Steve's first spring training setback...

And it's not what I thought it would be. When I first planned an early spring half-marathon goal, I figured I'd have some setbacks. Weather, sickness, and of course, more encounters with my canine companions came to mind. Forget about weather because we've had one of the warmest Januaries on record. No sickness or puppy dog teeth in my legs either, so....

V.P.'s and Managers and Schedulers - Oh My!

I forgot about one other thing that could get in the way. Yes, I do have a reason for being here in Romania besides running in Europe. That reason is my job. So, because my project is so hopelessly behind, we had a ton of visitors this week from the monster corporation that I work for to help us get back on track.

Unfortunately, getting us back on track kept me off the track (and any other running surface) by throwing off my running schedule this week. Bummer! Instead of sitting somewhere close to 100 miles for the month, I'm stuck at 83 with only 7.5 miles in the bank this week - pathetic. Fortunately, the big shots leave early tomorrow morning and I have 4 days left to salvage this month. So we'll see what happens.

Long run Saturday

Another spectacular un-winterlike day in Bucharest for today's long run. Some of the Romanians are already worried about having a hot summer....sheeesh. I thought I was negative - Summer is 6 months away!

Carbohydrate Fornetti Loading

Anyway, Before running, I had to make a trip to Selgros (think Sam's Club, but European) to pick up some supplies for the return on the Helpmeet and Maria. Since I only ate cereal for breakfast, I needed to fuel up before the run. Selgros is a perfect place for this since they have a Fornetti stand inside the store.

I know I talked about Fornetti before, but they just rock so I'm mentioning them again. For about 40 cents, you get a 100 gram serving size. In the picture, you see a 100 gram serving of mere (apple). I also ordered some carnaţi (sausage), but...uh....they didn't survive the drive back to the apartment.

On the package, "poftă bună" is the Romanian version of "Bon Apetit". The advertising slogan translates "Obvious Quality" (top) and "Perfect Solution" (bottom) or something like that. Just trust me, they're yummy.

The run was nice. I headed over to Parcul National for a few laps around Stadiul National. Lots of pick up soccer and "soccer-tennis" games going on all over the area. I then headed over to the nicer section of Parcul Titan for the 2nd half of this 10 miler. The dredging appears to be done at the Lake, but its still a muddy mess in spots, so I stayed away from there. Having my GPS back, its not as boring to run in the smaller sections of the park because I can vary the paths I take and still know my distance (which of course, for this engineer, "este foarte important").

Plenty of old people and young couples with little ones strolling the park today. A big group of kids and parents were watching a "veverita roşu" (red squirrel) that was out and about. I have to get a picture of these squirrels. Anyhow, with another spectacular stir-fry concoction for my post run meal (I was busy chowing down before I thought of another picture), another productive Saturday of running in Romania is in the books.

Steve gets a real life running partner...

My fancy schmancy GPS watch makes a nice running companion, but in reality every one of my training runs in the last year have been solo. However, yesterday I actually had a little company at Herestreau Park. John Lewis, a missionary who also attends our church, joined me for about 4 miles on a beautiful January day. It's hard to believe we are nearly in the middle of the winter here and temperatures have been around 50 F for several days now. I'm not complaining either, so keep on burning those fossil fuels, heh heh heh.

Steve's first guest runner!

John and I have been talking about getting together for a run for about 2 months or so, but our schedules and the weather have not been cooperating. Yesterday, it all came together. It was fun to run and chit chat. I did notice however, that the Romanian youth will laugh at you anyway, whether you are alone or not. Anyway, back to John. John has been here in Bucharest for almost 2 years with his wife, Sommer and two daughters, Sarah and younger Hannah. Here's a pic, shamelessly borrowed from John's website.

John is affiliated with the Assemblies of God in the U.S. He is working with the street kids of Romania (there are many here). Many of these kids are outside of the orphanage system, a system which isn't real good anyway, and are homeless. John has a really cool website will all sorts of information about what's going on in this important ministry area. Check it out here.

The new year begins!

In case your wondering, I'm alive and well in Bucharest. I arrived on Tuesday Jan 2. It was actually a nice day - mid 40's and dry and for January that is great. I looked forward to getting a little sleep and getting back to running on Wed. So, the nice weather lasted less than 24hrs. I woke up on Wednesday to a lovely cold rain. While I was at work, this rain changed to snow. We got about 2"-3" of snow before it changed back to rain for the rest of the day. This slushy mixture then froze overnight - lovely.

What was I thinking!

If you followed my recent blog contest, then you know I will running a half-marathon on March 25 in Vienna. What this means is that, in order to avoid embarrassing myself in front of a couple thousand Austrians, I actually have to train during the entire Romanian winter. Oh well, the plane tickets are purchased and I already told Maria she was running the 2km youth race. I guess I could back out and just watch Maria's race, but that would mean I would be the laughing stock of my massive 5 or so person blog audience - we can't have that.

Steve's training partner returns, better than ever (sort of)

The good news is that Steve does not have to train all winter alone. When we last saw Steve's training buddy, the fancy-schmancy GPS watch, he was critically ill. We saw him attached to live support (the charger) unable to function on his own. How sad. Well a new year has dawned and Steve and his fancy-schmancy watch are together again! What a sweet ending. Ok, that's not really true. What the watch manufacturer did was replace Steve's friend with a totally new watch. The old one was most likely destroyed or cannibalized for parts, but in the interest of telling a compelling and inspiring story - just work with me on this. Take a look at the happy couple. Awwwwwwww!


Week wrap up

So anyway, this week I slogged through the slush and mud and tallied 20 miles on 3 runs. Not bad for a travel week. The good news is that the temperatures are soaring right now and things are drying out. 50 degree temperatures are forecast for most of the next week. This could be one of the warmest January's in a long time, which is just fine with me!

Bring on the doggies!

Now, I'll put in the final chapter of the biting incident. I received rabies shot #4 in the US thanks to my lovely, awesome, but "not quite nurse material" Helpmeet. Actually, it really wasn't too bad, the needle just didn't quite go deep enough, so we think. The bump did go down after a couple of hours, no harm, no foul. For the final shot #5, I was back in Bucharest and Miheala Bucur (shot #3's injector) did the honors with daughter Alexa looking on intently of course.

Now that I'm Rabies-Proof for 2007 I have a new dog strategy. It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. So, if I start getting chased by anything smaller than say...for instance a pitbull, I'm going to stop, turn and fight to the death! I figure this is better than giving them something to chase. I tested my new strategy on Saturday with a really aggressive rodent-sized dog (think daschund, but skinnier and less ferocious - if that's possible). This little thing was walking with a really nice older lady. When I passed them, he growled and took off in pursuit. Instead of playing the victim, I immediately stopped, turned around and faced him in my most fearsome "tough guy" stance. The poor thing gave a yelp, turned and ran back between the poor old lady's legs. I had to repeat this 3 times because the little stinker got his courage back every time I turned back to run. Ha Ha! Victory is mine.