Back To Work.

So once the races in Breckenridge were over I stuck around for another 5 days with my buddy Justin, getting some training in at 9500 ft (!) and catching up on the old days. It was fun to be out on the road for a while but as with anything, marginal returns began to decrease an in an instant I was ready to be home.

I left the following day. My drive home covered some amazing territory. An hour into the drive I drove over Vail pass and shortly after, followed the Colorado River westward past Glenwood Springs to Grand Junction. I took my time, stopping quite a few times to take pictures along the road. Its hard to beat the American West in terms of camera fodder.

When I arrived home the first snowflakes were only hours from falling from the sky, the true beginning of our winter. Several feet have of snow have fallen in the days since, in various locales around the Wasatch. Park City seems to have received the least snow, only seeing about 16 inches thus far. There is plenty more in the forecast and hopefully the storms yet to come will be more generous to our town.

I have not raced again since Breckenridge. I have had the opportunity to do some local races but I decided that I would be better served by doing my own workouts at my own pace. I know what I am missing right now and that is nothing more than economy. I'm not efficient at a steady state. So I am fixing it workout by workout and once I feel that I've moved past that, I will race again and hopefully with much better results.

Specifically, this past week I have done three intensity workouts, each one forty minutes in length, though each time the duration of a single interval has varied. I'm not pushing the pace over my lactate threshold, in fact staying at least 5 beats below. Days in between intervals I have done a speed workout or a specific strength workout. On speed days I simply do 10 accelerations, simulating a finish sprint, even going so far as to visualize competitors in my mind. Specific strength days consist of alternating between skiing without poles and skiing with out my legs (double poling), I usually trade off every 5k.

Yesterday I took a day away from the track and ventured up Guardsman Pass. A place that used to play home to my first ski of the year. I don't ski there too much any more but I took the opportunity to ski up with my camera and into the woods. I had no destination in mind, just followed snowmobile tracks where ever they would lead me. It was very blustery and snowing hard so taking pictures was difficult at times but I did come out with some nice ones.

This week I am headed up to Sun Valley with my girlfriend, Crystal, and our dog, Roz, to spend the holiday with Crystal's family. I'm hoping to catch up with some friends and do plenty of training over the weekend as well. We'll be back to PC in time for New Year's Eve. After that I'll have a few local races to get my geared up for the Owl Creek Chase in Aspen, Colorado on January 16th, which is my first target event. I am looking forward to it.

Happy Holidays. Here are a few shots I've taken recently...