Treadmill change of heart

Running:
In previous years I’ve done whatever I could to avoid the treadmill. This year I’m having a little change of heart. I have decided at least when my runs are short I will treat the treadmill as my friend not something to be avoided. This will be true only until the roads clear and my runs increase in distance as training progresses. I’ve actually used the treadmill several times over the past few weeks. Sometimes for convenience, sometimes because of the weather, and lately because of the conditions of the road. None of my runs this month have been over 5 miles nor much over 40 minutes. The treadmill can be bearable for that short of a time period. Last week I ran all seven days for a total of 34 miles. This week through today I am up to 20 miles on 4 days of running. My outside runs continue to be watch less. On the treadmill I sometimes run steady 8 minute miles other times I run 8:30’s and a 6:00 last mile. I probably won’t start increasing my weekly mileage until the week of 1/10 when all of the hunting seasons are over with.
Totals through today:
WTD 20
MTD 69
YTD 2035
ODO 27201



Hunting:
December 9th through the 12th was an antlerless only season through the whole state of Wisconsin. In this neck of the woods you could use gun or bow. I didn’t get out much for any of it. The motivation to go out to only have a chance to get a doe put a damper on things. I wasn’t able to get out of work early enough to get out on Thursday or Friday. On Saturday I did get out in the afternoon in the back yard, but it was pretty nasty. A storm had started and the precipitation began as rain. It was raining pretty hard while I was out there and this continued through most of the night. The deer just were not moving. Overnight it got colder so by morning we got some snow. The snow continued a bit through the morning and into the afternoon. Sunday afternoon I got out again after shoveling out, but this time the wind had really picked up. There were gusts well over 40 MPH. Again the deer were not moving. Wouldn’t you know on Monday afternoon I got home a little early because of a dentist appointment and there were all kinds of deer out in the back as night fell. One was a buck that I could tell. Not sure if it was big enough that I would want to take it but it was fun to watch. I might get my decoy out during these last few weeks and see if that does anything to draw them in. I’ve had lots of fun using it in past years.

Gardening:
Despite the temperature going below freezing and staying there for a fairly long time the pond is doing OK so far. The biggest problem right now is when the water level drops because too much of the water is locked up as ice. When this happens I drag a hose from a basement hookup and melt some of it by running hot water until the level rises again. Cleaning the filters and some of the dead vegetation is a lot harder when you are sticking your hands in the freezing water.