Snow 9, Weathermen 3

The actual inches vs the predicted inches on Monday...

So much to write about with the 'solo' weekend while Beth was in Tucson--I'll have to get to that eventually.

Back to Monday:

The problem with the snow (it ended up being about 9 inches) was the roads really didn't get treated before it started (3pm) because it arrived about 2 or 3 hours before they thought it would. On top of that, PennDOT then had to scramble and bring in a lot of workers (since it was President's Day holiday and a lot were off). By then, it was too late. There was 2 or 3 inches of snow on all of the roads at the height of rush hour. Cars parked on the road or on the sides of roads. Snow continuing to fall until 10pm at a rate of about 1 inch per hour. Disaster all around that made my trip home three hours.

But, I got home in one piece and the neighbor checked in on Roxy. So, all was well.

As this was unfolding, Beth's flight (supposed to land around midnight) got rerouted to Detroit because Pittsburgh had to close down the runways for a bit because they couldn't keep up with the snow. Since Detroit was 'close' they ended up letting the plane refuel and continue to Pittsburgh. She got to the airport around 2 or 2:30am. By the time she dug out her car and got home (roads still had a layer of snow on them) it was 4:30am.

We ended up having school cancelled today. It was good because I was able to catch up on sleep because I was up until midnight trying to figure out where Beth's flight was going and if she needed to get a hotel by the Detroit airport.

Another bullet blog will be saved for another day to update training, college hoops, spring training, family get-togethers, and all the boring thrilling details (yeah right) during my "what I did on my solo weekend."

Bullet Blog

After my 18-day blog streak in January, things have seemed to slow down here in February. Oh wait, I haven't written a blog YET in February. Oops! Here's some catching up:

*Most of the time has been working with the track teams. The district championship is this upcoming weekend. Looking forward to seeing great performances and increase the number of athletes qualifying for the indoor state meet.

*Running has been going well. The run Thursday was COLD, windchill below zero. I found that wearing socks OVER your gloves does a good job keeping the hands warm. If only I had kept my Steelers' playoff beard - the chin and jawline were a little raw by the end. Today's 17-miler capped off a 46-mile week. Earlier in the week, I had a 9 mile run with 4 miles at 6:10 pace. That hurt, but I can feel that I'm getting stronger. I was able to hold 7:30 pace for the 17 miles today. I may be racing in a few weekends, so we'll see if this fitness translates to the race.

*Also on the running front, the teachers from my school and the alumni group from Elizabethtown College are moving along with their training. This is the toughest time to motivate non-veteran runners, but I just keep trying to push them on so they can reach their goals on race days.

*Our Etown alumni group also picked up a sponsor for race day. Alumnus Sarah Lanphier started a granola mix company called Nuts About Granola and stepped up to support our group with a goodie bag. I asked Sarah about possibly connecting with Beth about the granola and it looks like they're setting up a partnership, too. Beth reviewed the granola HERE and it's good stuff!

*Past halfway to my fundraising goal for the Alzheimer's Association. Thanks again to all who have donated and shared stories! If you feel moved to do so, you can provide a donation online HERE.

*Beth's heading to Tucson this week with some training partners to get out of this snow and get some legitimate outdoor training, especially on the bike. Thanks again to Jen & Jerome for providing the lodging. It'll be Roxy and I holding down the fort, so hopefully we don't get into too much trouble. My weekend already has the all-day track meet Saturday and a family birthday party Sunday afternoon.

*On the college basketball front, Arizona's creeping up in the polls (16th last week) and is in 1st place in the weak Pac-10. Things are looking good for their tournament chances this year. Davidson is starting to come around. While they still have a sub-.500 conference record at 7-8, they be a couple of the conference leaders over the last few weeks and might just be putting it together at the right time for a SoCon tourney run. Penn State lost three in a row before a 24-point win against Northwestern today. The Nittany Lions are probably on the outside looking in if the tournament started today, but they've still got a handful of games agains ranked opponents plus the Big Ten tournament to improve their resume.

*The Steelers gave a good effort in the Super Bowl, but had too many turnovers at the wrong times. And, credit Green Bay for turning all three TO's into touchdowns. There's always next year I guess (like I said back in October of 1992 with the Pirates...)

*Speaking of Pirates, spring training starts Monday. Woo-hoo!

*Beth's new triathlon team, Ballou Skies, had a photoshoot this week at photo studio that used to be a firehouse and now currently doubles as the Roberto Clemente Museum. Lots of great photos and stories from there, but that'll have to be another post.

It's Coming!

Before the main story, thank you again to all who have donated to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. It is so exciting and humbling to see that I have reached nearly half of my goal and it's only January 31st!

I am so appreciative of the support from many and I also have learned a lot about how Alzheimer's affects families terribly from some of the stories people have shared with me. How emotionally painful it is to see a family member in that state. If you have a story to share, I would love to add it to my mental file.

As always, if you find it in your heart and budget to donate, I would be greatly honored. You can click on the link on the side or click here.

I don't want to get too preachy, but I liked a verse our pastor shared during the message last weekend about giving money. It was about Moses and the Israelites after they left Egypt. Moses spoke to the people about bringing offerings. He said in Exodus 35:20-21:

20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

That's been my whole approach with seeking donations. I don't want to pressure people. If they want to donate to this cause, great. If not, that's fine too.

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The newest storm of the century is approaching as we speak. Hysteria has been created in the media. Green (rain) is good. Pink (sleet/freezing rain) can get dicey. Blue (snow) sounds like it'll mostly stay north of Pittsburgh. I'm seeing reports online about how Chicago and the midwest is getting pounded pretty good. School's even delayed already for Tuesday.

From my vantage point, it's looking like we'll have an icy Tuesday morning and then it will change over to rain, get a little icy again Tuesday night and then go away. We'll see how things turn out I suppose.

Here's an optical illusion for you--icicles forming upward. Isn't that called stalactites or stalagmites? I always get those two confused.

What happened is the icicles were forming, but then the snow that was on top of the overhang began to shift forward as temperatures warmed up. For some reason, the snow stuck together and curled around, causing the icicles to be facing upward.

Not that we ran out and got groceries due to the storm, but Sunday was when I went to get groceries. For entertainment purposes, I snapped a few photos of our our weekly cyclical pattern:

Refrigerator full.

Two people training many, many hours per week consume/devour the food, leaving the refrigerator barren.

Go to the grocery store and load up the cart to the top (even though it's only for two people).

Refrigerator is replenished. Repeat once weekly.

In other news, the Steelers are now in Dallas getting ready for the Super Bowl against Marit's Green Bay Packers (Sorry to Jen H's Bears). The picture is one I took driving home as Heinz Field prepared for a Steeler send-off rally last Friday.

Looks like a pretty evenly-matched game and will be interesting to see what big plays make the difference. Sitting back, I definitely think that Steelers fans are fortunate to have such a great franchise. Eight Super Bowls in 37 years. That's one appearance in less than every five years. Some NFL teams haven't made it. Ever.

Then, there's my beloved Buccos who won three NL East titles in a row from 1990-1992. Until...

They were a Francisco Cabrera cheap hit (and poor Barry Bonds throw) away from making it to the World Series in 1992. In my youthful ignorance of seeing the Steelers success and the Pens win two Stanley Cups in a row with Mario & company, I just assumed the Pirates would be back competing for a World Series in another year or two. 18 years later...

I was sharing that story with a student on the track team. I told him to appreciate the Steelers being back in the Super Bowl for the third time in six years. To appreciate the Penguins making it to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals (and having some of the best players in the NHL). It may not always be like this! (Okay, I feel old now)

We were at Robert Morris University last weekend for a track meet. To say the athletes were packed into the Sewell Center like sardines is insulting to sardines.

It was a good meet, the jumping is coming along--not that they get to practice jumping into sand during the week. I guess they could jump into snow?

I had a chance to run with Beth on Sunday as our training schedules meshed. It's been a few weeks for our weekend long run to match up. I have been following my marathon training plan to a T and four weeks in I haven't missed a workout. Prior to this regimented training, here's how my training was set up--especially on the weekends:

Beth: How far are you running today?

Me: I don't know. How about you?

Beth: I'm running ____ miles (or for _____ minutes).

Me: Okay, I'll do that, too.

That was that. And that's how a lot of my bike training for my half ironman went last summer, too.

Stay safe out there if you have to travel with the bad weather coming!

Progress

Progress...

*In my first attempt at serious fund-raising. It's coming along. I made my first round of directed emails to solicit donations for the Alzheimer's Association and it went well. For those of you who responded, thanks so much for the generosity. I'm already over 1/4 of the way towards my goal of raising $1,000. If you are interested in donating, you can follow the link here.

If you haven't heard from me yet about it, you probably will some time in the next three months. :) Thank you in advance!

*On the college basketball front. My three teams are definitely at different stages:

Arizona (15-4, 4-2 Pac-10) - worked their way into the rankings this past week, but then went out and lost to #20 Washington on Thursday. As long as they maintain their current efforts, Sean Miller's team should be in a position to start a new NCAA tournament appearance streak.

Penn State (10-8, 3-4 Big Ten) - seems like they're playing a ranked team every night out. After edging out #19 MSU and then #16 Illinois, they lost by 3 to now #1 Ohio State and after that by 1 to #13 Purdue, both on the road. Maybe they're on to something and are no longer the doormat of the Big Ten. Maybe. They've still got Michigan and Northwestern (twice) but all the others are ranked teams. Maybe just maybe they can hold on and go .500 in conference play and sneak into the tournament.

Davidson (8-11, 2-6 Southern)- is in a clear rebuilding year. They kind of held it together last year after Stephen Curry left for the NBA. But, they are now in a position of getting younger guys in the starting lineup. In their top 7 minutes leaders, they have 1 senior, 4 sophomores, and two freshman (one of which starts). The next two years will certainly be better for Davidson.

*In my training. The marathon mileage is coming along. 32 miles last week and, after tomorrow's 13-miler, 36 this week. I swam on Tuesday and also this morning to sprinkle in some cross training. Slowly the swimming is improving. I definitely enjoy swimming. Just not a lot of it and I'm just not that fast. However, I was happy that I was able to execute a 2x10x100yd on 2 min (w/ 1min rest in between) today.

Progress.

Will the Streak End at 18?

My blog-writing? Yes. I'm blogged out and need a break for a few days.

The Pirates' number of consecutive losing seasons? Probably not, unless they get some better pitching this summer.

Good night.

History of Pittsburgh in Pictures

Back in December, Beth went to a swim clinic at Carnegie Mellon University. I dropped her off and came back to pick her up. I got there before it finished so I had some time to roam around the building where the pool is.

So, I go up to the second floor and come across this mural that wrapped around all the walls of the second floor rotunda. What I stumbled upon were these paintings that captured what Pittsburgh looked like from about the early 1900's to the 1970's or 1980's. It spans the entire rotunda and you can read more about it here.

I snapped a couple of shots and here were some of my favorites (If you click on the picture, it's a little bit bigger and you can see more detail):

This first one shows downtown WAY back in the day. Lots of steel mills and smoke. Also, that's not PNC Park, it's Exposition Park along the North Side. It's interesting to see the bridges that connected downtown back then.

The next two show the Oakland area with Forbes Field from two different angles. I know where Forbes Field was and the topography around it (close to where my education classes were), but I guess I never realized how steep of a drop off it was set upon along the right field side of the park. You can make out Pitt's Cathedral of Learning (the tallest structure) and the hospital where Beth now works!. Also, CMU was called Carnegie Tech back then.

The last two show more of present Pittsburgh along the Monongahela (above) and the Allegheny (below). In the view with the Mon, you can see 'The Bluff' that Duquesne University sits upon. In the one of the Allegheny, you can see most of the modern downtown buildings and the bridges that I come down along during my daily commute. No PNC Park in the picture, though.

Anyway, thought that was neat and highly recommend it for anyone who's a fan of Pittsburgh, history, and maps. I spent a half hour there and didn't even realize it.

Hijacking the GPS

Since Beth was stuck on her bike for FOUR HOURS this morning, I hijacked (errr.....asked to borrow) her GPS watch for my 12 mile run. I mapped out a course and wanted to see how well it worked. I loved the feedback of getting the beep for each mile and also the split for each mile. Very informative.

I chose one of Charlie's favorite courses, running along the river and then up Oak Manor Drive. Very steep from 8.33 miles to 9.75 miles (thanks to the Garmin). I was able to average 7:26 pace for the whole run, which I'm excited about since it's still January.

Probably the coolest part of the watch was the data and graphs you get when you upload it to the computer:

As of Saturday, four months until the marathon. And, if you haven't read in the past, I'm running to support the Alzheimer's Association and would love to receive your support towards my goal of raising $1000 as I work towards trying to go sub-3 at the Pittsburgh marathon.

I'm still looking for stories of how Alzheimer's has affected people's families and would love to hear your story and carry it with me on marathon day. You can click HERE to donate online. Thank you very much for the help and support.