Week 13 of my Glass City Marathon training involved quite a bit of cross training. Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I hope you enjoy all of the pictures in this post!!
I didn’t do all of the running that was on my training plan because my kids are on Spring Break. We were on vacation in Colorado skiing! Spring skiing is the best. We skied four days in a row, which is a lot for us. A break in the middle would have been ideal, but we didn’t have time for that. We also skied more miles than we usually do – over 100!
My vacation did start on Sunday, and this cute moose happened upon our path when we were running! This fact will be important later on… BTW, running in high altitude is freaking exhausting!!!!!
Monday – No running, skiing at Vail, day 1. There was fresh powder!! It was amazing. Beautiful sunny, spring skiing day.
Tuesday – No running, skiing at Vail, day 2. The kids wanted to go back to Vail. Vail is so big it takes 2 full days to see it all.
While we were skiing, we got a text that a pair of young moose decided to visit the pool area. No pool or hot tub for a day while they hung out there!
Wednesday – 4 easy miles. I took a new path and it ended up being super hilly. Sooooo exhausting! Running at this altitude (10,000 ft!) is incredibly hard for me and I had to take a break to catch my breath often. Sometimes I only made it .25 of a mile by the time I needed another break if there was a hill involved! Phew!!!! Here’s one of the moose today (picture taken through a window!).
Skiing at Keystone. Almost 25 miles of skiing!
Thursday – 4 easy miles. Last day in Colorado. Good news – the moose have left the pool area and eventually were seen heading out to the woods!! This made me very happy to see. I still don’t know where their mama was, but they had each other 🙂
1 mile of hiking! Before we left Colorado we went for a hike. Holy Moly, it was HOT on this mountain! No joke, it felt like I was under a magnifying lens, baking in the sun. It was incredibly beautiful too!
Stay on the path or the snow will suck you in! It was really deep.
Friday – 10 miles, tempo run. Back home. This run had high hopes in the beginning, and then began to suck. I had to take several stops to rest and tell myself to “get my sh*t together and finish this run!”. But hey, I did just come back from 108 miles of downhill skiing, so really anything was a win.
Saturday – 4 easy miles. Treadmill & TV time! My hips felt a bit tight (still from skiing?) I was going to run 5 miles, but only had time for 4. No biggie. A great event for the day? – I ate a salad!! I was really missing my daily salads when I was on vacation. Yummmm
Sunday – long run! 20 miles. I decided to get another 20 miles under my belt for this long run. It was also a solo run for me, but I listened to an audiobook and the time flew by. I was happy I missed the rain which happened on Saturday, but as it turns out, we got snow overnight!! It was pretty cold again but the snow made everything super pretty and I didn’t mind a whole lot.
I was trying to make this an “easy pace, feel confident at the end” kind of run, but what started out with 9:30 paces ended up dragging into 10:15 paces for the last few miles and I felt like I could not pick up the pace at all in the end. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it 26.2 miles at a faster pace! ugh.
It could have ended better, but I’m glad to have finished it in one piece!! I mustered up enough energy to get the jump shot (although I was concerned I might not be able to get off the toilet seat immediately post run. Hahahaha!! The struggle is real when your legs are shot.)
Here’s my treat post run – they put extra chocolate drizzle in my frappuccino. They are my new best friends at Starbucks!! 🙂
I can’t believe I have one more “really” long run, and then 3 weeks of taper. Crazy!!
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Wrap. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Q: Any skiers out there?? What is your favorite ski resort?
Q: Have you ever seen a moose just wandering around like that??
Q: Have you ever run at high altitude?
We were close to 10,000 feet at our resort. Luckily it only bothered me when I was running, but not skiing.
I love visiting Colorado it’s so much fun for the whole family. Nice job on that 20 miler I bet that feel good to be done. Thanks for linking up!
Always good to be checking off those long runs on a training plan! Not sure what my goal will be for my race now, but I guess I still have 4 more weeks to decide.
I have gone out to Boulder the last few years to run the BolderBoulder 10K. I have also run the Revel in the Rockies Marathon and Half Marathon. You’re not kidding about running at elevation. It’s tough! Friend of mine use to own a condo in Vail and we would go there in the summer to hike and run. I love Vail and I was really sad to see them sale the place. If I move to Colorado this year, I would like to take ski lessons but at my age I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
I am always amazed at the wide range of ages out on the slopes! Just like running – everyone’s doing it! Did you think the altitude was hard for the BolderBoulder 10K? Isn’t that all downhill? I noticed someone from my town was going to be doing it.
The BolderBoulder is basically flat but right at the end you have to go up a ramp into the stadium. Every year I swear I am not going to walk that ramp and every year I run out of oxygen just before the top. It’s only a 10K but the air is thin.
I have to answer “no” to all of your questions…and you don’t want to see me attempt to ski. I am a total klutz, and I fear it would not have a pretty ending LOL Wow…those moose must have been craving some human interaction 😉 Thanks for linking with us!!
I’m glad the moose were not scared by the people around – I mean, I didn’t want them to freak out and get hurt, or hurt someone! But I wasn’t happy to see them hanging around, making me go to another building for my apres ski hot tub soak! 🙂
I love to ski but don’t go very often. I haven’t been to Vail since our honeymoon 26 years ago. :-O Your pictures make me want to go back for sure. I’m glad the moose made it back to the woods. The photos are funny, but it’s really not ideal for them! Way to get that 20 miler in!
Hey, we’ve been married 26 years too! Congrats!!
Never seen a moose IRL!
Ok, so first off, don’t worry about the marathon, running at elevation, all the skiing, and coming back — it’s all going to take a toll. You’ll have that taper to recover in and that will make ALL the difference.
I have never hiked in snow. That’s interesting that it got so warm!
I have run at altitude a few times, but I never got higher than 8000 ft, and most was at about 6000. Yes, it’s freaking hard when you’re coming from almost sea level!
I’ve never been in the snow when it was that warm! We would have been comfortable in tank tops and shorts. I had to make my long sleeve black shirt into a “crop top” so I didn’t sweat to death! It’s so beautiful there.
In my younger years, I was really into downhill skiing! I’ve been out west twice. But as I’ve gotten older, my desire to downhill has really declined. I like XC skiing, but I have to admit that when I travel, the last thing I want to do is go somewhere snowy! LOL
Nice leap after 20 miles of running!
We joked that our kids are going to tell their kids “when we were young, all of our friends went to the beach for spring break and they always made us go skiing!!” haha! I would totally love to go some place sunny too – it’s just getting too hard to take our teens out of school, so it’s gotta happen on spring break.
Holy Cow. Those pics!!!
Never seen a moose.
Not a skier. Don’t like cold weather.
Anxiously awaiting spring!!!!!
I love having four seasons in Ohio, but I’m getting excited about spring too!!
OMG So many Moose! (Mooses? Meece? haha) I would have LOVED seeing that!!
I am NOT a skier. I tried once. 32 years ago. You’d think I’d suck it up and try again. Everyone goes on “winter holidays” skiing in Switzerland, Austria, etc. Well, I’m not everyone, haha! Maybe I will, one day. I’ll have to seriously talk Ron into it though…
I think the running only slightly suffered because SKIING. you guys really got your time on the slope’s worth it seems!
So true – you are close to some epic skiing! You might want to consider it 🙂
It sounds like you had a great vacation! Last summer I ran the Grand Teton Half Marathon at just over 6,100 feet ( I live at 290 feet). I was really concerned about altitude sickness, but hydrated like a boss and did just fine. I did feel like I was working a lot harder to hit the same paces I’d been successfully training at, though.
When we were on our honeymoon in the Grand Tetons (obviously we like it there), we were hiking up to Lake Solitude and came across a bull moose standing on the trail. He refused to move and just stared at us as we gave him a wide berth as we walked off the trail and around him.
Grand Tetons are on my bucket list. We got so close last summer, but didn’t have time to visit. It looks so pretty there! I think I would have been nervous with an adult moose so close.
The moose in the pool area!! Your photos made my day.
I went running in Denver last fall and it was tough. I knew it was going to be but didn’t realize how hard it was going to be till I was there.
I went to Alaska about 2 years ago and cannot remember if I saw a moose. Maybe I didn’t cause i would have remembered if I did.
Alaska sounds like a great trip. I bet there was a lot of wildlife to see there!
A spring ski trip sounds wonderful and it looks like you all had a great time! So crazy about the moose and how they decided to hangout around the pool. Wow your marathon will be here before you know it. Time is flying.
I crewed for my friend when she ran the Leadville 100 miler. That was a trip. I could feel the altitude just crewing and occasionally pacing. Cannot fathom running 100 freaking miles at that altitude.
I actually never thought about the Leadville 100 having the altitude – I just thought about how hard the actual race would be! Now it seems 1000x times harder. That’s cool your friend ran it (and you helped her!!).
It seems like the moose just wanted to make some new friends, lol.
Congrats on your 20 miler this weekend!
Thanks! One more long run, then taper!! Woohooo!
Beautiful photos from your vacation, and how cool that you got to see those moose! And I’m impressed you were able to get that jump photo after 20 miles 🙂
I’m glad it just took a few tries to get that jump shot… it wasn’t easy! 😉 The Rocky Mountains are amazing. I never tire of the view!!
Look at those moose (mooses? mise?) how cute are they! And well done on your 20. Because my upcoming mara is really my B race and part of my ultra training, I did 20 on Monday but then have three more long ones then the marathon then some other bits. Aie. At least you got to spend an hour less than me doing it!!! Well done you, esp after all that skiing.
Moose is singular *and* plural! How handy, right? Look at you with those big ultra miles! Running the marathon is a good way to get a long run done for sure.