I’ve been back in Montana this week and it’s given me 2 more days to train on steep, rocky, beautiful trails. Yesterday I took off with only a lightweight top, tights, no hat, no base layer, no gloves. The temperature was in the low 30’s and the sun played cat and mouse with me the whole way. I thought the steep uphill would surely cause me to warmup but that never happened and within the first hour my ear lobes felt like you could snap them off. Then I noticed the difficulty I had keeping my arms bent, not to mention pumping them back and forth as I ran the switchbacks. In 2.25 miles you gain 3,200 ft in elevation. In other words it’s wicked steep. Had the sun ever met me half way I’d have had a chance to use mind over matter. My options for turning this into a positive were dwindling so I adopted the most obvious – “it’s going to be a whole lot steeper, colder, and way longer when you hit that glacier called a trail in Nepal.” The voice in my head took a break and I started to readjust to my situation. Amazingly enough I started to enjoy that which moments before was making me miserable. There is a lot to be said for acceptance.