Happy Sunday! I know the lead image is a repeat … but there is really nothing that sums up my week in running! A couple of the coldest mornings I’ve run all year long, but really pretty much like most weeks this year!
I continue to love the Olympics even as I struggle with the coverage. Today was the USA-Russia hockey game, and I knew the outcome this morning but fortunately not enough detail to ruin watching it. The women’s skeleton was just exhilarating to watch as well! I have to confess that alpine skiing … well, pretty much done with that.
Someone on Twitter said that with the team figure skating sort of killed the desire to watch the individual sports, and I am not sure about that but I really have no idea about what is going on… and I guess I don’t care that much.
Here is my weekly summary:
Sunday: 12F – 13.75 miles
Monday: ~0F and windy – 6.75
Tuesday: -8F (felt better than Monday) … 6.75 miles
Wednesday: -15F … ugh … 6.75 miles
Thursday: 15F with light winds – 6.75 miles
Friday: 25F slush-fest … 7.5 miles
Saturday 28F and snowy, did 10.5 miles
So that was my week – about 58.75 miles in more challenging temperatures, winds and snow.
Overnight into Friday there was enough snow that after shoveling twice on Thursday I still had to shovel again Friday morning, mostly to clear the end that had been plowed in. It makes for a nice little added workout.
And this week over at Arman’s site, the ‘Spill It Sunday’ is ‘Shuffle Edition’ – you shuffle and grab 5 songs, or 5 books, or 5 movies.
My iPad Shuffle – OK, so it really is interesting to pull up your iTunes and see what 5 songs come up on random shuffle. The amazing thing for me was that despite having the entire Miles Davis discography (including duplicates of 9 albums from the recent ‘mono’ recordings, special additions and collections) nothing came up … same for Pat Metheny, The Beatles and The Who all having more than a dozen albums in my iTunes library. In fact, the next five artists that came up were Wham, Jeff Berlin, Chick Corea, A Tribe Called Quest, and Frank Zappa.
– Cecil Taylor – “D Trad, That’s What” from the classic 1962 album ‘Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come’. I first came across Cecil Taylor on a cassette that was on clearance at the ‘Good Vibrations’ record store in Canton, MA near me in the late 70s. He was incredibly talented, but took the angular forms of Monk in a whole new direction … that many didn’t appreciate. This was reissued in recent years.
– Joe Zawinul – “A Concerto, Retitled” – ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’. Everyone knows Zawinul from his band Weather Report, but he was an accomplished player and composer before then. This coming up was a surprise because I had forgotten it!
– Chick Corea – “Again and Again” – I love this album but it isn’t highly acclaimed, and I totally get it. But around this time I saw Corea a few times live and love this group. This isn’t my favorite song from the album, but it is pretty representative.
– Jimi Hendrix – Fire – from the Winterland ‘complete collection’, which as usual isn’t really ‘complete’, but is a really solid set of music from Hendrix, showing why he continues to remain a strong influence on any rock guitarist coming up.
– Louis Armstrong – Jazz Lips – Complete Hot Fives Recordings, from 1926, Armstrong has a concept of rhythm, harmony and melody so advanced that it is occasionally embarrassing listening to his band-mates try to keep up. This remains stunning today. I pull out Satchmo music on a regular basis, and his Hot 5’s and 7’s recordings in the late 20’s continue to impress.
My eBook Shuffle – Here are the five most recent books in my Kindle library (that I have read):
– Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (currently reading)
– Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut (re-read yet again)
– Allegiant by Veronica Roth
– Apocalypse Z: Dark Days by Manel Loureiro
– Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
I have no idea about my last 5 movies – my older son dominates Netflix, and we watch mostly TV shows. Last movie we watched intentionally was ‘Blue Jasmine’ by Woody Allen.
So what about you? How was YOUR running this week? Cold enough for you? And how about YOUR ‘shuffle 5’ songs, books and movies?
Hope everyone has a great week!
Running Around the Bend 
The cold can go away and never come back if I had my way with it 🙂 Sounds like you had an awesome running week!
Really? I never would have gotten that you weren’t a fan of the winter from your blog! 😀 It is good you have a clear path forward out of the ‘snowiest city in America’ …
Looks like you had another great running week…and I don’t know how many times we can say that this weather needs to go away! That’s some really awesome mileage for such terrible conditions. Hopefully we will really appreciate the warm weather when it finally comes!
Agreed – between extreme cold (-4 again this morning!) and heavy snows it has just been a constant pain! I actually think you guys have had it worse – because it is warmer, meaning more icing. I have only had one day when ice limited my run.
I will be so happy when I can toss on shorts and a t-shirt again! 🙂
Still really cold huh? I think it was me who said that the team ice skating kind of killed my desire to watch individual, but I’ll probably watch the ladies to see if team USA can bring home the gold. Truth be told I’ve sort of faded on this Olympics. I catch a little at the end of the night but I think because of beach volleyball I’m more of a summer Olympics watcher.
Yeah, the cold continues, we had -4 this morning … it is supposed to be in the 40s later in the week and be more ‘seasonable’ for the next couple of weeks’.
Ah yes, it was you talking about the ‘team effect’ … but watching the ice dancing pairs was just wonderful! So graceful and fun to watch.
Great week of runs – I hit 81 miles lat week in five days of running! Crazy!
Great runs you had this week – you are really killing it on your approach to your race!