The option of the Revival

I think everytime I go out to exercise, I want to feel good and if I don't feel good, whatever the reason, I hope there's something I can do to make it go away. Today had me feeling in tune with what was wrong and how to fix it.

I woke up 6:30 and of course, checked the temp. 18 degrees to the good is running weather. Threw on a couple layers and Sophie and I hit the roads. It was snowing and blowing but both were manageable. I told myself if I did 30 minutes, that would be great because I had plans for a long ski with friends, Kathleen and Amy later that morning. We are all going to Sun Valley together to do the Boulder Mountain Tour, so perfect people to ski with. We wanted to head to the park where the road was hopefully groomed this weekend.

Felt good outside, running well just 10:00/miles on nice packed snow. I went up Upper Cache Drive that climbs the side hills up Cache Creek and ended up going 40 minutes. I had a nice smoothie and the obligatory coffee and headed into work. At work, I had a Fage yogurt with a staggering 83% of my RDA of fat in it. I love these Greek yogurts that my cousin turned me onto when I visited her in Athens. For a while, you couldn't get them in the US because they were unpasturized, not sure why you can now but I am pysched. As always, I had the yogurt with about a cup of honey on it.

So we head up to the park, catching up on the way there. We get there and it's pretty much a repeat of last weekend, 5 inches of powder on the road and it's dumping up there.We decide to come up with another place to ski and decide on Cache Creek. Its a steady uphill for about 5 miles up and then you fly down, tough but recently groomed. We decided to tack on another 3 miles by doing a side track that climbs as well called Tiny Hagen, but ain't nothing tiny about those hills. So the total ski would be about 12-13 miles.

We start out with me second behind Amy, a great athlete. I quickly started to tire so I let Kathleen go ahead of me so I could regroup a bit. Kathleen is one of those people that does everything well and can be away from a sport for a while and come back to it and be amazing. I have heard a theory of a "fitness base", where somewhere in your youth, you were so athletic that you really never lose it. Nikki Kimball comes to mind and my friend Kathleen. Coincidentally, they grew up near each other, maybe it's just something in the water.

I am avoiding the rest of this story as you can tell. All I can say is that my legs felt like the bones were hollow and my arms were of the ragdoll consistency. This is 2 minutes into it but it felt like 2 hours. What the? I was a bit nauseous, dizzy and bonked. I took lots of breaks on the 1.5 miles up, the kind where you don't care if someone sees you folded over like a dog. Kind and considerate, the girls waited for me at the turnaround, but I told them that I would be on my own today and might do a couple of miles up the main trail but to leave the keys for me.

I said I thought I was down on food but that seemed odd seeing the yogurt had about 800 calories and I had a smoothie with all kinds of fruit and more yogurt in it. I felt better on the downhill but you should have seen me windmilling, one ski in the air and sheer panic/thrill on my face. Remember my lone alpine experience came from a ski lesson in 1991 where the instructor pretty much said I was unteachable for downhill.

Got back to the car and regrouped. I ate everything in my pack which included three old clif bloks, some nut mix and lots of water. I struck out up Cache on my own taking it easier. I started to feel better and ran into a couple friends and stopped to talk (read rest). Dan, new to skating and his dog, Doc. I met Dan on the trails and I love friendships like that, pure and random, not influenced by anything. We made plans to get out together and off I went.

I told myself I could go 2 miles up and turn around. I made it 2 and felt okay, 3 miles okay and still going. I got to 4 and thought for sure, I would see my friends coming down, but I didn't see them until almost the top. Now granted they stopped and tried out someone's snowbike for about 20 minutes with it's 4 inch wide tires.

I felt great that I had worked through the problem and skied for about 12 miles total. Here's what I think happened. I did well getting fat and protein this morning but neglected my complex carbs and I am a total carb whore, will do anything for it. I usually have whole wheat toast with butter and peanut butter or a fried egg sandwich in the morning and it stays with me. I had some hint of hunger when I started and I am sure I burned my breakfast with the run and should have refueled before leaving for the ski. The nut mix at the car saved my ass. I think I coasted on the fact that I can do my morning runs without eating, but a 40 minute run is vastly different than a 2 hour skate ski. That's what I am thinking happened. Any thoughts or advice would help temendously.