Running, resting, and riding with the German

Hey Friends - I hope you are doing well and sipping some coffee while you read this. The late fall cold has finally arrived in Burlington, VT and it feels good. The warmth inside the Muddy Waters coffee shop felt pretty good today when I popped in for a bowl of chili and a small French roast today at lunch. And it was packed in there - so that means its starting to get cold out because the colder it gets outside the more attractive it gets to be in there.

I've been doing a trail run on Friday afternoons up at Bolton Valley that my sister has been organizing. Its really more of a mountain run because its basically up and down. There was a large group this past week and we sort of broke into naturally selected groups. We ran on some wild trails and got quite muddy. The run was a lot of fun though and there were some pretty heavenly views when we got to the top of the Heavenly Highway trail. Looking down and then across to Mt. Mansfield it felt like the whole world was a forest. Attached are two pictures I highjacked from my sister's website. The first one is of the whole group before we headed out for the run (that's me in the tree!) and the second one is of Angus, who got especially muddy while running in the same group as me (he nearly got stuck in a mini-bog).
This trail run has left me quite sore for the following 2-3 days afterward each week, but once I'm healed up from being torn apart by the mountain my legs are stronger than they were before. So, with this building of strength in mind I'm going to be running a half-marathon this coming weekend. All the local 5k races that were supposed to happen this past weekend got cancelled- so all that's coming up in this half-marathon right here in Shelburne this coming Sunday. Dan Cassidy is going to run it with me, and our plan is just to run under 1:30. That puts us at about 6:52 per mile average. I will say, the first month or two after the bike racing season ends is quite nice - to just stay at home, do trail runs and drink coffee...it is restful.

I'm going to create some suspense on the last topic of this post - it is in regards to new possible teammates for next season. These are unconfirmed reports, but there is a chance we may have a German wonder-kid and a former Priority Health rider on CCB next season. Just stew on that and let me know how it tastes. By the way, I can confirm that Chris Worden and Colin Jaskiewicz will be riding with CCB next season. So, the Burlington contingent continues to grow.

That is all for now - I've got some numbers to crunch. Be merry.