Holidays

Well, the holidays have come and gone and things are about to get 'back to normal'.  The family and I had a wonderful visit with my brother and his girlfriend for a week,  a couple of days at my in-law's cabin in Minnesota, and then a week with my wife's sister and her family down in wisconsin.  I ate enormous quantities of great food (most - but not all - of it healthy) and had one of two glasses of wine (with the occasional Bailey's over ice or hot buttered rum thrown in for good measure) nearly every night, and must have put on at least a pound or two, which is more than worth it.  I struggled a bit to have good workouts - probably largely due to the lack of any real schedule.  On the other hand, I did enjoy skiing up and down Granite Peak ski area a couple of times (great way to avoid paying lift tickets - according to my brother, as long as the land that the resort is leasing is public land you can 'skin up' and ski down for free, although don't bother asking the resort - they'll likely claim otherwise) on my own in addition to a more traditional day on the slopes with my sister in law and a couple of her kids.  I even mistakenly took one of the nephews down his first double black diamond which he descended using the invaluable 'survival' technique (at least it was invaluable to me on Rainier last May!) of side-slipping all the way down.  He was super proud of his accomplishment despite not attempting a single turn - and i hope it gives him confidence to 'safely' overstep his limits in the future.  I also had a pretty tough run up the mountain followed by a screaming fast and exhilarating one down the snowshoe trails back to the house.  There were also a few good workouts during Jason's (my brother) visit - he and his girlfriend are going to try out my 'method' for the next four weeks to try to get a bit faster for their big adventure race down in patagonia.

I'm still struggling with the biking and had a less than great workout on a stationary bike before heading down to wisconsin, but then a much better one yesterday (during which my mother in law - Mary -snapped the photo above) which i'm going to use as a mental springboard into this last month of training before the arrowhead.  As i got into it and kept my motivation high i just let the negativity and anxiety that i've been accumulating as of late surrounding my training (and also the rampant uncertainty that seems to exist in the rest of my life right now) become the sweat that coursed out from my pores and onto Mary's basement floor.  Sorry Mary (-: