Thank You Rick Cowles

When I started teaching in Tupper Lake we had a great Athletic Director/PE Department Head who helped us obtain some awesome grants. One of the best things to come out of our Carol M White Grant was our fitness room which is chocked full of top of the line cardio equiptment and an endles climbing wall. This room has been a huge part of saving my athletic career and making time management a lot easier-especially during cold snaps like this one when I get to run killer hill workouts and not freeze my face off!

Bluebird Day

Last Saturday morning I awoke to subzero temps and prepped for my run. When I started the run it was -6, I had 2 dogs, and about a million layers on (including my Darth Veder face mask). In the first 4 mile loop Quenton and I warmed up while Bandit found herself completely exhausted and happy to be left in the sun on the front porch. I stripped a layer of pants, the mask and a jacket before Q and I took off down the railroad tracks which the local snowmobilers had so kindly packed down and stayed off of on this bright sunshiny morning. By the end of the run it was a solid 10 degrees so I lost one more layer and was able to thoroughly exhaust the old man-a great beginning to a great day.
The big adventure of the day was a family ski day at Big Tupper. As I drove to Tupper Lake to meet up with Ruby and Kevin the temps crept all the way up to 20! By the time we got up to Big T we were blessed with the most perfect bluebird day for Ruby to "rip the gnar," which is exactly what she did following her dad at warp speed and off jumps. It was our first day at Big T and the minute we got on the chair lift and turned around to see the beathtaking view I couldn't believe that this place could have possibly been closed for 10 years! Wow! By the end of first run the 3 of us couldn't stop raving about how amazing this great mountain was-the grooming and terrain were perfect for natural snow and an almost totally volunteer staff. It's amazing what the ARISE group of volunteers has done to get this mountain going again and the locals love it! Everybody we ran into was so positive and appreciative-kids and adults grinning like fools-awesome. Ruby even broke out her snowboard to practice on the Mighty Mite before deciding it was time to get back to the top and race her parents on the rest of the trails until the sun went down:)

Epic Mirror Lake Ski Expedition

The other day Alison and I made a date for Saturday night to meet and eat some food and catch up. Last night I sent her a message that I was broke and perhaps we could go for a ski instead. She frantically got her ski stuff together to accommodate my request, but also formulated a plan that would get us to at least one happy hour. I'd already driven by so many matching puffy jacket tool box couples I was feeling slightly ill but got a little excited when she suggested we go to Dancing Bears Lounge before skiing so we could sit and watch and laugh. The most intriguing person of the night was a gray haired woman sucking on a wine glass staring into space grinning before someone brought her a child that she tended to by staring at it and grinning. The more Stella we drank and wings we ate the shorter it seemed our ski was going to get so we developed a plan to ski across Mirror Lake to PJ's for our second course of which would consist of Ubu and Pub Nachos. Before we left we decided to ask the concierge if he thought the lake was safe to ski across. He didn't think we should, but his ugly suit, perfectly gelled hair, and pasty skin told us he probably wasn't the man to listen to so we went for it.
Alison opted to put her skis on while on the lake while I decided it would be a great idea to ski down a ramp and get a flying start. Turns out the fresh wax on the skis sent me down the ramp at warp speed and I ended up on my ass for an entire restaurant full of diners to see! We set out across the vast lake working our way through puddles, snow drifts and ice patches. Alison occasionally got frustrated that the lake was so flat and she didn't have any hills to practice her tele turns so I challenged her to try the Toboggan Chute. I think she would have done it if it weren't for a pesky gate!
We skied up onto the beach by PJ's famished and parched, but it was packed and hot and a little scary so we put our skis over our shoulders and headed back to the frozen lake to try out the Boathouse. On our way to the lake a man passed and asked if we'd had a good day and I replied, "oh yes and it's not over yet!" Then we zipped off down the lake and onto the sidewalk to the front door of the Boathouse where we decided maybe they wouldn't appreciate our constant guffaws and we didn't appreciate they're menu (no nachos).
The next leg of the expedition would take us straight across the lake to The Cottage and hopefully some nachos. The serene diners must have thought Lake Placid was so quaint when we skied by waving like queens of the Rose Bowl parade. We were a little nervous about crossing the lake but felt safe when we saw a group of kids out playing in the middle of it. They scared Alison when they all laid down because she thought they'd fallen through the ice, but they were messing with us! To alleviate some of the load on the ice we decided we should evenly distribute our combined 240 pounds so we had to spread out for about a minute in the middle of the lake. Finally The Cottage was in sight and we could almost smell the nachos, but first we had to get through some ankle deeps drifts-yikes! Once inside we impressed the crowd with our headlamp light show before we attacked a plate of delicious Original NACHOS and a Long Trail-mmmmmm!
The final leg of the expedition started uneventfully and then Alison gave a massive push and her binding let loose! She had to take tiny steps the remaining 100 yards, but we made it! After bringing our skis back to the car she felt like we had to go back into the hotel and tell the concierge that it was indeed fine and dandy to ski across Mirror Lake. He acted like he didn't know what we were talking about and he looked at us like lunatics so we trashed the lobby and went home-laughing all the way:)

Winter Triathlon

Ruby likes to ask what my favorite things are-color, food, season, etc... When she asks about my favorite season I have a really hard time answering. Before I moved to the Adirondacks it was easy-summer, who doesn't answer summer? But since I've been inside the blueline now for over 7 years I can't figure it out. It's obvious why a triathlete would love summers here-trails, crazy hills to run and ride, clear lakes a plenty! When I was just getting started in triathlon I would kill to get out on the road and get hours and miles logged but that got old fast and my first winter here I found some alternative activities to stay in shape. I didn't have real job and got to spend many mornings trail running through knee deep snow with Jenny and our dogs at Riki Hill working those little stabilizer muscles:) On winter runs with teammates at St. Lawrence I used to try and alleviate some of the pain of running through the slushy streets of Canton by telling them how strong all of our little stabilizer muscles were getting with each step-sort of a what doesn't kill us makes us stronger approach! I swear I've warded off plenty of injuries in the summer with the work I've done in the winter! We might as well take full advantage of the snow and all it's messiness while it's here!

The other sport that has made me love winter is skiing. Skiing is another sport for me, like mountain biking, that I sort of suck at but I secretly love. Even when I'm screaming and bouncing off trees it makes me happy! Triathletes shouldn't hate swimming, so in the winter I pretend that cross country skiing is swimming. Over the last couple of winters I've fallen in love with crashing through my favorite trails in the dark to get my "swim" in! To close out the new year I took my aging pooches on a nice long moonlight ski on the Jackrabbit Trail, headed to Scarface to ski the next morning and by noon I was chasing Ruby down Pisgah-definetly my favorite day in a while!

The final portion of my winter triathlon is shoveling. As a kid I couldn't figure out why my parents spent so much time doing and why they were so particular about it, but now I know they were just out there trying to get jacked. For me nothing works my abs like big, heavy snowstorm and the best part is that when you are done-you have something besides ripped abs to show for it!