Mid-Winter Not-So-Blues

Only two more days until February, which means, in Colorado, that we're over the hump. It's downhill to spring from here!

I woke up yesterday with what I thought were allergies, but this morning I am out of denial, I am sick. I had a raging sore throat when I woke up, and could barely talk. Now that I've been up for a while, it's somewhat better. I felt tired all last week. I wondered if I was ever going to get sick after Across the Years. I think that is the result of still being not quite physically recovered from Across the Years, and a lot of stuff going on all at once.

Running-wise, I managed to do 11 miles the other day with no grumbles, crackles, aches, or pains and I feel like physically my legs are where they should be. I was actually able to run a decent pace. I spent a lot of time on the bike the past few weeks, trying to maintain my fitness, and I will continue to be on the bike for a while, at least through a few weeks after Lost 118, which is coming right up.

I am trying to beat the mid-winter blues by thinking about all the great things that are happening.

First, Felix joined the crew for this summer's Badwater adventure! Now we have a full crew and the next step is sending in my application, which I can do as of February 1st.

The other very exciting development is that I am now displaying my art in two local restaurants, at Main Street Grill in Windsor, CO, and will soon have my artwork up in Tortilla Marissa's in Fort Collins. Doug and Connie DeMercurio, the owners of both restaurants, are runners and have given me this wonderful opportunity to get my paintings out there, so I am thrilled about that!

On top of that, we've been busier at work and I am in the middle of taking my chemotherapy certification class for work, which is adding an extra day or two to my work schedule each week right now. I'm not surprised that I got sick, with all this going on. I don't think it's strep but I will go get a strep screen on Monday just in case.

But if I'm going to be sick, now is the time, before things get revved up with training. I have three more days to sit at home and try to beat this crud before I have to be back to a superwoman schedule for two more weeks.

We've had a lot of wind and it seems like every few days we get snow, then it melts and makes more ice, then the air warms up and the wind dries up the ice again, and so on. I'm never sure if I'll wake up to 10 degrees or 40 in the morning.

The past few days I've been out in shorts, it's been in the 60s, and the yard is completely free of snow and ice. Yesterday I actually got caught up on cleaning up after the dogs, which is 3 months ahead of last winter's spring cleanup effort when the yard was covered with snow for 6 months straight. But tomorrow it's supposed to be a high of 13 and a low of -4, typical Fort Collins winter continues.

For now, I am looking forward to doing Rock Repeats up and down Horsetooth Rock again.


And the Buffaloes always have the last word...