The biggest, hardest thing about 2016 apart from the election was losing Strummer. Over 6 months later Jonny and I are still a bit shell shocked and trying to adjust to the absence of his crazy energy. For 18 years we've had some form of energetic Border Collie or mix thereof in the house. Some dog getting us up out of bed early for walkies or agility trials or hikies or something. Up until a couple of weeks ago even Lola would protest loudly if she didn't get her breakfast in a timely fashion and insisted on morning walkies, even if they were slow and not very far. But now she's leaving bits of her breakfast and is not so insistent on a morning walk. And Ruby is a Good Girl, she's a happy Go With the Flow sort and on these cold mornings she's happy for a long lie in. I shoveled some goat paths for her and it's all I can do to get her to go out and pee.
On the other hand Jonny and I spent a good hour yesterday shoveling and I spent another 20-30 minutes later in the day when the plow blocked the driveway with another foot or so. Have to get that stuff right away or the freeze/thaw cycles turn it to heavy concrete boulders. Plus a quick 6 minute walk to the grocery store and back in the frigid. I'm feeling so sluggish, need to get back into a routine but winter always has other ideas. Temps. are rising to the upper 50's next week so I'll have some slushy/muddy/ice pack to deal with.
Should really spend the time focusing on weights and strength. Finally work on learning a handstand. Balance stuff. I was having a great trail run last week, thinking about how great my knee has been doing, how well I tolerated this season of racing, set a goal for the run of no stumbles or falls on a narrow, overgrown singletrack trail that I normally stumble on a lot because it's smooth enough to lull you into not paying close attention and then rocks here and there that pop up out of nowhere and cause a stumble. I made it out and back and to about 40 seconds from the trailhead and just before I began the short steep descent to the end of the trail I twisted my bad knee and landed funny on my other ankle and twisted my ankle. Or maybe it was the other way around, it happened so fast. Best I can figure the sun was in my eyes creating a glare as it was setting behind a hill and I was distracted for a moment and missed sight of a rock. Had a painful 2 1/4 miles to get home in the cold (low 20's and getting colder as the sun went down). Walked some, ran some, got home eventually. It felt like the meniscus had turned over and sometimes it turns back quickly, sometimes it can takes weeks or months. The dog/human chiropractor that can fix it easily no longer lives in Boulder, maybe is in Crested Butte which is a 4 3/4 hour drive, longer in the winter with snowy roads. Thankfully it was only painful for a couple few days, was running again a week later and it feels fine now. Phew. But a wake-up call for a return to balance work, maybe some parkour stuff to keep it fun. Mobility work has been non-existent as well, need to bring that back.
I have no triathlon goals at the moment. I've given up the idea of USAT Worlds in Penticton Canada. That was to be my big goal for 2017 but since I went to Maui for Xterra Worlds I'm going to give USAT Worlds a miss mostly for financial reasons. The big goal for the year is to move off the Front Range, preferably before the housing market collapses again. My property tax bill went up 20% from last year and my aggravation at the Too Many People problem has gone up around 60%. I'm also having a sort of crazy idea of teaching agility lessons when I move. There's only one other commercial place that I can find out there and they're only doing NADAC which I have no interest in. I could even eventually put up a building to have an indoor facility or maybe even find a place that already has an outbuilding. Lots of places out there with land have such buildings though many are pretty small for agility. Or even a covered open air structure a la Silvia Trkman. Many places have these for hay storage. We'll see.
I saw this great TED talk about polymaths and had the lightbulb moment of wow I'm a polymath and didn't realize it.
Well maybe sort of a polymath. I do get obsessed with things and go deep down rabbit holes but unlike this person I seldom get bored. I was an engineer for 20 years after all and it's not like I quit because I was bored. But once I was removed from that world I realized I had so many other interests and life is short. And it seems like that's the way to make your way in a rural area, do lots of little things rather than one big Career. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I've been there, done that and I'm excited to move on to other things. And I suppose I'm thankful for being grounded by the Fleece Weather so I can spend some time and thought on these next big moves. I think 2017 will be good and bad and exciting and scary in many ways both personally and nationally (and globally). Nothing for it but to prepare and jump into it and brace myself.
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