With some nice weather over the weekend, Kim convinced me to go out for a run with her. Despite not running for at least a month, it started off pretty easy. We made it all the way up to Wash Park and then decided to do a loop around the dirt trail there. One time around on the loop is just under 2.6 miles. And with the nearly one and a half mile trip to the park and back, our route was just about four miles in length. The good news is that I almost made it all the way, but started getting some leg pains toward the end. The bad news is that my legs are still hurting some after a few days of rest. I think I need to get some new shoes. I was hoping to just find a new pair exactly the same as my current pair on eBay or anywhere online, but it appears that Montrail has canceled the Masai brand. So I may have to go back into a store and spend the big bucks on a new pair.

I made my triumphant return to the gym last night. Kim and I decided a little racquetball would be nice on a cold winter day. This is the most excruciating activity for me since my last ankle sprain. I am happy to report that my ankle held up fine, with no complaints at all. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my overall endurance, which has taken quite a hit. Hopefully that can be quickly resolved, as we are hoping to hit the slopes this coming weekend. Perhaps I should consider getting back into running with the weather getting warmer. I would like to run the Bolder Boulder sometime.

Over the weekend, we took a couple hour drive up to Leadville, Colorado. Situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States. The reason for our trip was was to check out the annual ski joring competition. We first heard of this event this past November when watching the latest Warren Miller movie, Children of Winter. We arrived shortly after 11AM, and quickly realized that we’d be waiting around for awhile. In the future, I would say it’s safe to bet on the competitions getting started around 2PM. I have to admit that it is just as awesome, if not more, than what I was expecting. The horses are flying straight down the course, while the skier being pulled snakes back and forth trying to hit all of the objectives on the track.

Over the weekend, since I was able to snowboard but was already in the mountains, I decided to head out fly fishing with my friend Rob. Well I actually didn’t fish, I just used snowshoes to walk along the shore of the river while Rob fished. Within a half hour, he had already caught his first trout! This fishing stuff seemed easy. But after that, there were no fish caught, even though we could sometimes see exactly where they were. After the river bands became increasingly crowded with other fishermen, Rob decided to drive further downstream. Unfortunately, I had to head back toward Breckenridge to pick Kim up and then head back to Denver, thus ending my first fly fishing experience.

Last night I attended my first ever NBA game. Kim’s work was having an outing at the game and had seats in a box suites, so I had no choice but to tag along. I’m not the biggest basketball fan around, but it’s hard to turn down a great view of the game, with food and drinks included. The Nuggets were hosting the Boston Celtics, and I think half of Boston came along for the game. Though the cheering may have been evenly divided between the two at the start of the game, the Celtics early domination resulted in a lopsided Celtics crowd. Many thought that it would at least be a decent game, and hoped the Nuggets could hang with Boston, it was clear early on that this would not be the case. The Celtics went on to win 114-76.

Here are a bunch of photos that Kim snapped from this past weekend. The first nine are from our first day in Keystone. The next fifteen or so are from Breckenridge. And the last fifteen are from Vail. There are some great shots in the mix. She also took a bunch of videos that I hope to get online. Perhaps I can get creative and mix them all together into a cool mini documentary, similar to the one Corey made. I can’t do much with this stupid ankle injury, so I should have the time to do so.

I am currently sitting in a Starbucks in Avon, Colorado. I didn’t plan to write today, as I’m taking a vacation day from work. I should be out on the slopes of Vail with Kim and her brothers. Instead I’m killing time until they are done for the day, since I cannot join them due to another ankle sprain. I really thought I was past the injuries this time, with the last one occurring this past June. However, the tree I ran into must have felt differently.

After picking up the boys on Friday evening, we drove up to Keystone early Saturday morning. We enjoyed a full day on the slopes there, after which we headed to our condo in Breckenridge. We all enjoyed another great day on the slopes of Breck, until just before 2. It was at that time that I had a little too much fun in a tree filled run, lost control, and slid into a tree, hitting it feet first. My board took most of the impact, but I felt a little pain in my ankle. I managed to get all the way down the hill, but the pain got worse and I decided to call it a day.

That brings me to today. I’m able to hobble around on my own, moving very slowly. I would say that this is one of the lighter sprains that I’ve had, but it’s still enough to keep me sidelined for awhile. I’m hoping I won’t have to stay off the slopes for too long, but I also want to be sure it’s strong enough to make it a full day. As always, time will tell.

Update: at least I’m not alone. I’ve seen two others on crutches in the two hours I’ve been here.

Tuesday night my adult hockey team won yet another game, making our current streak three in a row. Our opponent was the Llamas who we beat just a few weeks ago. I guess we are the reason they dropped from third place to fourth. Unfortunately our standings in the league also dropped. Obviously not because of our win, but because of the bye week we had. I guess the team we were ahead of won their game and moved ahead of us again. So we finished the regular season in last place. The playoffs start tonight when we will play the second to last team for a spot in the tournament. Though I guess it’s double elimination, so even if we lose tonight we should still have at least one more game.

Kim and I are continuing to play racquetball at least once a week and are trying for twice. I must say that we are getting much better, especially Kim, who managed to take me out last night. I guess I shouldn’t have saved all of my energy for hockey tonight. Either that or I hit her with the ball a few too many times, which angered her enough to whip me in the best of three set.

No hockey game for me this week, though we did attend one over the weekend. We finally made it out to see a DU hockey game, our first of this season. The Pioneers were hosting the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves for two games, as each of the teams usually does in the WCHA. Since we were attending the second game, and Denver had already won the first quite handily 6-2, we were expecting another easy victory.

Saturday nights game started off great for DU, with two goals in the first period. However, things took a turn for the worse in the rest of the game. Alaska slowly crawled their way back into the game with a goal in the second period and another one late in the third. Not to mention a nasty hit that took out Chris Nutini, who I used to play in a summer league with, towards the end of the game. At the end of regulation we were tied with a score of 2-2. And the luck continued to run out for DU, when Alaska snuck in a goal just under the five minute mark of overtime. This was an unexpected loss so I hope they can bounce back quickly.

We headed back up to the slopes of Keystone Saturday morning, for what would become our 10th day of the season. Some long time family friends were staying in Keystone for the weekend, and we decided to join part of the group out on the slopes. The others in the group that weren’t skiing, still took the gondola to the top of the mountain to check out the great views and to have some lunch with us adventurous types. The conditions were completely different from last weekend, with no new snow and lots of packed down powder. I even hit the occasional icy patch a couple of times, but was able to come away injury free. Regardless we had a nice time out, and our friend Corey put together the following video of our day.