December Singletrack

I've been running more than biking this winter, and thus far the snowfall has been very limited here in Durango as the storms have gone either to the North or South of us.  However since we are nearly 7k elevation, the temperature does get quite cold at night and that means what snow we do have only has a short window each day to melt.  The good news for me is that I just have not found the Jones to go Nordic skiing, and the conditions have made running right out the front door perfect.

Last week, I was able to run my "go-to" route up Skyline and all the way across Raiders Ridge as the snow has been packed down very nicely.  I made first tracks in the snow on Extended Raiders and it was actually powder snow up there, but only a few inches.  The rock hazards were covered and there were some areas that I had to walk, but getting a trail run this late in the year is golden. 

 I ran myself into the ground as I was doing 11-12 miles a day and the idea was that with Jai Li being born at the end of my week running block, I would then take some rest days as we got acquainted on being parents for the first time.  What I did not plan for though was picking up a nasty head cold while at the hospital.

So it has been a tough week for me trying to shake this head cold, but a good one for Jeni as she has been able to get her exercise Jones on every day since the delivery.  She has hit the Rec Center and has now started running herself.  This is supposed to be a cloud free and sunshine week coming up, so I'm hoping to get back out there myself.

Our friend Alice made the local newspaper as she ran all the way through her pregnancy.  Check out the story here.  This town is chock full of athletes with amazing stories.

I'm also continuing with the free online courses at M.I.T., and this week started going through the Ordinary Differential Equations class.  It is really cool that you can view and perform entire courses via online video, homework, exams, etc.  I'm using this as a refresher as this undergrad course was needed years ago for me, and I wish to gain this knowledge plus some others back.  What I have noticed thus far regarding the M.I.T. courses is what one would expect - the material is not harder or any different than when I took the course, but the M.I.T. students are understandably more prepared for the course than my experience.  The professor just does not have to go step by step through equations in order to teach the lowest-common-denominator student in the class (lucky for me, as i can stop the video lecture and work through the problem at my slow speed when needed).  I'm usually a very anti-elitist for anything from sports to education to social networking, but there is a reason why this school is so highly rated, and thus far I have been really impressed.

M.I.T. announced last week that they will offer certificates for course completion in the near future, so color me interested.  Check this out.