Wild 40

After a hiatus of a few days, I got back out on the roads on early Sunday morning. I almost went mountain biking with a few friends, but worried that I'd reinjure the leg so I bailed. There's a group of guys that ride for 3 hours every Sunday at 5:45AM (hardcore), and we were talking sh*t all night Saturday over beers. I ended up greeting them at the end of the driveway to show that I could in fact get up, but went for a run instead.

So, I took the route at the end of my road (flat, sparsely populated, nice views) and decided to tack an extra 10 minutes onto my usual 30 minute run. Near the turnaround point, I thought to myself that it would be cool to see a moose. I looked over at the beaver pond off the road and saw two big ears twitching. The calf that I saw in February was chest deep in the pond with no sign of mom (thank goodness). It loped around, snacking in the weeds for a while before finally heading back into the woods. At that point, I realized that his path would probably cross my running route, so I got a little spooked. I started my return by hooting, hollering and clapping like some crazed tourrette's syndrome runner. Cracked myself up. Needless to say, I did not cross paths with the moose, and I was releived when I hit a more "residential" area again.

The leg felt fine with the added distance. Hoping to do a few more 5 milers this week.

Quick post

The week is already getting away from me, so I'm checking in to document my training over the weekend. I had lots of pseudo-deep thoughts to accompany the post, but those will have to wait for another time.

I ran my local 10.5 mile loop (which I just found out was more like 10.8 -- nice!) on Saturday morning. There were two cool things about this run. First, I was running into a snow squal. When I started out it was a clear, calm day. By the time I was 30 minutes in, I could see white-out conditions on the mountain range above me, which happened to be right where I was heading. It was very cool knowing that I was out there doing the loop as a storm was closing in, that I would be running into the storm, and that it didn't matter at all. What mattered was getting the run in. I felt all hard core, albeit in a "I'm approaching 37 years old and not at all hard core" kind of way. Still, it felt good.

The second notable thing about the run was that I saw two moose (yes, moose) during the run. I was running along a not so well traveled section of road when a momma moose and her calf ambled out over the snowbank and into the road about 25 yards in front of me. They didn't even break stride to get over the four foot high banks. At first, I thought they were horses -- they were that big. They got into the road, loaped down the street for about 20 yards and then darted back into the woods and up a hill. I've never seen a moose in VT. It was awesome. My second thought after seeing the moose was, "I sure hope this Burton thing works out because I can never move away from this place." (My first thought was, "Holy sh*t!") I mean how can you beat being out for a run on a dirt road in the woods two miles from your house and seeing moose? It was awesome.

So, back to the run. I did the 10.8 in about 1:35, including three one minute walk breaks to get me through. On Sunday, I did a half hour snowshoe up a slope near my house and snowboarded down the trail. Now that was totally cool. I have to get more into the back country thing. Tonight, I played some really crappy, sloppy hockey, but it still counts as a workout. Tomorrow, I hope to get back on the running kick for probably a three miler before we head out to Alta on Wednesday.

Looking back on this post, I feel like I'm in a good spot. The variety of activities feels really good right now. The crazy snow we're getting up here doesn't hurt either.

(So much for my "quick post.")