Way to stop blogging there...

Yes, I've dropped off the radar.

Oh well.

My good blogging comes from an extended internal conversation with myself which ultimately gets written down and called a blog.

I haven't had any good conversations with myself lately. Other things have taken up that space.

But that's not a bad thing.

Today, however, I took Turbo for a nice long walk and I caught up with me. It was nice.

My main thought? Honestly? I might be wishing part of my life away, but when the heck is Spring going to get here? I am SO ready for warmer weather and that fresh, new feeling that comes with the season. I am ready to be able to step out the door and not get chilled to the bone. I am ready to spend a long weekend in Moab, soaking up the red rocks, sand, and sun. I am ready to see the mountains as a haven rather than full of life-threatening avalanches (yes, I am far more traumatized and emotionally wrecked from the avalanche than Chris is -- far, far, more so).

But, here we are starting February and I know we're in for a long haul before I get that fresh, warm weather. I also know that soon enough it'll be summer and I will be seriously complaining about being so hot. I'm a spring/fall kind of girl. I don't care for the extremes.

While Chris has been busy building up his new FatBike (and wow, what a great bike!), training and packing and obsessing about the Arrowhead (which starts tomorrow am) and the UltraSport (end of Feb), I have kept myself plenty busy. This class of Kindergarteners is keeping me busy and wearing me out. They are great. I can't complain about this class, but they are still five. Some days are better than others. I have also started back up being a full-time grad student this semester as well. Luckily for me (and all of those around me), this semester promises to be FAR easier than last semester. There are only so many ways that you can analyze the diversity in your classroom... This semester, however, I am taking a linguistics class (surprisingly fun!) and a psychology hybrid online/a saturday a month class. No offense to psych majors, but my bs skills really come in handy here!

I've done a wee bit of riding. More on the trainer than outside (note my wussiness about the weather). I have done a wee bit more gym climbing. Just enough exercise, I think, to not feel like a total winter blob, but just little enough to feel pretty lazy. It works though.

February doesn't promise to hold much more blogging for me, although I'm going to try -- if there is something blogworthy of course. If you still actually check back here though now and then, stick around for March. I promise it'll be worth your patience.

G'night!

(Oh right, if you want to follow along with Chris on the Arrowhead 135 race tomorrow, here's the link to the blog where race updates should be posted. A brand new single speed snowbike and an ankle that is only four months post crushing and really only 80% better (in my opinion), should make for quite the interesting race for him. He's stoked and excited. I like that. Good luck hubby!)

Oh My Oh-Nine: The Impossible

As I look back on 2009 and look forward to 2010, I have mixed feelings. Like I said in my previous post, 2009 was great overall, but a few bad memories seem to take over the retrospective. The best way to sum up the year is to say that in 2009, I realized that the impossible can happen -- both in good ways and bad.

Two main adventures stick out in my mind as my big sports accomplishments of 2009. In May, I successfully rode White Rim in a day. Chris and I had previously done this in a 1.5 day camping trip, and I always saw this 100 mile mountain bike ride as impossible for me.
Yet...
100 degrees and 100 miles later...
I did it.

On July 31st, Chris convinced me to get up at 1:30 am to climb Longs Peak. Longs Peak had always scared me, and he not only convinced me to climb it, but he convinced me to climb it via a 5.4 rock climbing route. 5.4 should've been a walk in the park for both of us, but with the route covered in ice from an overnight freeze, the trip became somewhat epic. When we started the climb up Longs, I looked up and declared that it is impossible.
Yet...

I did it.

I've tried to decide which adventure I'm most proud of, White Rim or Longs, and I can't.

In 2009, I also broke the 30 minute mark in the Cherry Creek Time Trials -- which I'm very certain I declared impossible for me to do on more than one occasion. It's hard to look back on 2009 and not marvel at Chris's accomplishments as well. He kicked serious butt and set the singlespeed record on the AZT300 in April. He then went on to dominate the Tour Divide and set the new singlespeed record for the Divide route. Being away from each other successfully for 20 days was something we'd always seen as an impossibility. But, 19 days and 21 minutes later...
He did it. We'd done it.

Of course we all know how the month of October went for the Plesko family. One miscarriage and an avalanche later, and the world found us pretty beaten down and listless. The bad impossibles had happened.

We made a goal of making it to Thanksgiving when things would be looking up. Chris began to walk again and slowly (as it seemed to us, but quite quickly in the world of broken-ankle-recovery) got back to riding and climbing. From there we made a goal of making it to Christmas, when things would hopefully be looking a lot better.

As it turns out, it seems Santa brought our smiles back.



I think 2010 will be full of more surprises, both good and bad. My main goal for 2010? Keep in mind that both the good and bad impossibles can happen, but as long as you keep your head up, each will make you stronger. From there, seek out the adventures in everyday life and enjoy them.

Happy New Year!