Altitude Training

This past weekend was spent with my family at a cabin just outside of Grand Lake, CO (elev. 8500 feet). It’s my in-laws place and I’m not sure why we call it a cabin because it comes fully equipped with all of life’s luxuries; microwave, cable, coffee and espresso maker, a wide selection of DVDs, Xbox, and even a clubhouse with a pool and spa. The one amenity that is missing? Internet access, but what we lacked in world wide webawareness we made up for in an endless supply of Mythbusters and caffeine. As a result I did not get around to posting the Weekend Splits and just spent the last 15 minutes catching up on (read: deleting) all of the 183 posts in my Google reader.

What was supposed to be a quiet couple of days in the mountains was ruined by two loud, obnoxious kids that were causing a ruckus in the neighborhood, next time we’ll consider leaving them at home or disciplining them better. Ironically, the most peaceful part of the weekend was my run. The sun was shining, the breeze was cool and the oxygen supply was as abundant as modesty following a Manny Ramirez home run.

I took the opportunity to put some of my high altitude training tips to practice, and also stopped to take some pictures on my camera phone. Sure, that was why I was stopped. To take pictures of the scenery, not because I needed a break. This also has the added benefit that I can fill the remainder of this post with pictures and spend less time writing.

These pictures don’t do justice to the view.

I even tried my hand at trail running on this melted snowmobile trail.

Another break from the trail… to take a picture.

Ever the good citizen I was happy to oblige the road signs.
It was a beautiful run, and I recommend that you all take advantage of your in-laws’ cabin whenever you get the chance. What’s that? Your in-laws don’t own a mountain cabin that you can use? Well, maybe you should have taken that into consideration before you decided to fall in love and make life-long commitments. I know it was at the top of my list.