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December 4, 2006
Closer To Home
Some days, one's inspiration comes from far away places. Other days, it arrives to you from much closer to home. This photo was taken just a few miles from my house, really in my neighborhood almost, at about 7,500 feet elevation. Winter has been in full force here for quite some time. In the background, Electric Peak looms high, topping out just above 10,900 feet. It's a different world up there, I'm sure, from my running/grizzly encountering adventure upon Electric Peak last summer. Often enough, I still cannot believe that I am lucky enough to call this place my home.
I didn't write much last week after posting everything on the Grand Canyon extravaganza because I didn't have much to say. I was running very little, and that which I was doing wasn't proceeding that comfortably. There are only so many ways that you can write, "I trashed my calves in The Canyon and now I can barely run." and I think that I exhausted all of them.
In all that quiet time, I tried to rest well. This week, I'm cautiously ramping up again. My calf muscles aren't yet perfect (but so much better than they were), so I will proceed as long as I don't hurt them. If all continues to go well, I have 8 challenging weeks of training ahead of me before the next "big thing."
Today I took my new snowshoes out for their first adventure. I'm already in love with snowshoe running. The snowshoe tails flip powder around with each step, and so I felt like I was running in my own snowstorm. I was moving silently in the snow except for an almost silent "whumping" as the snowshoe decks hit powder; gone was the persistent and annoying crunching and sqeaking noises of snow underneath rubber running shoe soles. When it was flat, I felt like I could move at a good clip. On the uphills and downhills, I was moving a lot slower that in running, but I felt solid and stable on that white slippery stuff. I can't yet decide how one hour of snowshoe running equates to one hour of running normally, but I can so far tell that the difference is minimal.
After a quiet running week and a week where I think my senses were somewhat dulled by the discomfort in those muscles below-the-knees, I'm running again and I'm again inspired by this place called Yellowstone.
Posted by Meghan at December 4, 2006 4:56 PM