There is something about living in the mountains that makes a person tough, especially girls.  I am proud to say that I have lived in the mountains now for 20 winters.  Measuring the number of winters that you have lived in a mountain town is a badge of honor. There are many people that move to the mountains with the hopes and dreams of having a quiet and peaceful existence far away from the hub bub of the city.  The reality of that dream is that the amount of chores you need to do to simply exist in the mountains in the winter are neither quiet nor peaceful.  There is no time for complacency. Proper preparation for and during a big winter season is a matter of survival.

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This morning when I woke up, I was greeted with an additional foot of snow.  Honestly that is a small amount for our area but there was still work to be done.  Just to get to the pool that meant shoveling a path out of my house to my car, clearing off my car and snow-blowing the driveway.   Remember when Rocky went to Russia to train? In a less dramatic way that  is my daily existence.

So I shoveled my way out of the house. I cleared a small path around my car and around the snow-blower.  I got out my new Blue Seventy Siren goggles (you thought they were just for open water swimming) and I cleared a way out of my driveway and I headed off to the pool.  On a dry day the nearest pool is a 30 minute drive. On a day like today, that drive can be 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours depending on who is on the road. Today it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes.
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By the time I made it to the pool I had been working to get there for several hours. It was  easy to convince myself to jump in and round out my week of training at 4o,oo0 yards. (36.57K).  So if you wonder how I could swim for hours in 50 degree water…just remember my secret…I am a mountain girl.