Spring Skiing and Spring Break!

La Nina finally hit this year, better late than never! Last night Stevens Pass got 5" of new snow and the night before that they had 9". We went skiing for half the day today, in celebrating of the end of the quarter. It is not quite officially spring break for me since I still have to finish grading final exams and turn in grades, but it's close enough to not feel guilty about skipping school to enjoy some powder!

There was actually almost TOO much powder for me to really enjoy today, if you can imagine that. I tend to get buried easily (the bigger board I want to get eventually should help me with this). But the groomed runs were in great conditions and there was so few people there that I was able to enjoy some fast, easy runs. My legs were also very tired this week which definitely contributed to some of my silly wipe outs. Why am I so tired? I ran hard this week and added some extra miles to my normal workouts to begin my training for the Onion Man Triathlon in Walla Walla over Memorial Day weekend.

I'm pretty stoked about this triathlon. Two years ago I did a sprint tri and really enjoyed it and was very happy with my time, especially my swim and run. This time I'm doing an Olympic Distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40k bike, 10k run). I am very happy with my running routine this winter and should well-prepared for that portion of the race. I haven't swam a ton this winter, but swimming is definitely my strongest event and with a few good, long swim workouts I should be good to go. I will definitely need to focus more on the bike training than I did last time. I felt like that was the leg that I could have dropped a couple minutes from had I trained more and been more familiar with the route. I plan to commute to school on my bike regularly this spring (6 miles each way) and then do one long bike ride on the weekend.

It's nice to have a goal for this spring and I'm glad I found a race that isn't too big and is Olympic distance. AND, Walla Walla is sure to have lovely weather, even if Seattle doesn't!