Back in one piece

For those traditionalists amongst you who think that a running blog should only be about running, I'll say "running makes you fitter, and thus a more capable snow rider". Feel free to turn off at this point. For those that want to know more about the non-running stuff, read on... :-)

We're latecomers to snow sports, only attempting it for the first time 5 years ago. In fact, this whole health/running schtick came about in part from a failure to be able to cope with the physical load of snowboarding, but that's a whole other story. Each year, we've improved both in technique and in the ability to cope with the physical side, but this year the difference was phenominal. We generally try to go from first to last lifts for the full five days, so we're also generally barely able to drag ourselves to bed by about 9:30 (so much for the night life on the slopes :-) This year we have both had a fair leap in fitness thanks to runclub and freespirit, and we were able to go flat chat for the whole time without collapsing in a heap. I think that may also have had something to do with the lack of injuries, because I think the added strength gives added control.

The weather was super-kind to us - lots of snow before we got there, lovely clear, windless days, cold clear nights, sleeping to the dull background roar of the snow guns running all night... Wonderful! Just to whet your appetite, here's the view from our bedroom window as the rising sun catches the clouds from the snow guns :-)



One of the advantages(??) of exercising 8 hours a day was that I chose to eat a fair bit more than I have been, and be a little less picky about the nutritional value of the stuff I put in my mouth (ie chocolate was definitely back on the menu). I don't know whether the kJ in equated to the kJ out, because I havn't got around to weighing myself yet, but before I do, I'll post this picture of the dessert I had on Thursday night while the runclubbers were doing their 1,000,000 x 400m track session :-)





Finally, one of the highlights of the week was catching up with GoGirl for a coffee one lunch time. She was easy to find in the crowded cafe. She was the one with the brightly coloured headgear (and the husband trying to hide with the embarrassment of sitting with someone wearing a CR running cap at the snow :-) Maybe we should ask Kevin Tiller to make a CR helmet. Not much use for running, but it would be easy to see on the slopes :-)

We'll be running the bulk of the C2S course tomorrow morning with Owl and Lulu and others. It'll be interesting to see if snow riding muscles are the same as running muscles :-) The calendar for the next few weeks is;
- next Saturday, CR 5k challenge.
- Sunday, Bay run fun run (7k).
- Following weekend, Striders 10k at Lane Cove.
- Following weekend, City to Surf (14k).
- 4 Weeks later, Blackmores half (21k).
Did anyone notice the monotonically increasing length of those races? I think we'd better take a breather after that or in about a year we'll be running to the moon!!

sfG