random runnings: January 2008

New and Old Wind Chills

random
As we had wind chills around -40° F last night, I started to wonder about the days of my childhood with over 60 below wind chill. It didn’t seem like weather was that much colder in my youth, but it also didn’t seem like we’ve seen these numbers lately. Turns out my skepticism was right. In 2001 the National Weather Service adjusted the Wind Chill Temperature index. The following are the new and old charts. The current chart is the first one. Either way, it’s been cold.

runnings
I gave in and went for a short run on a treadmill tonight.

Sore

random

runnings
I might have over done it a little yesterday. I hadn’t run for over two weeks and I hadn’t gone over 5 miles in almost two months. I’m a little sore today, but I couldn’t resist 40°F and went out for a run at noon. I like the feeling I have of pushing myself the last two days, but would prefer I felt this way after a bit more mileage!

What A Run Can Do

random

runnings
I forget what running can do for me. I haven’t run for almost two and a half weeks. During that time it has been unpleasantly cold outside, I’ve had a persistent cough, work has been extraordinarily busy, and life in general has thrown a few lemons my way. I’m not offering these up as excuses. I’m disappointed I haven’t been running. However, today so much of this list was gone from my mind during my run. I ran about an hour, twice as much as I set out to do. The run felt so good that I had to keep going. The weather was balmy, I realized I hadn’t fallen as far off my running as I thought, and I just felt good about myself and life in general. So, maybe it isn’t a new year’s resolution, but I need to refocus and keep my demeanor up… and running.

Resolutions

random

runnings
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I believe if I have something to change, I need to do it at that time, not wait for a new year. Because I’d been on vacation, around the start of the year I was thinking about my running. I essentially took a week off because I didn’t pack running shoes. I also never made that 14 mile run when I returned from CA and I’ve really fallen off the long runs in general. There are several reasons for this. This week it was the cold that set in; outdoors and in my chest. I’m feeling a bit better and I believe the temperatures should get above zero next week. I’d like to change how I really only do the long runs when I’m training for a race. I think the next race I’ll run is the Earth Day Half in April again, so I can make this change now before I start training again.

Literate Twin Cities

random
According to a Central Connecticut State University study, Minneapolis ranked as the most literate city in 2007. The study ranks the literacy of the nation’s cities with populations over 250,000 by assessing newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources. Over the past 5 years of the study, Minneapolis has consistently been in the top 10 and was 2nd to Seattle last year. St Paul has been noted as the rising star. Its rank in the study has moved from 11th in 2004 to 3rd in 2007. According to the study, St. Paul is the only city in the US in which Sunday newspaper circulation has increased per capita and it is one of the few cities in which library branches, volume and circulation have all increased.

runnings