what I have been up to

[ilanarama]

Eric reminded me on my last post that I haven't posted here in a while. So, what have I been doing?

Running. This has been my first winter of serious training, and I have to say that it hasn't been bad at all. Then again, I don't actually mind running in (light) snow. I have been running more mileage than I ever have before! And I've been getting faster - I finally got the 5K monkey off my back (my 5K time has always been much slower than what is predicted by my faster races) and smoked (relatively speaking) a race on Saturday in 22:14, a PR for me by almost 1:45 and fast enough to get me first place woman! I won a gift certificate for a pair of running shoes, which I graciously gave Britt since he has started running with me on my easy days in his beat-up old sneakers.

Skiing. We have had a lot of snow this year, which has been very nice as we also have weekday passes at Purgatory. Britt and I have gone once a week, not necessarily for the whole day but we get plenty of skiing in. When the weather has been right (and it mostly has) we have gone on Fridays, when the nice restaurant up at Dante's is open: we ski some morning runs, get to the restaurant around 1:00, have some fancy food and a Backside Stout each. It's our special treat, and actually, it costs only maybe 50% more than the crappy food in the cafeteria downstairs, and it tastes 100 times better, and it's so much more pleasant to sit in the pretty room and have a nice waitress bring us our food.

And skiing once a week has definitely improved my skiing. And! I just bought fancy new boots at an end-of-season sale, and I'm gonna try them out tomorrow. I am confident they will make me ski so much better! Right?

Politics. Oh, man, you don't want to hear about local politics. *facepalm* Colorado's caucuses are in two weeks. I'm girding my loins.

Pictures. I keep forgetting to bring my camera while skiing (we have had some beautiful days!) or running. But I got some great shots of some of the deer who hang around my neighborhood, and wow, that was five weeks ago and most of that snow is GONE.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yay! Glad to know your knees haven't exploded or something awful like that... 22:14!? I can only imagine...

Eric W.

[ilanarama]

What really tickles me is that I finally beat my grad-school days PR. I am faster as an old lady than I was in my 20s! This pleases me like you can not believe.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I can *totally* believe this :-) My New Years resolution last year was to be in better shape when I turned 50 than I was when I was 25.

Eric W.

[gnomad]

Ooh, congrats on the 5K win!

I remain jealous of your nearby ski slope access! I did manage to get in one more x-country ski day this year, but I'm pretty sure that's going to be it for the season.

[ilanarama]

It's actually pretty nifty to live in a ski town. (Well, sort of - it's a 20-40 minute drive depending on how messy the roads are.) I really like being able to do something physical and outside during the winter, and look at the lovely mountain scenery.

And we are going tomorrow, and it might even snow! \o/

[blnchflr]

Congrats on your 5k race, what an awesome time! If I ever made it in under 30 mins, I'd be well pleased, *g*.

(I haven't done a lot of running this winter, but I have done a bit - and a fair bit of skiing for Danish winters, not to mention shovelling snow! So I kid myself I'm not starting from scratch.)

Gah, deer are so cute!

[ilanarama]

Well, I have been running a LOT. If you do something a lot, you get better at it!

And I totally think that shoveling snow counts as cross-training.

[blnchflr]

If you do something a lot, you get better at it!
No wai!1! Motiviation is forever my problem :o)

Yes, yes, it does, as does skiing!

[ilanarama]

I think I really started getting more motivated when 1) I started getting (a little) faster, and 2) I got to know other runners by joining a club, and knew who was just a little faster than me so if I put in some more work that maybe I could beat them.

[blnchflr]

There is a running club here, and it's fairly cheap to join, too. But they run at 6pm (sacred supper time in my house!) and 7pm (bluhhh, full from supper), and only at 1pm on Sat or Sun (bluhh, full from lunch) - and really when I prefer to run is before lunch; I even prefer to get up at 5:30am to run before work, if I'm working.

[ilanarama]

I rarely actually run with the running club - their times are equally as inconvenient for me. But I have gone to some of their social events, and I see the same people over and over at the races.

Also, I bet you could find others in the club who would rather run early in the morning.

[luzula]

Is that downhill skiing or cross-country skiing?

We've had so much snow this winter, and I've hardly gone skiing at all, on account of my never-ending cold. I love skiing (cross-country skiing that is, I've never tried the downhill kind).

[ilanarama]

Downhill skiing - I do some cross-country skiing but not at all this year, mostly because my husband doesn't have any gear. He keeps talking about getting snowshoes, though. I really love cross-country but around here you either go at an area or golf course (boring) or in the mountains (difficult and risky).