September 20th, 2008
Recovering from being sick last week seemed to take forever. I basically did nothing for a few days (it felt like months) and then still only did an easy run and short strength session. That was pretty much it, and lots of sleep, reading, eating, and more sleep. My first workout resembling anything hard finally came on Thursday when I did 15×90 secs. double poling on roller skis. It’s always so hard to start working out again after stopping like that. But it feels good to be back. Yesterday I did VO2max intervals, 7×3 minutes. I was pretty close to max heart rate for the last minute of each one. With a nice long warm up and cool down it was close to 2.5 hours. I was wiped.
After a nice long night of eating and then sleeping, I woke up and get ready to do today’s workout - LSD. I affectionately refer to it as LBD-Long Boring Distance. Let’s face it, by September 20, these workouts can be kind of boring. Especially if, like me, you are not fortunate enough to be part of a team or at least have training partners. I do about 99% of this stuff by myself. I start to feel like I am crazy, talking to myself about how pretty the trails are. “Wow it’s such a nice day” “Yea, it’s nice and sunny and just a beautiful day.” “It’s 80 degrees and I’m sweating like Niagara Falls. It would be a more beautiful day if it was 20 degrees and I was gliding down this hill.” “Yea, come on your time will come though and this will make it so much sweeter.” “Right, I feel much better. Now, how long have I been catskiing?” “Sweet, only 2 hours 38 minutes left.” Awesome.
Seriously though, these workouts are a great time for me to pray and think and do such individual matters. However, there are some times where there’s really just nothing going on in my head and then I get too unfocused by how hot it is, how much time I have left, how people are looking at me like I have 12 heads because they have no idea what catskis are…
But today I decided to spice things up. My workout was to be about 2:40 with 4×30secs level 5 mixed in. I knew exactly the hill I wanted to do those on. This hill is long and steep, and the last 10 yards get even steeper. This is not a hill I usually go near while catskiing, because it is so far from my house. I prefer to catski out the door, and a level 1 catski is often slower than a normal walk. I go to the state park a mile away, do one trail and head back home. Today I decided to be adventurous. I planned to ski part of the first trail, hop on the second, and then sneak out to the road to take the back way home. I figured I could do all this in 2:40. Actually, I figured it would take longer, but on the off chance I did it in that short a time I decided to try. The new route definitely helped keep me from getting bored.
It actually was a really nice day, too. Though extra hot, there were plenty of leaves starting to turn yellow and red, and the parts of the second trail I haven’t seen since the spring are just extra nice to look at. I always think I’m dumb for not bringing my camera, and then I remember I’m working out. Everything just looked exceptionally beautiful today. This opportunity to experience nature has always been one of the reasons I’m sure God wants me to ski.
There are other reasons why I feel as if it’s not just a joke that I’m doing this whole ski thing. Countless things have happened that others might shrug off as coincidence. But I don’t believe in such a thing, and these instances are proof to me that I am doing a good thing. Today was a perfect example. My catski ended up taking over three hours. On an already long and potentially boring workout, I misjudged the route, making it take longer. But I loved it. I never felt tired or bored at all, until right when I got back to camp. Two other funny things also happened at this exact moment. First, I drank the last of the water in my hydration pack. I really hadn’t filled it much at all, and shortly after starting the workout I realized that was a mistake and that I was going to suffer. But I never did. For the entire workout, whenever I wanted or needed water it was there, until that moment. The battery on my mp3 player also died at that exact moment. I don’t normally enjoy listening to music while working out outside, but I had brought some this time to entertain myself. The rechargable batter was almost dead when I started, and I expected it to last about 25 minutes. I figured after that I would go back to the sounds of nature and rocks shaking around in my head. They actually lasted the entire workout until I stepped back on camp property, my legs started to hurt, and my water ran out.
It was crazy. And beautiful. And fun. And sweaty. I am pretty sure Jesus was skiing with me. It was like the loaves and the fishes except it was the water and batteries. It’s always been like this with me and skiing. Things always just fall into place at just the right time to help me get what I need so I can continue to pursue my dreams (which are really just expectations). I always think I’m so funny because I joke about things and then I actually do them. But sometimes it’s evident that God is feeding me the lines and they’re not jokes. They just sound crazy coming out of my mouth, because even I don’t know where they came from. These are the kinds of things I reflect on when I’m working out by myself for hours each day…
