Holiday Hustling

December 24 - December 30

Monday - With the weather on the verge of bringing snow to cover the ground until spring, I felt it important to be on the trails as many days as I could before switching to snow shoes.
Today I hit up Ledge Rd and the Lost Trail, which is the upper Grafton Trails connector. Great loop, it did have patches of snow coving the ground, but made for very cool scenery. It was reminiscent of Neverland in the film Hook, one second there is total clear trail and the next knee deep snow. Very cool, very thankful to be able to experience it.
Tuesday - Happy BDay to the J-Man and to all his followers. I'm more of a Winter Solstice celebrator, but it's always nice to give gifts and be with family. Took the day to reflect all things great...
Wednesday - I hit up the Athens Lookout an was greeted with a lot more snow than I expected on the trails. Made great time to the Lookout under the circumstances and had an awesome run. Body and brain felt good and just being outside is amazingly liberating of all stressors. Winter break is great to get after some miles and relax while doing it.
Thursday - Voltroned with Greg and Fyffe in Putney for a very snowy 10 miler. Had some very adult convo about firearms, schools, and other ideas more serious than not. Made the run go by faster than expected. Serious issues are important but man, it's way more fun to dick around...
Friday - snow is here to stay. First run of the year on snow shoes. Was feeling the accumulation of the following week so decided to run up the switchback hill and glide some tips as I descended through a new trail that only pops up when the snow covers the pricier bushes. Great fun through snow an flying down the hill.
Saturday - Goosh! Got covered with about 4 inches of fresh powder. All the trees are picturesque, with their snow caps. I ventured to run the 9 mile loop finishing down the switchbacks. This was a great idea but holy cuss, it was cussin tough. I was out there a long time... It was rad though. Finished with the headlamp glowing and feeling great. A lot of fun to be out there in the dark in the winter. Felt epic and also felt some fitness might be coming back.
Sunday - went to Pisgah for a snow shoe run. George Adams and Mark Miller honed Greg and I, along with the girls, for a solid hour of high heart rate rolling.
Miller is not as fit as people should believe and def not fit enough to be on any radars. So, take him of the radar. Lacking fitness did drive our run to be quite a lot of effort. Miller must have been compensating for such lack of fitness that he was bouncing at the front the whole time. Haha. I love it though, bc I finally have a few days in a row I feel good. The up-tempo pace was a great workout for me and I def needed it and I def loved the feel of being back. Not "back" back, but more of just a shell of my former.