I’m winding down the year’s first training bout and I’m ready to roll into Moab next weekend and crush the Red Hot 55K…

…or not.

Sure enough, an irksome IT-band strain has derailed my early-season training, and this weekend I’ll be toeing the line in Moab with more miles on my nordic skis than my running shoes for the past month. I’d originally set for myself the goal of keeping with speedster Dylan Bowman, but it appears he too has been plagued by a similar setback — I suppose I no longer feel so bad about retracting my ambition and instead approaching this race conservatively — do not further injur thyself!

A shot from my New Years trip to Moab. Things haven't been quite so dry and balmy since.

The cross-training has actually been a lot of fun. Recent snowfall in the southwest has (at long last) resulted in decent ski conditions. On Friday I drove to Albuquerque to see my grandparents while they visited my sister, and during today’s return trip, I diverted from US-550 to ski the mountains of Cuba – Cuba, New Mexico that is. Sure, it doesn’t elevate the heart rate like a good run does, but cross-country skiing has noticably strengthened my glutes, psoas, stabilizers, core, and upper body. Hopefully my influx in stationary bike usage has kept my cardio/aerobic ability at a reasonable level.

The snow cover at Cascade Creek has improved dramatically since I was last there.

An early morning ski up the Log Chutes last week (before a long day at work).

So Red Hot this Saturday should be an interesting race. If the IT-band pain persists throughout the week, I may opt to skip it altogether — but I’d really like to get out and prove to myself that I can scrobble together a tolerable performance on cross-training alone.