Date: 2005-12-21
To: Winter Solstice
Miles today: 0.0

I love winter. It¢s cold, about 10 degrees, clear and bright. We still have last week¢s snow with an icy crust on top. It¢s only 1:00 in the afternoon but shadows are lengthening, the shortest day. Starting tomorrow, it may get colder and the snow deeper, but the days lengthen. By the time we reach spring equinox in March I will have been on the trail for 20 days. Here¢s the entry I promised an entry about my training. I¢m not at the level I would like to be and will do another entry when I get there. I¢ve been more focused on family and personal business, the funeral, the holidays, my recent move. Presently I¢m helping my mother get ready for her own move. I¢ve been packing boxes and filling trash bags. I¢ve been chopping up furniture that even Salvation Army doesn¢t want. Over the past two weeks I¢ve carried 40 trash bags out to the curb. The college¢s Christmas break starts tomorrow and I¢m headed for Maine. I¢ll pick up the training pace again up there. I¢m especially looking forward to cross country skiing, but the weather may not cooperate. No problem, I can still run and carry my pack. If it warms up and the ground gets soft I¢ll get in some practice with my tent. I want to be able to set it up quickly in the dark and in bad weather. Right now running takes up the biggest part of my training time. As mentioned in previous entries, I¢m pretty disciplined about it. I loved last winter¢s heavy training leading up to the spring marathon. I felt strong and the miles felt effortless. Too bad running is such hell on the body. Shin splints and plantar fascistic slowed me down in the late spring and led to a halt on running in the summer. I had to cancel a marathon I¢d planned for summer solstice in Anchorage. Six months later I¢ve built back up to about 25 miles a week, this last week and a halt excluded. Last March I was putting in up to forty. I don¢t plan on that level this year. I need to avoid the injuries and work on the hiking muscles and endurance. Nevertheless, I love winter running. Cold and crystal clear or cloudy and snowy, I just move smoother and faster. I¢m putting in the miles, 830 logged for the year and hope to reach 900 by New Years. That might be a stretch after taking time off. Still, running 900 miles for the year sounds like nothing compared to hiking 2,100 miles in five months. Besides running, I¢ve started back to palates. I hate it but can¢t deny the benefits. On days I don¢t run I get to the pool for water running, a good no impact workout. I get in some climbing when I can, but the outdoor season is over the decent gyms are too pricey to hit very often. I volunteer at the small YMCA gym here in town and will have to get the most out of it. I was in last night and got in some good climbing and bouldering. Lived up to my name. I¢m carrying my pack to work tomorrow and will continue to do so. Maybe not daily but I¢ll work it much more frequently into my schedule. Hate to say it, but I¢ll also be on the Stairmaster with pack on back. When I move permanently to Portland in February I¢ll join the Y there for a month. My days will be free and I¢ll push myself harder.I won¢t be perfect when I get to the trail, but I¢ll be better than I am now and the first weeks will, hopefully, be a little less painful. In shape or not, the waiting goes on. But today on the solstice I feel it getting closer.