On the upswing

This past weekend was a lot of fun, just not quite how I had hoped it would go. Since then it's been generally worse with me fighting off the plague. Friday I watched little Zuri in the AM and went to climb in Eldo with ChrisG (Green Spur, sweet!). My cough was getting worse Friday night and by Saturday I could no longer ignore it. All manor of symptom supressors were experimented with, none exceptionally useful but perhaps the Nyquil that let me sleep. Still I had a great "meetaversary" weekend planned with Marni and I wasn't going to bail. I scratched the time trial from Saturday morning and ended up resting as much as possible Saturday. We drove up to Leadville early due to the time change and early AM start on Sunday and stayed at a kick ass place thanks to Chris and Kathy of Cycles of Life and Proving Grounds fame.
Saturday night Marni and I hit up the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse which was awesome. We lucked out and got bumped to a Saturday reservation which worked out really well. Cannon got us setup with gear and sent Marni and I out on XC skis for the first time. It was beautiful out there and even for total noob XC skiers we made our way up the hill and to the yurt for dinner without any major problems although I'm not sure we were fast than walking.
Dinner itself ruled. I had the Elk and it was fab. I really enjoy dinners where you don't pick your items as you get to try a lot of new things that way and the chef didn't disappoint. Scallops, elk, potatoes, green beans (gasp mom!) , a wild mixed fruit pie, great salad, man I was stuffed. Hopefully I didn't annoy the rest of the small yurt with my coughing. Some hot tea at least helped supress it a little bit. After dinner we skied back to the car by headlamp and that was great. Definitely faster than walking :)
Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty terrible but I was willing to give the race a shot since I was already there. We snagged a pancake breakfast, got registered and generally enjoyed a really nice early and crisp morning in leadville. I made a halfhearted warm up, finally relinquished my puffy and it was time to race. Luckily the lead pack didn't charge out of the gate too bad but Shawn eventually took the lead and set the pace. I snuck on his wheel for a while and tried to get my motor going. Unfortunately the legs just weren't there and my cough was terrible so I eventually said goodbye to Doug who was riding near me and called it quits. The course was awesome though so I at least soft pedalled the rest of the way around to enjoy it. I really do like riding in the snow a lot, perhaps next year I will prep my snow bike properly and see what can be arranged to go to Alaska. Near the end of the race I even stopped to write Marni a "C heart M" note in the snow but she missed it. Bummer!

After everyone came in we checked out the Ski Joring (skiers being pulled by horses over a jump and slalom course) which was really fun to watch, esp with a couple crazies crashing right in front of us. Eventually Marni drove us home and to bed I went. Generally I stayed there until yesterday when I at least was able to venture out to run a few errands without feeling like death. Today I'm a lot better and got a good little road ride in without any crazy coughing or wheezing in my lungs so tomorrow I'll see how my body likes a couple hours of effort.

Saturday is my Praxis test. I've got 2 more "practice" tests to work though but I'm passing the CO state standard and maybe the "excellence" level as well. The questions are generally easy but once and a while I get a stumper requiring some random fact from long ago that I don't remember. Luckily my math basics are really strong and I'm looking forward to getting it done and finalizing my requirements to teach next year.

This week has definitely not gone as planned but I've got to be healthy and I've got to finish my test well so I'll deal. Luckily daylight savings is here and the next couple weeks should be some real nice training on the MTB to get ready for Arizona. Spring break in Moab with Marni isn't too shabby either so I'm looking forward to it!