Training Log Archive: Swampfox

The forecast for today was gray skies w/ wind, rain, and cool temps, and thus an ideal day for O'; life at 7220' is different from life at 800' or even 820', it turns out.

So out I went to Granite Planite. Gates off the highway remain closed for the time being, but will maybe be open in another week or so. Some snow drifts remain, obscuring some of the granite, and pasque flowers were almost everywhere. If you can resist a wild anemone then you are probably the passionless sort with a heart made of stone.

2 x 3.6 kms with warmup and warmdown was the order of the day, with light refreshing sprinkles nearly the whole time, provided gratis from the skies above. My timing and effort were good, and as for the former, the skies opened up with full bore ice rain (really almost more slush than rain) only a few minutes after I finished up.

Of course this late in the season snow snakes are so rare that I don't worry about them, and in any event I didn't spot any.

Back home after being away for the better part of 3 weeks. Great to see some family and friends (O' friends including Ron Pontius and Michael and Mary), and I suppose it is good to get a reminder of why I do not ever want to live in the South again (heat and humidity, poison ivy, brambles, general lack of cowgirls and cowboys), even though there are a few positives as well (at least a few people still speak with somewhat of a drawl, longleaf pines and cypress, pitcher plant bogs, moonpies, and sand hills utterly devoid of rocks).

Now it's time to turn attention to try getting into some semblance of O' shape. My base condition coming out of winter is okay, but really the only thing I am even halfway fit for is running in big wind on snow trails--and not many O' races feature those kind of conditions. Onward and upward!

C • moon pies 6