Monday November 26, 2007

7 miles 1:00 Out and Back on Painted Hills Connector Trail size 11 250s
Good god, I might finally be healthy. This run was the first real run I've had since August that was completely pain-free injury-wise. It was pretty cold (20s) but sunny, and I was tired and ready to be done by the end. Added-on a few minutes on the Gallagator trail to make it the full hour. After taking the past week+ completely off, I'm really really happy that the rest seems to have helped.

It is straight-up wintertime here in Bozeman. The trails here--along with everything else--are completely covered in snow and ice. A week ago I drove to Colorado Springs to visit Jocelyn for Thanksgiving, and the first four hours of driving on the interstate over to Billings were horrendous. It was dumping snow and I never went faster than 40mph the entire way. Other than a run-in with the fuzz in Castle Rock, CO at 2am (speeding; then proceeded to have my entire car searched for drugs...I'm a suspicious-looking suspect, I know, but geez, give me a break) the rest of the drive to CO Springs was clear sailing. So, that means that the snow/ice in Bozeman has been here the entire past week and I'd be willing t0 bet it doesn't disappear until April.

I'm making a big switch in jobs/locations after the first of the year, and the weather here in Bozeman might be just enough to make me move back to the Springs and work for the Colorado Running Company...but that's a whole 'nother issue. But, it can't be denied that, even though it was chilly for most of the week in Colorado, there was only a light dusting of snow and yesterday I could've been running shirtless. Not to mention the fact that even the trails in the mountains up to 14,000' are, for all intents and purposes, still snow-free. Call me a wuss, but at a time in my life when I have little to no responsibilities and a high amount of mobility I'm really not willing to suffer through Montana winters when there are other obvious, more favorable options...