B-b-b-back inside

One of the side hobbies that sprouts from running is obsessive weather watching as race day approaches. The first ten-day forecasts including marathon Sunday in Houston started appearing yesterday. Weather.com shows showers and lo-40s/hi-50s for the weekend that I'm to run the Aramco Half.

It certainly could have been worse. I have genuine respect for the runners, volunteers and spectators that will show up at Sunday's USA Fit Marathon and Half Marathon in Sugar Land. An arctic airmass arrived yesterday and is expected to push nighttime temps below freezing for three days straight. Yikes!

For now, I've retreated to the comfort of the treadmill. I managed a ten-miler on Wednesday night. This included several breaks for calf stretches to alleviate some nagging discomfort from the same achilles tendon that gave me bigger grief earlier this year. Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good. I think I want to sneak in one more in the double-digits before race day.

In advance of the cold snap, I evacuated my hanging pots (strawberries) and flower boxes (nasturtiums) off the patio. As far as they're concerned, this week will be a balmy one as they spend time basking in the fluorescent glow of the kitchen lights. One strawberry plant is even in the middle of fruiting.

I'm already thinking ahead to what I want to do with the patio when warmer weather returns. Part of me thinks that just sticking to flowers would make my life easier. The tomatoes did somewhat OK, but demanded daily watering. Leafcutter worms massacred my Swiss chard. The most successful food crops out there in 2009 were the green beans and green onions.

Well, the spearmint is a runaway success, too, but I'd like to find more uses for the leaves other than generating an endless supply of mojitos!