Move a Muscle, Move a Muscle, Move a Muscle.

Lesson number 5,457, don't give your niece your smart phone unless you want 100 selfies like this on it.

 John and I always laugh about how "mellow" our weekends are during training season, before racing starts in March. This weekend was a blur. A wonderful blur, but a blur none the less.

Humoring the niece, while John talks to our friend B*rne, like nothing's happening.

 Saturday I went out to run 9 miles. I ran my old route that goes down Park Road, hits on the Coralville Strip, heads down Mormon Trek and then back toward the downtown area, down Madison St. It killed me. I had been working out anywhere from 7-10 hours a week, but only part of that was running (apparently not enough). I did finish the 9.2 mile route, but it was tough.

When I got home, I got a call from John. He had gone out running a longer route, but after about 9 miles, his calf started bugging him. He was stuck on Prairie du Chein and starting to get cold after he stopped running. I was glad I had just arrived home and could jump in the car and get him before he froze. I'm sure there will be plenty of times when he will repay the favor, so I was glad I could help.

 About that time my sister called and said she and her family would be in town to pick up her husband's mandolin that was getting fixed and wanted to know if we could meet them for an early dinner. We had already made plans with our friend B*rne to meet us at the Kalona Brewery, so we just invited them along. John and I got a quick, half hour swim in and headed to Kalona.

We had a great dinner and a couple of beers. B*rne got a call that his bro-in-law got hit by another guy while he was driving. They thought he would be okay and not have to stay the night in the hospital, so B*rne took off to make sure he was okay. I told him if he wanted to hang out at our place with us until his girlfriend got off work, he was welcome. He did show up and we all watched the movie Philomena together. It's a really sad legacy, but the movie was very well done.

On Sunday the temperature dropped...Again. I planned for it, and that's why I did my longer run on Saturday. by Sunday my legs were sore, but I made myself run a quick 3 miles in the subzero temps. After Saturday, it was obvious that I needed more practice running. Later in the day, John and I went swimming for an hour and I felt like I was getting so much better after swimming so much this year. We'll see what happens after I start swimming in open water...

I will continue to hope that this is our last below zero weekend. March has got to be warmer, right?