Stacy's Blog

8:37 pace. Sunny and in the 40's and no wind. Awesome. I had to stop and welcome the geese back to the northland. They flew right over me. Thousands of them! Hopefully the storm will stay north of us. 

It is official: Fargo, North Dakota is the toughest weather city in the country per the weather channel. The voting was close in the last round, but Fargo beat out Bradford, PA.  

An easy 3 with Ron and the dogs. Water, water everywhere and the dogs loved it! My hamstrings were tight, but the sun was out and the sky was blue and the temp was warm. Aaaaahhh! 

Red River is above flood stage. Will be at major flood stage by Thursday.

Not sure what the prediction is for the Sheyenne. Our town hasn't deployed sandbags yet. Just waiting and watching. 

First 4.1 was @ 8:14 pace and that was an effort. Last 2 I kept under 9:00, but did not feel real great today. My sinuses are still full and the wind was a factor. Not going to complain about the wind today. It helps dry things up and we need all the help we can get. Some of my route looks like lake front. Ducks, geese and waves.

They are predicting the Red will be at 39 feet on Sunday. Record was 2 years ago at 40.8. The Fargo Mayor is predicting a crest of 40.5. He should know he has been fighting floods his whole career. I checked the river gage on the Sheyenne and they have it staying at moderate flood stage. But like Ron said it usually breaks out before it hits major stage. Still waiting and watching.

We can finally see grass in our front yard! Woohoo!  

Easy run with Ron and the dogs @ 8:57 pace.  Temp. 45. Warmest day since November! 

So I intended to do 3 timed miles. I just wasn't feeling it. So I did 2. I felt great yesterday and my head was clear. Then today my throat is scratchy and my sinuses were bothering me. I'm thinking it might be all the snow mold. 

1 @ 7:07 pace

400 recovery

2 @ 6:58 pace

400 recovery

Rest of the run was slow and easy and soaking up the sun. Temp hit 50 woohoo!

Roads are under water everywhere. Ron had to take a different route home. When the river hits 39 feet he will be working 12 hour shifts. He always leaves me when there is a disaster.

 We have to go to the Cities Saturday, so I decided to do my long run today. Spectacular spring day! The temp must have been close to 60. It was windy, so some of the run was a "hill workout".  I didn't feel great, but the nice day took my mind off the run. I haven't run this many miles since October. I was feeling it. Looking forward to a couple of rest days.

The Red isn't rising as fast, which is good. They are still holding to a 39-41 ft. crest. Ron's prediction is 38.46. He was only .2 off last year. So the pressure is on. :)  So what do you all do for fun in ND? In my best Scandinavian accent: "Well we have alot of fun in the spring. We guess what the river crest's will be during the flood! Ya sure, you betchya! Dontchya know!"

It was a cold, windy, rainy (like we need that right now) day. I decided not to battle the weather. TM @ 8:34 pace. Nothing special. 

As long as our sump pump keeps running (every 20 seconds) we should stay dry. We plugged the drains in the basement today. The sanitary sewer is having trouble keeping up.

The Red crested Saturday night at 38.75. Fourth highest flood on record. Fargo is doing ok, it is the rural towns and residents that are just getting hammered by the smaller rivers and overland flooding. It is heartbreaking to watch how these people have tried to save their homes for the last few weeks and they finally can't do it any more and have to be evacuated. Especially the older residents. They rescued an 87 year old veteran on Friday from his home. He had a sandbag dike and pumps, but the water was coming at him from all sides and it just proved to much for him. He said he is done fighting the water. This is the third year in a row that he had tried to keep his home safe and failed. 

Spring days don't get much better! Ran 3 with the dogs. Did more stopping and starting for the first 3 as the water has finally dropped in the ditches and the dogs spent most of their miles splashing and swimming. Second 1/2 was a good run in the warm sun @8:30 pace. Just a great day to be outside. Another nice day tomorrow, then turning chilly again. 

Didn't even make it to 40 today. I was going to run outside, then I walked outside. The wind was gale force and it was cold and I am so over cold and windy. So I turned around walked back inside and ran on the treadmill. For all the complaining I do about the TM, I am glad I have it on days like this.

1 warm up

2 @8:13

3 @8:00

4 @7:41

5 @8:13

6 cool down

One of Kaylie's students lost his house on Saturday to flood waters. Another student would have lost her house yesterday, but the National Guard got there in time. As the Red goes down the Sheyenne goes up. Valley City is scrambling and Lisbon as they raised the crest 2 ft. We have a meeting in town tomorrow night to hear what we can expect. Roads are washed out everywhere and the Sheyenne is already breaking out east of us and causing problems. Nothing new, it did the same thing in '09 and '10.  But the sun is shining and the snow is almost gone!

Weather was much better today. Snow storm tomorrow. Ugh! 

Ran with Ron around the truck route. Nice and easy. We talked for most of the run. Always nice to bond. :)  Got home, ate a quick supper, then headed to the flood meeting. Nothing new, really. We have done this before. Sheyenne gets high, breaks out east and west of town, floods rural residents, washes out roads, stays high for weeks and weeks, then drops back down to normal and we are all stuck with a summer of closed roads, corn stalks rotting in the ditches and mosquitos. Same story, new year. 

Temp 33 and quite wintery. So far we only have a skiff of snow. Hopefully we won't get any more. Tara said Bismarck got several inches. Yuk!

Did an out and back on the bike path @ 8:06 pace. I'm pleased with that considering I felt great on the way out and wanted to quit on the way back. Not sure what happened. I was pushing the wind, but it wasn't that strong. Long run tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Great run today in spite of the weather. Ron and I drove to a different route and did an out and back. We had to drive through water to get there. I think they will have part of the road closed in the next few days as the water was really rushing over it and starting to chew it up pretty good. The out was great until we came to a 50 foot chasm that used to be the road. The culvert was gone and all the pavement was at the bottom. So we had to make some adjustments. The back was slightly uphill, pushing the wind, but I felt really good for the whole run. Ron struggled a little but he had a good day too.

I finally broke the 30 mile mark for the week. Yay! My mileage is not where I would like to be for the year. But I am happy with this week. 

I am really starting to lose my sense of humor with the weather. Honestly, this is April. We don't need any more snow! Sheesh, this is getting old. 

Ok, now on to the run. Took it easy today. My legs were really tired for the first half. Things got better on the last half. Dogs went 4. They needed to get out. We were here and there all weekend and every time we left the dogs were looking at us like "ok is it our turn now?" 

Another gray day. Temp 40ish. Not really a bad day. 40 doesn't feel that cold now that I'm not running on an ice cube anymore. My legs were really tired again. Hmmm?

4 miles @ 8:06

2 miles @ 8:46 

I would like to say this was an easy run. I wanted to do 5, but my legs are heavy and sluggish. Maybe 34 miles last week was a little much. I don't know. I would really like to keep my mileage up, but I learned along time ago to listen to my body. Rest tomorrow and maybe X train on Friday. I plan to do 11 on Saturday. I am a little frustrated. 

Awesome run! The 2 days rest really helped. Ron and I went into Fargo to run. We needed a change of scenery and all the roads are closed out here. You can run about a mile in any direction and run into a road closed sign. The Sheyenne river is flowing all over the countryside and they are saying it will be at least another 10 days before it shows any signs of slowing down. The main highway just west of us is closed now because the road was breaking up. Not sure what the school is going to do. Some of the kids and teachers have to drive 50 miles at least out of the way just to get to school. But the sun is shining and the temps are warming. Yea!

Happy Easter! 

Another great spring day! Temp 65. I actually got hot today on the run. Not complaining. The dogs did 3 and it was a good thing they had water to splash in because it was to hot for them. We did an out and back, out and back. Water, water water. Several driveways are under water. You can tell if the resident is home if their car is at the end of the drive. If their boat, tractor or 4-wheeler is at the end, they aren't home.

Back outside for more yard work. Ron teases me every year, that from now until the end of September he will have to move the kitchen outside if he wants to eat.  So true.

Had things to do in Fargo, so we ran in town. I definitely enjoy the change. The evening was perfect. I did some speed work for 4 miles, then enjoyed the evening for the rest of the run. Ron ran 5+. He doesn't get to run as much so he struggles with his pace. He gets frustrated he is not as fast as his younger days.

1@8:18

2@7:42

3@7:37

4@7:51

5@9:32

6@8:38

7@8:28 

Perfect North Dakota spring evening. Light breeze, no bugs, great sunset. Went 3 with Ron and the dogs, 4 alone. Pace 8:52. The place we turn around with the dogs has about 2 1/2 feet of water in the ditch from the river breakout and it is moving fast so the culvert has a whirlpool and is making this sucking sound. Of course the dogs are curious and I had to yell at both of them to get away. If they get in that, it will suck them right through the culvert. Ron threw a stick in and about 10 seconds later it popped out the other side. I think we will turn around a little sooner next time. Hopefully the river will start dropping this weekend. All this water is really getting old and we aren't even fighting it like so many others are. 

Prayers for you all down south.  

I am looking forward to a couple of rest days. We are off to Bismarck tomorrow for Tara's awards banquet and to help her move. She is staying in Biz. this summer. Ron and I will officially be empty nesters. sigh. Next year at this time we will be going to her graduation. sigh.

Ran 11 in Fargo. I went in this morning and I am glad I did. The wind was a bit brisk during the run and I ran against it for 2/3 of the run. Now it is around 40-45mph. At least it is drying things out. It's also causing major white caps on the farm fields.