Almost There

Last year we were completely done with snow making and had all of the guns broken down and put away by December 8. This year (season) we finish up tonight. The extra weeks of snow making that I was not anticipating has taken a toll, physically, mentally, emotionally, and in terms of my two other business (three now but that's for later). I have only been able to do what I can do to keep things afloat and operating, meaning no growth.

Injury... I pulled my left hamstring the first Monday of December and that ended up involving some other tendons and stuff. So for the past few weeks, I have been seeing the PT the days that I was not on the mountain working just to keep me together. It took awhile and I do not know if they were the root cause that weakened things and then when I ran that Monday a few weeks ago it is what caused things to go POP, but my Scarpa hard shell mountaineering boots have not been helping the problem.

So this week I switched a lighter boot and voila, no more leg pain.

Training... Riding the crap out of the spinning bike at the Aspen Rec Center. Rode for three days this week for 6.5 hours total. Between that and working this week, I am staying fit and getting stronger, and of course the leg IS getting better. But work is training too... digging, hiking, climbing, lugging around hoses, hell, even driving a sled is a workout that involves the entire body. The bottom line is this... I can tell from my bike rides that I am still VERY fit and ready to start training in earnest once I am off of the mountain completely.

Salida... I am going to run the half-marathon instead of the full. That week of Salida is the first week of training block 1 for Hardrock. If I were to race the marathon I would be losing nearly a week just recovering after the race. Doing the half, I can still race it and be able to follow up with a another good long run the day after and not compromise the following training week. Plus Shad is going to run the half (I think) and I will have a chance to keep up with him, doubtful, but it's a goal. LOL!

Hardrock... on a scale of one to ten, my enthusiasm is about a one and I don't see that changing any time soon. I sure hope it does because this little adventure is going to cost a lot money and time and I'd rather be spending both on something that I am excited and invested in doing rather than not.

Other work... one of my runners is doing Bandera today. Waiting like an expectant father for that result. He has come a long way these past few months and this has been our goal race since October. (update: he ran 5:35, 11th overall, 3rd AG) Dude is a solid ultra finisher... now he is stepping his game up. RunAspen.Com is getting great traffic and I expect more runners on the roster once the Leadville Lottery is done.

And the biggie from the week... this startup that I have been working with/for the past three years or so, I became 1/3rd owner of this week, call it payoff for all of my sweat equity the past few years. Could mean nothing in the end... could mean a lot more... time will tell.