Merry Christmas

Poped on quickly to wish anyone that happens by a Merry Christmas.

Recovery

I skied Friday with a friend who is super fast. His birke time last year was 2:51. Yikes. I had skies the previous 4 days in row and my leggs are totally shot. I scratched my way up the climbs but it wasn't pretty. : ) I took yesterday off and will not ski today , too cold. -10 when I got up this morning and that's just a bit to cold for me. Tusday it warms back up into the 20's that will be great

Todays ski outing.

Amazing weather, buckets full of sunshine and 20 degrees, no wind, fast snow. perfect! 

here's a map from the outing today

12k and felt great.

skiing yesterday went really well. snow conditions were perfect as was temp and sunshine. Over all a great day to be out and skiing. I skied 12k and felt really good after. I needed to food but legs and lungs were good. so that is 1/4 the birke distance so progress! there are two more challenging sections of my regular haunt that I'm looking forward to getting into but we need one more round of snow first to make sure there is coverage.

Pictures above are of my outing yesterday. That's a friend coming up a long twisting climb. I was pretty nackard buy the top of it so stopped for a sec to take a picture.

Meeting with the ski coach today to get a new round of input and to do list to practice. I am really looking forward to her help it seems to be working already. Then again I'm such a newbie almost anything would help : ) 

Wrong wax

just got in from a ski, and really had the wrong wax. I actually had to double pole down some gradual hills or i would grind to a halt! sheesh. The wax i have is for 18-28 deg and it's 8 out there. I'm a believer now about having the right wax.

It was a really nice day out though very little wind bright , bright sunshine and beautiful new snow.

Too cold.

It's too darn cold. I have been skiing regularly and we even found a coach. I was really starting to find my stride then wham, crazy crazy cold. that negative double digit stuff is too hard to go out in. it's been windy to so the wind chills are in the neg 30's. AAARRRGG. So I sit like the kids in cat in the hat and wait for this to move through. I think it's supposed to break tomorrow. Just in time to meet with our coach. Not that i got much practice in, working on what we discussed last week. I may go to the y today and do, something? I've been idle for 3 days and I've had it.

In addition to having cold outside I have cold in my nose. it's been about a week or so on this cold and it's not going away fast. ratts! Times like these are what make those magic days so great. The ones where no matter how hard you press yourself your body can take it and there seem to be no bottom in the gas tank. As i have said on many occasions I wish i knew how one makes one of those happen on the day you need it.

Prior to the cold snap coming through we had a half day of light rain that was just above freezing so now all the ski base is a block of ice. reports say there is a small amount of powder on top of wind blown ice.. not the greatest. the groomers have there work cut out for themselves to get that in hand. I think we're due for an inch or two today as some warmer air moves in.

I did get the gps tracking working on my phone here is a sample of a recent short outing. I am hoping to have a live version of this running for the birke so my friends at home can check in on my progress if the wish.

Second outing on skis and putting my money where my mouth is.

Had a second outing on the skis and much better my stride is starting to come back, pheew was worried there for a sec. everything from the knee down aches like you would not believe when I'm skiing. If last year is a good measure this too shall pass in a week or two. while I was out there I slowed down and focused on form and it really helped. A couple no poles laps and then some slow-mo v2 and whammo there's the old stride! It was 18 deg. and windy so a bit chilly but it made the snow really fast so no room to complain.

as for my money and my mouth.... registered for the americam birkebeiner last night..... fuck.

So unless I wish to throw away 95 bucks I'm in. really the money isn't the issue it's the 50 k and 10,000 vertical feet. I have to admit i let the mouse hover over the submit button for several long moments before "click" then "Oh my god what have I done"
haha

So to my ones of readers stay tuned. My first birke has real potential to be a train wreck, and therefor potentially entertaining for you. : )

Skiing at last.

Finally got out on skis this week and boy am I rusty. The old skills have taken a vacation and haven't come home yet. I had forgotten how demanding skiing can be, especially when your form is garbage. Efficient gliding strokes is so important that when your not on it it's like plowing through sand rather than gliding on snow. But I needed to get out there and get the transition process started it's a long way to the birkebeiner and I have a lot of work to do to get there.

The only show in town is at elm creek right now they have a 1.5k loop on man made snow. Here are a couple shots of the coarce where we skied yesterday.