I felt the switch happen this week. Fall is over. Winter is coming.

Time is moving fast.

When we received our first real dumping of snow about 10 days ago, I hadn’t embraced — or event accepted — the true ‘Nordic’ spirit. I felt like a parent unwilling to come to grips with the fact that the reason the living room no longer was filled with a Lego Star Wars scene day after day was because the boys had grown up into teenagers.

Those Warm temps before and after the storm kept me in trail running mode, hungry for peak-bagging and even road biking — despite the fact that my road bike only came out of storage for the first ride of the year on Sept. 14!

This sort of always happens, I’ve realized. I don’t ‘get excited’ about skiing in the fall or biking and running in the spring. Usually, I’m totally invested in whatever present season is happening. (Maybe I need to do that more as a parent.)….Then, changing weather shifts my moods and forces me to different modalities. I guess an advantage of NOT being a pro athlete who has to be sharp for Ruka right after Thanksgiving means I don’t ever need to really force myself to do rollerski intervals on the coldest, rainiest, slushiest late-October afternoon. When the biking is good, I get it. When the running is good, I get it. And when I want to roller ski, I do.

Yesterday, the high in Buena Vista was almost 70 — and I knew snow was on its way again on Tuesday — so I drove south to run up Little Browns Creek. I hoped to either summit Mt. Antero or explore some of the 13ers in the area. Since I was dedicating an entire morning to the venture — and gas cost and missed time with the kids and missed time working on SederSkier stuff — I felt compelled to get to the top of something. Then again, this is the time of year when you have to prioritize safety above Strava segments.

Things were great early on. The trail was wonderful, everything was dry, and even with shorts and a light long-sleeve, I was hot. Ajee and I hit patchy snow about three miles in, but it wasn’t detrimental. When we got above treeline, however, things changed.

There wasn’t a ton of snow — in fact, almost none — but where it was, it had drifted on the trail significantly. I chopped through some of it, bushwacked around other parts, and hiked about 800 vertical feet before the annoyance of the ground and the increasing wind sapped the joy from my scheduled agenda and forced me to finally turn around. I could tell there wasn’t going to be anything for me — except more wind and snow — at the top.

On the way down, the epiphany was clear: the days filled with the thrill of a summit chase, capped off by the satisfaction of running up a mountain are behind us. It happened instantly, sort of like when Novi started pronouncing ‘oatmeal’ correctly. Nevertheless, let’s face it: it’s time to start clearing my chain oil and bike shoes from the wax bench. I need to replace the two-seater bike carrier with runners so I can pull Novi and Ella on snow.

While I drove back to the ranch, a bit infuriated I’d wasted so much time and gas for my ‘failed’ run, I wrestled with the frustration of lost time trying to instead focus on how fortunate I was to be able to run at all, on a mountain trail no less. Of course, I was – am – lucky, and I knew that. The pinch of parenthood, however, makes long, inefficient mornings, especially ones without a tangible pay-off, a bit harder to swallow.

I pulled into Leadville around 2:30, bought the afternoon mocha, and read a book for about 20 minutes before Ella woke up and I decided to hang out with her. After a few sips, I bundled her up and loaded her into the bike carrier, then rode around the parking lot with Novi, who was on her strider bike. We raced the ‘loop,’ taking turns shouting, “on your marks, get set, go!” and counting the lined intervals of each 25-meter race.

She’s talked about wanting to go on runs with her mom “when she’s a little older,” quite a bit lately. Yesterday, she said she wanted to bike next to me while I pulled Ella — all the way up and over the Mineral Belt. I’m glad to see she my bold ambitions for big daily workouts has been passed on….but I don’t think she’s ready for a 4-mile uphill climb (or the ensuing descent) quite yet.

In the end, I ratcheted up our worship playlist on Spotify, threw a hand-full of Goldfish crackers and plain Chex into both girls’ snack packs, bundled them up and layered a blanket over the top and then took off on my own. Settling into an easy gear, sweat starting piercing through the glands on my skin and contacting my inside layer. My experience of fall biking in Leadville told me I should be relishing and remembering this brief moment of overheating while it lasted.

Meanwhile, I kept my chilly kids interested by pointing out our arbitrarily established landmarks, which have grown in legend with each summer bike ride.

“There’s the purple rock!” I said, pointing to a large boulder the city towed into a residential department after a recent Boom Days.

“We’re almost to Sunny Bunny’s house!” I added, referencing a children’s book we love. “This is where we sometimes see deer! Oh look, a dog…oh look, a runner…over the red bridge we go, WHEEEE!”

If there’s a real meltdown, my trick is to spank myself in my butt while pedaling….I don’t know why, but it’s super funny for them. Fortunately, there was no spanking this time. (But I don’t think, generally speaking, that we’re through that phase….)

Finally, we made it to the top. I relished the brief flat section, hit the mining cart before mile marker 6 and turned around. Then I looked back.

Novi was totally covered by the blanket and had actually fallen asleep. Ella was mostly covered but had her eyes open. Without actually saying anything, they both seemed to be telling me, “Why are we biking right now?”

Before you know it, we won’t be. The snow — winter — is on its way.

Before you know it, we’ll be skiing.

Before you know it, you’ll be skiing next to me.

Ski news

• Consecutive injuries to her left foot and groin have forced Frida Karlsson to slam the brakes on her training. Her coach, Per Nilsson suggested she may miss the first period of the World Cup. National team manager Anders Bystrom has written off Karlsson for the World Cup opener later next month, Langrenn reported.
• The first two athletes on the snow in Livigno, where many athletes conduct their final pre-season altitude preparations were a pair of legends.
• A good pre-season story on Klaebo and his ambitions to win everything at the World Champs…but also target the TDS if things work out. It sounds, however, like he believes its unlikely that he’ll be able to do every single World Cup, as he wants to throw in a mid-season altitude stint before Trondheim.
• If Iivo Niskanen is the Finnish hope in classical races, Remi Lindholm holds the nation’s long-distance freestyle hopes. The 26-year-old’s main goal for this season is the 50k skate at the world championships.
• The Finnish version of our ‘Ultimate Citizen’s Racing Calendar’ is up. Should I make a trip to Yllas-Levi on my birthday weekend?
• What kind of shape is Petter Northug actually in? A recent Twitter post indicates he might have some work to do, but experts are warning to count the all-time great out at your own risk.

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