Groundhog ... used shoes ... and a veggie pizza!

Groundhog
I have several inches of  new snow in my yard with 20mph winds creating 3-4' drifts ... so we will have 6 more weeks of winter even though that glorified mole Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today. (I heard on the news that places in Wisconsin can get 10-15' drifts???)  Guess I need to start cross country skiing!  BTW, bet I'm the only person with a picture of a real groundhog! These things are huge in real life!

Madi & me at her 10K this weekend ...
yeh I know, I posted this pic already ... but c'mon, it's a groundhog!

Used Shoes 
As you know, I'm a very new citizen of the "blogosphere", so this has probably been discussed a million times ... but what do you do with all of your old running shoes?

Waaaaaaaaay too many shoes at the Weatherly training center

Currently, I have four pairs of shoes in my rotation.  When I get a new pair about every 300-400 miles, it goes to the front of the "long run" line.  The others then get pushed back to weekly training.  I run in Brooks, almost exclusively. We buy all of our shoes from http://www.roadrunnersports.com/ .   It's a great site with reasonable prices, and you can always find a coupon code on the internet.  Typically, we can get all our stuff at about 20% off retail.  I try to support my local running stores Gary Gribble's Running Sports when possible, but we buy so many pairs of shoes, we have to save where possible.

Brooks Ghost 3

Last year I ran about 2500 miles.  And since I'm not a barefoot runner, I go through shoes pretty fast.  I usually sentence one used pair to a life-time of lawn duty in the summer.  One lucky pair gets to become my, "wear with jeans" pair (typically its the cleanest of the road warriors).  And still another is usually given to my son Gage.  We wear about the same size.

But what to do with the all the others?  There are several charitable organizations that pickup once a month in our neighborhood, and sometimes they go there.  But a few years ago I ran across this article in Runner's World, and I just found the online version last night.  It lists several groups that take used running shoes like Soles4Souls, Hope Runs, and Shoe4Africa.  Please go to their websites and read more, they all do an amazing job getting shoes to those who can't afford them, or don't have access.  And the next time you getting ready to toss an old pair, maybe give one of these groups a try!

Pizza
Now to the pizza ...We had a snow day yesterday, and probably all day today too.  Michael worked from home and tried a few new recipes.  It was like having my own personal chef.  She's been reading a lot of Jason's, of Life Of An Aspiring Triathlete recipe ideas.  I know nothing about cooking except for open mouth ... insert prepared food.  She made this AMAZING veggie pizza today.  That's the actual photo!  I'm not gonna give you the recipe because based on what I would write down, you'd end up making a cheese cake or pigs-in-the-blanket or something.  But Michael is starting her own blog soon and she will have the recipe.  In addition, I'm sure you can find the magic formula at Jason's site.  It was awesome!  Hope your snowy week is going as good as mine ... I'm eating great so far!
...be great today!