Casper Christmas

WY I Run... Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. ~A. Cohen
This sums up my runs in Casper, because you never knew if it would be blowing 40 mph or a calm, sunny, 50 degrees.

Workouts:
Friday:Ran 2 miles easy, 7 miles steady pace (7:20 - 7:40 pace), 1 mile easy on the Treadmill at the Wyoming Athletic Club. I had some Televisions, a show on my iPhone, some music so the run seem to fly by. Later in the afternoon Adam and I headed up to Casper Mountain
Ski: Classic Ski for an hour.

Saturday: 18 Miles in the morning which came with some foot pain and cold and windy conditions along with my Garmin acting all wonky. I was not in a good mood by the last mile and needless to say the pace slowed to a snails pace.  But by the time we got home, breakfast of pancakes and eggs were ready and I had the whole day, Christmas Eve to recover. It came full of ice baths, stretching, using the stick, hot tub and reading US Weekly along with some naps.

Getting out of an ice (snow) bath in one of Wendy's (Adam's mom) Christmas Sweatshirt

Sunday: I woke up at a wopping 8 a.m. to open presents and eat breakfast (biscuits and gravy) which is my favorite Alspach meal. I ran later in the morning, which ended up being a glorious 10 Miles with no foot pain!

Monday: Ran 8 Miles with 4 x20 strides and Core in Casper before we left to Lander.

All in all, Christmas was a huge success. Santa must have gotten my list at the North Pole! I think the Alspach family got it too. A Christmas of new traditions and family exceeded all of my expectations. It seemed as though being with another family and 'going with the flow' made a for a hands-off relaxing holiday.
As I wouldn't describe me as a 'go with the flow' type of gal, but being a bit removed from the situation worked to my advantage. This isn't to say I wouldn't have teleported back home in a second. Bring on the screaming sister fights Christmas 2012!

Stockings Hung

I filmed the little ones running down the hall to see their new work bench

Smart Wool Long underwear

Yak Trax for some snow running

A look at it all along with some Oakly sunglasses for running from Adam

 Between dinners and lunches at family and friends houses, holidays were filled with new traditions and reminded me much like my own family's Christmas. You come to realize that Christmases for everyone aren't so different. As cheesy as it is, Christmas is about bringing family and friends together and an excuse to eat and drink too much... you can do this anywhere.

Gifts to myself:
A few days of waking up after 6 a.m.
Running everyday
A Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks
Hot tub and Rest
Thank you Pearson for all of those joyous moments-- No I am not narcissistic

This is the tired Christmas Morning face

Me with some of my goodies

Between cookies, peanut butter balls, chocolate, seven layer bars and more, I woke up on Dec. 26th with a sugar hangover. I swear, it is just like a hangover. I woke up late, felt groggy,  and waited to run! I have to say though, all of those homemade goods were well worth it.

After tons of skiing, running and family time, Adam had the flu and we were Lander bound by 2 on Monday. What's Casper without contracting some sickness, virus, or disease?