Scatter my ashes here...

Scatter my ashes here...
scatter my ashes in the desert...

Friday, February 26, 2010

Transition

This week we've gone from this to now close to 50 degrees with a biting breeze. The sun is out and the new snow is melting what looked like the return of the Ice Age earlier this week. This time the Antarctic ice shelf in the street in front of our house only lasted 2 days.



It's spring for sure. We might have 3 more months of cold and snow, but it's spring.








Today I ran hills on Centennial Drive, did 4 repeats of the big hill west of the A. I didn't dare go up to do Rock Repeats this week because it would have been a sloppy mess, plus it's windy out there. Not fun. Took the girls for a few miles afterward to get 16 miles for the day.

I woke up with a horrible work hangover this morning. I was worthless most of the morning, all I could do was stare at the kitchen walls and drink coffee. It took 3 hours before I could actually get up and start thinking about getting dressed to run. It's been insanely busy the past few weeks at work and 13 hours of nonstop running around taking care of patients is more exhausting than any ultra. I think it takes me longer to recover from that than just plain running outside on the roads for the same amount of time.

There was a thread on Woofie's ultralist with some haiku this morning. I love haiku. So with Woofie's blessing, I started the first ever ultrarunning haiku slam contest on the list. It runs through midnight Monday. I can't wait to read the entries. Who says runners are just introverted jocks or complete nerds? Some of us do have a few creative brain cells left.


As of Monday, it's March 1st. Time to get serious. I'll be hitting the sauna and steam room, occasionally at first, and then religiously as of April. And I am already increasing my weekly mileage. Next week is the Old Pueblo 50 mile in southern Arizona.












The Buffaloes are smiling, it's spring! Get the squirrels!

5 comments:

SteveQ said...

Okay, I'll get you one by Monday. I've had two published (these are copyrighted):

A haiku is more
Than 17 syllables
Written in three lines.

Haralson apples:
Windfalls ruddy-cheeked and raw,
Glazed with autumn rain.

SteveQ said...

Peach-leaf willows blaze
Torch-like orange in the snow:
Winter's second sun.

(I also have one about lost toenails...)

Alene Gone Bad said...

Steve,
Please send a post to the ultrarunning list with the subject line: Haiku Slam,
include this one and the one about the toenails!
Then you can be included in the Haiku Slam contest.

Thanks,
Alene

Patricia Singleton said...

My mind just does not work that way with the Haiku. I think those of you who can think that way are geniuses. Thanks for the recent comment on my blog. I almost envy you the determination to run as much as you do. Again, I just don't have that, whatever that is, in me.

Even in Arkansas, we had a snow filled winter, highly unusual for us. I love that Spring is so close.

Alene Gone Bad said...

Patricia,

Today is the first day that feels like spring is coming, here. The sun is out, the birds are singing, and the temperature is at 50 degrees.

If people will allow me to, I will try to get their permission to post some of their haiku on my blog. There were some great ones.

I love your blog. I look forward to your posts, and they always seem to resonate with something that is on my mind at the time. Keep writing!