The Meltdown

We've lost a LOT of snow in the last 24 hours or so. The warm temps and howling winds have turned the landscape into ugly, shrinking piles of snow but it sure is easier to see around the corners when driving now. :o)

128 hits on this little corner of cyberspace yesterday. Whoo hoo!! Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

The Chester Woods Trail Run web page has been updated with 2009 race information. It's a very fun race in a beautiful Olmsted county park. 10 miles or 5K and is part of the RTC Grand Prix series.

From Dan Arnold: This Wednesday at the Rochester Running Room it’s “Run with the one you LOVE”! It’s our Valentine Celebration at the Running Room. Get the one you love to run with, dress up in your best red and pink running gear and join us for our Wednesday night practice at 6pm. You’ll LOVE it! What better way to celebrate Valentines than with your favorite sweet treat! Please bring your favorite valentine treat to share after the run! As always our practices are free and everyone is invited to walk or run.

Very nice plug for the Trifecta in Monday's paper. An interview with Laura Lenz. Very nice! And thank you Paul Christian for the publicity. Julie Maxwell, streak runner for 30+ years, will be profiled in the Post-Bulletin in upcoming weeks. LeeAnn Zubay of Culinary Market donated a beautiful gourmet food basket for the silent auction at the LUABC even on Sunday. Thank you, LeeAnn.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited with Scott Safe at Safe Weightlifting & Athletic Training Center at his facility at the request of his P.R. person. I promised that I'd give a little report and haven't done it yet. So here goes...

His facility is definitely a weightlifting facility, emphasizing training for power (strength and speed). Scott said that the brain, the skeleton and the muscles all work together to produce movement. If you take the brain out of the equation (like when you use a machine instead of free weights), you remove the balance and athleticism needed to produce movement. They practice complex motions out in space. So he is a strong proponent of free weights.

They have coaches on the floor at all times. The coaches are USA weightlifting certified. They have 1-hour scripted sessions for workouts. The lifters are from all kinds of sports and some are non-athletes. The typical client is teenaged-through 30's, but all ages are represented there. Contact Scott at 507-424-2020 for more info.

At Sam's Club today, I ran into Brad Mitchell and sons and ended up talking with him for quite a while. Love his accent--New Zealand I think. Pictured below are Brad and son Peyton. (It's taken with my phone, so it's not the best quality.) Brad is going to run his first marathon at Med-City and Peyton is already training (on the treadmill) for the Med-City Kids Marathon. Brad's wife Jessica will also be running Med-City as her first marathon. So look for one or the other of them at the runs at the RAC beginning February 21.

I'm $15 from my Polar Plunge goal. THANK YOU so very much to all of you who have sponsored me. I have very generous friends, indeed. And thank you for your moral support. I will need it!

From Judy Weller: Lara Bars. They are all natural and yummy - at least to me - and they are spendy...at nearly $2/bar. I set off to find a home made recipe and managed to find one that works aweseome. Basically the bars are dates, other dried fruits, and nuts. To get 2 bars (not nearly enough) you would do 1/4 c. of dates, 1/4 c. of a dried fruit such as cherries, or cranberries, or you could do the whole thing just dates....and 1/3 c. of almonds, cashews or walnuts - or really any other nut you like - even soy. You put the fruit in a food processor until you have a paste of sorts. Take the fruit paste out of the food processor, but don't clean it before putting in the nuts. The leave behinds mix with the nuts. You then put the 2 mixtures together and get your hands right in there! Then you put the nuts in and chop them pretty fine. You mix the two together...hands work best :-0 sticky sticky sticky...divide your stuff, put it on some saran wrap and shape it into a bar. Voila. They are fairly high in calories for the size they are at a about 200 cals, 9g fat, 25g carbs and 4g protein. Dates though ... Dates are an excellent source of carbohydrates (great for pre- or post-workout), contain no cholesterol, are high in fiber, and boast a wide range of nutrients, including calcium (32 mg per serving), Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Iron, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese. Thank you, Judy!! --rks

Our Cooking Light dinner last night was delightful, as usual. We were unfortunately minus two members, Mary and Barb. My faves? Probably the corn pudding and the ruby port!!

I've started reading the Rochester Reads book Candyfreak by Brad Almond. Quite entertaining. He's very funny.

Quote for the day (thank you AF): ""It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success." --David Feherty

Until next time, I remain your faithful blogger.