Not that I'm not completely, totally in love with freezing my ass off in the seemingly-never-ending Utah winter or anything but right about this time of the year (February-ish) I usually start to feel the gloomy days take their toll on me. It was worse in Boston than here.... at least here I have mountain activities to keep me entertained instead of homeless people, biddies, and the always impressive Boston rain/wind winter combination.
Actually it's been sunny here - suck it, inversion. It was a toasty 30-something degrees out today - with sun! I almost broke out my running shorts and attempted to get a tan while I worked out. But as I learned the hard way...just because the sun is out does not mean you can't get frostbite.
Skiing has helped a lot, though. Even though I fall a lot and totally suck and probably piss off a lot of people in my inability to ski in a predictable line.... I have a lot of fun figuring it out. I like endurance sports because even if I'm not good at them I can keep going all day. I'm loving the whole "winter sport" thing - something I didn't get much of growing up in St. Louis or living in the city.
Next year I'm considering adding dog sledding, ice fishing, speed skating, snowmobiling, and ice climbing to my winter time interests. Oh! And biathlon. What sounds like more fun than XC skiing and shooting a gun? Absolutely nothing. This summer I think I'm adding canyoneering, glider plane-ing, and overnight backpacking. Possibly ultra-marathoning if I can talk myself into thinking it's a good idea. And I might join the barrel racing circuit if I can convince someone to loan me a fast horse and a western saddle in exchange for a genuine smile and sub-par homemade cookies.
What's amusing is that half of you reading this will think I'm joking about all that, while the other half is terrified because you know I'm 100% serious. Believe it or not, I have a glider plane connection and I'm not afraid to use him.
Anyway.
Around February my motivation usually starts to wear off and I slowly find that spending my afternoon huddled under my down comforter in my XXL always-flattering Camp Miniwanca sweatpants watching Tosh.O and Pawn Stars slightly more appealing than slapping this J.Lo booty into some spandex and going running.
SO. In a desperate attempt to keep my muscle tone I've worked to build for so many years and not turn into a total tub of lard and utter disgrace to the female athlete population- around this time of year I start planning my summer race schedule.
(Insert high pitched obnoxious scream-jump combo here)
Here is my extraordinary highly-tentative, ever-changing race schedule plan:
June 8 - Daybreak Olympic
June 20 - Possibly doing RAGNAR relay
July 13 - San Rafael Classic
August 7 - Boulder 70.3
August 31 - Grand Teton Trail Marathon
September 22 - Xterra Offroad Triathlon
October - November - Cyclocross Season (Attempt 2)
Without question I'm most excited for my first half ironman (1 step closer to getting that Ironman tattoo! - sorry mom). It's a long overdue distance that I've been meaning to race for a few years but I've been holding out for a cool venue. Also, I'm really excited for my annual marathon - the fact that its a trail marathon in the Tetons makes it even better. And I know I said I would never do the Xterra Offroad tri again considering I cried in transition, almost threw up multiple times, and considered dropping out about every 2 minutes (the bike was almost entirely uphill...the run WAS entirely uphill - can you blame me?) but I have a bone to pick with that damn race. I came out of the water first in my division and got passed by about 500 bikers - that's definitely not okay with me. The mountain bikers out here are just not human...so I plan on working my ass off this summer so this year I'll only get passed by 499 riders.
Also I'm stoked for the cyclocross season this year. I was so pissed last year when my bike flatted out of 4 races, for seemingly no reason. But with the help of some tubeless wheel sets, I slowly started beating the girls who were beating me and finally got my spot on the podium - I was beginning to feel pretty stupid having the most badass bike in the field and then not finishing any races.
I'll probably pick and choose another sprint tri or so and a few 5ks and 10ks - especially if I can find one on my birthday. I keep having to remind myself that I still have clinic this summer and I'll be writing my thesis and doing research so I won't be as la-dee-da summer as I usually am.'
This whole grad school thing really gets in my way of pretending to be a pro athlete.
Til next time (which will probably be when my next exam is coming up. For those who failed to notice, there is an indirect correlation between twitter/facebook/blog posts and the amount of studying I am supposed to be doing for an exam...and the closer the exam, the more I social network...woops.)
Actually it's been sunny here - suck it, inversion. It was a toasty 30-something degrees out today - with sun! I almost broke out my running shorts and attempted to get a tan while I worked out. But as I learned the hard way...just because the sun is out does not mean you can't get frostbite.
Skiing has helped a lot, though. Even though I fall a lot and totally suck and probably piss off a lot of people in my inability to ski in a predictable line.... I have a lot of fun figuring it out. I like endurance sports because even if I'm not good at them I can keep going all day. I'm loving the whole "winter sport" thing - something I didn't get much of growing up in St. Louis or living in the city.
Next year I'm considering adding dog sledding, ice fishing, speed skating, snowmobiling, and ice climbing to my winter time interests. Oh! And biathlon. What sounds like more fun than XC skiing and shooting a gun? Absolutely nothing. This summer I think I'm adding canyoneering, glider plane-ing, and overnight backpacking. Possibly ultra-marathoning if I can talk myself into thinking it's a good idea. And I might join the barrel racing circuit if I can convince someone to loan me a fast horse and a western saddle in exchange for a genuine smile and sub-par homemade cookies.
What's amusing is that half of you reading this will think I'm joking about all that, while the other half is terrified because you know I'm 100% serious. Believe it or not, I have a glider plane connection and I'm not afraid to use him.
Anyway.
Around February my motivation usually starts to wear off and I slowly find that spending my afternoon huddled under my down comforter in my XXL always-flattering Camp Miniwanca sweatpants watching Tosh.O and Pawn Stars slightly more appealing than slapping this J.Lo booty into some spandex and going running.
SO. In a desperate attempt to keep my muscle tone I've worked to build for so many years and not turn into a total tub of lard and utter disgrace to the female athlete population- around this time of year I start planning my summer race schedule.
(Insert high pitched obnoxious scream-jump combo here)
Here is my extraordinary highly-tentative, ever-changing race schedule plan:
June 8 - Daybreak Olympic
June 20 - Possibly doing RAGNAR relay
July 13 - San Rafael Classic
August 7 - Boulder 70.3
August 31 - Grand Teton Trail Marathon
September 22 - Xterra Offroad Triathlon
October - November - Cyclocross Season (Attempt 2)
Without question I'm most excited for my first half ironman (1 step closer to getting that Ironman tattoo! - sorry mom). It's a long overdue distance that I've been meaning to race for a few years but I've been holding out for a cool venue. Also, I'm really excited for my annual marathon - the fact that its a trail marathon in the Tetons makes it even better. And I know I said I would never do the Xterra Offroad tri again considering I cried in transition, almost threw up multiple times, and considered dropping out about every 2 minutes (the bike was almost entirely uphill...the run WAS entirely uphill - can you blame me?) but I have a bone to pick with that damn race. I came out of the water first in my division and got passed by about 500 bikers - that's definitely not okay with me. The mountain bikers out here are just not human...so I plan on working my ass off this summer so this year I'll only get passed by 499 riders.
Also I'm stoked for the cyclocross season this year. I was so pissed last year when my bike flatted out of 4 races, for seemingly no reason. But with the help of some tubeless wheel sets, I slowly started beating the girls who were beating me and finally got my spot on the podium - I was beginning to feel pretty stupid having the most badass bike in the field and then not finishing any races.
I'll probably pick and choose another sprint tri or so and a few 5ks and 10ks - especially if I can find one on my birthday. I keep having to remind myself that I still have clinic this summer and I'll be writing my thesis and doing research so I won't be as la-dee-da summer as I usually am.'
This whole grad school thing really gets in my way of pretending to be a pro athlete.
Til next time (which will probably be when my next exam is coming up. For those who failed to notice, there is an indirect correlation between twitter/facebook/blog posts and the amount of studying I am supposed to be doing for an exam...and the closer the exam, the more I social network...woops.)
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