Olive Oil, Gumbo, Wind Chill, and an Umstead 10 Miler

Is it wrong that I hope Lori wasn't wearing a seat belt?

All the signs were pointing to a complete shit-show of a Sunday from the very get go.  Hiroko had to work and odd shift, which meant that driving all the way out to the Tobacco Trail just wasn't going to happen considering, I was planning to do a nice Valentines dinner for her and  watcher the afternoon Capitals-Rangers Game.  If I wanted to get everything done that I need to without stressing myself out or setting fire to the kitchen, I would have to take on the hills of Umstead Park.  This was not an appealing idea.  A 10 mile out and back run along the Ready Creek Trail is just a festival of hills.  And when it is compared to The Tobacco Trail, it becomes rather absurd (grant Ready Creek is not as ridiculously unreasonable as the Turkey Creek Trail, but I avoid that at all cost).  For an idea of the hill profile check out Shelby's post about her 20 miler on the same trail. 

In addition to the decision to run Umstead, I was just all kinds of discombobulated as I was trying to get ready.  I couldn't find my gloves, kept forgetting where I put my keys, and for some unknown reason nearly made myself insane trying to put compression socks on a foot that was already wrapped in KT Tape (this is impossible by the way, and you more likely to breathe under water than have this workout for you).  Also, the morning was one of the coldest we've had around these parts, but I refuse to wear my running tights in the daylight hours until we see snow, so as it turned out, I was one of the four idiots still wearing shorts on a blustery Sunday morning with temperature 30.9, calculated Wind chill of 22.2 and wind Gusts of 17.3 MPH at 10:55am according to the weather station at RDU (can you tell that I am starting to geek out on working in a Climate Office -- tons of fun data).   What does all this mean?  Basically means that was too damn cold to running in shorts and without the gloves that I forgot!  Actually, I only missed the gloves for the first mile and it wasn't that bad.  After a brief period where I thought I might lose a finger to frostbite, I warmed up and was fine. 

When I got to Umstead I noticed that there was some sort of mountain bike race going on that only made me begin to dread the run more.  But, as it turned out, I had a great run.  As I mentioned before, I thought my fingers might fall off for the first mile, but I was running well and warmed up considerably as the run progressed.  The Peanut Butter GU that I was trying for the first time wasn't bad at all, and the hills of Umstead didn't kick my butt nearly as bad I feared the would.  In the end, I ran the 10 miles in Umstead at the same 9:28 pace that I ran 8 miles on the Tobacco Trail last week.  I've no idea why or how this came about because I didn't even look at Old Bob until I had reached 3.8 miles and wanted to check for the mid point.  After a shockingly good run, I returned home watched the Capitals lose yet again!  Then began to prepare dinner.

Hiroko has to work on the 14th, so I made her Valentine dinner Sunday tonight.  Gumbo.  Made a roux for the first time in my life, and apparently I have watch so many cooking shows with Hiroko that I have learned, without being taught, to devein shrimp . . . on both sides.  God.  I feel . . . all domesticated and shit and feel the need to kill something with my bare hands soon to prove that I'm still a man . . . ok that's not going to happen, but I am going to leave the toilet seat up all week dammit!  Anyway, Hiro loved the Gumbo and we had a nice little dinner before watching the return of AMC's The Walking Dead! 

p.s. Olive Oil . . . hahahahahahaha!