What Happened to Winter?

I'm not complaining, but it almost seems like winter forgot New York this year. Sure we've had a handful of cold days, but we've had almost no snow and plenty of above average temps. Last year it seemed like we had the winter that would never end. I remember being forced into quite a few treadmill runs simply because the road was too icy. This entire week, however, it's been near 40 when I've hit the pavement.

This lack of snow and ice has removed one of the biggest downsides to winter running and the other, perpetual darkness, is on it's way out. It's finally starting to get light early enough that at least part of every run has some sunlight. That's a big improvement over earlier in the winter where I could do my entire run in darkness and only see the sun between my apartment and the subway--it was gone by the time I finished work.

The good thing about this mild winter is that I'm not spending every moment complaining about the cold and wishing for summer. The bad thing? It has me worried I might be pushing my luck. I've run Boston the past two years and have been extremely fortunate with the weather both times. However, Old Man Winter still has plenty of time to rear his ugly head. I just hope he doesn't decide to come back from vacation just in time for Patriot's Day!

What do you think? Do we still have a dose of winter on the way?

For the Love of Basketball (With a Little Love for the Treadmill)

I don't have cable TV. I know I'm one of the few folks out there, but 90% of the time it just doesn't seem worth it. Most of the shows I like are on network television and if not, they're on Netflix or Hulu. However, there is one big problem with not having cable--NCAA basketball.

Photo credit: Richard Lipski/Associated Press

I'm a Georgetown grad and while I may not watch every basketball game (I didn't get season tickets until my senior year), I try and keep up with the Hoyas as much as possible. Unfortunately, without cable, it's hard to watch most games from the comfort of my own home. Usually I have to go to a bar to catch a game and going to a bar means consuming a variety of things that don't really contribute to my training and spending money I don't really have.

Well, yesterday I found the perfect solution--they gym! The treadmills at my gym are all hooked up to TVs--TVs with ESPN. Now I hate running on treadmill so much I call it the dreadmill, but my love of the Blue and Gray is strong enough to counteract [some of] that hate. With a recovery run on the schedule, it was easy enough to pick a pace and an easy incline, plug in my headphones, and almost forget I was running on a treadmill.

I will say that watching such a close game between Georgetown and St John's was a pretty good distraction. I ended up logging 9.2 miles when I had only meant to do 6 just because I didn't want to miss the end of the game. This may become my new healthy way of cheering on the Hoyas.