Brighton Sunset

We headed up to Brighton after work tonight to stretch out the legs and skin a few laps up Great Western... nothing unusual about that, its a weekly occurrence. But tonight's sunset was spectacular - the clouds were just right and the sky put on a show for us. Probably the best I've ever seen while skiing up there.

I had to post a few photos, it was so pretty that even a selfie made the cut...

Alpe de Vert

The uphill train at Sundance on Saturday morning

There isn't much snow yet but we're taking advantage of what is out there. For the second year in a row Sundance Resort and Surface Skis teamed up to host "Alpe de Vert" - a non-competitive celebration of uphill skiing. Everyone meets up (way too early) in the morning at Sundance's base area and the loose objective is to log 10,000 feet of climbing before heading to the Owl Bar. It's a really fun way to spend a Saturday morning and get in a solid early-season ski workout. Hopefully more of these types of events catch on as the amount of people wanting to ski uphill is exploding and until El Nino makes its presence felt, we're all stuck on the piste!

Observation: Spandex and skinny SkiMo race skis are totally the norm these days.

Early light on Timp

Andrea near the top of Arrowhead

Off the top on lap #8

All smiles w/ Andrea and Amiee

Timp again - a stunning peak with snow

The aftermath

Morning work

A couple other shots from the week...

Late in the day on Wednesday Dec 2nd, in the midst of a pair of Great Western laps

Back to Brighton on Sunday Dec 6th for a couple more laps

The Thanksgiving Event

Most years we spend Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family at my aunt and uncle's house in Connecticut. We call this weekend "The EVENT" because its the only time of the year we all get together... and to bust on my aunt for all of her crazy planning :-)

Every year the bar gets raised a bit. Last year it was the new hot tub. We used it  A LOT again this year. On Thanksgiving morning our family won the team award at the Newtown Turkey Trot! Andrea won the women's race and I was second in the men's race (beaten by the same guy who beat me when I ran this 5K in 2012... by almost the exact same amount). Another new event at the event was a surprise engagement party for Andrea and I on Friday night. It was a ton of fun and great excuse to open dozens more bottles of excellent wine!

The weather was great in CT this year - afternoons in the 60s. I even jumped into and won an open cross country race on Saturday morning before we headed back down to JFK for our flight home. The nice thing about getting home on Saturday evening is that you get a ski day on Sunday!

The last three photos are from Utah on Sunday... last weekend we were skiing up Great Western with no shirts... a week later it was frigid and feeling like winter:

Opening Weekend

Andrea and I are huge fans of spring (and summer, when possible) skiing. So we typically aren't too antsy to get out in the early fall when there is only two inches of snow over the grass and rocks. We figured that even if you wait until mid-December to get started, you'll still be skiing for 7 months. That being said, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and thanks to a push from our friend Amiee, we kicked off the ski season over the weekend at Brighton. We did the usual "skin up to the top of Great Western" laps on Saturday and Sunday - in warm, sunny conditions. It felt good to be back on the snow and make some turns. 

Now our fingers are crossed for El Nino to deliver the goods!!!

Don't Call it a Comeback

It's been roughly 7 months since there has been a running-specific post on Wasatch and Beyond. Time for a brief update...

After withdrawing from London (Jan-Mar training recap) it took me a LONG time to feel like my "old self" again. Much, much longer than I expected. I posted detailed account with plenty of thoughts and introspection on my running log back on August 4th. Long story short, something was wrong all summer - a combination of factors known and unknown. I needed a good break. 

In mid to late August things started to turn around and I've been slowly regaining my fitness and feeling the spark again. The injuries and illness cleared up. I feel normal feel normal again. My legs got their pop back. I have kept things sensible and have been running for fun... no "training" yet, or plans to on the horizon. Over the summer I felt like I was 31 years old going on 40... now I feel like I'm 31 years old going on 20... or maybe 25, again!

Andrea has been slowly building up her running since March, finally coming around after a 2.5 year, 2 surgery, injury layoff. By mid-October we were both itching to jump into a couple local races on weekends where we weren't traveling or doing other fun stuff. We've been running some 5Ks (road and XC) and are planning to do a couple more (Turkey Trot!) to test our fitness before ski season begins in earnest. 

Its fun to be back out on the roads, competing together, for the first time in a long time. We both love simply running for the sake of running, but its fun to put on the racing flats once in a while too.

Bryce Canyon Fantasyland

One of our all-time favorite runs... Andrea on the Bryce Canyon Rim Trail

After a couple days at Zion National Park, we scooted over to Bryce Canyon National Park to give Jenna her first look at the hoodoo fantasyland. The weather was unseasonable warm and we had a great time running, hiking, and taking in the spectacular views. This time of year is "off season" at Bryce so we essentially had the place to ourselves.

Photos...

More photobombing of poor Andrea.

Her choice to marry into this family!!!

Breaking up the drive home at the famous Beaver Valley Chevron