I don't care if it's February, I'm calling this springtime

For all you cynics out there (Micah) who says it's only a couple days of nice weather, I say NO!  I saw a guy in shorts, sandals, and a sleeveless shirt today.  Normally I would never trust a man wearing a sleeveless shirt outside of a gym but since this guy's saying what I want to hear, I'll drink that glass of kool-aid.  It's spring, dagnabbit. 

Weekdays mean short runs (between 2 and 5 miles) and today is the first day this year I have been able to run a quality short run outside.  Sure I was dodging Lake Michigan-sized puddles

but I will gladly take the puddles over inch-thick-ankle-spraining-icy sidewalks.

We ran a little over two miles tonight, just to get the blood flowing.  The first loop we averaged 10:22 min miles.  The second was 8:14 min miles.  The difference?  1 squirrel and 1 dog at the .0001 mile marker.  Sota hasn't seen a squirrel in over 2 months, so when we saw this jerk running across the electric lines I knew we had a problem.  First she stands on her hind legs and whines.  Then the screaming begins.  The sounds that came out of this animal rivaled those of a mob of 12 year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.  Cars slowed down to see what the problem was.  Mothers hugged their children closer.  Micah and Buttercup walked away like they didn't know us.  I dragged her away from the squirrel and settled her down to the point of only semi-embarrassment, just to the point where Micah would wave at me if I said hello.  But she looked for that squirrel for the rest of the run.  She dragged me through bushes, snow banks, and puddles for the rest of the mile ready to pounce on anything that moved.  Needless to say, once we were back at the house she was thrown inside so Micah and I could continue on our run sans crazy monster dog.  Add desensitizing my neurotic pet to small critters to my list of things to do.




Yay spring.