A wedding

Over the past two weeks Danna and I both wound up getting sick.  I got a head cold for about 36 hours.  About 4 days later, Danna was nauseous with a 102 fever.  In fact, that was still not completely gone yesterday.  Danna still managed to run very far.

My brother David and his family started CrossFit.  So I've been hanging out there a bit more, which always results in me doing more WODs there than normal.

Last weekend, we went to a beautiful wedding in Charleston, SC, for our friends Christy and Brett.  Congratulations, guys!  The reception was held at Lowndes Grove Plantation on a salt marsh at sunset.

We continue to slowly gather the few little things we need to make the upcoming trip to Canada and the following trip to the west coast happen.  We've been scouring the internet for deals on approach shoes and other small items.

Monday CrossFit burpees and med ball cleans
Tuesday Rest
Wednesday CrossFit pullups, pushups, squats, med ball cleans, burpees
Thursday Gym climb
Friday An hour of hand-over-hand sled pulling (205 pounds)
Saturday Gone to wedding in Charleston
Sunday Run 5 miles across and back Cooper River Bridge
Monday CrossFit double unders, snatches
Tuesday CrossFit deadlifts, pushups, box jumps
Wednesday CrossFit cleans, toes to bar, wall balls
Thursday Gym climb
Friday CrossFit rope climbs, toes to bar, weighted lunges, running
Saturday Run 8.5 miles (B) 20 miles (D)
Sunday Rest

Danna 7 miles into 20

Crazy face sled pulls

An early, light load

Danna's interpretation of the wedding site

Microgreen salad, tempeh, tostones, tomatoes, peanuts, nasturtium, ginger dressing

Gym climbing and a marathon row

This past week was fun.  We managed to get into the climbing gym twice: Thursday evening and Sunday, where we introduced a few folks from CCF to the Joy of Climbing.  In addition, we both kept moving quite a bit more than usual.  Danna did 16 miles out at Harbison, and I rowed 42,195 meters on a Concept 2 in 3:25.  My rear was sore for two days after that, but at least I can say my knees were fine.

Monday  Run 16 miles @ Harbison (D) / Row 26.2 miles @ CCF (B)
Tuesday  Work
Wednesday  CrossFit (Med ball situps, rope climbs, wall balls, burpees, box jumps, farmer's walks)
Thursday  Gym climb
Friday  Run 4 miles @ Riverfront Park / CrossFit (Thrusters, K2E, DB Push Press, KBS)
Saturday  Run 7.5 miles @ Harbison (D) / CrossFit (Row 5k, 92 burpees) (B)
Sunday  Gym bouldering / Yoga

Danna's long run.  She stopped her watch when she started to occasionally walk

26.2 miles in 3:25:03

Yoga.  Seriously

Eggs, sweet potatoes, goat cheese, fried sage, habanero

Spaghetti squash, zucchini, pesto, tomato, parmigiano reggiano, black pepper

Blur

The past couple of weeks have been something of a blur. The weather has been unseasonably warm and wet. Between Brian staying busy with work, and his knee giving him some trouble on runs, we've had to modify our schedule here and there. We did manage to do a bit of big wall training at Crossfit by anchoring a climbing rope to a rafter- one of us jugging up with the other belaying. This got old pretty quickly, but it may be a decent way to train for our trip in April.

I made a sweat angel at Crossfit, eww.

Brian made butternut squash tamales, yum.

The wet ground and warm weather inspired me to dig a small pond in the backyard. The chickens were absolutely thrilled. They spent the entire day scratching around for grubs, hopping on my moving shovel more than once. The next day was our first three egg day!

Jan 9-22:
Mon- CF Helen
Tues- Row Intervals
Wed- Rope Jugging Treadmill
Thurs- Ran 2.5mi at Canal Walk
Fri- CF muscle-ups, wall-balls, handstand push-ups, cleans
Sat- Ran 15mi at Canal Walk
Sun- rest
Mon- CF cleans, snatches, thrusters
Tues- Yoga
Wed- CF dumbell presses, rowing, turkish get-ups, walking lunges
Thurs- rest
Fri- climbing at Stronghold
Sat- rest
Sun- Ran 4mi at Harbison

Piggies

Its midday, I'm writing this from bed, and I have no intentions of getting up any time soon. This week really added up. We started it off right with Brian's curried peas and greens with awesome made from scratch cornbread, an indian twist on the classic southern New Years meal.

Over the next few days, cold temperatures finally hit the southeast, and despite resorts only being about half open, we hurried up to Winterplace in WV just to see some snow and test out some kit before our trip to Canada. It was great to be on skis, even if the snow was the consistency of heavy mashed potatoes.

By yesterday we were whiny and tired, but the balmy weather convinced us to head out to Congaree National Park to get in our long run. We got some crazy looks, as though nobody ever runs shirtless out there... but eventually the river trail became quite remote and we had the swamp to ourselves. Around 10 miles in we realized we weren't alone when we ran up on a sounder of wild pigs rooting around in a creek bed. They were very close to us, and there had to be 15 or more. We stood awestruck as they ran away from us. A moment later they turned back toward us, and we were the ones running away, nervously looking for trees to climb. To our relief they stopped, and we carried on our separate ways.

January 1-7:

Sun- ran 5mi at Canalwalk

Mon- CF Cindy

Tues- Row 6 x 800m

Wed- off

Thurs- ski, WV

Fri- CF 4 rounds run 800/400m

Sat- ran 14mi at CNP

Looking back, moving forward.

The past year was pretty amazing, so its a shame we didn't keep things updated here. To re-inspire ourselves, we're wiping the slate clean.

Looking back, 2011:

We skied as much as possible, at Sugarloaf in Maine, Winter Park and Steamboat in Colorado, Mammoth in California, and toured up Mt. Shasta.

We learned to love running, completed the Palmetto State O-Run, Cooper River Bridge Run, USMC Mud Run (1st place coed), Xterra Harbison Half Marathon, and the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile ultramarathon in Pine Mountain, GA... though our most enjoyable miles were undoubtedly the quieter ones, plodding away through pine straw laden singletrack in Harbison State Forest.

We adopted chickens- Hollandaise, Flannery, and Florentine. They're valued members of the family, and we're couldn't be more proud of our dog Masala for learning to be BFFs with them.

The year ahead:

Brian will be out of school this semester as he waits to start clinicals in May, so we're making big plans for spring.

We're training for the Black Mountain Marathon in February.

We're heading to Canada to ski around the Golden, BC backcountry in March.

We'll drive out west with skis and climbing gear and a ridiculous number of goals in April/May.

We'll take more pictures.