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.