I'm not sick, but i'm not well

Its been one hell of a last three days. Its only thursday, but between finals and skiing, life's been going at about a hundred miles an hour. Winter break is now official. 18 days of blissful, school-free, excellence. The family is considering a snow snob trip, wait till it snows, then go there and ski. I'm not complaining.

Classic season for me really got going this week. Monday and Wednesday up with the team. The combination of intervals and techy work keep it honest. Not to mention the pseudo-cold i've been fighting for the last week. Skiing is definitely not the best cure. but its the only thing that makes it feel better, kinda like scratching a mosquito bite.

Since i finished my last final this morning, went up for a long ski with mike. got to ski the zarlengo loop and jenny creek. never been down there, and looking back on it, i'm not sure why. The whole deal is fairly rad. Nobody was out there, not even the groomer. The wind has drifted in the tracks entirely, which was tricky in spots but it really is a sweet four kilometers. While following the fluorescent yellow hat, my legs and shoulders decided at a very inopportune moment to remind me of the threshold intervals from yesterday. hoo boy. it was all good though. we followed that with phoebe's, meadows, and twin twisted.

When we switched to skate stuff, my stomach was already whining about not having anything but an english muffin since breakfast, and there was a bonk on the horizon. what to do? eat two candy bars and keep going. Out to buckeye, up woodcutter, down to a loop on meadows, and back along 17th. saw dv8 at the yurt. It sounds as though there's plans in the works for one heck of a beat down at the rock. racing hurts, but this... this would take the cake. Crazy. monday~10km, wednesday~12km, today~21km season to date~190km.

Chocolate Cake For Breakfast

Yum.

A whirlwind of a weekend. Too much work and not enough play, pretty much sucks. Lots of homework and studing, but skiing too.

NBP yesterday, hour on the skate skis. Finally felt like I was able to push it without getting wobbly. ~20km

afternoon classic at the park today. Really tricky conditions, not just to ski, but to wax as well. went from like -15C in the shadows to +5 in the sun, and the tracks are way way old. The new classic setup is sweet, at least from what i got so far. Looking forward to the season ahead! (tomorrow up at the rock) today ~10km, season to date~147km

Running on empty

Its been a wicked tough week, and its not even over yet. Finals next week, and boy are people stressed. like nervous breakdowns stressed. A total of nine tests in the next 5 days of school, and ive got a cold coming on top of all that. At least i get to go skiing.

caught the a.m. shift at the park on wednesday. Bright and early, except without the bright. and very, verry cold. The downy kept my core nice and toasty, but when temps are in the single digits, I dont think theres anything to do about toes and face. Nothing functional anyways.

This afternoon was at the park again, but not quite as cold as wednesday. lots of poling technique and form work. Keep it up and forward. It was fun to get a nice long skate in. Today~18km, season to date~117km.

Snow

went up to the land of love yesterday in search of some new snow. And new snow we did find. even though the traffic was horrendous, there were almost no lift lines and very few people in your way. On occasion, you looked up to see a massive horde of carhartt-clad, jean wearing s.p.o.r.s. descending the groomers, but with a little creativity and ten minutes of hiking, there were face shots to be had. granted, thats on teles, but a face shot is a face shot.

Quick and dirty at The park this morning. Must have been 120 people skiing on 3 km of tracks. Ugh. At least it was skiing. And almost landed a three off a jump some kids were building. I think thats my new goal for the season. Today~12km, Season to date 95km

Puking White

It feels like winter has finally managed to meander its way into the central rocky mountains. Over a foot in most places, and it doesn't look like its letting up soon. sweet.

Headed up to the high country tomorrow, trying to get the early start and avoid the 1.5 million other people who have smelled fresh snow.

A few new links on the left hand side, tis the season for snow reports. Also dropped a couple of the riding links. Biking is about on the bottom of my very long list of things to do at the moment.

Lots of nordic skiing this week, four days infact. That puts it up to double digits! excellent. past two days up at eldora have been nuts. Massive amounts of loose snow, and an apparent lack of groomage have made things, interesting. Interesting but awesome. Its tricky to skate in, but the snow is so sticky that it almost gives you the same kick as a pair of classic skis with not quite the right wax. Word.
Today~6km, Season to date~83km

windy

very, very windy today. blown over fences windy, street signs ripped of the pole windy. warm and westerly.

the storm that came through last weekend didn't quite live up to its expectations, but it did drop a respectable 10" at loveland. While it wasnt enough to open anything new, it made the skiing much more enjoyable. rumor has it that another storms a comin this weekend, hopefully that'll do some justice to our early season snowpack(or lack there of).

day 4 of nordic skiing today up at eldora. Even though the air was uncharacteristically calm and warm, the conditions were fairly treacherous. Frozen icy chunks and snowmobile tracks, combined with slow bulletproof snow was a bit sketch. 4x4 intervals kept it honest, but it was great to be out on the skinnies, and not doing dryland was a bonus. today~15km, season to date~55km