Every year during the winter break from school my kids take part in "Christmas Camp" as part of the Sun Valley Ski Team. Basically, during this time, they spend two weeks focusing on technique and other fundamentals as they prepare for the racing season that begins in January. In the spirit of solidarity (and due to the fact that I am a lousy skier:) I have, for the past two years, had my own Christmas Camp to get ready for my own ultramarathon racing season which will slowly ramp up in January.
With a quiet couple weeks of work ahead of me I am looking forward to 16 consecutive days of running with a focus on consistency and leg turnover. In addition, I plan to work on keeping my heart rate steady while paying attention to my running form. Lastly, I hope to get in about 180 miles during that time.
And, for inspiration and given the fact that I just submitted my Hardrock registration, I will keep in mind the moment pictured above, taken last July in Silverton, as I dive into my own "Christmas Camp."
15 comments:
Andy, those are some nasty feet! Happy holidays to you and your family from all of us here in New York.
I stared at that picture way longer than I should have...and still can't think of anything creative to say. Man that is nasty.
I hope this pic was taken before you got your sock sponsorship.
I stared at the pic wondering "what did he put on his feet?" Then I realized it was your skin. There goes my 100 mile ambitions.
Since everyone else just made fun of your feet, I'll spare you my comments on that. Instead, I'll focus on Christmas Camp. Ronda S. has been organizing Christmas Camp since 2002 (I missed the first year, but have "attended" every year since). We do it the week between Christmas and New Year's. We have daily runs, core workout everyday, speed, hills, tempo, long, short, doubles, etc. And it's always to get at least 100 miles (I ran 124 miles that week one year). It's a great distraction to have that tangible goal, instead of being fat and lazy that week. It's a super-fun way to end the year! Enjoy your Camp.
Thanks for the comments! Yes, it is nasty and yes it was taken before DryMax became my sock sponsor.
What I can't believe is that nobody has commented on the best part of the picture!
of course - 2 empty bottles of beer! Who cares about the feet, that's the standard feet for Hard Rock.
Good one, FastEd, and remember, I offered you on and you turned me down.
AJ, you definitely get the 2009 award for best post-race foot photos between this and States.
Neat trick you can try - when you name your photos, include the words "ultramarathon" and "blister" along with "foot" or "feet". You'll see your traffic jump up when Google starts indexing your images properly. There are a lot of people searching on those terms (as well as "black toenail" or "lost toenail")....bring 'em to your world!
All the best to you and your family this holiday.
SD
Andy,
You mean the Coors Light? I guess your in the Rocky Mountains instead of the Sierras... next time you have to BYOB...
Ted
The disgusting thing is that you're drinking coors light. Find my crew this year for some PBR or crawl down the street to the Silverton Brewery.
Fast Ed and AJW,
Make note those were empty Coors LIGHT bottles int he picture background. Weak. Dissapointed.
Joe Kulak
Hey Andy,
Been reading your blog for a good few months now, you’ve really an inspiration to people who wanna get into running like me! I’ve created my own blog about Compression tights and stuff about running and sportswear. Id be really appreciate if I could get a message back and also if you could link to my blog http://compressiontights.blogspot.com/ - the name of the blog is Compression tights
thanks AJW,
your effort inspires me :-D
Actually, Joe, if you look closely, only ONE of the light beers is empty. Andy probably poured the other on his feet (to toughen them up). ;-)
Holy crxp! That's a painful looking picture.
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