Blog

About two weeks ago my second semester of medical school came to a very happy end.  I'm very proud to say that I passed all my classes and did great on my finals... I think I finally figured out a balance between training and studying.  Basically, I just took t.v. out of the equation and limited myself to one show a day, plus a little t.v. during meals.  Anyway, back to my training.  When I finished the semester I started to go crazy with training.  I had so much time!  I also have watched a LOT of t.v., I think that is my guilty pleasure... but I digress.  I've been having trouble getting myself to run, mostly because it is just so darn cold out!  But for some reason, I love to run when it snows.  When the trees are covered in white and the ground is slick with snow, I love to run.  I love to run through powder and I love to slide down slippery slopes.  Don't ask me why, I just do.  Maybe it is because I love skiing so much.  I just start to function when it snows.  Which brings me back to the week after my semester ended.  It snowed.  I went crazy.  I decided to turn on my iPod and just run.  My favorite place to run in East Lansing is the River Trail because it is away from traffic.  I hate running on sidewalks because I have asthma, so the car exhaust makes breathing even more difficult.  Add on the cold, and running along busy roads is a nightmare for me!  I can jump onto the start of the River Trail less than half a mile away from my house in East Lansing.  So I did.  The problem is, I didn't have any distance in my head.  I just decided to head out and turn around when I felt like it.  Bad choice.  After 6 miles, my legs were tired so I decided to turn around.  Just for the record, you should always turn around before your legs start to feel heavy and tired, especially when I don't have a huge running base!  The rest of my run home was basically a survival run.  But I made it, and when I made it, I felt tired, but I felt fantastic.  I have really pushed myself and made it!  My legs were sore, but that was okay.  I believe that this run made me stronger, it taught me that I can push through pain and that I can keep moving.  Like Jef Mallet says in his book, when I start to crash on the run in my next race I won't think "Oh no," I will think "Oh, this again" and I will know that I can keep pushing because the pain is momentary and the end is great. 

Now you are probably wondering about the title of this blog.  Not long after my run, it was time to catch a plane to Utah for my yearly Christmas ski trip with my family.  Honestly, I think you would be hard pressed to find a workout that pushes your legs harder than skiing a 2.5 mi long run over and over again.  Well, of course I didn't do the same run over and over, but the main idea is that we went to a BIG mountain.  I love this mountain (which I have been told by locals that I cannot tell the name of because it is a best kept secret and they would have to kill me if I told...) which was used for the 2002 Olympics (that should at least narrow it down, if you really care.  I have a feeling there aren't many skiing triathletes... both are very expensive sports and if it wasn't for my parent's generous Christmas presents, I wouldn't be able to do both!).  The resort is absolutely gorgeous, but the hill is even better.  Especially when it snows.  And it snowed, oh did it snow!  Let me just say, and if you don't ski then just take my word for it, that skiing through over half a foot of powder if extremely tiring!  By my last day of skiing, which was yesterday, my legs were absolutely thrashed.  Besides being a fantastic strength workout, skiing is a great change of pace for the off season.  I plan to ski back home in Michigan, but you really can't compare the hills in Michigan to the mountains of Utah.  But that is okay, because I seem to find a way to have fun in Michigan.  Yup, you guessed it, I race! 

I would like to finish with wishes for a Happy New Year and I hope that 2010 will be a great year for triathlon.  Maybe on the plane back to Utah I will start mulling over my triathlon goals for 2010.  Now that my big ski trip is over, I'm getting very excited about triathlon!  But I think reading Jef Mallet's book Trizophrenia helped feed the fire!