My New Toy

Last week, we got a new roof, thanks to a hail storm that went through our area about a year ago.  While I was certainly excited to get a new roof (our home is over 100 years old, and our roof, while certainly not that old, was looking pretty rough), I was actually more excited about the fact that there would be men up on my roof.  😀  That sounds strange until you understand that I am a weather geek.  No, actually, fanatic.  I rarely watch TV, but when I do, I watch the Weather Channel.  No, not the myriad of shows and documentaries they put out (which I hate), but the actual weather part of the Weather Channel.  You know, where they tell you over and over again what the weather is currently or is going to be in the next five minutes. 😉 My sister and I are big weather aficionados.  About 20 years ago, the Weather Channel came out with an ad campaign in which they portrayed weather fans sitting around a bar called “The Front,” where they watched the Weather Channel on the myriad of TVs around the bar, exclaiming over weather patterns with the same enthusiasm as a sports broadcast.  My sister and I always wished The Front was a real place. 😉

Anyway, this brings me to my joy of showing off my new toy:

 

 

 

That’s my new weather station and its anemometer (fancy word for wind gauge).  I’m so excited about it, because now I can have accurate weather readings, uploaded to the web so I can check the weather at my house 24-7.  Oh yeah, I need an intervention in a big way. 😉  But I can tell you that we had a 47 mph wind gust during the storm that came through my neighborhood on Friday night.  That’s useful information, man!! 😀

Okay, enough about my toy.  Another reason to talk about weather is because it has been so damn hot here in SE Michigan lately.  I ran intervalsmorning, and they were hard.

 

 

The temp was  72 with a dewpoint about the same…that means nearly 100% humidity!  Oy.  I was proud of myself for sticking with it and staying within my goal ranges.  In that weather, I felt like it was quite an accomplishment!

Thursday was another tempo run, hot and sticky once again.  We had rain come through Friday night (big storms that knocked out our power twice!), but although we’d been promised a cool-down after that, I woke up for my Saturday long run to a dewpoint of 72.  Ugh!!  But I toughed it out on the road, running a big six-mile rectangle in my neighborhood.  I took a different route and got to see some fun things.  Like…

 

 

 

 

I really liked that plant in the middle shot.  There were tons of them, in both white and purple, and they were quite pretty.

 

My average pace for the run was 11:04, well within my “long run” goal pace.  (There were no “race pace” miles for this one.)  My average moving pace (not counting my picture stops)  was 10:39, so definitely a good speed without being too fast.

The humidity did eventually lessen as the day went on, though it’s definitely still July in Michigan. 😉  I ran another 2 miles with Jamie today, and tomorrow morning I get to run intervals at 5am before heading off to the office.  Normally I work from home on Mondays, but I am helping facilitate a training class for three out of the next four weeks that will keep me in the office and busy in that time.  Not only will I be training people, I’ll be acting as a host for the out-of–town employees, so guess what that means? Yep–food, food and more food!  Breakfasts and lunches provided, and dinner out at night.  I hope I survive without gaining 5 pounds.  Wish me luck!

But hey, at least while I’m away from home for so many hours, I’ll still always know what the weather is at my house. 😉

I may be slow(er) to post these next several weeks during the training, but I’ll try to keep up when I can!  Thanks for reading!