Last week was a snowy one! Over the course of a couple of days, we ended up with close to 2 feet of snow. While it made for some gorgeous landscapes, it was a crazy couple days for those who had to be on the roads-and those who were getting the ski resort ready to open <But they couldn’t complain too much, because no one is made about fresh powder for opening day!
With all of the snow, I opted to switch out a couple of my workouts for skate skiing. I have a fairly good relationship with the treadmill, but want to keep it special for those really terrible days or real workouts 😉 Plus, it is really nice to enjoy some cross training with all the run miles!
The conditions were a bit tough for both of my skiing expeditions 😉 Lots of fresh snow makes things quite a bit harder and quite a bit slower, but some good efforts!
Ken and I ended up going out to do a set of tires in the midst of the storm. It was a little bit crazy with the trailer, but Ken made sure to keep us out of trouble.
It was so thick, we lost the lake. If that doesn’t scream “cold”, I dont know what does!
No biggie…cars were off the roads all over the place.
Was the perfect day to work outside 😉
And then there was the calm after the storm! Absolutely breathtaking!
The weather pushed me inside for a few of the workouts. Not going to lie, the 13 miles on Sunday was a bit much. Luckily, Ken rode the trainer for an hour so he provided company and then I turned on the Hunger Games and that made the second part fly right by!
On Sunday, we headed up to the mountain for a few runs! It was Brooke’s and my first day of the season, so we took it pretty easy. A lot of skiing in our winter plans! Happy to be about 15 minutes from the slopes-that makes it pretty convenient 🙂
Hoping that you have some fun things coming up this week! Brooke and I are taking a little trip. And it involves warmer temps and non-snow covered roads 😉 Running shorts weather?!
Last week’s workouts: M: 5.1 mile skate ski T: 8 mile run, treadmill. 2.5 mile skate ski W: 15 min warm up, 5 x 5 minutes effort/1 min recovery, 15 min cool down-7 miles H: REST (called for an easy 5 miles, but my body said to rest instead) F: 8 miles steady, treadmill S: 9 miles skate ski. 8 miles outside steady, 3 miles treadmill (11 run miles) S: 13.1 miles, treadmill
One hundred miles. It’s a lot of miles. When I get in the car to drive that far, I have to pump myself up a little bit! Riding a bike 100 miles, that’s long too. But having done that on many occasions at this point, it doesn’t intimidate me anymore. Running 100 miles? That’s a different story. That is a serious amount of time on your feet and to be honest, it scares me. More than a little. So, why not try it?
If you were to ask my family if I am adventurous person, you would probably get mixed feelings. Yes, I like to see cool things and go incredible places. BUT I also like when it is calculated and safe. I have some pretty serious anxiety when it comes to heights and falling. Interestingly, I am much better about these (and far braver) when I am alone. Maybe I feel like it is just myself that I am putting in danger and I am okay with that. The major struggle comes when Ken or Brooke are with me. If they are close to the edge, I cannot even watch. Panic mode engaged. My heart just cant deal.
Driving on narrow mountain roads with steep drops off the edge: not for me. Being in the backcountry solo with the (mountain) lions and tigers (okay, maybe not here) and bears (definitely here!): oh my! Even riding my bike (mountain, gravel or road) in areas with a lot of exposure: no thanks. Am I a wuss? Yeah, maybe so. BUT I do like to see what my body can handle. I do like to see how far I can push myself. And I do like the challenge of training to get there. So, enter in a new challenge. An unknown. A “maybe and hopefully” possible goal. Something to encourage me to train through the winter. Something to make me excited to strive for. Something big.
Training is not something new to me. Having run multiple marathons, a fifty mile trail race and a couple of longer gravel racing events, I understand all of the basics. Lots of miles, lots of time, lots of recovery. But this goal has some new challenges. More time, more recovery and trying to balance a serious amount of fatigue with the rest of life! Never have I ever done so many double digit runs back to back. And really, I am just getting started with training. It is definitely going to be something I have to get used to-and figure out how to make work. Also, figuring out how to eat. Never have I been so hungry?!
When I trained for my 50 mile trail race (Run Rabbit Run) in 2019, I spent the early part of the summer training and racing on my bike. There was maybe a run or two thrown in each week, but I didn’t really start with my feet on the ground until about 8 weeks before the event. Some people thought I was a little nutty, but it felt right and I had a great race. I kind of have a feeling that it might not work the same with 100 miles. While I am a HUGE proponent for cross training and will absolutely utilize many non-running forms of cardio to get ready for running 100 miles, I do think that there will be far more running miles in my future this time around. And maybe even some stretching. Maybe. (IYKYK)
Enter my outside help: Running Your First Ultra by Krissy Moehl.
I used this book as a baseline when I did my 50 mile race. She has awesome weekly training plans in there with workouts and recovery laid out. It helps to take out a lot of the guess work. I have jumped into her workouts and am able to alter them as needed to make me feel comfortable with the training. While I thought about seeking out a coach for this endeavor, I have decided against it for now. I really think I would be terrible to coach-ha! While I am good at following a plan, I like flexibility. I feel like I know my body pretty well and what it can handle. I like to be able to switch out some running miles with some skate ski miles-or skinning miles or trainer miles. So for now, it is me and the book.
Over the course of training, I am planning to keep track of things here. The good, the bad and the ugly 😉 One of the reasons is to share it (because I have stalked so many blogs trying to get tips and hints for this process), but the main reason is to be able to look back (fingers crossed) after the fact and have something tangible about the process. See what worked and maybe what didn’t. Accept that not every workout went to plan, but hopefully enough of them did to make it successful. And to use it as therapy-because the mental component is huge for this!
So here we go! Cheers to making big plans. Not being afraid to fail. And to learning something about yourself along the way. (And to hopefully still love running at the end 😉 ). Follow along for fun adventures, poorly taken training pictures and bad advice only! Kidding, I hope!
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Last Week’s Workouts: M: 5 miles steady, treadmill T: 6 miles total, hills. Pyramid workout: 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 minutes with equal recoveries W: 4 miles easy, treadmill H: Race! 6k Turkey trot (second place female-on icy roads) plus 1 mile warm up, 2 mile skate ski with Brooke F: 7 miles skate ski S: 12 miles, treadmill. 7 miles skate ski with Ken S: 10 miles, treadmill
The last few weeks of “Fall” felt a lot like summer-which was amazing! There was a solid amount of time spent on trails-both riding and running. That has quickly been replaced by strictly running-on snow. Ha. Things changed quickly this year.
Brooke has been taking skating lessons for about a month and a half and it has been so fun watching her improve. I spend her lessons sitting on the bleachers grading assignments or preparing for lectures (and really trying not to freeze). The first few weeks, we headed to the boat for wake surfing after her lessons. This past week, it was warming inside the rink and snowing outside!
Before the snow, we soaked in every last moment of the blue sky and warm temps!
One of my favorite places to run is the Huckleberry Trail that goes out and around the point at Ponderosa State Park. The views are spectacular and the trail is nice and flowy with a couple of technical sections. It is about a 7 mile run depending where you start and stop. Just enough (with some good climbing) to make your legs feel a little like Jello by the end.
In addition to workouts, Brooke’s social calendar and you know, actual work, I have been working on our master bedroom. Someday I will post some after pictures…but this was during the painting process. We definitely slept in the middle of all of that mess. Kind of like camping? Anyone need a very ornate fan?
Last week, Brooke and I had a girl’s trip to Boise (well, mainly Meridian). Brooke has very little experience with “malls” and big stores other than Costco, so she wanted to experience them. By the end of the day, she was exhausted and happy to take a break from shopping for awhile. But, in all fairness, it was a blast. She picked out some fun clothes and looked far too grown up doing it.
Another fun outing involved taking fall pictures. Last year was nuts and we didn’t make it, so I was very happy to bring back the tradition. We headed to Ponderosa and snapped away.
It feels really funny to finally be feeling some decent fitness…as we roll into winter! Ken assures me that it will be helpful for all the Nordic skiing he has planned for us 😉 Brooke is signed up for the Nordic ski club lessons and will also do Downhill. I guess that will leave some time for us to get you there, too! For now, it will be some muddy season running and the ski machine and rowing machine in the garage.
Workouts this week have included a 5 mile snowy trail run, 4 mile road run (that was hard and fast, uphill and downhill) and another 4 miles on the snowy trails. Ken has done all of them with me….guess he is a runner again 😉
Tire season is also in the beginning stages as we try to start that business up here. Going to take a little bit to get the word spread, but hopefully we get busy here soon.
Have a wonderful weekend! We are supposed to see 50 degrees and I am not mad about it!
Fit After Little Bits 