Mental training refresher

This morning I met a few buddies out at Bristol Mountain for some "ski walking" intervals. Essentially, we start at the bottom of the steepest slope they have and hike to the top with ski poles. Today, we did four intervals, which pretty much thrashed my legs (which was the point). Additionally, it was about 38F at the bottom, so probably 32 or so and windy at the top. Towards the end of our workout, snow flurries started to fly, my hands were legitimately cold, and I couldn't wait to take a long hot shower when we got home, and I loved it. All excellent signs!

This might not apply to everyone, but the wind, cold and snow flying on top of Bristol was a great mental pick-up considering I've spent the better part of the last two weeks investigating different ways to utilize to incline function on treadmills from the Soviet era in order to simulate ski training as closely as possible. I'll take the wind and cold over the mind-numbing training methods I've managed to get myself through recently. There is something to be said for the mental toughness that can be gained from forcing yourself through treadmill training, but skiing is about being outside and going up real hills, not the ones that can be simulated by cranking up the incline on a treadmill. Great workout - beneficial from the waist down and possibly more beneficial from the shoulders up.