Mashed Potatoes, Hiking Evangelism, & Assritis

My last post forewarned that my running might slack off over the Thanksgiving holiday and it was right on the money. I didn't run last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday! Today is supposed to be a "rest" day, but I'm going to at least make up one of those runs tonight (probably just a 3 or 4 mile run).

Anyway, I have an excuse for each day of running I missed, of course. Wednesday was spent on the road to Mammoth (EIGHT hours). Thursday was Thanksgiving and I'm pretty sure it's a sin to do anything besides eat lots of food on that day. Friday I hiked instead of ran. Not only did I go on ONE hike, though, I went on TWO hikes. I love to hike and think everyone should love to hike and so I drug my sister on two hikes in Mammoth--one to Crystal Lake (3 miles) and one to Panorama Dome (1 mile). I know the distance isn't very much, but most parts of the hikes were uphill (except for the parts that were downhill). Anna dealt with my hiking zeal much better than most (you can read about Sabina's hiking misadventure with me on her blog here).

Here's Anna and me at Crystal Lake:















And here we are at the top of Panorama Dome:

On Saturday Anna and I went snowboarding and let me tell you, that was more of a workout for my muscles than running 100 miles! I've been skiing for 16 years and I've only gone snowboarding a few times, so I fell down one or two (or fifty) times. Last year I broke my tailbone snowboarding so I was VERY scared about falling again and reinjuring myself. After the first run down the hill I wanted to call it quits, cry, and throw my snowboard at the five year-old whizzing by me. Luckily my confidence increased as the day went on and I improved. However, at the end of the day I did fall on my hip and some of the pain from last year came rushing back. Thus, I've concluded that I have a fairly severe case of assritis and should probably steer clear of things that could injury my tailbone such as snowboarding and childbirth (many women break their tailbone during childbirth). I did get a fairly decent workout on Saturday, though, and can in fact still feel the pain from pushing myself off the ground over and over and over again.

Sunday I didn't run because I took a nap. So, tonight, the training resumes.