8 posts tagged “weather”
Michigan weather is simply amazing. Yesterday saw a heat wave reaching 40 degrees that melted much of the several inches of snow on the ground, but 40+ mph winds this morning will plummet the thermometer below 20 degrees later today. The weatherman called it a "flash freeze", which I guess means that we had a "flash thaw" over the weekend?
Recently we picked up Jan, our 54th foster dog, and she's been such a great dog that Amanda keeps saying stuff like "if we ever want 3 dogs, Jan should be the 3rd one". :)
To me she's not a "Jan" - she's too sweet and spunky for that calm-sounding name, so I've been calling her JJ. Not "J.J." but "JJ" because there's no initials - that second "J" doesn't stand for anything.
Taking advantage of the balmy weather yesterday, I loaded the entire pack - Haven, Beacon, JJ - into the car and all 14 of our feet embarked on a hike in warm, wet snow along the Flat River. JJ has been good enough that I let her run off leash; she's only the 3rd or 4th foster dog to earn such freedom! She wasn't perfect and tended to ignore my whistles occasionally, but she kept us in sight. Of course to her, "us" can mean just Haven and Beacon so sometimes the three of them were a few hundred yards away chasing some intriguing scent!
Eventually we slipped and slid our way up and over the steep hill that leads to "Beacon's Landing" - his favorite fetching spot on the river, a small sandy delta where a foot-wide stream drains into the 200-foot wide river. Immediately downstream of Beacon's Landing is "Haven's Cove", a backwater area of eddy flow caused by the delta. Lots of flotsam and other debris collects here and Haven loves to explore it at low water levels in hopes of finding a stinky fish carcass to eather eat or roll in.
In the winter Haven's Cove freezes over due to the still water and during this hike the ice was 2 inches thick, extending 15 feet into the river and running 60 feet along the shore. Standing at Beacon's Landing and waiting for JJ to catch up to us, Beacon began insisting that I throw him something to retrieve. I was scanning the ground for a stick when I heard a splash...
Looking up I saw JJ had fallen through the ice! She was at the far end of the ice shelf on Haven's Cove - she had walked too close to the edge and a 2-foot hemicircle of ice had broken away. JJ was in that hemicircle trying to climb back on to the ice with no success. Her front paws were hanging on with her rear in the water; occassionally a hind paw would appear on the ice edge but the river was about 3 feet deep there, so she had nothing to push off of.
At first I tried to coax JJ to exit the hemicircle and swim upstream around the ice shelf - there's almost zero current in Haven's Cove - but JJ apparently doesn't have enough labrador retriever in her genes to give her such instincts. She wasn't panicked but she was intent on climbing out, which she couldn't do without help.
Haven seemed to realize this - as soon as we saw JJ in the water, Haven went running out onto the ice right up to JJ, putting her nose right next to JJ's. How kind! If only Haven had thought to grab JJ's collar and haul her out, but Haven apparently was only intending to provide moral support. :)
JJ was about 12 feet from shore, a shoreline that's steep and covered in woody shrubs so I wasn't going to reach her from dry land. I also didn't want to wade through a waist-deep, ice-cold river along the entire 60-foot ice shelf to get there. I decided to press my luck by walking out onto the ice shelf.
It was pretty solid, but obviously thinning out toward it's edge. Beacon joined me when I set foot onto the ice, and Haven got excited and ran over to Beacon... and slid right past him! Yes Haven, ice is slippery. The two of them must've figured I had things under control as they ran back to Beacon's Landing.
I managed to get about 6 feet away from JJ before my weight pushed the outer edge of the ice just below the surface and water began to flow onto the ice. Rats, I couldn't get any closer! How was I going to help JJ out of the water? I pulled the leash out of my pocket - I could make a "lasso" and toss it over her head, giving enough of a pull that her back paws could push her out.
As I was preparing to toss the leash, Haven and Beacon came running out onto the ice to see what I was up to, coming all the way out right next to me. I weigh almost 200 lbs and the ice barely supported me, but add in 140 pounds of pooch and guess what? The ice breaks!
I fell through the ice and verified that the water was indeed waist deep. Yow, was it cold! Haven fell in right next to me but Beacon was on the safe side of the crack, still standing up on the ice. JJ was now in front of me in the water so I picked her up and placed her on the ice and she ran for shore. Then I turned and helped Haven climb back onto the shelf - she's a pretty good swimmer and comfortable in the river, but she wasn't too thrilled to be dog-paddling in icy water!
As I helped Haven I heard a splash behind me... Beacon! The silly boy had jumped into the river and was swimming back to me with a large chunk of ice in his mouth! He saw pieces of ice from my fall-through floating in the river and he leapt in to retrieve them. However, he couldn't climb out so I then had to help him back onto the ice shelf but he never let go of his prize.
Naturally if I fall through the ice with three dogs, I'm the last one out! They're back on shore at Beacon's Landing, shaking off some of the chilly water while I'm forced to make that trek that I opted against earlier - a long wade in chilling, waist-deep water to circumnavigate the ice shelf at Haven's Cove.
Back near shore I stepped on the ice edge trying to break off a chunk, but lo and behold nearly the entire shelf cracked free! A huge 10x50 foot island of ice floated out into the river, but rather than heading downstream is simply spun. The backwater eddys were evident as the upstream end of the ice floe rotated out into the river and downstream, while the downstream end actually moved upstream. It did this twice before I left, so who knows if it ever drifted downstream or just kept spinning there! Pretty cool stuff for a nature and science geek.
By the time I stepped on to dry land my feet were almost numb, but otherwise I felt pretty good. The dogs were noticeably cold from their bouncy behavior, but they weren't shivering or stressed out; in fact they were already exploring the woods while awaiting my return. Once I arrived, however, Beacon began trying to lead us back to the car - he was ready to go home. He was right, of course - we'd been out for half an hour and had a 15 minute hike back to the parking area so no need to hang around in wet clothes (or fur) when there's snow on the ground, even in a Michigan heat wave.
I wish I'd thought to get some photos of the ice shelf, but perhaps it was all the best that I had the camera and my cell phone stashed away in double ziploc bags. They both survived the dunking - luckily I took such precautions despite no intention of getting wet. Running in the woods with three dogs? Anything can happen! What a blast.
Bah, that's nothing. Just 30 minutes south of us they got seven inches of rain in one day! In fact, someone drove their car into a swollen river and died just a couple miles from our store.
Quit yer complaining! Yesterday in a 12-hour period the northwest lower peninsula of Michigan got ELEVEN inches of rain!! The primary highway was one of several roads that were washed out, leaving much of the area un-navigable by car.
Yet here in Michigan we're doing quite well... compared to Iowa. Some areas there are 15 FEET above flood stage, putting entire downtowns of major cities underwater. It's as bad as a smaller-scale Katrina, complete with failed levees and more at risk of being topped. Folks trying to evacuate are stranded by flooded roads and can only sit tight and hope the water doesn't rise much higher.
Amanda and I watched NBC News this evening to get some information about the disaster. Instead we learned how random people feel about Tim Russert.
For the entire 30 minutes of news time NBC interviewed various acquaintances of Russert interspersed with patchwork clips of the political host in past years. Obviously unscripted, many interviewees babbled aimlessly like a tired business manager trying to justify calling a Friday afternoon meeting. Some Kennedy matriarch was dragged off her airplane and interviewed live at the airport, where she rambled on until Brian Williams cut her off.
No offense to Russert; in fact, he was one of my favorite figures in the news media. His zealous enthusiasm was so magnetic that he reminded me of Steve Irwin, unable to hide the passion for his work.
But seriously, NBC. I know Russert was a huge figure in politics; I understand that he was a friend of many at the station. The capital city of one of our 50 states is underwater! Yet the nation's leading news program doesn't see fit to even mention the catastrophe because one of its smiling faces passed away?
Adding insult to the flooding injuries (and deaths), NBC implored viewers to stay tuned for a special memorial program for Tim Russert later in the evening. If they were already planning to give Russert his own broadcast, then at the very least they could've used even a few minutes of their precious half-hour news slot to do something special - cover the news.
Russert prided himself on staying focused on the issues regardless of which high-profile politician he was addressing. NBC should've done the same - both to honor Tim Russert and to respect the people drowning in Iowa.
As far as I'm concerned, if it's raining in January then it's a great day to go running. Rain means temperatures above freezing, in this case 44 degrees when I ran yesterday. 12 hours after my run it was in the single digits!
3.6 miles but only a 10-minute pace. That's actually my second speediest run as my hamstring recovers, but it's also clear that it can't handle anything much faster. It's frustrating because aside from that one single muscle, the rest of my body is raring to run.
I guess I'll have to heed Yoda's advice for the time being...
A few days ago we had some amazing foggy air during sunrise, so I hopped out into the yard with a camera to grab some of the scenery. Needless to say I was pretty happy with how some of the shots turned out.
97 degrees was the air this evening when Haven and I went for a run! Due to the heat, and due to my double workout yesterday (4 mile easy run at work, then 2 miles after work at 5K pace), Haven and I took it easy today. I carried a water bottle that was used as much for Haven as it was for me! We also stopped at the river twice and a small lake twice within our 3.5 miles to give Haven a cooling dip in the water each time.
This past week I've been slacking off with the blogging (although I did manage to compose an article about rental dogs yesterday) but I wasn't slacking with the race planning. I signed up for three events recently:
August 11 - The Legend (5 mile trail run)
August 18 - Fallsburg Marathon (26.2 mile trail run)
September 15 - Bridge Run (5K road run)
The Legend is just going to be for fun; I'll run it hard but not all-out race it, and see how it compares to my previous 5 mile trail run in April, the Road Ends Trail Run.
I signed up for the Fallsburg Marathon on a whim, so I have no idea how that's going to turn out. I haven't done any double-digit long runs in quite a while so I'm counting on my base of 750 miles so far this year to carry me through in somewhere between 5 and 6 hours. The reason I'm doing this event is because the course uses the very same North Country Trail sections and nearby roads that I regularly run - the race is in my backyard, so to speak. In fact, I ran the entire paved portion of the course by coincidence when I explored the countryside near home. Plus, the race director is planning to put on a 100K ultra here next year and I want to see how well this guy delivers as an organizer.
It looks like the Bridge Run could be my last attempt at setting a lifelong PR in the 5K. In October I'm doing the Bailey's Doggie Dash 5K but I don't want to do-or-die target a PR in that race since I'll have Haven and/or Beacon with me. The week after that I'm thinking of volunteering for the Grand Rapids Marathon instead of running it, so it'll be November before I get another shot at a fast and flat road 5K... if I need it (fingers crossed).
A fairly light week as I'm taking today off to rest up for my race tomorrow - a 4-mile run with my dogs! For the first time I'll be racing with both Haven and Beacon instead of just one dog, so we'll see how that goes. On Monday I took both of them out for a 4-mile training run to make sure everything works - my leash system, my dogs, and my feet. We managed an 8:47 pace in hot weather, so I think we'll be OK. I'm not going to be racing all out but I want to at least maintain a tempo pace if the dogs let me.
Tuesday was supposed to be a fartlek session that turned into suffering! Heat stress. I ran 3.3 miles of fartlek alternating between 7:00 and 9:30 paces (estimated) but on the way back I only managed a couple more speedy minutes before being overcome by the heat and having to walk! I actually walked about 15 minutes of the return trip and finished 24 oz of water well before getting home. I even got a headache, a good sign of heat stress. That was a long 6.7 miles!
Wednesday was a run at work and we maintained a 9:15 pace for our 5 miles despite all of us feeling hot and worn out. It's been hot here lately and it hasn't even hit 90 yet! At least the race tomorrow is at 0800 so it should be plenty cool for me and the pups.
What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.
Yahoo! - my primary source of general news, plus baseball boxscores
Google - for web-based email, maps, calendar, and their dozens of other useful features
GoodSearch - my primary search engine, which raises money for Vicky's Pet Connection
Aero News Network - the best aviation news service, anywhere
National Weather Service and Weather Underground - two top-notch weather sites
Minor League Ball - a blog by John Sickles, a brilliant guy who evaluates baseball talent
A Trail Runner's Blog - a blog by Scott Dunlap about distance running, mostly ultras
Why Run? and Why Dogs? - because I write them
Vox - of course :)
"April showers bring May flowers" so the saying goes, but I don't think those flowers had snow in mind! Isn't this crazy? But it makes for fun running - I ran some new trails today and got snowed on, a subject for the latest entry on my Why Run? blog. Here's the view out our front window this evening:
