Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Sometimes the best plans sunder immediately and disaster ensues.

That is not what happened today. The plan consisted solely of linking up with racer X8A7 at the conclusion of his race, and ski with the exhausted X8A7 for a little bit while showing off my superiority on the downhill sections.

Which is exactly the way it went. I skied to the race Finish, located X8A7 in his zebra suit at once, and the rest was, as they say, easier than sunshine in the desert southwest. Once I asked the giant Luna moth, Prometheus, where all the sunshine comes from. And he answered: "I am green, and when I am not, my wings, vast, still fly. As for the sun in the desert, it just comes."

Once Graham was properly warmed down and off on his way back to the more temperate zones down south Colorado way, I skied for another 2 hours or so, part of the time with Keith, who I ran into at the top of the Summit climb.

Then it was time to switch over for some running with the snow bikers. By then it was edging colder and with increasing amounts of snow falling. A beautiful day, though I am afraid I went way over the pre-paid calorie burning limit on my card. Oh, well. Maybe nobody will notice--after all, we are right in the middle of a terrible national emergency, the likes of which we have never seen before!

Not so cold, but the wind was big and had some real cut to it. After skiing, I weighed things for about a moment, and decided I would engage in some indoor biking after dinner and forego running in the wind--a live to see another day kind of thing

Wind back up some. Ski conditions were very good. Met Randy and Dan as I was finishing skiing and headed out to run; they were getting started on trail grooming for races tomorrow.

Overcast all day long, no wind. Temps mild. Despite no wind, I-80 remains closed west of Laramie. That must have the truckers extra happy!

Temps were about the same as yesterday, but the snow was very moist and slow whereas yesterday it had been dry and fast. And yesterday there was sun, too, so strange to me. But towards of the end of skiing today, temps were dropping and the snow was drying out and/or re-freezing.

Saw Evan B. on the way in to the trailhead as I was headed out to run, and we stopped and talked for a few minutes as he was waiting for his daughter to finish up.

Overcast most of the day, and totally overcast by mid-afternoon, mild temps, and the windiest day so far this year (I-80 closed to all light high profile vehicles in the afternoon and closed to all traffic west of Laramie by evening.)

Skied until the light was getting wan, and then ran, finishing a little after dark. Came across one tree across the ski trails (didn't ski everything so there could have been others) and hit a good number of fallen trees while running on snow bike trails. It will make the Chainsaw People very happy. And until the Chainsaw People arrive, it will make the Snow Bike people get off their bikes.

Upon reading about the desperate circumstances Seattle has found itself in, I thought: "I must do something to help." I rummaged around, and at length found a fun size Milky Way bar I could donate. It felt like it wouldn't be much more than a token effort, but it was surely better than nothing. It might not be enough to save all of Seattle, but perhaps it could be enough so that a block or two of the city could make it through until the arrival of spring.

I began looking for an envelope to mail the candy bar in, but before I could find something suitable, I felt myself growing hungry. So I ate the candy bar. It was really good.

The plan was to do ski intervals today. Starting out, even going up some of the gentle inclines and along flat stretches in the early going, it seemed to me it required more effort than it should--not totally easy, even though I was going easy. I didn't feel all that psyched.

Which, I have to say--knowing myself, is completely typical of almost anytime I have a tougher workout on the schedule. And I've noticed/learned a few things of the years.

First, it doesn't matter whether I'm psyched or not while I'm warming up. Not in terms of starting and completing the workout. As long as I'm not ill or injured, then I should start the workout no matter whether I feel psyched or not. I can not think of even a single time when I've started a tougher workout where I didn't feel good about it by the end, and I've always felt like I've accomplished something. So as a rule of thumb, for me anyway, quitting/calling off a workout before I even got started would be a bad way to go, unless there was a very sound, tangible reason for doing so (like being under the weather.)

Second, the workouts that go best seem to be the ones where I want to get it done, and head out where there's enough time to get it done, but just enough, where there's a window of time available back-ended by something: I'm supposed to meet someone at a certain time, or the end of daylight, or something like that. There's just enough time to do the workout, but not enough time to dither, or wonder how I feel, or if maybe I should just warmup for a while longer, etc. So it usually ends up being a quick warmup--enough, but quick--and then just plunging into it with no time to entertain second thoughts.

It really almost always comes down to the same thing: just getting started.

So back to today. Even though I didn't feel all that jazzed while I was warming up, I headed straight for the start point, and told myself that when I hit it, I would start and just do the best I could, no matter how I felt.

Halfway through the first interval, I was feeling fine, and even though it was hard work, each interval after that went well, even the last, which was the hardest. And when it was all done, it felt really good.

C • Agree 4

Sunny, mostly, and wind, a lot. Skied for about 80 minutes, came back to my truck, had planned to run but polled the body, and discarded any further notion of running. It was chillier than it looked.