Crazy Weather

As expected in a mountain climate this time of year, the weather has been a little bit interesting lately. Last week it was in the upper 50's and 60's. I even went out for the first shirtless run of the year at one point. Normally, that does not happen in mid-January, but then, northern Minnesota has a bit of a different climate than Colorado.

In any case, yesterday, far from a shirtless run, it was a bit under 10 degrees and I ran for half my run into a brisk headwind, which made things yet more interesting. And this morning, on my walk to the bus stop, the temperature registered at a rather brisk -5. But that's ok, since where I'm from, the temp was a good ten degrees lower than that.

I have felt rather lazy lately. I've only been running 4-5 days a week. The semester has come on full force, and I'm taking 12 grad credits (which is a %133 course load), and TA'ing at the same time (for a rather less-than-impressive professor). Add to that skiing every Saturday, and trying to fit in a little bit of a social life in there somewhere, and it makes it difficult to find any sort of time to run at all.

So I've been lucky to get in 25 miles per week lately. If I really feel energetic, I get a few miles in after skiing on Saturday. But, as I telemark, I consider skiing a pretty good strength workout (imagine doing lunges down a hill, and you start to get the picture of the kind of workout it is). That said, no matter how tired my legs feel after skiing, my next run always feels amazing, as though I could go forever and not use any energy whatsoever.

I'm going to try to work up my mileage a bunch over the next two months. My next big race is not till April, when I have the Horsetooth Half. After that, it's a 5k to qualify for a decent Bolder Boulder wave, the BB itself, the Leadville Heavy Half in July, and Pikes Peak in August. Somewhere in there, I'll be pacing my friend SH in her attempt at the Leadville 100.

The year begins to take shape. Now the only question is where I might end up after I finish my degree and try to find a job.

Pics to come soon.