off season?

Over at The Outdoor Journey, there is a call for entries for Your Favourite Off Season Training. Ah, see? You knew there was a reason you came to read my blog today! Submit a picture of you doing your favourite off season training and you're in the pot for a $25 gift certificate at Amazon.

Off Season? I get an Off Season? What's that?

Srsly - it's like I don't really stop training anymore, it just sort of...changes colour. I do a little less biking outdoors, a lot more running, and when the white stuff hits I hit the white stuff.

So one of my favourite off season training activities is Extreme Snoeshowing. Here is a picture of me completing my leg of the Quad last February, where I was at the peak of my Extreme Snowshoeing in the offseason. Did I mention I was racing at the time of this photo? Yes, I stopped during the race and posed for this picture.

We finished 4th of all the teams. By 13 seconds - which could have possibly been lost taking this picture. My off-season training this year will have to be a lot more serious than last year: this year we'll actually train for the event.

But I'm a well-rounded kinda gal, there's lots of other stuff I like to do during the offseason. I can't snowshoe without the white stuff, and cross training is key to fitness, you know.

Over here we have the last days of Balloon Fiesta going on, today was the last mass ascension of the festival. So this morning I engaged in some early off-season Extreme Nutrition: breakfast burrito, doughnut and funnel cake. Before you say "pooh pooh, I could do that in my sleep," you try eating a funnel cake and then go for a run an hour later. Get back to me and tell me how easy that is. I can tell you from today's workout, it takes a lot of heavy duty training to prepare yourself for that kind of effort, it ain't easy. I will have a busy off-season this year, perfecting my extreme nutrition techniques.

I also like to engage in an activity I call Extreme Pikachu Wrestling. You can see one of the pikachus pictured here with her dad - she's got him in a half nelson in this picture, this was right before she took him down.

We have really tough training partners. They work us without notice - it's like we have to be ready to train all the time.

I also like to do a bit of Extreme Shopping from time to time. Here is Pikachu A showing her mama how to Get It Done at Target. I see promise in this one, she's very talented. Look at her riffle mommy's purse like a pro. Go Pikachu A!

My favourite off-season activity, however, has to be Extreme Sleeping. Here's Pikachu A again, she's trying to de-train mommy. Like I said - tough training partners. She may look all cuddles and smiles, but she knows how to give her mama a real workout.

Wake mommy up when it's over. K?

So there's some of my off-season training plans for this year. Of course I'll probably keep doing all that other stuff I love, you know, the running, the biking, the swimming. Except with more clothes.

Remember: the off season is just like the on-season but with more laundry.