Prepare to Houska!

I’ve been tired and hungry for a few days. It was hot yesterday, but today we got a break in the weather and it’s raining and 59 degrees. According to my body, that is freezing. Fortunately the house had a chance to warm up to 70 before the clouds rolled in. Otherwise I would have turned on the heat. As long as I stay indoors, I’ll be okay.

I started out the day with a staff meeting at work, and afterwards I went out to the nursery to get some starter plants for the garden, just a few peppers and tomatoes, and some delphinium, because I’ve been wanting to plant those in front of the woman cave. I also got some small basil plants and repotted those by the woman cave.

I also went to REI to look for some Black Hills maps but they didn’t have any. I ended up ordering them online. I should have them by next week.

My plan was to run 10 to 15 miles today and maybe do a bike ride, but after planting all the plants I got at the nursery, I was hungry. I started searching for food. I ate all of last night’s leftovers, and then another smoothie. I could eat everything in sight. Fortunately we don’t have a lot of food in the house.

I’m meeting two friends this evening at Tortilla Marissa’s, and I will be eating there, too. I hope I can pack enough calories in today and be done with it. Tomorrow I go back to work and I won’t have time to eat much.

My legs feel sore in a few spots and I decided to make this a day off. I’m going to stay home and eat. I might as well do it today, plus next week is looking to be a challenge. Shannon has already threatened to make me work hard in my next tempo run, after I told him my goal for this fall, which is to drop a minute per mile off the pace we’re running now for my 10 mile tempo runs. He’s already planning to make me work for it this coming week.

This weekend is Memorial Day, and I’m working, except for Monday.

Monday is the Houska Houska, an event that I try not to miss. It’s a 5K in town, low key and fun, Fort Collins’ answer to the crowds of the Bolder Boulder. People dress up, it’s a fun race with no frills, no numbers, no starting waves or prize money, but you do get an interesting t-shirt based on whatever theme the race has for the year. The most important thing about this run is, it’s a fundraiser for the Bone Marrow Donor program and the Poudre Valley Cancer Center.

It starts on Monday at 9 am at Houska Automotive on Riverside Avenue in Fort Collins and runs along the Poudre Trail and dirt footpaths off the bike path, finishing back at Houska Automotive. Afterwards they serve root beer floats, hot dogs, and Bloody Marys. I like the root beer floats. Right now, that sounds so good.

I’m not really a fair-weather runner. A few drops of rain from the sky won’t scare me. Fifty-nine degrees might cause me to put on tights, gloves and a jacket, but it won’t keep me indoors. So I guess my excuse is, I’m officially tapering and calorie-loading for the Houska Houska.