Most people never go far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. ~William James

I missed two weeks of this and I’m sorry; I’m still trying to get into a rhythm with this blog and setting aside specific time to keep it up is one of my biggest goals. Also, I spent a week in Denver visiting with family for the first time in 8 months, so I was distracted. After several high mileage weeks in a row, the vacation came at a good point in my Georgia Death Race training cycle so I wasn’t too concerned about losing fitness. Actually, I go crazy when I can’t work out but my lovely coaches at SweatTracker were confident that the best training is already behind me at this point. That being said, I still managed 2 full days of skiing and 2 sessions in the apartment gym where we stayed so I have nothing to be stressed about really. This week was about getting back on my sleep and training schedule, and some final key workouts before moving into taper before GDR.

Here’s the week of February 29-March 6, 2016:

• Monday, February 29: Full day of skiing at Keystone! This was me and my husband’s first trip to Colorado. As a lifelong skier living in the South is a bit depressing in the winter. I also grew up skiing in the Northeast and this was my first time skiing the “real” mountains out West. Colorado is a magical place. You land in Denver where it’s pancake flat, sunny 300+ days a year and full of happy people, and then drive 90 minutes through the Continental Divide to some of the most epic ski mountains. We skied Vail last week with my brother and then my husband and I had our own day to ski Keystone. It was sunny, comfortable temps, beautiful views, and zero crowds. LOVE.
  

  Rocky Mountain high

• Tuesday, March 1: Hike up Flatirons 1 & 2, fly home to ATL. Today was our last day in Colorado but we made the most of it. We drove to the Flatirons in Boulder at sunrise for a 3.5 mile hike. This whole trip I was surprised how great I still felt at altitude and this hike was no exception. What was advertised as a moderate hike was actually pretty steep in areas with some scrambling and sketchy ice patches. We managed to (safely) reach the top and it was worth any anxiety. We even had to time to get back to Denver, shower, check out, have brunch, drive to airport, drop off the van, and get on a flight 7 hours before our scheduled flight. We got on standby, for free, with 2 checked bags. Southwest, I heart you.
  

  Holiday card anyone?

• Wednesday, March 2: Vacation recovery. We slept in this morning and then went to bed early after work. Nothing more to be said here. 🙂
• Thursday, March 3: Cobra camp and stair climbs. Back on schedule like a champ! Today was the last day of headstands focus in cobra camp at Tough Love Yoga. I was able to (barely) do crow into headstand and it was awesome. Core work FTW! This evening I did an hour of steady state stair climbs in my office. 12 floors, up and down, rotating different foot positions each floor. On the way down I did 10 air squats on every other floor. Killer workout but I know I’ll be thankful for it on the 40,000 feet of total elevation change at Death Race.
• Friday, March 4: 50′ Timed Run. Even though it was a beautiful day I completed this workout on the treadmill at my work gym. The workout called for repeating intervals of 30″ easy, 20″ tempo, 10″ sprint, and completing that outside with traffic lights and such would be really difficult. Knocking it out on the dreadmill wasn’t horrible and I was able to hit consistent intervals each time.
• Saturday, March 5: Atlanta Track Club training run AND Yeti Nightmare 10 Miler. It was a bit chilly this morning but turned into a beautiful, warm sunny run; the longest training run for our program before the participants complete the Publix Half Marathon on March 20 (I’ll be at GDR that weekend). I was still a bit sore this morning from the Thursday stair workout but felt strong once we started moving. The real challenge was to then complete the Yeti Nightmare 10 miler on Saturday night as well. This is an awesome 5/10 mile trail run at night in Sweetwater Creek State Park. I’ll have a BibRave review posted soon. This was great practice for the nighttime running I’ll do at Death Race as well as the muscle fatigue I’m sure to experience. The race was a ton of fun, it was a crisp, clear night, perfect for just a t-shirt. I felt great and it was a great confidence booster after a slow vacation week and headed into taper for Death Race. It’s getting real!!!
  

  Just a bit muddy…

• Sunday, March 6: More rest/sleep! We got back from Yeti around midnight so I won the sleeping in award today. Enjoyed a Sunday Funday brunch followed by errands and house chores. Was thinking about an evening yoga class but opted to stay home with my husband drinking wine and playing Pandemic. Definitely a good choice.

I’m really looking forward to extra yoga and swim sessions in the next 2 weeks as I taper for GDR. It’s the final countdown and everything that needed to be done is done at this point. On March 19, it’ll just be one foot in front of the other, and repeat for 72 miles. Is it masochistic that I’m really excited about this?!