Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Several inches of snow fell overnight, making for some nice Yowsa!

The forecast was for big kahuna winds in the afternoon, and nobody was disappointed. The sun was out most of the day, and the usual heating of exposed asphalt plus snow being driven across the Happy Jack road created the ever so desirable icing conditions that make for challenging driving. Who wants boring driving, after all?

I ran trails, and at least where I was running there were no trees down. It was definitely advisable to not look up and examine how violently the tree tops were shaking though--sometimes it's just better not to know. The roar of the wind across the treetops was inescapable, however. Not cold, however, and at least as long as you were in the trees it was perfectly comfortable to be out.

C • Cowboys/Orange 6

Went biking midday around town, including a stop at the Pedal House to have my front wheel checked out--bearings have dried out and need some attention of one sort or another. It felt nice/mild enough in my yard that I went out in shorts and a light jacket, and while it was seasonably mild, when the sun got blocked out by clouds and that coupled with some breeze out of the north, it was chillier on the bike than I had anticipated.

Then went for a long run up at Happy Jack in late afternoon. I crossed paths with Georgia and chatted with her briefly, and then later, right at or just past dusk, I crossed paths with a young cow moose. It really didn't want to move off the trail at first, but when I pointed out that there were some delicious aspen twigs just down the hill, she decided to go check them out.

It began snowing lightly just after that, but by then it was so dark I couldn't see the little bit of snow that was falling and could only feel it on my face. By the time I was getting home it was snowing heavily in town.

Yesterday I noticed that the access road to Yellow Pine was largely snow free or otherwise packed, and I weighed an O' run vs. intervals, and decided it would be intervals on this section of road. The sun was shining, there was no wind, and it was very pleasant out.

While cooling down I ran into Pete and Grace Gosar, who were out walking with their dogs.

Long run up at Happy Jack, trees were thickly coated in rime frost. Dinner with John and Suzanne afterwards.

One of the things we talked about was toughness. We came up with 4 levels: 1) ordinary tough, 2) Cowboy tough, 3) Maldonado tough, and then the highest level of toughness 4) Ukrainian tough.

Then there are degrees of toughness which in reality are the opposite of tough. For example, something like "tough mudder" toughness, which is close to being oxymoronic.

Snow was in the forecast today, due to start arriving mid-afternoon or thereabouts. I headed up to Happy Jack to run, figuring one way or another I would see snow, whether in air or on the ground or both. I was hoping for something in the air, but even after crossing over the 2 hr mark, still the only snow I was seeing was the ground based variety. Lots of wind to keep it fresh, and even though there was sunshine all day long, it was confined entirely to the western half of the valley, none of it ever reaching where I was. Still, it felt like a sunny day to me.

C • Cowboys 5

Snow trail running.

Snow trail running.