My breath fogged up the glass, so I drew a new face and I laughed.

It has been a little while since I last wrote. Since January 25 I have been on four runs, all of them around 6-7 miles. It feels good to be active again after taking almost two months completely off. I also hopped in the pool last night and logged 2500 painful yards. Swimming used to come so naturally to me but since I have not been in the pool since the Eagle River Triathlon (last May) I really felt every stroke. Conveniently the Service High pool is only a 5 minute drive from my house so I’ll be up there again tonight.

Porter and I had a very nice 8 ½ mile run today. I’m not going to lie, it is firkin cold outside. I came inside looking like old man winter. Frozen mustache and beard, eye lids nearly frozen shut and all of the other things we all love about running outside in Alaska in January…or February. But it was nice to get out as things are strting to click again with my training. I'm starting to get to the point where it feels "good" to run again.

Over the past two weeks I have had a whirlwind of emotion in my life. Dealing with the death of a close friend is enough to put even the strongest soul out of commission for a while. Reflecting on Laird’s life and anticipating the future without such a great human being has been very difficult. But with the difficulties there have also been laughs and joyful memories.

I had Dylan over for dinner last week and he and I were able to share a lot of our thoughts regarding his brother, more than I had been able to through writing or talking with others. Dylan and I are similar in the fact that we often have a hard time really opening up and letting people know how we feel. As our friendship goes back to when we were 10 years old we have had plenty of time to “vent” to each other over the years. I value Dylan as, among many other things, a great friend who has always been there to listen and I hope that I have always been and always will be the same for him as well as the entire Prosser family. Thanks Dylan.

During these two weeks I have also looked seriously at my athletic career, both the past and what lies ahead. Goal setting was something that I always thought of as an essential part of success. I realize now that I have been without athletic goals for the past 7 or 8 years. Sure, I’ll decide to enter a race and tell myself “it would be nice to finish in blank minutes,” but as far as serious goals I can hardly remember the last time I sat down and wrote some down.

So I did that. I have a rough draft. It’s not quite at the “tape to my bathroom mirror” point, but it is a start. I’m going to do some more thinking, evaluating and planning and hammer this thing out. More to come in my next post.