January marks the start of my training for the Traprock 50k Trail Race, which will be run (and I use the term "run" loosely) in Penwood State Park (Bloomfield, CT) in April. This will be my first (and possibly my last!) 50k. Though it's "only" about 5 miles longer than a marathon, somehow the idea feels a lot more daunting (we don't usually speak of marathons in terms of kilometers, at least not here in the U.S., so maybe it's because "50" is a lot scarier than "26.2").
I plan to use this blog as my training log, and once I have had the chance to familiarize myself with the dashboard (yes, I should have a working knowledge of the controls, as I've been writing at cheshirecatsunflowers.blogspot.com for three years, but as anyone can see, I'm a low-tech girl, I'm hoping that others will post their training joys, setbacks, accomplishments, and miseries.
At present, I have two training partners--Mirela and Anne--and I hope I can coerce them into sharing their pain, jubilation, and wit on this blog as well.
This past Saturday, our first training run at Penwood was postponed due to the storm. So, we embarked on separate activities: Anne and Mirela snowshoed at Braemore Preserve in Guilford, while I took Sasha out for a 2-hour cross-country ski tour at Brooksvale Park in Hamden. Lots of fresh powder! I had to break trail for about half the distance; it felt a bit like skiing with ankle-weights. The fresh powder made climbing hills easier, but the descent wasn't quite as thrilling.
Today's ski was quite the opposite. The snow was packed and slick, which made the climbing difficult and exhausting, but coming down was a joyride. I haven't seen Sasha run that fast in at least three years.
More snow is predicted for Tuesday/Wednesday. Bring it on! I love the full-body workout of backcountry skiing, but even more than that is the blissful quiet of Brooksvale's back trails.
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