MY WEEK IN REVIEW

I have had a very upside down week. Snow and intense cold have turned my week into a 5 day vacation from school. It's been tough though having no homework and only free time to deal with. It was pretty bad weather though, even for Iowa, with about 20 inches of snow and negative temperatures all the way down to -29 (that's without the windchill). At least there was no ice though, so my neighbor's car didn't end up in our front yard again.

The extreme cold did keep me from running, but that dealt more with safety issues. Running in wind chill warnings is dangerous and I'm not going to risk frostbite for a 10 minute run. So that meant I couldn't run from Tuesday to Thursday with cross training on Wednesday. While snowboarding Wednesday, I managed to make a not so spectacular crash turn into a huge ache Thursday. Since I was having a hard time getting off the couch, I decided that maybe I shouldn't cross train that day.

On Friday, my family drove to Ames for my younger sister's Lego League State competition that was to take place most of Saturday. Because it started very early, we had to stay in a hotel which meant I was able to run. On a treadmill of course, but it was still a run. I only ran 3 fast miles before I was forced to sleep but it was the first running I did since Monday.

The Lego League State competition started early on Saturday so we had to be there around 8:00. The competition had many parts but consisted mainly of three parts revolving around a central theme, which this year happened to be "climate connections". One section involved making the robot built of legos (that had been previously made by the kids) do specific tasks. The highest score of the three times they did this was their final score. They also had to research some way to help solve a problem related to the climate and give a presentation. The last part of the competition was two more presentations about the robot and the group's teamwork. A lot of hard work is put into the competitions but at times it can be a bit overwhelming with all the screaming children who supposedbly have team spirit, and a lot of waiting and standing around.

My family decided to wait around for the closing ceremonies before heading back. The closing ceremonies took about an hour longer than expected though because of a demonstration which tried to make Segways look cool. It didn't work but it wasted a lot of time. Many parents started getting ansty by the time they started giving out awards due to the road condition warnings flashing on the bottom of the screen. My sister's team didn't win any awards, but they made it to state which I think is the best part. Plus, the road conditions had gotten so bad that my parents decided to stay another night at the hotel. Which, judging by the 16 cars we saw in the ditch or off the sides of the road on the way home, was a good decision.

Another night in the hotel meant another night of running on the treadmill, which I was actually excited about. I ran 4 miles this time in a new PR of 31:09. This PR unfortunately doesn't count though since it was on a treadmill and inside. I had to take a break halfway through the run though because it was about 100 degrees in the exercise room. I had to do this the previous day too and I think I was freaking the desk guy out by standing outside when it was freezing out.

I ran only 4 miles again because my legs are pretty sore. It was slower at a time of 36:36 but it was outside and snowing (again). My pace was faster than it has been which is was but now my legs are really sore, especially on the outsides of my knee. So now I'm sitting here typing this icing my leg which in turn is making me really cold. Hopefully, my legs will be less sore but since it is the beginning of the cycling season I think I can deal with it. Expect my next post to be a bit different though, since it will not be about running but instead about my other favorite sport.