Adventure Sneaker

Beautiful snowy trees, Pachaug State Forest

In case you were not aware, we had a BLIZZARD last week. A serious,full-on, 2-3 feet of snow BLIZZARD!!!  This made many things very challenging (least of all keeping up with the detox diet, when all I wanted was comfort (aka junk) food. and a beer.).  People were stranded at their workplaces and in their homes for days…some areas are still awaiting plows to clear their roads. I’ve never seen anything like this!   I don’t have the type of job that stops due to weather, so in I went. I’m lucky enough to have been able to strap on my Dion snowshoes and tromp into work in those.  Yup, snowshoeing down the street to work. I got a few odd looks.  I wish I could commute like that every day :-).

Uhmmm… mommy… why are you going to work looking like that?

Those who know me, know how excited I was about all of this snow.  I LOVE it.  Love, love, love.  I couldn’t wait to get out there and play!!!  Unfortunately I only had one day to enjoy it (Sunday), as Monday brought pouring rain (seriously?  40+ degrees and pouring?  two days after a blizzard?  Mother nature you are one weird broad).  We saddled up the snowshoes and headed out to the nearby State Forest to have some fun.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Sadly, the poor dogs were nearly buried by the snow, so they couldn’t join us for the hike.  Poor things were up to their shoulders trying to get around the yard.

The road into Pachaug State Forest… pictures don’t do it justice

Love these!!

My initial plan was to run on the dirt roads,  and then hit the trail with my husband for a snowshoe hike.  But, only partially cleared roads thwarted that plan.  After strapping on my yak trax, I made it a half mile before running into giant snowbanks and “road closed” signs everywhere.  I decided that I HAD to do a little running out there, so I strapped on the Dions and headed out, into someone else’s fresh snowshoe tracks in 2 1/2 feet of snow.  Let me tell you…. snowshoe running/hiking in 2 feet of snow is NO JOKE.  3 minutes into this little excursion my heart rate hit somewhere in the “danger, danger, explosion imminent” range.  I have a snowshoe half marathon coming up in early March… hopefully it’s not through 2 feet of fresh snow, or I’ll be laying in the fetal position crying on the side of the trail after 2 miles.  Seriously.  I only made it around a mile or so into this experiment before throwing in the towel (mitten?) and switching over to hike mode. The hike was absolutely beautiful (and challenging!).  Luckily someone had gone through before us, so there was a (sorta, kinda) broken trail, and more importantly tracks to keep us on course.  the trees were covered in snow, so following the blazes was very difficult.  The woods were very peaceful, everything was muffled by the snow, and we had a blast!  Poor Anthony was exhausted after spending the entire day before clearing us out while I worked, so we cut the hike a bit shorter than I would have liked, but a great day nonetheless.

Making tracks

blue blazes on the Pachaug Trail

Welcome to Moe’s!

I must say, the snowy weather did NOT do wonders for my motivation to continue the diet detox.  I spent most of the hike dreaming about a cheeseburger and an IPA.  And fries.  Or a pizza.  Or all of it.  And probably some cookies afterward.  I’m happy to say I stuck with it though, and instead of pizza and beer, had a smoothie. (Not. The. Same.) We ate out today, for the first time since I started this.  I had the guts of a burrito in a bowl, minus the tortilla, cheese, and sour cream.  It was pretty damn good!  Meals like this will probably become the mainstay of my diet once the detox is over with.  I need to learn to save the super carb-ed up meals and treats for when I’ve really earned them.  It’s all about making good food choices.  I’m not counting calories, I’m essentially counting nutritional value.  I’ve had some issues with nighttime hunger for the past couple of days, but I think I’ve got the timing of my eating and smoothies down, It’s much better today.  Overall, the detox plan has been remarkably easy for me to follow.  I don’t miss the sugary stuff much at all, and  going gluten and dairy free hasn’t been the issue I thought it would be. It will make it much easier to cut back on the amount of that stuff I will be eating once I’m released from diet jail 😉

This diet detox has been an interesting experiment for me, and has helped me to really focus in on my health, training, and fitness.  Race training is in full swing, and I’ve been busily searching the race calendars to add to my upcoming plans. 

I hope everyone got a chance to enjoy some of the beauty of this snow… have fun and be safe!