putting the F back in FUN

Here is my brother Chris and my nephew Cameron sledding last Christmas Day.... can you tell my brother lives in Georgia? A WOOL COAT AND A BORROWED SCARF???? Talk about lack of winter gear.

Saturday morning I got out of bed early and I noticed something I haven't noticed in a while. C.O.L.D. Yes, it's fall here in upstate New York and it's a good 40 degrees in the morning. The beautiful thing about Upstate is the changing seasons, with changing seasons comes adapting to cold. It takes a few weeks but we do it. It means bringing out the winter gear.

Surviving winter is about 2 things...... winter gear and finding an outdoor hobby.

When winter descends upon us there are people who head out and play and there are people who hide inside, in gyms, or not even that.

Snow is fun and it's almost a crime to spend winter inside. We still need fresh air, we still need sunlight. We still need the outdoors. If you have the right gear the outdoors completely rocks.

We have downhill skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and even sledding. We have a great snowshoe race series. I haven't snowshoed in 2 years because I was so darn focused on training and not wanting to deviate from the schedule and "the plan". Not this year.

This year I will be out on snowshoes and I will be racing at Frozen Assets for sure! I will break out the Cross Country Skis! I will continue to teach Luc how to snowboard.

Those are all great endurance activities.

Erik Grimm is an incredible athlete around here. He's done Hawaii a few times, he adventure races, he does a bunch of stuff. I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention Carl Johnston, Grimm's partner in crime. These guys compliment their training with a lot of cross training. In the summer they are found at various triathlons, come winter they are found racing at cross country ski events. Grimm recently began trying his hand at Cyclo Cross. They are incredibly well rounded athletes and at the age of 40+ give the boys around here one serious run for their money.

This is Travis Early, myseld and Carl Johnston at a road race last year. Johnston just recently switched from wearing speedos to "tri shorts".

They stray far from the swim-bike-run, and it shows. They are healthy, they are having fun, and they try just about anything.

I often pick on Johnston (because it is really really fun) and I hate to say it, but he's right. I need to get out there and have more fun. So this winter I shall be doing just that.

Monday I get to start some regular activities. Much of this past 2 weeks was taking complete rest. It's seemed like it has lasted forever. I have been walking, done a bit of swimming (and I can flip turn again!), sporadic functional strength, and teaching a few spinning classes. I have been mostly been resting. Believe me that is so much harder than anything.

This week will be about limiting my zeros, but keeping things light, keeping things unstructured and most of all..... keeping it FUN! Two more weeks to go......