Winter has arrived early in the Pacific Northwest! A strong high pressure system off the Pacific Northwest coast changed the jet stream significantly enough where a northerly of frigid air from the Frasier River in Canada blasted us. The wet snow, along with sub zero temperatures and the unique hilly geography of Seattle created a driving situation where it took hours to drive from downtown Seattle to West Seattle. There were buses spinning down hills (go to 3:00), trucks jackknifed all along the freeway and cars were like billiard balls, comically colliding into each other in slow motion (CAR!).
I do admit residents of Seattle are probably not model drivers, but to all those out-of-town folks living in Seattle who claim they are so much better than us at navigating ice and snow…..I’m giving you a pre-emptive “Zip It!” with the “Peanut Gallery” remarks. This article from the Seattle Times clearly spells out, with decent reasoning, why our situation is unique. Remember, many of the Seattle-ites are transplants not from the area.
Sometimes the best thing to do is sit back, work from home if you can, and throw the occasional snowball or two at the neighbor. Enjoy and love our great Pacific Northwest for all it’s quirks and absurdities…and stop complaining.
Greg Spooner and I have begun to include CrossFit into our slowly increasing training load. Instead of the usual miles and hours of longitudinal axis, aerobic base training (rowing, biking, running), CrossFit is like circuit weight training, but from Hell. It is 15-25 minutes, sans warm up and cool down and depending on individual fitness and familiarization, of anaerobic based training that is explosive. I know what anaerobic threshold training is like from rowing, but trying to figure out what your threshold is and not blowing through it in something new is challenging. It engages muscles rowers don’t use, and stimulates muscles that are used often(quads, gluts, core) differently. And the freshness and uniqueness definitely add mental stimulation not experienced during a 1-2 hour erg session staring at yourself in the mirror. Thanks to the trainers at Greenlake Crossfit for the instruction, friendliness, and picture.
Greg has also included back-country hiking and skiing into his repertoire of training in the Bellingham area, where enough snow has fallen already to allow for the enjoyment of this type of excellent scenery. This is how you are suppose to enjoy the Pacific Northwest!
We’ll get something with Jordan and Adam training on a later post – don’t worry, there will be plenty about Jordan’s “Muscle Garden” to be discussed. I leave you with a picture of the awesomeness that is Adam Kreek, courtesy a picture from his Canadian National teammate Kevin Light. Just look at those quads!