Today broke the spell of perfect weather for Anchorage. I woke up to murky brown light and a smoky odor from the forest fires in the Caribou hills. I didn't really think too much of it until I looked outside and realized that I couldn't see very far and that looking East toward the city made me feel like I was in L.A. Shortly after breakfast I got a call saying that the morning's intervals were going to be pushed back to the afternoon and moved to a clean-air location. The smoke ended up blowing away by the afternoon so we were able to do the workout in town where we had originally planned to.

I felt strangely relieved to know that Anchorage people had to deal with environmental factors that prevented them from training too. It makes me feel better about the training sessions I've missed in other places because of the weather-- Dust storms in Walla Walla, serious heat in Wenatchee, muggy hot in Wisconsin, burning cold in Minneapolis. It seems that no matter where you are there's always going to be obstacles to training. A lot of those obstacles are things you can't control so you have to find creative solutions. If you're lucky (and I am) you have coaches to figure out solutions for some of the obstacles for you (Erik finding out and deciding and communicating this morning, "the smoke is supposed to clear throughout the day and Girdwood is up out of the smoke so we'll train inside strength in the am and rollerski in the afternoon.") So what I was thinking today was that it's okay to skip, alter, or move a workout if that's your best option based on the circumstances as long as it truly is your best option and you're not just looking for an excuse to give up or slack off.