Better

Saturday, I worked for most of the day, but after working, I went for a nice hour-long run with my wife. It was a nice day and it was nice to spend the hour alone with my wife - no phones, no computers, no fighting children.

Yesterday, I skied half the day with my family and some friends.

My back was not angry at either of those activities. Tonight, I'm going to try some upper body lifting, but I'm going to wait a bit before doing squats or deadlifts again.

After skiing yesterday, we hung out with ski school friends for a few hours. Even though Sugarbush is one of only three resorts still open in Vermont, there is no guarantee they'll make it to next weekend. There are only five trails left, and even that's a technicality. Truth be told, there are two ways down the mountain - an intermediate trail or a steep expert trail. So, yesterday's "hanging out" was likely our farewell to the season.

I had a lot of fun this season, but my friend Jay mentioned yesterday that we had the worst snow season he's seen in his 8 years at Sugarbush. This was my 12th season skiing at Sugarbush, and I think I've stopped comparing seasons. I just sort of take them as they come. Some storms or seasons are memorable (March of 2001 stands out in memory, as well as the Valentine's Day storm a few years ago that gave us about 5 feet of snow) and some are less great. But, it's always fun for me, even in a "bad" snow year.

So, we celebrated the end of another season last night. I mentioned more than once that it's only seven months until the snow guns are turned on again.

So, I have seven months of warmer weather to pull my fitness back together. Work is not going to get easier in that time frame, but I knew that when I took a high level job at a software start-up company. I've always been primarily a software developer kind of guy, but now I have to worry about not only the product, but also every detail of our computer systems, backups, databases, system administration, hardware procurement, etc. So, I just accept that work will take time. But, I don't have to let that stop me from getting back into shape.

So, I have a fall goal race in mind. I would like to run a Western States qualifier at a road 50 miler in Maine in October. Now that I've said that, I need some intermediate goals. My friend Laurel put a good one into the comments of my last post - pace at the Vermont 100. I think I can be ready for a slow 30 miler by then. I might try to find a late summer or early autumn road marathon. Maybe a half marathon in June. And, I have a couple long hikes that I've been meaning to do for the last couple years. Getting back to peakbagging in NH and NY this summer could be a lot of fun. And, right now, fun is what I need.