The Solitude of Snow

Late this afternoon Zack and I departed Denver and headed to the mountains to spend several days at the condo.  Zack is officially done with school until the New Year and I am planning on taking much of the next two weeks off from work, so this weekend and early next week offered and excellent opportunity to spend some time in the mountains.  

The drive to the condo was relatively uneventful except for the fact that the last 20 miles were through some pretty bad driving conditions.  The snow was coming down fast and furious and the room was totally covered with snow, slush and ice.  I switched the Explorer into 4 wheel drive mode and went slow – so in the end it really wasn’t a problem.  Though the ski traffic heading back to Denver certainly did not look good as there were several accidents and the Eisenhower tunnel was periodically being shut down.

We arrived at the condo around 4:30PM as the daylight was beginning to fade to the gloom of twilight.  After all the normal chores were taken care and we were settled in it was time to feed Lex and get him out for a walk.  

Zack wanted to stay at the condo so Lex and I headed off into the grayness of the snow.  As soon as we passed beyond the last condo complex, the world of civilization was lost in the pall of the falling snow.  The world became silence as every sound seemed to be drowned out by the intensity of the falling snow.  It was a world of solitude that only Lex and I inhabited.  

It brought back many memories of similar walks with Bailey and Devon.  As we walked deeper into the snowstorm I called out to their spirits to join Lex in his joyful romp through the snow.  You might not believe that dogs have spirits and souls but I do and I hope that sometimes when I call out to them – Bailey and Devon come and join us.  

When the snow is falling like it is today I think there is a magical quality that is created by the solitude of it.  All sound is deadened and the world around becomes distant and blurred.  This is one of the reasons that I love spending time in the mountains during the winter.  It is not the skiing or sled riding or anything like that – it is just the experience of being her in the snow storms and feeling the solitude it creates.  Of course it would all be much better if I were to be sharing this with Shelly – but that is not the case at this point.  

Besides our trip to the mountains I had another “long run” for team-in-training.  I can feel the effects of the threshold training already starting to take effect.  My pace for today’s run was slightly over 10 minutes per miles.  This is down from between 11 and 12 minutes per mile that I ran last week.  I think my body is beginning to adjust to running again and I am gaining strength and stamina.  Today’s run was the longest run from both a time and distance perspective I have taken in over 10 years.  I ran for 1 hour and 3 minutes and covered 6.04 miles.  (Yes – with a GPS you can be very precise in terms of how far you run.)  

That was pretty much our day.  Not much else occurred besides chores around the house.  This evening Zack and I went to the Mint Restaurant where you get to cook your own steak.  Even though Zack didn’t have a steak, he loved helping me cook mine!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

FYSRD!