It's 8:32 and all is well...considering

Well, here I sit in the Phoenix airport. It's 11:32 pm at home, which means its 8:32 pm local time. My plane for Philadelphia doesn't take off until 10:55 pm. And that is not home time, that is local time. I am tired, and I just want to go to sleep in my bed. But, seeing how that isn't going to happen for about another 24 hours or more, I spose I will update you with what I have been doing this spring. 

After NorAm Champs, I was toast. I did not want to touch those things we call skis for a few months, and I didn't even want to think about next winter. Not quite yet. I spend a few weeks relaxing at home, spending time with the fam, and going to an occasional high school softball practice. This were pretty mellow, to say the least. The highlight of my spring was probably watching Max and Raia (Gary's dogs) while he was on vacation. I like those dogs. Anyway, that was the highlight of my spring, until I went out to Durango, Colorado for a few weeks. (which explains why I am sitting in Phoenix.) 

The last week in April rolls around, and I am packing up for the first travel of the year. Tracy and Lanny Barnes invited me and Susan Dunklee to stay out at their parent's house in Durango for a few weeks, to get in some low intensity, high volume, maximum fun training before the serious training starts. The first week was pretty mellow. Biking, hiking, running, you know, the normal. But, also in that first week, I went on my first turkey hunt! It was very fun, although we didn't see or hear anything. I still felt dangerous carrying around a 12 gauge shotgun. The second week, we packed up everything we fit into our backpacks, loaded up the truck, and drove up to the mountains and did some camping! The real kind! We had a tent and a fire pit and everything! It was my first time camping in a tent. I was a little nervous, but I managed. It took a little while to figure out how to sleep in a sleeping bag though. I figured I was supposed to put on layer after layer of clothing and cuddle up in the sleeping bag and brace for the cold to hit. Oh how wrong I was. Tracy tells me "Just wear a long sleeve shirt and some shorts, and you'll be fine." Thinking she was a bit crazy, I went to bed on the first night in a 2 long sleeve shirts and some long underwear on top of my shorts. And that, my friends, was quite possibly one of the life. Apparently, if you sweat while in the sleeping bag while it is below freezing outside, you will be warm for about an hour. And then? YOU FREEZE! And that is exactly what I did. So she pulled the "I told you so" card, which she had every right to, and I learned my lesson. But for some reason, I still wasn't sleeping at night. It wasn't until the last night that I finally got a really good night's sleep. In the mornings we would go skiing up in the mountains, and in the afternoon we would just be active, whether it be hiking, biking, or even more turkey hunting or fishing. I had heard the twins talk about making training fun and not so serious all the time. I kind of always thought training was fun, but they take it to a whole new level, and I finally understand what they are talking about. It's really important, especially in the beginning of a training year, to keep things fun. Just going out to do things because you want to, not because you have to; that is what it is all about. And it doesn't always have to be running or hiking or normal strength. One day in the first week, we decided we wanted to do a strength workout. So, what did we do? Go to the gym, you say? Well, that's a good guess, but you would be wrong. We rode our bikes around town, finding all the different jungle gyms and playgrounds, in town, and each came up with 2 exercises for all of us to do, incorporating the jungle gym into each one. Sit Ups on the slides, lunging around the park, doing pull ups on the monkey bars; we even went to the skate boarding park and did some things around there. Those were the sorts of things we were doing. They were so fun, and so different! So that was great. 

And the last night I was there, I shot a shotgun! In the 2 weeks we were there, I think all the turkeys went on vacation to Florida or something, because we didn't see one male turkey! So instead of shooting the shotgun at a turkey, I shot it at an orange juice bottle. But, I hit it! And it turns out it has a little bit more kick than my biathlon rifle. But it was really fun. So, although my vacation was a little delayed, it was well worth the wait. 

I will be moving into the lodge as soon as I get back to Maine, which I am very excited about. I will become apart of the long legacy of athletes in the lodge! 

Hopefully you all had a good spring, and are looking forward to an exciting summer! I'll add some pictures soon!

Andie.