Deep in the Holidays.

It's been a great few days with family and friends. The kittehs (shown above napping with my mom) are just keeping us all amused. We will be in search of new 'cat dancer' toys soon as these boys have shredded the two we have as they play with them all the time.

We had a lovely brunch on Christmas Day as usual since we had no weather interrupting festivities. K and I had to go in search of dried hominy so we could make Posole on Christmas Day. Posole is a stew of hominy and pork cooked in red chile. When I first had this dish in New Mexico, I was rather eh about it but it has grown on me over the years. In New Mexico, you can find cooked, frozen posole in the freezer section. Here we found it dried at Whole Foods.

After the race of last weekend and then a long, hilly road run, my shins were giving me notice that they were not happy on monday. I took a few extra days off from running and did get on my bike instead. I rode on the trainer for over an hour while watching a movie and listening to music.

This morning, I got out on my road bike outside. Our temp here at the house read 38 degrees but once I was down the hill it was actually more like 30. Cold! I had chemical hand warmers stuffed into my booties and chose the wrong gloves but it was still nice to get out and ride. Seattle has been spraying a mix of de-icer and salt on the roads after the debacle of the sand last year and I like it. It's nice to not have the sand on the roads, it works and only has a faintly chemical strange smell.

I did still get out and have a fun trail run on Tiger Mountain. It was a pretty tough slog straight up to Poo Poo Point (snicker, yeah, me too, but evidently the name is derived from a sound of particular logging signals). It's a narrow trail which would be tough to run in the summer. The undergrowth would be really close and those blackberries hurt! The sun was out at times but we also ran through patches of old snow. As we climbed, the wind picked up as well. Coach, knowing full well I'll go exploring given a chance and feeling good, sent me up to Tiger Mountain Peak #3.
Gorgeous day! My quads are seriously sore from the huge descent and I got a very badly bruised toenail but it was worth it. Plus shins are feeling 100%. I'm looking forward to the next holiday and the new year soon!