mountain sunsets

  Just got back in from an impromptu evening "wilderness workout". I had today off and in my head I had plans to go snowboarding again today.  You see I had my first snowboard lesson on Saturday afternoon and spent the next 3 hours enjoying the heck out of the beginner friendly snow up at Bear Valley Ski Resort, "The Friendliest Mountain in the West". You can tell where I work.  I attempted snowboarding back in its toddler years, sometime around 1995 or 96, again it was up here at BV, the friendliest mountain in the west.
In the intervening 17 or so years I have mostly cross country skied, snowshoed, or over the past 5 winters, alpine skied (downhill, fixed heel skiing)
  I found I was unafraid of the downhill nature of snowboarding and picked it up fairly fast. Cub hill is truly a beginner hill but I found I was able to maneuver and make my way down or across the slope at will. I feel I am ready for a more intermediate hill. I was hoping to tackle some of the medium back side hills today. But instead I stayed home and found myself attempting to complete chores around the house I have been neglecting these past couple weeks. Since Nancy has not visited and my skier friends had to cancel and rain check, I have made no serious attempt to dust, vacuum or clean up around the house in a while.  I would get to it all today. Well I got to most of it all today, at least the downstairs part. Laundry is washed, dried, folded and in the right room. Dishwasher is clean, rugs are vacuumed, trash is deposited at recycle center, groceries are bought and put away, and dinner is slow cooking. I found I had an hour or so until sunset, what to do?
  I could either sit in my favorite chair with the fading sun on my back and read more about Greg Mortenson in Three Cups of Tea, or I could head out the door and get in a 45 minute wilderness workout. I chose to sit in my chair, but only for one chapter. Then I headed upstairs to change into workout clothes and headed right out the door and up the hill for my "as difficult as you want to make it" workout. This time I left my timing devices inside. Usually I take either a watch with a forty five second countdown timer pre set, or my Iphone with its Tabata Timer app and do preset intervals. This time I was going to do as many reps at each station as I could do properly, before running off to the next challenge.
  Let me explain some of the "challenges"I have for my workout. I have about a 20 foot knotted ropeswing waiting to be clumb(climbed?), there is a 100 lb tractor tire to be flipped over 20 -25 times before running out of flat surface, there's an uneven pushup station, there's a heavy rope station, a triceps dip station, numerous rocks to lunge on or jump up on, and a flat tree fort perfectly placed for ab crunches. All these stations placed up and down around my house within easy running distance from each other.
Doing these exercises between running up and down the hill on trails makes for a great workout. But doing them first thing in the morning or just before sunset (My Favorite) has an added bonus. Most of these stations are set at a location where you can see for miles around. Let me tell you doing triceps dips, watching the sun lift the sleepiness from the skies or watching the sun set beyond Mount Diablo over 80 miles away, you sort of forget to count and just watch. Climbing the rope and being able to see over the roof toward Cougar Rock and the valley beyond makes you want to hang in there a little longer.
  I think sunsets are Gods way of telling you "Thanks for doing such a good job today. Whether it was the good day at work, or the good run your just coming back from, or the good workout your enjoying at the end of a good weekend, here is a special reward for doing good"

I say Thank You God it was worth it.