Witch doctors and plane seats

My favorites are the PTs. They just saved me when I couldn't move or do anything.

About a month ago, I flew to DC for a "retreat". It was an interesting trip for me because I had never seen Washington. I didn't have much free time, just enough to enjoy a fantastic "steak tartare" at the Café du Coin (hmmm flavors from home!) and long expected sea food at the Sea Catch. I also went for a walk to the National Mall. I wish I had more time to visit the Smithsonian and all these museums. I had to make a choice... and opted for the American History Museum, but on my way there I walked past the Museum of Natural History and couldn't resist. 

I first walked through the Mammalian museum and was chased by a herd of little screaming creatures. I moved on to the dinosaurs and fossils and was very impressed by how they present evolution using words and concepts understandable by kids. Who soon followed me in the fossils hall and drove me out of it.

I then went upstairs to see only the first half (unfortunately) of the exhibition called "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake". Amazing! They illustrate with remains of settlers the way they can discover all sorts of information just by looking at human skeletons.

I had to run out though to be sure not to miss my plane. Which could actually have been a good thing? It turns out the flight from DC to Denver was quite bad, my neighbor being physically unable to fit on her seat, and therefore occupying half of mine. I have this bad habit of not moving during a flight, just trying to sleep, hoping I won't wake up before it's over. I did because my neighbor needed to get up a few times. It wasn't that bad, except for 1) the water she finally spilled on my lap, 2) the fact that I spent 4 hours crooked on an uncomfortable seat.

But what can you do? I could have complained but the plane was packed and I couldn't see how it would have improved my situation. It might have allowed me to vent some of my frustration, and made my neighbor feel embarrassed or upset. great.

The bottom line: I woke up the next day unable to move my back. Had issues in the past, and probably very unshaped abs, but this hadn't happened to me as far as I can remember.

It took me 2 days before being able to go back to work, and 2 weeks and a half before being able to workout again - and this only with the help of my heroes the physical therapists. Chiropractors couldn't help me there. I have to say I feel almost like a professional of lower back issues. I'm ready to help anyone in need...:)

Of course, this affected my ski-days-count (i still made it ti 20, which means I need to find a way to go 12 more days before the end of spring), and also I couldn't continue training for the triathlon and decided to cancel my participation...

Oh well. I have since resumed training (next race should be June 21st), hope to keep this blog a little more updated, and at the same time find a job for next year. Ouch.

Day 15

A little more snow fell on the Bitterroot last week. Unfortunately, it stopped on Thursday, and once again I went to Lost Trail to ski packed snow.
In my future life, I'll be able to take ANY Thursday off to ski powder. And ANY Friday off too. ANY day off.
The weather was nice, not too windy, not too cold.
I took the teles again, I feel I can cheat less and less.
Oggy took me with him at the end of the day to sweep the SacJack trees and Sacajewea. There's nothing like having the whole mountain for ourselves...
The weather forecast looks good: snow likely everyday. Hopefully, some fresh snow for Saturday this time...

Where was I at...?

I might want to get used to the never ending cold. I have to admit that every day is a surprise, since every day it seems I have a different cold... Today is the dry coughing stage. I had congestion, tears, congestion, runny nose, sore throat, on day off (so I went swimming and running... how smart!), then back to the runny/congested nose friday...

Week end and dry air did not help so much.

What's tomorrow?

My training is not going so well so far.

Looking back at last week, I missed the 2 spin workouts, one run and one swim... which is what? 2 thirds of what I had planned?

I decided to re-try the same program this week...

Monday was skiing so no swim - I already have to catch up

Tuesday run cancelled too... but did pilates in the evening.

Wednesday: Spin+ transition run 10 min. check

Wednesday night: swim 2000yds : I'm leaving in a few minutes.

Let's see if I can complete the program before Sunday.

BIG!

Monday, third day of our trip, we skied Big Sky.

No fresh snow, once again, although it was pretty cloudy most of the day. 

We took the avalanche gear, because I was really hoping we'd get to ski the BIG couloir... the one that starts from the right side of the peak.

I didn't happen. The Ancient chickened out and convinced Junior and I that it was icy. I believed him. I thought I saw big bands of ice going across the thing while we were in the tram. I t was probably just some weird shadows...

We had a good day, though. Did a few runs from the very top, the afternoon I skied with Oggy and even convinced him that he could ski the Liberty Bowl with us. Of course, at that point, he was by far the fastest on the run and after 5 turns and the Ancient and I begging for rest (and air), trash talk had started.

After a long good day, we met a friend of Oggy who had skied the Big Couloir twice and loved it. No ice by the way. Darn it! Next time, no matter what the weather is, what the snow is, I AM DOING IT!!!!

Ran back to the condo, took a quick shower and jumped in the car with Junior (5 hour drive and he was still talking...) while Oggy and the Ancient stayed for a few more days on the slope of that big mountain. I hate work.

Day 13

So Bridger was day 12.

On Sunday, we decided to ski Moonlight Basin. Still no new snow... I figured I'd work on my (poor) tele skills, and it turned out to be a very very tiring day!

We parked at Moonlight Lodge, a very fancy place, and probably very expensive, however, since we took passes only for Moonlight Basin, the tickets were not too expensive. And it was really not crowded at all, which I thought was surprising considering how nice the weather was.

I had a hard time skiing down black diamonds, however, by the end of the day I felt confident enough to follow Junior and the Ancient up the headwaters. This is the wall that tops the ski area. You have to hike a little bit to get to the chairlift that goes up there. And wow! it's steep! OK, I cheated a little bit, and went down doing alpine turns, but believe me, it's still a good balance exercise!

The Ancient and I decided to call it a day and meet Oggy at the lodge while Junior kept going. I felt a little old that day. The hot tub was barely enough to relax my poor legs, and by 10pm, everybody was sound asleep (it might be due in part to the fact that we each ate a pound and 1/4 of meat for dinner?).

On the snow again

Fresh snow seems to be on the way... good news after a week end that looked more like spring than sometime in February! Nice week end though, a very welcome break away from work.

Friday after work, Junior and I jumped in the ski-mobile and headed to Bozeman. A long trip made shorter by Juniors never ending well of stories and anecdotes. We arrived a little later than expected, and met Oggy and his friend the Ancient at the Bozeman Inn. The place is just fine, and cheap.

Not advertising for anyone, I have to say that there is a very nice place for treats, Bean and Leaf or Leaf and Bean downtown, where we had our breakfast before going to Bridger Bowl.

I have skied a little bit in the Bozeman area last winter and had good memories of the ski area. I wasn't disappointed. The snow was not very good, and runs full of moguls, but the terrain is really fun and we had a great time. Our legs worked hard. We finished our day by taking the new lift, Shlasman, that was added on the southern side of Bridger: it takes skiers almost all the way to the ridge! Just a few feet and you're on top! The beacon is required to go there, and I have only 2 of these, so the Ancient and Oggy stayed while Junior and I went up. I would probably not have done that on a regular day, since Junior had no idea of how to use it. He didn't even know how to turn it on... But Saturday was definitely a day with non-existent avalanche danger. That was fun! a little scary sometimes, because the cliffs are just there, unmarked, and since we didn't know the terrain, it was a little bit a random navigation.

The chair closes at 2:30 so we could take it only once. I have to go back on a good snow day.

After skiing and Costcoing we met Francis for a pizza, a very entertaining evening, and finally left Bozeman for Big Sky. The roads were dry, no traffic, and we got to the condo in less than an hour.

Week 1

Today is the first day of my "official training plan" - an 8 week training program based on different books and websites i read and browsed through.
Little problem though: I caught the Grettelbug.
Little Grettel coughed in our face last week. I thought it was funny, but did not realize that Oggy would get that sick. And now it seems to be my turn...

Well anyway, here was the initial plan for this week:
monday: swim 2000yds
tuesday: run 3miles (morning), pilates or yoga (evening)
wednesday: spin (45min) followed by transition run 10min (morning); swim 2000yds (evening)
thursday: run 3 miles (morning); stretch (evening)
friday: spin (45min) followed by transition run 10min (morning); beer (evening)

no long run or long ride over the week-end yet: I will be skiing.

So, I'm starting quite well the training by not swimming today... Hopefully, I won't get as sick as Oggy and Francis, and will be able to catch up quickly...

PS:I got my 2 days of skiing despite the bug... a little bit of tele saturday at Lost Trail on hard packed snow, a little bit more of tele on 2 inches of fresh snow sunday, still at Lost Trail... Not much, but I guess we can't complain about "only 2 inches" this season...