Friday Fartlek

Happy FriYAY!

I didn't have a topic for today's post, in fact, I'm in kind of a blogging slump lately. I have a few drafts in the folder but I'm just not feeling those posts right now. I always have stuff on my mind, though. In the spirit of the Friday Five and keeping it brief, I thought I'd do a post of 5 random things.

So here's what's on my mind...

Hurricane Michael
And no, we aren't talking about my husband--although you should see my house right now. I probably should be cleaning it instead of blogging. Anyhoo, unless you live under a rock, you've heard all about Hurricane Michael and the devastation this storm left behind in the Florida Panhandle.  The storm strengthened so rapidly that no one expected this. I've vacationed multiple times in that part of Florida--from driving through Apalachicola to St George Island with my family to that super fun girls weekend with Holly and blogging friends in her beach house in Panama City Beach. I have lots of memories there, but not as many as Holly. Yesterday was very worrisome with the storm making landfall not far from where her house sits on the Gulf. I am happy to report that her house is ok. I'm not at all happy when I see the photos of all the destruction down there. It's going to be a while before the region makes a comeback.

Such a fun weekend with running blogger friends!
L-->R: Tricia, me, Karen, Marcia, Holly, Darlene; Judy in the back
Missing from photo is MaryBeth

Does She or Doesn't She?
Only her hairdresser knows. Those of us of a certain age--ahem--will remember the Clairol commercials that featured this tagline. So let's just say that I see my hairdresser every 4 weeks. Yesterday I while I was at the shampoo bowl, the assistant gave me the best scalp massage. It was like she was massaging away all my stress. She was excellent. It isn't always that way. You can tell by the way they handle the water sprayer. I never really thought about shampooing as a skill, but it really is. The worst by far was the assistant who kept me at the bowl for 30 minutes, shampooing and rinsing my hair. I felt trapped in the bowl. I tried to catch the eye of one of the stylists and eventually, she realized just how long I had been there. She took over and got me rinsed and out of the bowl quickly. The next day I woke up with a stiff neck and for a while after that, I had anxiety every time I had to get my hair washed.

Been there, had that happen

Everyone's on the run...
...or in a hurry. This past week alone, I've dealt with more than one angry motorist. On Tuesday's bike ride, I pulled out from my street onto the frontage road. Behind me was a minivan, who very aggressively passed me once he turned too. I'm pretty sure he floored it because he roared off down the road, leaving me in a trail of exhaust. My dad used to call it "blowing out the carbon". Dude, I know where you live. The temptation to ride to his house and confront him was great, but I let it go. This happened to me twice this week while running. The worst was at bootcamp when we were running a 400m down the street. A guy quickly pulled up to the intersection we were crossing and tried to turn left in front of us. We stayed the course. I bet he had to wait a whole 30 seconds for us to pass, but when he did pull out, he also floored it as he passed us.

It starts early...

Ghosting the Ghost Race
Lululemon did it to me again...they sucked me into another one of their virtual schemes runs. Have you heard of the Ghost Race? For the next 2 weeks, Lululemon and Strava are co-hosting a virtual 8k run in twelve cities around the country. Chicago is one of the cities and so I signed up, thinking that I could run this race in my neighborhood. It wasn't until I signed up that I realized I would have to run a course "carefully curated by Lululemon". That course is along the lakefront path. The exact start line is only marked on a map. There is no address. The course is supposed to be marked. According to the website, there is support on the course and Lululemon freebies. I'm planning on doing this on Sunday morning. Anyone want to join me?

like Donkey Kong...

Because I Care Enough to Send the Very Best
Guys, I baked yesterday. There's still laundry in the basket from Sunday and my house could use a good scrubbing, but we are making one last trek to Madison for my Badger's last home rugby game. He gave me a list of things to bring for him, like Tide Pods and ibuprofen. I put together a little care package for him including chocolate chip cookies. Not the healthy kind. The kind with butter and sugar. I have them all packed up and ready to go. Because if I left them out, they'd be all gone.

Any random stuff you want to share? Have you been affected by the latest hurricane? Is it me or does everyone have shampoo bowl phobia? What are we going to do about angry motorists? 
Who's running the Ghost Race? Do you think Lululemon is going to scam the participants again like they did last winter? What would you put in a care package for your college student?

I'm linking up with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday 5.