Watching Figure Skating

Training for the marathon won't kill me, because watching Olympic figure skating will. It is almost 11:30pm, and the men's short program is still in full swing live from Vancouver. I will not and cannot stop watching, and this is my third evening straight watching figure skating--pairs competition was on Sunday and Monday nights. Thankfully, there will be a break tomorrow--the men's long program is not until Thursday night. And it will go late into the night. While the short program is only 2 minutes and 50 seconds long, men's long program is 4 and a half minutes long!

Here are the roots of my addiction to figure skating:

Ankle Stories

The following is a slight variation of the song by the Decemberists called Red Right Ankle (if you follow the link, click on the Preview button to hear the tune).

This is the story of my poor left ankle
And how it came to meet my leg
And how it twisted as my feet got tangled
On the stairs as I fell.

And how it screamed in misery
“Oh what have you done to me!
For whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of my poor left ankle.



That was 5 weeks ago, and things are definitely improving. For example, I have started running for 5 minutes a day last week. Of course, it will take me a bit longer than 5 minutes (more like 4+ hours) to run the Boston Marathon. With just over 2 months left before the race I am determined to do it, and my plan is fully supported by my team's coach, my physical therapist, and of course by my dear husband. So please--no worrying!

Yosemite National Park: Staying in Curry Village

While visiting the Yosemite National Park, we stayed in a heated tent cabin in Curry Village. We chose to stay in Curry Village because of its excellent location—right in the Yosemite Valley, with beautiful views and close to many trailheads.

A “heated tent cabin” is a tarp draped over a plywood room, built on an elevated wooden platform. Our cabin had electricity and came with two windows and an opening in the door, open to the outside but covered by a tarp. Being a “heated” tent cabin, the room also had a forced air heater.

Staying in this “heated tent cabin” in Curry Village felt similar to camping, but nicer. We had beds, pillows, sheets, blankets, and clean towels every day. Unfortunately, I am just not into camping all that much. So I found it somewhat difficult to climb from under my two blankets and a sleeping bag in the middle of the night, and then put on socks, pants, fleece, coat, hat, gloves and a head lamp—all for a trip to the communal bathroom.

Black bears live in Yosemite National Park. Their proximity and their excellent sense of smell require all tent cabin guests to store their food and toiletries in the “bear locker”, and one was stationed by every tent cabin. A “bear locker” is a metal box with a deeply set, covered latch that would be impossible for a bear to reach.

After spending the night inside the bear locker in the winter, some toiletries changed their consistency. Toothpaste, for example, became a bit difficult "to chew", and applying deodorant and lotion had a rather cooling effect on the body.

At first, we did not take the food storage rules all that seriously. While we locked up our peanut butter and jam, a granola bars and a bag of cookies remained in our packs overnight. Bad idea! Next day, we discovered that bear lockers do not only protect us from bears. A little mouse went through our backpacks and enjoyed a bit of granola and cookies. Certainly we never forgot to extract all edible items from our backpacks again.