#17 Least Eventful Week Ever

I have been wanting to blog all week, but I had a surprising problem. Believe it or not, interesting things do not happen to me that often. This morning I woke up and saw snow covering the road and still coming down. Here is a list of things I hate more than Morgantown weather:    .

C borrowing my electric blanket

My knee is completely fine so I anticipate crankin up a bit before my marathon (4/12) I promise for a fun filled week this upcoming week. Here is this upcoming week's highlights:

Chicago Thursday to watch Minnesota Twins v. Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Wild v. Chicago Blackhawks. That's about it, but you'll ride along with me to Chicago. I'll make it neat.

Here is a short summary of my week in the woods.
Sunday Cooper's Rock
90 minutes 1,105 ft gained

This run was previously blogged along with my review of the trail 25k, but I start my weeks on Sunday so I am including it with this blog. Cooper's has the worst footing/most technical that I am willing to run often. With Pilot Mountain just around the corner I feel that I could benefit from climbing and junk.


Monday
60 minutes 927 ft gained

Baker's Ridge

Had company on this run from Mr. Hunter. We took to Bakers Ridge for the first time of the year. The trails there are much more neater than Cooper's, but there are far few miles to run there. Nonetheless, I love those trails. After the run I drove up to Shop N Save, the dirtiest grocery store you go to and where you may shop, but won't save a dime. I picked up supplies for smoothies and had the funniest run in with an older cashier woman. "Juice and fruit, the keys to staying an attractive young man" she said. I just laughed and told her to have a nice day. I was so close to being like- Lady, I eat taco bell and pizza 6-7 days a week. My diet is nothing short of delicious. She had such a misconception of my diet.

Tuesday Cooper's Rock
90 min 1,312 ft gained

Back at Cooper's, climbed for seemingly the entire run. After today I concluded that there is no way that I can properly train for a 50k in Montana while I am living around here. I also think that I have passed my threshold of steps that I want to take at Cooper's. The trails are beautiful there if you are not looking at the ground. It's like someone dumped as many inconvenient rocks that they could find on the trail just to annoy me. I don't understand why whoever works in parks like this can't just clear the trails up some; I know they go on the trails. If a tree falls across one of the trails, it will get cleaned up. Why can't that person also clean up all of the rocks? I think it will be awhile until you see Cooper's Rock in my log. Are current relationship is It's Complicated.


Then I got tired of climbing through the woods. Wednesday I ran 12 miles with Josh on the rail trail,
in a pair of SKORAs. They are like nothing I have ever worn before, but I dig em. I couldn't be less picky with shoes and I'll wear damn near any shoe that is handed to me. I found out very early on that getting attached to a shoe is stupid because no matter how awesome the shoe is, it's like span is short. So I just wear whatever. There's a chance that in the future I dip back into the skora for a lengthy blog; I'll keep you posted. 

Thursday I didn't run and I think I fell into an anger coma due to how poorly Minnesota Wild has been playing. Very few things make me more upset than bad hockey on their part. I hate being a spectator. The most nervous I get is watching a game or watching a friend race. I'd much rather be the one competing so I have some control over the outcome. I don't think I ever get nervous when I am the one competing, but as a spectator I am chewing on my nails.

Friday & Saturday I returned to the Ridge to climb 2,000 ft over the two runs. Saturday was more eventful. I decided that I would torch the downhills since I normally try my best to go as slow as possible downhill. I think part of it had to do with fatigue. It seems to take more energy to carefully weave down a hill as opposed to just opening up. So I flew down every single hill for the hour run. I crawled up the hills, blowing by a handful of bikers. I always have the same thought when I see bikers on the trails when I am running- crazy ass people. I am too shakey on a bike to want to ride down the rail trail; bike through the rocky trails? No thanks. On my way back to my place I noticed two cars pulled off to the side of the road with flat tires. So I thought that I could share my favorite flat tire story. If you live in this shithole(WV) then you have a flat tire story because this state is full of obese child sized potholes.

The first flat tire that I ever changed was less than a year ago and couldn't have been worse timing. It was a sunday evening and I had just finished working at some expo for the last 3 days. I was working solo for the most part in a booth of cutco. The expo was fine; I enjoyed it. When I was packing up to leave I went to shove the table cloth in my bag and forgot that I had just put all of my equipment in that bag prior. Don't worry- my equipment was just the world's finest cutlery. Sharp knives, no biggie. I cut my right middle finger knuckle so deep that initially it looked like a little water fountain. I could tell that it hurt because it instantly swelled up and my hand was shaking pretty bad. But I don't think that I felt the pain because I was so upset with the situation. The old lady beside me was just pissing me off telling me to go get it stitched up. I had an alternative. I took a paper towel, wrapped it around that middle finger and taped it to my index finger. I just worked way too long and had to drive from Pittsburgh to Morgantown. I wasn't going to the hospital. I don't have photos from this cut anymore because I left my phone in a cab on new year's eve in Pittsburgh, but I have a scar from the cut. I was driving back home when my car started to pull to the right. Everyone knows what that means. I pulled off the next exit and parked by a gas station, under some light. From there I pulled out my spare tire and started to jack up my car. Oh, also it was 26 degrees out and I was in a t-shirt. I had a jacket on, but it was brand new and I planned to keep it clean. The last thing I needed to do with an open wound was change a damn tire. There was way too much blood on the ground for just a finger cut. 30 or so minutes later I was back on the road cursing like a sailor. It took me forever- but that is my motto when selling myself to mates. I can do any work around the house, but it's going to take me way longer than the average person and probably won't be done properly.

As for the rest of my week, I have been working on other ventures and watching two shows on netflix. Sons of Anarchy and Lie To Me. Sons is pretty good, but my favorite part so far is when I watched the entire first season before I noticed what everyone probably noticed way sooner. Opie made a certain face and I paused and said- Woah, that is Gary Bertier from Remember the Titans! All grown up with a beard. I am sure that I will enjoy the rest of the show until he dies (spoiler). I also enjoy the fact that Jax, the main character, is a Brit who is just faking his accent the entire show. Stuff like that makes me like shows. Lie to me I've been watching on and off for awhile. It's nothing that I would recommend necessarily, but I will keep watching it. I also rarely make recommendations. Always excepting them though, so if you have any netflix suggestions, please leave them below. A few shows that I don't care to see because I've already watched the shit out of them are HIMYM, Heroes, Dexter, Haven, Once, and Dinosaurs.

One other short note: I won a t-shirt signed by the entire Reckless Tortuga cast, if you haven't seen anything from their Youtube channel check it out! My favorite series that they do is called Online Gamer. The plot is a guy living life as though he were on his headset playing Call of Duty. I have continuously played too much Call of Duty since 2007 and absolutely love this channel. I will give you a taste. If you have never played cod or you have no sense of humor, you won't enjoy the video. Couldn't be further from my concerns though. This is the beginning of the greatest web series.

Also, if you think Remember the Titans isn't the greatest football movie of all time you can leave a comment explaining why another movie is better, but you'll be wrong. I have had damn near every scene of that movie memorized since I can remember. It makes me tear up when Julius and Gary are talking. Baby Hayden Panettiere is in it and Ryan Gosling and Denzel Washington! It's a true story. These, these are facts. Yost's speech to his defense to this day may be one of the most motivating scenes ever. Watch this and try not to get amped. I suppose out of context it is far less motivating, but still.

Next Blog: Digem Bueller's Day Off, also filmed in Chicago. April 4th, mark your calendar if you are one of those people who are organized. Also, I would like to apologize to Dayton Flyers basketball team. I forgot to tune in and well...the magic ended. Give me a good show to watch on netflix!

One Love