Love the Seagulls!

You know how much I hate the cold.  Well, I'm here to tell you to forget Punxsutawney Phil's forecast this year!  6 more weeks of winter?  Nope, I disagree.  And it's all because of the seagulls.

I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and look what I found!

This doesn't begin to show how many were actually here.

You might wonder, "Are those mountains in the background?"  Why yes, they are.  We live in Central Virginia in the shadow of the Blue Ridge.  Those mountains are 15 minutes away.  So you might wonder why we've got seagulls here.  I've wondered that, myself.

I've heard they live at Smith Mountain Lake in the warmer months.  My parents live at the lake, but I don't think I've ever seen the gulls when visiting their house.  Maybe they prefer more touristy locations where people feed them.  I have no idea.

In any case, when I see the seagulls in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, it makes me feel like Spring is just around the corner.

So here's hoping for an early Spring!

"I Hate the Cold!!!"

Every Fall, my husband says he's going to keep a tally of how many times I utter this phrase until Spring arrives.

"I hate the cold!!!"

I think I blogged about this once years ago, as I seem to remember writing the sentence, "There are not enough strong words to emphasize how much I hate it."

I got up this morning, put on my running clothes and said, "OK, I'm going to get a long run knocked out so I have the whole day to work on schoolwork and other things."

Then I looked at the weather station info.  14.2* F.

14.2* F?????

14.2* F!!!!!

What the heck?  Is this Virginia or Maine?

So, here's the dilemma.  Run long on a treadmill (not a terrible option) or get suited up and as Nike says:  "Just do it."  The photo below is an old one.  I'll let you know which one I chose.

In case you are interested in my get-up there... I'm wearing an earband covered by a balaclava, a long-sleeved technical shirt (I'm guessing) under my running fleece, special mittens with finger glove-like things inside them, running tights, SmartWools, and Hoka shoes.

The Perfect Time to "X" - According to Weatherunderground

A week ago, I posted about the RunKeeper app and how wonderful it is.  You can track all kinds of activities (not just running), and set it up to sync to your SparkPeople fitness tracker.

I've got another app I used for many years before they recently came out with a neat feature that helps me with daily fitness planning.

WeatherUnderground now has "Smart Forecasts."  This will show you what times of day are perfect for your outdoor activity, based on parameters set by you.

You can choose from running, landscape photography, kite flying, biking, hiking, wildflower photography, walking, fishing, gardening, sailing, surfing, "ice possible" (I guess if you like sledding or skiing?), and star gazing.  You can have multiple smart forecasts, so you're not limited to choosing one activity.

When setting your parameters, you tell the WeatherUnderground app what conditions you're looking for.  You choose two settings for each weather condition - "acceptable" and "ideal" ranges.  Primary conditions include:  temperature, wind speed, chance of precipitation, and humidity.  Other conditions you can add include:  "feels like" (because wind and humidity affect what the outdoor temp actually feels like), wind direction, pressure, mugginess, rain intensity, snow intensity, dewpoint, cloud cover, and UV index.

One of the first things I do every morning is check the daily weather forecast (and my Smart Forecast) on my WeatherUnderground app.  It has a little bar graph that shows which times of day will be best for me to plan my run or walk.  The taller the bar, the better that time.  You can click on the day and it will spread the bar graph out so you can see it better, hour by hour.  You can click on a specific hour and it will tell you what the predicted conditions at that time will be.

For example, I see I can run comfortably outside for much of the day today, but I'd like to go around 10 AM.  I can see at 10 AM, WeatherUnderground predicts it will be 54*F with 5 mph winds, humidity at 78%, and only a 2% chance of precipitation.  Sounds pretty good to me!

Of course, it was never any trouble to look at a regular forecast and figure out when I wanted to be outside, but I have enjoyed my Smart Forecasts and thought I'd pass along the info.  Now for more info, in case you are a person who enjoys weather and gadgets...

Two years ago, we joined the WeatherUnderground as an official station.  My husband had wanted to do that for years and I surprised him with a weather station for his birthday.  It was quite easy to set up.  If you have wireless internet at your home and are interested in this, check out this one that was recommended by WeatherUnderground.  We and many other customers have been very satisfied, as evidenced by its high ratings on Amazon.

Ambient Weather WS-1001-WIFI OBSERVER Solar Powered Wireless WiFi Remote Monitoring Weather Station with Solar Radiation and UV

At the time we bought it, it was through WeatherUnderground.  They've got an official buying guide here where they list it and a couple others they recommend.

I hope some of you may have found this information useful!