Winter In The Air

Its an exciting time of year. Transition is imminent as snow looms on the horizon, both figuratively and literally. The mountain tops are white here in Park City and it seems that, week after week, a new weather forecast promises snow. October snow in the mountains is a certainty, but there is a hardly a chance that it will stay for long. In November, all bets are off. The first day of winter can be any day.

I have been extremely busy lately between training, continuing to develop my new team, spending lots of time in the school before heading off to the West Yellowstone later this month, a few short trips to California to catch up with Crystal and the list goes on... But I am enjoying having plenty to do and I feel productive, which is huge for my general being.

Last week I got sidetracked a bit by a heavy dose of John Paul Sartre and Pink Floyd. I don't recommend the two together. The Dark Side of the Moon is dark and unless you feel the need for extreme introspection, steer clear. This week I'm pushing forward into a bit of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard but combating the effects with the ultra pop sounds of Julian Casablancas's new album.

Yesterday I had one of the best road rides of the entire summer. I was out for almost 6 hours and managed an extremely high level of energy the entire time. It was awesome, I was jamming. I really didn't want to stop but there wasn't any need to ride more. But I did lift some weights later in the evening just to keep the mojo rising. I'm not sure where this energy is coming from though I haven't been on my bike for almost a month now and it feels good to be back on two wheels. I might need to ride more.

School has been fun lately. Some classes are playing volleyball, some are ballroom dancing, some are learning about fitness training. I've been lending my expertise in the fitness training realm whenever possible. Trying to fit 30 kids with heart rate monitors is quite a task, I have enough trouble just trying to keep my own in working condition. On Friday I spent a good deal of time trying to relate the importance of staying within certain 'zones' while training and how each zone has a different effect. Later in the class we went out and ran 1.5 miles trying to stay within our aerobic zones. Some of the kids did great, others didn't get the memo and ran as fast as they could. Either way we were running, so it was a success. And pretty cool to see 12 year olds learning about heart rate based training.

I think Badminton is next for some classes, for others its swimming. I'm not sure what I have to offer to those sports but the message is usually the same - just try hard and have fun. That's what its all about anyways. And exactly what I'll be doing in the next few weeks.