2/21 - Snowboarding. ~3:00:00. Steamboat Ski Area. No running. Winter is finally back. It took its sweet time, but I knew it had to happen eventually. It snowed all night and continued through the day. A gnarly drive to work but there wasn't any, so I called up JD and he was able to score me a medallion so I could go ride with him, Chris and, later, Derek, on the Mountain ("mountain, mountain"). Knee deep to waist deep snow depending on where we were but mostly, just sick conditions. I just wished I had waxed my snowboard because I was a little slow on the flatter sections. Run of the day definitely went to No Name Chutes but, really, it was all good. Steep, deep and fresh. It's supposed to continue snowing through the week so I might not be getting much mileage in the way of running but hopefully I will get in some of the best riding of the year. Ah, life in a ski town does not suck.
2/22 - Snowshoe. ~:45:00. >1 mile. Stagecoach. PM. Just a fun walk in the deep snow with my girl. Katy made a cool figure-8 route and I had a great time following her around. Actually, this was the first time I've really snowshoed and I thought it was a blast. Later that evening the wind picked up and erased all of our tracks. Bummer.
2/23 - 6.0 miles. :57:12. Steamboat. PM. Brrr. Cold day. Katy says it was "cold like back East." I'm thinking the humidity was higher than usual and there was a biting wind that lasted most of the day. It warmed up a little as I ran from downtown, past the high school and then up and down the hill by the middle school before going out to Buff Pass Road and back. Overall, a nice mellow run. Glad to get some mileage this week, I wasn't sure that was going to happen with the weather.
2/24 - 14.05 miles. 2:21:48. 1320'v. Stagecoach. PM. Sunny and somewhat mild this afternoon as I ran on snow, dirt roads and a little asphalt. Decided to do my long run today since I'm going to splitboard Stagecoach Mtn. tomorrow. I wore a Nathan vest I'm trying out for racing this summer and it felt pretty comfortable. In it, I carried a small bag of cashews, a tangerine, an electrolyte tablet, a water bottle (for a few miles, I hand carried it the rest of the way) and my gaiters, once I took them off about 4 miles into the run. I ate a few cashews just after the 5 mile mark and drank water most of the run. In the last 3 miles or so, I dropped the tablet into my water bottle so I could finish my run and cool down while replenishing electrolytes. The run went well, for the most part, although I did feel like I had a couple of rough patches but nothing too bad. The best part of the run was seeing Katy pass me in her car as she was getting home from work! It definitely made the last few miles easier.
2/25 - Splitboarding. 2:33:00. 1820'v. Stagecoach. AM. Skinned up to within a couple hundred feet of the summit of Stagecoach Mtn. with my neighbor, Robert, for a nice morning session. Very relaxed pace, stopping along the way to take a few photos and to talk. For me, there are few things better than to walk right out my front door, start climbing a mountain and ride down. The snow was quite good. A little settled but still soft and deep, making for good speed and turns. The terrain was rolling and smooth all the way to the bottom of the mountain. A beautiful, sunny and breezy morning. I think the wind is supposed to pick up tonight and it's supposed to snow again.
2/26 - 7.87 miles. 1:06:19. 880'v. Stagecoach. AM. One mile warm-up for 10 minutes followed by 6 miles of tempo (8:28,7:41,8:01,7:34,7:35,7:35) and .8 mile cool down on some pretty icy roads (with a little bit of dirt). A good run with some pretty modest splits but fun for me. Spent quite a few steps telling myself, "Don't slip. Don't fall. Don't bust your ass." Stopped to talk to my friend Dave Demos for a couple of minutes as he was driving home and then again at the port-o-potty at the trail head by the reservoir. Sunny but a damn cold wind kept it really chilly.
Weekly Totals: 28.92 miles running/snowshoe. 2200++'v. (4:25:xx running, 7:34:00 splitboarding/snowboarding)
I got a chance to mix it up a little this week thanks to the return of winter. Mother Nature timed it perfectly and I got to take advantage of a low mileage week and get out and ride some powder, even if it meant skipping a couple runs. It also helped that we were slow at work so I could move my training schedule around a little bit (it didn't help financially). Next week, I'll be back to bumping up the mileage with a 21 mile long run on Saturday, so hopefully (for me) the weather will cooperate. However, if we are back to a normal cycle in terms of snowfall, we could still see alot of it through March and April. I think that as long as I keep hitting my long runs, I can keep sacrificing a few shorter runs here and there.
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