New shoes at Prairie Oaks, new balms, tracking Hurricane Ian

Good Tuesday morning! I was off work again yesterday because I am working Tuesday through Saturday this week. So went back out to Prairie Oaks Metro Park for another 13 mile run.

I did my first run in a new pair of shoes. I like the wide toebox of the Altra shoes, but their trail shoes don't seem to last as long as other brands. I heard about Topo for a while and they seem to have great reviews so I found a pair of the Ultradventure shoes on sale. I loved them and was able to go at a decent pace with good padding under-foot. They were a little heavier than my Lone Peak shoes, but if they hold up more then I am sold!  

I have been spending a lot of time outside with the kids lately. I took Summer to play disc golf this weekend. We also went to a metro park and last night we went to the park, along with Evan, and played some basketball.

I also have been busy with my balms. I have been asked from time to time about mini sizes. That way the smaller ones can be stashed in a purse, pocket, or just to sample the other scents. So I now sell smaller versions.

Not reinventing the wheel, but just offering smaller versions of the hair/skin balms. For anyone unaware, I use organic and locally sourced products when I can. The beeswax comes from a local beekeeper in Pickaway County. I also have a vegan version that uses candellila wax instead of beeswax. The new small samples are only $1 on BalmByBuck.com. 

Another refreshing morning with cool temps and we warm into the lower 60s today, so a good day to grab a sweatshirt or light jacket. We have mostly clear skies this morning with temps in the 40s and then more clouds later today with a brisk northwest breeze. Scattered showers likely to pop up again today, especially the farther north you live. Clouds break up a little tonight with a low around 45. Winds will be out of the north tomorrow so the best chance for showers tomorrow will be areas directly south of Lake Erie, so more to the north/east. Highs tomorrow will be around 61 with a mix of sun and clouds. Thursday and Friday will be mostly sunny as highs climb to 64 Thursday and 69 on Friday.

Then we get to the weekend forecast and the forecast for Central Ohio depends on the track of Hurricane Ian. Right now, Ian has made landfall in Western Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane with 110 mph sustained winds. Ian will continue north and could become a Cat 4 Hurricane to the west of Key West, but still bringing high winds and torrential rains and surge to the Keys. Ian continues north and starts shifting close to Florida and makes landfall near the middle of the western coast of Florida, near Tampa. High storm surge and heavy rains for a lot of Florida. Then the storm will head north, and the track is a little uncertain if it will stay east of the Appalachian Mountains or drift a little to the west. Ohio may be on the far edge of some of the rain for later Saturday, Sunday, and early Monday. So right now, we are going to go with highs near 70 and a 30%/40% chance of rain for the 3 day stretch. If the storm does shift a little more east then we will likely miss the rain, but it will still be fairly cloudy for the weekend. So stay tuned to the forecast and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Gearing up for my next race, fall has arrived, Florida hurricane?

We have had some really nice weather lately. A little warm at times, but I was off earlier this week and once I dropped the kids off at school I was able to go run 13 miles out at Prairie Oaks metro park. Beautiful morning because the rain had moved out a couple hours before. Only got caught in one quick shower. My next race is in one month. I am running the Empower Backyard Ultra on October 22. This race is a backyard ultra where runners run 1 "yard", which is 4.1666 miles at the start of each hour. If you finish before the next hour then you rest until the start of the next hour. And you keep going until runners drop out or don't make it back in time. So the runner who keeps going the longest wins the race. I am excited to see how long I can go. I have a good buddy, Mike, helping to crew it and will be manning my tent so when I get back to camp I can rest before heading out for the next "yard". 

We have been monitoring Hurricane Fiona in the Atlantic, but a new tropical depression formed at 5AM today. This will likely become Hurricane Hermine and impact the gulf coast of Florida next week. Stay tuned to the forecast!

It is a chilly morning with temps dipping into the 40s, so grab the jacket! We will start the day with sunny skies and then more afternoon clouds as we warm to 66 for the high. More clouds tonight with a few sprinkles possible. Saturday will be mostly cloudy with a stray shower or two possible. A few peeks of sun possible Saturday with a high around 71. A warm front will lift through Saturday night for a few more showers overnight and then a 40% chance of rain on Sunday with scattered showers/storms and a high around 74. A cold front will pass through heading into early next week and our highs dip back into the 60s. A couple stray showers possible Monday and Tuesday, mainly north, with mostly cloudy skies and highs dipping back into the mid 60s. More sun Wednesday and Thursday, but we remain in the mid 60s for highs and overnight lows in the 40s. So our best chance of rain will be Sunday, but even that will be scattered; not widespread. Sunday is also our “warmest” day, in the mid 70s, but most of the 7-day will be chilly in the morning and cool in the afternoons. Welcome to Fall! Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Checking in...

Hello! It has been a while. A lot going on over the summer. We had the funeral for my grandmother in July and that was a whirlwind of events. Then a couple days later we had scheduled to leave for Michigan for a family vacation. It was a lot of fun spending time with the kids fishing in the mornings.

We had a great time in Southwestern Michigan. We did some dune riding and spent lots of time at the beach in Grand Haven. Such a great place to take a family vacation.

The garden has been doing pretty well! We made some salsa again this year, but the tomatoes have slowed down their turn from green to red. Lots of green tomatoes right now. 

We spent Labor Day in Cleveland to visit Dawn's family. We also went downtown to watch part of the air show. Such a great show and we really enjoyed the Blue Angels flight. 

Fall and early winter is normally one of the busiest times for Balm By Buck. I realized yesterday that I never actually wrote a mission statement. I always knew why I wanted to make the product. Now I use this product for so many things. At first it was just to style my hair each morning. But then I found out that it works great as a barrier for my skin & face on really windy, cold winter days to keep my skin from drying out. It also works great as an anti-chafe barrier to avoid hot spots and blisters when I am doing really long runs. 

We have a beautiful stretch of weather on the way! Today we have a couple pockets of fog, but we will become mostly sunny this afternoon with high temps in the upper 70s. There may be a stray shower, but most of us will remain dry until late Saturday. So a very pleasant afternoon today. Cool and mostly clear tonight with low temps in the upper 50s. Mostly sunny for Thursday and Friday with highs in the lower 80s. Cool mornings then warm afternoons with low humidity. Enjoy the warm sun! Saturday we will see more clouds and high temps around 80. Some isolated showers and storms later in the day possible. More scattered showers and storms on Sunday and Monday with high temps dipping back into the 70s. Some of the rain may linger into Tuesday, but the bulk of the rain will likely be Sunday into Monday. High temps likely staying in the 70s through the end of next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael