I actually a little disappointed.

The bright side of winter

The weather forecasters promised us an epic blizzard, and I was looking forward to bundling up and confronting the first snowstorm of winter head on. When you’ve been running for 70 days straight, you welcome bad weather just to break up the routine.

But here in our area of Milwaukee we just got a whole lot of rain, ice, wind and a dusting of snow. Meanwhile, the entire rest of the midwest faced collapsing football domes and other signs of snowmageddon. I’m jealous.

I guess it was still an adventure to run in 30 MPH wind and 1 degree windchill for four miles. Thank the running gear gods for inventing balaclavas and thermal underwear. I was pretty comfortable.

I’ve also been saving a specific beer for such an occasion as today: The Picaroons Winter Warmer Strong Ale, which did exactly as the name promised. This beer was generously sent to me by Jason Wood from New Brunswick. They really know how to warm up in Canada. Thanks, Jason.

Speaking of beers, I’m now pretty regularly posting my consumption on Untappd, the best beer tracking service I’ve yet to encounter on the web. You can add me as a drinking buddy here.

It’s also been a week since we wrapped up the Team Challenge season with a half marathon race in Las Vegas, and I already miss all my training buddies. You can read my full-write up of the race on DailyMile.

I already know next time I’m in Vegas I’m headed back to the Burger Bar, which has an excellent selection of beer on tap, especially by Vegas standards.

I had a Lagunitas Brown Shugga and Mirror Pond IPA, which I both enthusiastically recommend for pre-race carbo loading. Afterward, I refueled with good old Pabst Blue Ribbon for a little taste of Wisconsin in Las Vegas.

So as of today, I think I’m now nearly 1/5 the way through my 365 day beer and running project. Time flies when you’re having fun.