The Day I Stopped Fearing Winter Driving (and Flattop Fun)

Workout: climbed Flattop

And just like that, my fear of winter driving is gone. I have no idea what happened, I only hope this new mindset is here to stay. Today I was cruisin' around like a drag racer (at least, my version of a drag racer, which is someone who drives responsibly and maybe 5 miles over the speed limit), makin' turns and takin' names. I predict this will last until I inevitably crash into the back of someone's car while makin' said turns and takin' said names.

It was another gorgeous day, so Bailey and I went to Flattop. I actually wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I would be from THE CORE (not sure why I feel the need to capitalize that, it just makes sense). That thing killed me the last time I did it, but at the time I was living in New York, which is flatter than Kelly Ripa. Looks like mountains do a lot to beef up your thighs (just what I need!). I was only using 5 pound weights, so maybe it's graduation time.

Anyway, beefing aside, since I didn't feel that sore I took the steep route. Also, turns out the steep route is "difficult and abandoned." Whoops. I think they meant to say "Only for badasses," although I don't qualify there either. Whatever. They can't take it from me when I've only just discovered it after all these years!

It really wasn't bad, even with the snow that fell Monday. I was breaking trail (or, technically, I guess Bailey was, but she's got biddy feet) but I had kahtoolas on and didn't feel at all unsafe.

This route's steep,

but it gets you most of the way up the mountain in probably half the time. I wore my garmin in an attempt to measure just how steep it is, but it stopped working within 10 minutes. Typical.

We made it to the top, and it was beautiful.

This guy I passed reminded me we won't be able to do this much longer, and I wanted to punch him in the face. He's right, of course. Once more snow falls and it starts getting dark at like 2:00 p.m., it'll be harder to figure out how to get up there. But as someone who likes to live in denial, I didn't appreciate it. On the bright side, I guess that when it happens I'll finally start focusing on running again.

And now to hand out candy to little kids! Despite my cold, cold heart and lack of enthusiasm for Halloween, I love giving little kids candy (and not in a "come with me to my unmarked white van!" kind of way). New York doesn't really seem to do the candy thing and in college we were too busy getting shwasted to even think about it, so it's been a while since I got to participate. Oh, suburbia.

Happy trails!