I Love This Town!

First of all, yes, i know I look like a humongous dork in the photo I posted yesterday. I don't care, i was warm!

I mooshed three workouts today into one, I did a 40 minute run that ended at North Boulder Rec (where I discovered Priya's new roommate is interning) and as I was heading down broadway I came over this hill to a gorgeous view of the foothills and all I could think of was what a lucky sonuvagun I am. Once I got to the pool, I did 3500 yards, and I could feel my abs and obliques engaging like I hadn't noticed before, i don't know if this was good or bad, but there it is.

After the swim I sat in the hot tub for a few minutes, watching the sunlight that was coming through the windows dance on the surface of the water. I also bumped into Andrew Halperin, who every time I see him, I forget his name.

Then I changed back into my running clothes and did another 40 minute run, terminating at home. a couple times on that trip back I got views of the foothills and flatirons that jsut made me want to scram for the shear joy of being alive and living the life I have.

The last time my mind jumped to Ghostbusters and Winston Zedmore at the end of the film rearing back and screaming " I LOVE THIS TOWN!"

Damn right Winston, damn right.

Snowshoeing

A friend of mine tried to get me into snowshoeing a couple years back, I gave it a shot once, but really didn't take to it.

A week and a half ago, another friend and I went to a snowshoe race up at Eldora... perhaps i should have done a snowshoe race in the first place.

the race was on a beautiful clear wednesday night. As we stood at the start I couldn't help but think, "This is living... a beautiful clear moonlit night in the mountains, moon shining down,stars sparkling in the sky, brisk air in my lungs, a wonderful friend at my side and adrenaline pumping as we wait for the race to start."

The race started and I realized I didn't even need my headlamp, the light from the moon and stars cast a gorgeous glow. The race was brutal, 5kish with vicious hills and I'd never run in snowshoes before. 

I spent much of the race walking,wiped out from trying to get up hills.

Priya and I were probably last to cross the finish line, but we didn't care, we were hooked... we had such a blast and immediately resolved to do the rest of the races in the series.

This week, I resolved to run the whole course, now that I had an idea of what running in snowshoes would be like. Priya was fighting a chest and head cold but still did well all things considered. I came so close to running the whole race, but there was a patch of powder towards the end of the loop and the first time I hit it I really struggled and ended up walking a bit to recover. I did much better the other two loops though and that was the only time I didn't run during the race.

Bring on week 3!

Sweets

Those who know me well, know I have a bit of a sweet tooth. Those who know me really well, know I have something of a problem with Thin Mints.

How much of a problem? Well, my Thin Mint order came in today...

Am I a swimmer?

I've been working a lot lately, which has been kind of stressful and made getting my training in difficult at some times.

So when I found myself with a day long, persistent urge to swim... I didn't fight it. It's not a swimming day according to my sched, but I made a quick trip over to the Rec after work because you just shouldn't fight that sort of urge. I didn't swim long, I had dinner and a bike ride to do, but just 15 minutes in the pool really hit the spot.

Music

Confession: With the exception of a Beach boys concert in 1997 (that I don't count due to unusual circumstances) I'm never been to a contemporary concert before Friday night. I say contemporary because the opera and classical music don't seem to belong in the same type of category.

Yes, I'm a dork. Why had I never been to a concert before? Well, to be honest, music has never really been a big part of my life. I didn't grow up listening to a lot of music and the music I did listen to was typically classic rock. Not exactly easy to get tickets to see Queen.

Friday night I went to Boulder Theatre and saw a local band called Paper Bird. My good friend Priya is a huge fan and invited me along. We suffered through the rather long opening acts, or anticipation building and finally, around 11:30 (yeah, 11:30) they came on. I suppose they'd be described as bluegrass or folk.  What I really noticed though was how much FUN they seemed to have together on stage, singing and performing. The singers especially seemed to just be so happy to be doing what they were doing. In spite of the late hour, it was impossible to not get caught up in their joy and the fun and beauty of their music. It wasn't Mozart, it wasn't brilliant, but it was fun and honest and wonderful and I look forward to seeing them perform again.