk about on the blog! Tomorrow, I'm running the race Kara organized - Frozen Heart. I signed up for the 50k, but I'm not sure that option is going to work out anymore. First of all, I haven't done a double digit run since early January. Second of all, the weather here has been a hot mess.

We got a massive amount of snow yesterday, 16.5 inches according to NWS. That's the equivalent of 7 feet for Upstate NY, where I'm from, in terms of damage and recovery. From what I can tell, the state of Maryland owns around 5 plows and a bucket or two of salt. So the roads won't be fully clear until at least Monday. Our street is currently filled with snow and the few cars I've seen attempt it have slid all over the place.

If that gets cleared up in time for me to get to the race, I face different problems. Even though Kara lives in the same state, only 2 hour away, they got about only an inch of snow. Just enough to melt, refreeze, and make tomorrow's race a slushy, muddy mess.

In 2014, I have already learned the hard way what happens when you attempt a trail race you aren't trained for in terrible weather conditions that you aren't familiar with. I will not be making that mistake again. Luckily, this race is a loop, so there is a 10.5 mile option, and a 21 mile option. If things don't go according to plan, Kara is working the halfway aid station, so I calling it quits is possible at five mile intervals. Kara even promised to be really snide to me about taking me back, and then flame my blog with angry comments under "anonymous" for the following week.

In terms of running, my foot has been feeling better. I did some cross training - mainly things I could do at home, since it's cold and nasty and I hate going anywhere that's not strictly necessary. The good thing about a foot problem is that you can still do the bike trainer, and some workout DVDs. I did venture out to Bikram yoga last week. I thought the 115 degree temperature would be a nice relief from constantly being freezing, but it was still torturous.

I'm hesitant to jinx it, but things may be on the upswing. Tomorrow will probably be telling. However, the 100 mile race is only two months away, and I've lost a lot of training time. 2014 may not be the year for me to accomplish this goal. I haven't deferred yet, but it's been on my mind. It's hard to admit total defeat, especially for something that I've been so excited about. I'm trying to come up with an alternate spring goal to focus on to lessen the sting a bit. Maybe another triathlon?

In other news, we took on a big commitment last night. We began watching Breaking Bad. We've been discussing choosing a new TV show for awhile now, and we finally went for it. We almost met with disaster when a few minutes in, our power went out. I immediately panicked, because I need flannel pajamas and five blankets to stay warm with the heat ON, so that was a major problem. Luckily, it came back on about ten minutes later. When we turned Breaking Bad back on, we discovered we had started with episode two by mistake, so the power outage was a blessing in disguise (since it remained on all night). Now it just needs to stay with us today, and tomorrow it won't matter since I'll be slogging through a muddy mess in the freezing woods, because I know how to have a good time.

How are you celebrating Valentine's Day? We'll probably do some grad work, maybe watch some more Breaking Bad, and then I'm going to work tonight. WILD.