February?

Hasn't been much of a winter since the beginning of January. Last weekend a monster storm blew south of us and yesterday we were cheated out of what was supposed to be up to a foot. I have yet to break out the XCD's this winter...and that makes me sad.

The upside is that since it hasn't snowed and since we had a January thaw, the trails are pretty much free and clear. I've been able to trail run and if things stay this way, I'm getting the mountain bike out on the trails next weekend. Cabin fever be damned and it's not in the budget to head north right now, so I'm going to find ways to get outside.

Tomorrow is spin class (serving as my main cycling training right now since the Oak Grove Bike Incident) and then trail running on Saturday. I'm off the road until mid-March when I fly back to Utah for a week so I need to ramp up with the first EFTA race of the year approaching in six weeks.

And if winter decides he wants to show up and drop some pow, let me take advantage of those fun trails at the Fells on something other than sneakers or wheels, well, that'd be fine. For now, I'll work with what I got!

Training!

I started doing Mark Verstegen's Core Performance Endurance and it's a great program. I've always been a fan of Core Performance but it's amazing to do the exercises that are specific for endurance athletes. Also, despite a week of inactivity due to the Outdoor Retailer show in SLC, I've been getting after it in spin class and on the trail. Yesterday I did the Crystal Springs trail at the Fells twice (just over three miles) and the ankle came through in fine fashion. For running that's going to be my thing for a while. Small distances, few times a week, just rebuilding strength. Cycling will be spin class until winter decides what it's doing. It's freezing now but we had a warm snap last week that melted most of our snow. If that happens again with no dumps on the horizon than maybe we start riding trails early this year!

The first race I'm officially registered for is the Greenhorn AR in Flintstone MD. I'll be racing with my brother and it will be his first AR. Short race, but perfect length to get the ankle back into action. Our team name is Forty Six and True; a play on the Tool song Forty Six and 2 (watch this video to get a sense of what it's about). Also pumped for my brother to cut his teeth in the endurance world. It's a short race, and we're aiming for a podium finish.

I'm hoping that the first race of the year will be an EFTA race, the Burlingame Time Trial on March 28. After that and the Greenhorn, it will be just trying to squeeze in a few more mountain bike races before we head back west. Bottom line is...it's fun to be training again! I forgot how well I sleep when I'm hammering myself every day.

Nighttime Snowshoe Hike

Getting a nice little storm here on the North Shore. Not a typical Nor'easter, but the wind is still whipping and a storm that is backing in off of the ocean is laying down what will hopefully be our base until April. The last big storm we got melted off with some warm weather over Christmas, so hopefully this one sticks around.

Tonight we went over to the Fells for a little snowshoeing by headlamp. Lily as always performed beautifully and it was great to be out in the dark on fresh pow. As if on cue the intensity of the snow picked up as did the wind making for a brisk night. We rewarded ourselves with cocoa when we got home.

Winter is the most underrated season. Most people hate it, but mostly because they fail to see past the minor inconveniences of the cold and ice and find the beauty that comes with the darkest time of the year. Winter should be a time of reflection and a reminder that sometimes it's good for things not to be so easy. It makes us appreciate the days when we can throw on some shorts and a t-shirt with some flips and roll out the door. Winter gets a bad rep...folks need to see beyond what is obvious and find the beauty and amazement hidden within.

Progress

So my experiment is working the way I hoped it would. I've now run four days in a row. A little jaunt on Christmas Eve, two 25 minute runs on Christmas and the day after and today I did 3.2 miles, half of which on trails. I was going to go to the gym today, but it was in the low 50's when the sun popped out this afternoon so I said the hell with it and had my best run since last June 25 (literally).

Each day things seem to improve so I'm going to do my best not to over do it and keep building and making progress. But I have to tell you...it's pure bliss to be running again. I missed it, but I didn't realize how much. I absolutely love tying up the shoes and just leaving the front door to get in a great workout. A set back at this point would be just an awful turn of fate...but one I can't control. So I'm taking the optimistic view and hoping that it continues to go well.

I sing...poorly.

Check me out singing and screwing up other people's songs!

King Kong On My Back

Cover of the Pondering Judd tune (my fave by them).

Silo Song

Cover of the Chris Pureka tune.

Solstice Hike

So we're not a very religious crew, however if there is an established religion that we are drawn to and dig their ideals it's Paganism. Pagans worship the earth and most of and the best of Christian practices were lifted from the Pagans. Yearly, there are two big days in the Pagan calendar; Samhain (Halloween) and the Winter Solstice. Every year on the Solstice, the family and I get outside to celebrate the Earth and then following some traditional Pagan guidelines we have our own Solstice ritual celebrating the rebirth of the sun. Good times!

This year we have to head to Scranton, PA for some family business on the Solstice (tomorrow, the 21st). So with the Nor'easter raging outside we decided to have our outdoor celebration today (20th) and then do our ritual on Christmas Eve. Like I said, we're not dedicated to the religion just yet, but we do love our traditions.

We woke up this morning to 7 inches of fresh out our door. Carli was out in the storm by 6:30 to do a Starbucks run and shortly after her return we had loaded the car with snowshoes, poles and Kennebunk and we were off to the Middlesex Fells.

This was Lily's second time on her snowshoes and she rocked it! She was all smiles despite the still fast falling snow and the wind whipping it into our faces. We have to leave for Scranton by Noon so we kept the hike to about an hour, just a quick out and back, but enough to enjoy nature and remember that it's because of this amazing place called Earth that we can be who we are and do what we do. Happy Solstice.

"We are men of action, lies do not become us."

-The Princess Bride

My left ankle. New strategy. I've spent the last year and a half doing rehab, pushing too far, setting back, pushing too far and resigning myself to days at the gym with no running or cycling. I'm not nearly patient enough to endure this any longer.

Intuition reveals itself in funny ways. Religious folks believe if they pray hard enough, the answer will come to them through the mouth of God (or sonny Jesus to quote the toughest screw every to walk Shawshank). Some say it's the fact that they've given birth that allows them to see what needs to be done or know what will happen. Not sure what it was with me, but the other night as I was walking to my car in mesh shorts and a tech tee on my way to the gym, I decided that was going to jog around the block, just to see what would happen.

Until that moment my strategy was going to be rehab, strength and stretching for another 3-4 weeks to see what kind of improvement I was experience. If it was little to none I was going to head back to the doctor for a referral to a specialist and perhaps a second MRI. So this decision to run around the block was contrary to what I had laid out for myself. But the little voice spoke and I didn't argue. I didn't go back in to change into more appropriate running clothing or put my keys away; I walked down the driveway, and starting a light jog around our miniscule block.

As expected the ankle hurt in all the usual places but I figured if nothing else it would feel good just to feel my heart rate up and all the usual running perks. But over the course of the 2-3 minutes it took to round our block, my mind formulated a new strategy: to start running regardless of the pain. I'd go every other day and in between I'd continue to strengthen and do all my PT exercises. Not sure why this makes sense, it just does. The only time my ankle has felt good recently is after stretching or working it, so why not run through the pain?

I ran a little bit longer the day before yesterday, last night at the gym I did a few laps on the track and today I got out for 15 minutes. There are moments that it hurts, but it's nothing I can't run through. The bottom line for me is I don't want to wait around and see if it gets better. The way I figure it, there are two possible outcomes from this experiment:

1. The running helps, the ankle heals and before long I'm back to normal and no longer posting long winded, whiny posts on my blog about my damn ankle.

2. It exasperates the situation. It gets worst, blows up, something tears, it becomes so sore I can barely walk. In this case I go back to the doctor, but at least I'll have something to show her. Even if doesn't get this bad, if it doesn't get better I'm back at the doctor's office.

I'm not waiting around any longer and let this thing linger into 2010. Time to take action.