Monday, January 21, 2008

Great Weekend!

Friday evening, I did my last run for the week. I was planning on an easy hour on the treadmill. After lifting in the morning, I was surprised at how strong I felt. In the last 20 minutes of my run, I did 6 quarters at 8:00 mpm pace. That's not fast by any means, but it's faster than most of my mid-winter base training. I simply felt good and wanted to crank up the speed for a little bit.

On Saturday, while skiing, I felt great again - really strong. I noticed that just walking up the stairs in the lodge, while wearing ski boots, I had a spring in my step. I felt the same way yesterday as well, and skied more vertical feet than most days with the kids that I teach . We skied a lot despite temps near 0F all day long.

My weight workout went great this morning as well. Right now, I'm very excited about how I'm feeling, after complaining less than two weeks ago that I was feeling pretty tired for some workouts. Typically, the months of January, February, and March are very draining for me because I'm trying to build my mileage base and ski as much as possible. If I can get through the next 10 weeks feeling strong rather than exhausted, I'd be very optimistic heading into my post-ski-season training.

I'm signed up for my first ultra of the season the last Saturday in March, which is earlier than I hit the trails most years.

On the down side, despite the fact that I've only touched alcohol once in the past 14 days and I feel like I've been eating well, and my weight isn't budging. I have my annual physical today and I'm probably going to whine to my doctor about this issue.

It's nice to feel strong and fit at this point in time, but strong and fit and lighter would be even better.

On a completely unrelated note, I'll find out this week if I have any opponents in our town elections in early March. I'm currently a member of our Select Board, the Vermont equivalent of a City Council. I was appointed to the seat by the rest of the board after a member of the board resigned last spring. I'm running to retain my seat and my candidate's petition was completed weeks ago. I've heard rumors about two other people running, but two seats are open and I don't know if they'll oppose me or oppose the announced candidate for a seat that's being vacated. I think it would be best for the people in the town if both seats had two or more candidates, so people have a choice. My feelings wouldn't be hurt if someone opposed me and I lost the election, although I do enjoy contributing my time to our little town here in the center of Vermont.

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