First Snow

When people talk of their favorite time of year, my mind wanders to the mountains, to that first snow fall when the trails undergo a metamorphosis. Lost beneath a heavy blanket of fresh snow the trails take on a new beauty. The woods become quieter and there is a stillness in the air. It's as if the mountains go into hibernation. Waiting until spring for warmer temperatures to melt the snow and bring life back to their slopes.

It is this time of year, this first snow, that I anxiously await. As summer slowly turns to fall and leaves finally start to disappear from the branches of the trees, I know we are close. When the temperature starts to drop towards freezing I find myself waking early each morning and looking towards Moscow Mountain, waiting to see is grandeur hidden by falling snow. 

And when those first flakes do start to fall, I'm ready. Ready to run the trails. To be apart of the magical metamorphosis that is occurring. To say goodbye to the mountain until it awakes again in the spring and welcome the peace and serenity that winter brings to the mountains.

Week of January 16th-22nd.

Below is a photo essay of this weeks runs on Moscow Mountain. Scroll down to my review of last weeks training and compare the above image with the one from a week ago. Winter has finally hit!

Monday: Fresh snow decorating the trees at the base of Headwaters trail. 6 inches at the trail head and over 12 inches at Paradise.

Tuesday: Another dumping of snow covered my tracks from the previous day. This shot was taken at the top of Deep V. 14+ inches of fresh snow at Paradise.



Thursday: Yesterday we received another duping, but overnight freezing rain came in leaving a 1/4-1/2 inch of ice covering 12+ inches of snow. This made for a slow and painful run. My shins are bruised and cut from breaking through the ice with every step.

Friday: Above freezing temps left the snow wet and heavy. Made for a slow snowshoe up the road to the Headwaters trail junction. However, blue skies and sunshine made the effort worthwhile :-)

My Dion 121 racers and Brooks Pure Grits. There's not a better combination for winter training in North Idaho!

My week by the numbers:

Monday:
Paradise (12+ inches of fresh snow)
1:43 hrs, 8.7 miles and 1900 ft

Tuesday:
Paradise (14+ inches of fresh snow)
2:05 hrs, 8.7 miles and 1900 ft

Wednesday:
Off

Thursday:
Headwaters (1/4-1/2 inch of ice over 12+ inches)
1:44 hrs, 5.3 miles and 1,100 ft

Friday:
Headwaters trail jxn and Paradise Rd (snowshoes: heavy, wet snow)
1:26 hrs, 6.2 miles and 1,200 ft

Saturday and Sunday:
Off-Heavy fatigue in left calf.

Total:
6 hrs 58 min, 28.9 miles and 6,100 ft.

I was hoping to log 45-50 miles with another 8,000 k of climbing this week, but it just wasn't in the cards. I woke up early Saturday morning to a throbbing left calf. Unfortunately this meant I had to abandon my plans for a snowshoe run up to Paradise on Saturday (sorry Scott and Damian) and a 15 miler on Sunday.

The calf itsself isn't injured, just fatigued from the training in heavy snow this week. I've had this happen once before and after 2 days off I was as good as new. Just a matter of listening to the body and taking time off when it's warranted.

This coming week will be fairly light as I'm racing the Orcas Island 25k this coming Saturday with my wife and a large group of my athletes. This will be a great race to gauge my current level of fitness after almost 6 months off due to shoulder surgery.

Week of January 9th-15th.

Monday:
Off

Tuesday:
2 loops of Headwaters
1:34 hrs, 9.05 mi and 2000 ft

Wednesday:
Paradise
1.56 hrs, 9.88 mi and 2100 ft

Thursday:
Off

Friday:
Paradise and a 2nd loop of Headwaters
2:30 hrs, 13.69 mi and 2700 ft

Saturday:
Marie Creek w/ TRIFORMANCE team
1:54 hrs, 7.73 mi and 1600 ft

Sunday:
Off

Despite logging only 4 runs this week. I still managed a respectable 7:54 hrs of running for 40.35 miles and 8400 ft of climbing. What made this even more rewarding was that each run was on snow covered single track!

Overall my body seems to be adapting well to the climbing and I'm looking forward to seeing how the legs do at the Orcas Island 25k in two weeks.

My run in photos

A series of 15 photos from my run on Moscow Mountain yesterday.