Thursday’s & Friday’s Workout Wanda: Lots of cross training by way of snowboarding!

Yesterday we headed up to the mountains with a few of the guys I work with…one of which was about to strap himself onto a snowboard for the first time ever! He was borrowing gear, which would explain the sweet pin stripe body suit from the 70’s and the duct tape delicately wrapped about one boot! I was even kind enough to photograph his first run…

I do have to give him a ton of credit…he just got up and went! And he did not give up! We spent almost 5 hours on the mountain and he just kept strapping that board back on! That is much more commitment that I put into my first time on a board, trust me!

A few times the not-so-newbies headed out on their own to do a little exploring on the backside of Keystone. There were some crazy fast, open runs that were a ton of fun but Chris said it right, so far Keystone has lacked the variety of Breckenridge. At least in our experience, feel free to prove me wrong! Up until this year we only visited Keystone for night boarding!

Just two weeks ago this stretch on the lift was all dirt, rocks and trees…it is now snow covered and apparently ride-able for the risk taking skiers! The weather was freaking amazing on Thursday – bluebird skies, little wind and perfect temperatures! An awesome day to learn your way around a snowboard, right?!

~~~~~~~~~

Today just Chris and I headed up to Breckenridge to check out the fresh snow that arrived overnight. According to their site they got 8” over night and more during the day today! Unfortunately we had to wait a solid 15-20 minutes before the bus arrived to delivery us from free parking to the gondola so by the time we got up our first snowy, windy lift I was frozen!

On Thursday the Imperial Life – which takes you just a few hundred yards from the top of Peak 8 – was open. Today the weather conditions had it shut down. Honestly, I’m okay with this! I don’t think I would have survived a lift ride with absolutely no tree protection!

Of course some crazy people had to show us all up when we got to the top of Peak 8. One of the bowls were temporarily open for hiking…and a few very dedicated powder lovers were making the trek!

See them up there?! There are 5 skiers hiking up…in the snow and wind, in knee deep powder! I know it would be a ton of fun to ride down fresh powder but the lift ride along had me convinced I would have to go thru the rest of my life without the tip of my nose, so no thanks! The wind was intense and pelting snow everywhere!

That is Chris up ahead…we were headed for the protection of trees!

After about 1.5 hours of riding my persistent whining convinced Chris to make a chalet stop. I was so darn cold! My hands and feet had gone beyond the point of being tingly…they hurt! On top of the cold I was just plain frustrated! I wanted to really enjoy the powder but instead I was being ornery!

We spent some quality time in one of the restaurants, drank a $4 Gatorade and then headed back on. When strapping up Chris said that if we headed straight down to the car I would have to drive but if we got in a few more runs he would drive…we headed to Peak 10! I was cold but I didn’t want to drive down the mountain in the snow! Besides, if we made it to Peak 10 we’d have hit up all four peaks at Breck!

Once again Chris is off ahead – apparently he mastered these runs!

Once on Peak 10 we missed the veer off for the double black diamond and some extreme snow but it didn’t really matter. With all the fresh snow even the long, tree free runs that are usually groomed were full of powder. It was fun but it was a lot of work! The only reason I even took a photo on Peak 10 was because my poor quads were just shaking and I needed a break!

I might talk a lot of smack in regards to my awesomeness but it is amazing how quickly a long, lumpy powder run can do a person in! I spent a ton of brain juice on making sure I didn’t fall on my face and even though we board almost every weekend my wimpy legs are not used to the powder! Just half way down our Peak 10 run my quads were just quivering!

Eventually the sun did come out, peeking weakly thru the snow clouds. We spent a solid 2.5 hours on the mountain and managed to hit up Summit County twice in one “weekend” with a total of 8ish hours of boarding. Cross training complete!

Once we got off the mountain the snow was gone and I ended up driving home. If there is no snow to back up your “I don’t like driving on bad roads” excuse then you are just plain screwed! The roads were perfectly clear the whole way home, so we survived with yours truly as the pilot!

As we drove out of the mountains we had some great views of the snow clouds that were dumping on Denver when we left earlier in the day. Most of the snow was gone but the clouds were, well, simply amazing. I seriously love Colorado clouds!

We drove around one bend and were met with a full horizon of fluffy cumulonimbus clouds rising up behind dirty brown foothills! Completely awesome. Of course we didn’t have cameras ready, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I’ll never get sick of Colorado’s clouds! Never!

Now I’m off to bed – I have exhausted legs to rest before tomorrow’s long run. I’m just a tiny bit nervous about this run! I’ll be running on tired legs and I’ll be running alone, which gets boring and I tend to talk myself down. Right now I’m trying to map out a run on new trails with random hills…hopefully I survive that! Besides, if the run ends up sucking I’ll blame the hills!