More Winter Cross-Training....a bit of backcountry with a photo.

My living room is down there somewhere, which is why I'm up here and looking down!

So, I've taken the last week off, kind of. After a good three weeks of consistent running and biking, I needed a week of rest. This week, between Christmas and New Year's, seems like a great week to take a break, at least sleep in. Another part of me thinks that this is the week that could be some really big volume; if I'm a few minutes late to work in the morning or after lunch, noboby will notice or care because 1) they probably aren't even there, and 2) they are probably late, too(!). 

Anyway, I say I've taken the week off "kind of" because I did a three-hour cross country tour last Thursday afternoon. And today I did a 3.5hour backcountry tour to the top of a local mountain I've been eyeing from my living room window. The mountain top looks great and seems like it would be a skiing heaven, but everything looks different up close. In the picture above, I'm at the top of Wild Horse Mountain and looking down towards the Portneuf Valley and Pocatello, with Idaho State University and my house in the middle of the picture.

This3.5hour tour took alot more out of me than I expected. Mostly because I broke a pole 30 minutes into it and decided to keep going! Ha! Backcountry skiing, mostly hiking, is difficult with just one pole. I figure I got a great ab workout of the deal because that is the core of balance needed on skis. I didn't get a lot of turns in, maybe a total of 30 linked turns total, but it was a great day to be out and about, and my expectation was to do more hiking to see this area than to get turns.

Anyway, it was a great day in the mountains, and I finally got up to the mountain that has been calling me from my living room.  And it was great workout. I'm putting it down as the equivalent of a twelve mile run......it feels more like an 18 mile run, but I'm going with 12 because I like to be a bit conservative that way.

Update: I did the route in mapmyrun at http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/id/pocatello/155129376609373579

It's 10.3 miles, 2200 elevation gain/loss.