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February 10, 2006
The Unraveling of a Running Week and the Raveling of Other Fun
I won't make it to 50 miles this week. I won't even make it to 40 miles. Probably I will run 30 miles. Some of why I'm not running very much is out of my control (I had a work emergency one day.), but much of it is completely in my control. I'm not sitting on my arse being lazy, rather I've mostly been enjoying the winter sports of Yellowstone. I've clearly said before that I don't want these other, though enjoyable, diversions to impede upon my running. Well, I'm letting them impede upon my running this week! I feel a little guilty, but I'll smother that guilt by indulging myself in healthy doses of Yellowstone wilderness.
I'm bound and determined to learn how to turn on cross-country skis. Today we skiied out a tracked dirt road to a cabin. Beyond the cabin, the land opens up into wide, sweeping, lolly-gagging hillsides. Nothing dangerous or steep, the perfect place to learn how to turn. I spent much of my afternoon traversing my way up a hillside, then making awkward, huge, and gaping S-turns all the way down. When I would reach the bottom of a hill, I would look back up at my tracks. Instead of beautiful, symmetrical S's, I instead would see a mess! By the end of the afternoon, I was starting to get the hang of it, I actually felt my knee touch down on its ski in a single, well-executed turn. Once, just once! But seconds later, I was on my rear end, wondering where I went wrong. Oh well, I'll get it, someday. Thus, I nixed today's run in lieu of climbing and descending untracked wilderness hillsides.
The more we do this skiing thing, the smarter we're getting. The other day, while skiing in a snowstorm, we noticed other skiers taking a break, sipping a steaming beverage from a thermos, looking happy and warm. Us, we didn't want to stop moving because we were afraid we'd get too cold! Today we took curried noodle soup in 1 thermos, and a mixture of coffee and hot chocolate in the other. I really can't decide what's more fun, the athletic act of skiing or the side benefit of drinking and eating hot stuff out of a thermos whilst plopped down among a field of white, watching a bull elk graze.
I will run tomorrow and I will run on Sunday. At the end of the week perhaps I will have run 30 or just a few more miles, but I will have been active every day. I'm inclined to wonder, a mile on cross-country skis equates to how much running? But, I don't even want to go there.
Posted by Meghan at February 10, 2006 7:52 PM
Comments
"Drinking and eating hot stuff out of a thermos whilst plopped down among a field of white, watching a bull elk graze" sounds really awesome. That can be your motivation for getting out there!
Posted by: Caitlin at February 12, 2006 8:23 AM
While I was watching the cross country skiing on tv at the Olympics I was thinking of you and wondering how in the world you get anywhere on those skis! It looks very challenging - does it make you sore at all? Either way, as always I enjoy hearing about the different critters you encounter and all the beauty that you see!
Posted by: Beth at February 12, 2006 3:28 PM
That is so cool. Pretty soon you will be a telemark skier, and women who telemark are really hard core in my opinion.
If I were trying to track xc skiing as 'mileage' I would probably figure out how many miles I could ski in about 10 minutes, and basically use that as a baseline (i.e. I can ski 3 miles/10 minutes, thus if I ski 9 miles it is worth 3 miles of running). But I am really obsessive and I would totally track it!
Posted by: Barb at February 13, 2006 8:53 AM