Ups and downs

Since my last post, there have been some ups and downs. The long weekend was an active one. Saturday started with an early morning treadmill run. Granted, Saturday was a beautiful day, so why not run outside? Why not meet the Trail Monsters at Bradbury? Well, I have an aversion to super early morning winter runs. Not that I fear the cold, it just my motivation is lacking to run solo at 6 AM in 10 degree weather. Question my love of running if you will, but I just prefer to stay indoors in these cases. This is not to say my basement environment is exactly comfortable. With my huge soapstone wood stove kicking, my basement creates a perfect environment for training for the Badwater 135. In fact, I will probably spend most of my training for Badwater in my basement! But that's in a few years...now back to Saturday past. I ran 10 treadmill miles at an ascent of 1% in 1:20. After that, Kelly and I took the kids to visit Pops and Boo Boo (Kelly's dad and his girlfriend). While the kids spent the day snowshoeing and skiing with the Grandparents, Kelly and I headed the 20 minutes over to Black Mountain in Rumford for some classical nordic skiing. We spent about 1:30 hours skiing and called it a day.

Sunday was a day off and spent ice skating with the kids and learning how to wax nordic skis and then practicing that art. While I have a way to go before I can call my waxing an art, the performance of the skis Monday proved that I did not screw them up. I was lucky enough Monday to partake in a skate ski lesson with a coach arranged through the Portland Lobster XC Ski Club. Present were a couple guys I know from trail running and I had a great time over the few hours we spent at Pineland skiing. Beautiful day and a great workout. Later that night I hit the treadmill for a 5.5 mile treadmill run at an average pace of 7:30 and felt pretty good with the exception of sore knees from skiing and what I suspect is a tight IT band. Solution: the foam roller. Every runner should have one. Fixed both mine and Kelly's knee problems and has kept us injury free for years. Good stuff. It's the cheapest tool you can add to your running arsenal. Rush out and buy one now!

Monday was a down day. Quinn and Riley brought home a stomach virus over the weekend and Kelly got it Monday night and I woke up with it in the morning. So that knocked me out for the day. Forced day off. I did get back on the treadmill last night for an easy 5 miles at 7:45 pace which was tough with a belly that was still a little queasy. Tonight I felt much better and got in 6 treadmill miles at roughly the same pace. Feels good to be 100% again!