lots of skiing..... zero running

Fantastic weekend, but the amount of running I did was zero. However, I spent about 10 hours skiing and am tired and sunburned to prove it.

Saturday I met a group of people at Gunstock Nordic in New Hampshire. It's a casual group and it tends to be different people every time. Saturday I ended up skiing with 2 women around my age, one is a marathoner and one is a triathlete. So, although they are fairly new to skiing, they are both in great shape so we kept up a good pace. Also, I did a lot of arm work at the gym Thursday night, and x-c skiing really works your arms. Especially since it was so warm, and the snow was thick and slushy. On the last few hills, I felt like my arm were spaghetti and my heels were on fire. No matter what I do my boots give me horrible blisters. I've tried different socks, no socks, band-aids, duct tape. So 4 hours is pretty much my limit.

Sunday my sister and I went down-hill skiing. Because of daylight savings, we didn't get on the mountain till about 10. But we made up for lost time by not stopping the entire day, except for a quick 15 minutes to shove down lunch. It was just an incredible day- so warm and sunny that today my face is bright pink. Again, the snow was pretty thick and slushy, but I like to think of it as a good quad work-out. Between the heavy snow, the non-stop pace, and some time in the terrain park on jumps and the half-pipe, my quads were burned by 4:30.

So great weekend, but no running. On the one hand, I know I got in two solid work-outs, that are much less impact on my poor stress fracture prone body and I had a ton of fun. On the other hand, I know that running is running and skiing is skiing, and in order to run a marathon I need to run. Which I didn't do this morning either. I was planning to drag my self out of bed super early and try to get in 10 miles. But, when my alarm went off in the darkness, I could hear the sleet and hail outside. I just couldn't do it and went to the gym. So here I am, sunburned, back in my desk chair, and feeling slightly guilty.