Maintenance and That Balance Thing

As with a lot of my posts about outdoor fitness, I'll start off again with something that sounds a lot like an excuse. The last few months since building up to the Ethan Allen 24 hour at the end of the summer I have been in  multi-sport low mileage rut. We all probably get here, holidays, family obligations, work obligations, and in my case one busted ass pickup truck.

I can't really complain about being on duty with this sunrise

With injured subordinates at work, I have been in a less than ideal scheduling conundrum however today I got a small amount of respite from the duty blues. I chose to tie up a few loose ends and take a longer run than I have in while. Pawtuckaway State Park is in a relatively convenient location for me and offers some challenging terrain and a good amount of climbing. Vertical has been more my focus of late and mileage has gone by the wayside (under 1,400 miles of running and under 700 miles of biking in 2018). Focusing on climbing seems to free up time and add intensity, though the pace and distance metrics aren't really very sexy.

The loop was about 10 miles and climbed just shy of 2k, which sort of checked two boxes for me. The third box being the one of satisfaction since I have been stricken to the duty rooms treadmill and Youtube entertainment. A lot of the technical terrain was smooth as glass ice and the skies were blue so today really beat the shit out of Youtube!

https://www.strava.com/activities/2027347255

Pawtuckaway 12-20-18

Ice So clear it looks like water (Pawtuckaway 12-20-18)

View From Middle Mountain (Pawtuckaway 12-20-18)

Maintenance

As Noted above maintenance is another goal of mine. Since racing has been hard to fit into a busy schedule, my goals are to hold onto some fitness so I can come back to some more competitive running with a little bit shorter notice. The Coast Guards Boat Forces has a slogan of "Train Maintain, Operate so others might live". I like to apply this but more like "Train and Maintain so Dave might not embarrass himself if he registers for a 50k".  In keeping with the maintenance theme, when I am not on the treadmill I have been able to get a few outdoor workouts in, most of which are slower paced hikes with the kiddos, or a bike ride or two around town. Of note is a quick run up Mount Monadnock via the Pumpelly trail, and a dream of a fat bike ride on some logging trails near home.

50 Yards out the door, view is of Pendock Hill, in Arlington, VT

Hometown Running on "Youth Hunting Weekend"....Spoiler alert...I survived it..

 Prospect Rock Hike with Libby and Brycen Manchester, VT

Monadnock Summit 12-5-18

Absolutely PERFECT day for an Uphill/Downhill Fatbike ride

These are local logging and sugaring trails in Sandgate, VT

In addition to maintenance of my fitness I felt the need to maintain this web page, and since there hasn't been much to report I thought I would share some photos! Happy Trails!