Thursday, February 6, 2014

It's no Polar Vortex...but the Arctic Mass has arrived!

Well we've made it to February! And started it off with a lovely cold snap - one that I can't seem to get warm in. The mornings in my office are ice cold and i'm usually found wrapped in a blanket sipping away on coffee, tea and/or hot chocolate. This building has serious heating/cooling issues. My lunch workout usually warms me up and i'm good for the rest of the day!

I've even managed 2 evenings of trailrunning at COP this week and it was a blast. I think the trees helped and masked the fact that it was so effing cold out. The first night I took Logan for a run as  I knew he'd have a blast in there and brought my running snowshoes along. I wasn't sure what the conditions would be like. Also, they've been missing for a month and i finally dug them out of a deep dark high shelf in the basement. Since we have a gear room i have no idea why they were tucked away down there and I was stoked to use them! Logan and I had a complete blast - me with my Petzl Nao headlamp which is proving to be just perfect for night running, and Logan with his own headlamp around his neck. That's more so I can find him although it probably helps him too! The second evening I went on my own for a bit of a longer run and this time ran in my Kahtoolas since the snow was so well packed in there. You could easily run without any traction device but I found these ideal and it was nice to be flying around on the trails and not just plodding along. Since I'm also still recovering from knee issues, the spikes really help with stability.

Also for the first time ever I ran in my Patagonia down sweater...freakin awesome and I have no idea why it has never occurred to me to use it before. I was toasty warm for both runs and the only thing I could have improved on was my face situation - have yet to find the perfect thing for that. I find the balaclavas i've tried are too restricting and those that cover my mouth are hard to breath through etc. I'll keep looking for the perfect one....

Last week I was in Cozumel, MEX for a wedding. It was my first ever all inclusive vacation and was a lot of fun. I did a whole lot of nothing and relaxing at the pool which I actually really enjoyed. I found the humidity exhausting and not something i'm used to at all. However, I did manage to run each day on the treadmill to keep up with some kind of activity to battle all the eating and drinking we did :) I wasn't brave enough to venture outside as Mexico is a little nuts to be honest :)

But I gotta say, despite the insanely cold conditions right now, i'm super happy to be back and ready for some adventures this weekend. Gotta make the most of my weekends, regardless of the weather! I'm still trying to figure out where i'm going to go. I think i'll give running up Sulphur Mountain a go and see how that turns out. I may attempt a double if I'm feeling good after one trip up, but seeing as how it's winter and i'm low on mountain running kms, I might be dead tired after one trip up lol. I'm not sure if i'll head to the mountains both days or if one day might just be up trotting around Nose Hill. I was also thinking about heading up Pneuma trail in Kananaskis. I'm thinking that because it hasn't been snowing much lately and there are a lot of people riding their fat bikes on the trails this year, it should be well packed down.

It's been a really hard week back at work focusing on anything. All I want to do is go play. Now that Thursday is here, i'm getting stoked! See you out there!

Deb

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