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!