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

Frozen Fingers

There has been a definite drop in temperature in the past 36 hours. Hopefully, its a sign of things to come. They say its suppostd to snow sometime soon, maybe tonight.

I can't help but be a bit jealous of the San Juan ski area townspeople, heres the latest winter storm warning:

BY THIS EVENING...HEAVY SNOW IS EXPECTED TO SPREAD OVER THE WARNED AREA. PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL CONTINUE THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL BY SUNDAY MORNING IS EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 1 TO 2 FEET OVER THE SAWATCH RANGE AND NORTHERN MOUNTAINS...WITH UP TO 3 FEET OVER THE SOUTHWEST SLOPES AND HIGHEST ELEVATIONS. TWO TO 4 FEET OF SNOW IS EXPECTED OVER THE SAN JUAN AND LA GARITA MOUNTAINS.

I hope that a bit of that precipitation makes its way up this direction, it always sucks when youre the only place without snow. Alyeska has had 237 inches of snow in November, and Whistler has almost two thirds of skiable terrain open.

And we sit here in lovely Colorado, cursing the weather gods who, once again it seems, have decided to give us more than 300 days of brilliant sunshine. damn.

To end on a better note,

Update

It has been a while since the last post. But thats certainly not from a lack of material to write about. It may be thanksgiving break, but it seems like its been busier than usual. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about having 9 days off from school, and I'm not whining about spending five out of the past seven days on snow, but the last thing this week has felt like is a vacation.

Saturday and Monday were up at loveland. Its so awesome to be skiing again. Even though the terrain was... limited, and the snow was scarce, its good to have some white stuff to slide along.

The new jak's are sweet. I was a bit sketched at first; one because they're fat: 100 at the waist which is usually a sign that a ski is not meant for hardpack. Also they're not very heavy(for their less than svelte build), again another sign of a soft snow ski. But was I ever wrong. These are the most rippinist, gnar-shreddin skis ever. Imagine a tank that handles like an italian sports car. Yeah its that sick.

the last three days were on the skinnies at North Boulder Park. Not much, and not for long, but its better than running. A bit of a skijour on Wednesday, which was a good workout, but a harsh reminder that I either need to get a real kit for it, or teach my pooch how to not get hit by the skis. In reality, its probably both, but in the mean time, its still fun

A Touch Of Grey

I have to say that four day weekends are very enjoyable. On Saturday, myself and a couple of friends rode up to the fourth o' July campground, locked the bikes and hiked up to the top-ish of the arapahoe glacier trail. It was great to be up above treeline again, and the weather was just about perfect (asides from the very top, but that doesn't really count) Didnt manage the summit but it was fun anyways. Plus, the pizza at the end was just icing on the cake.

A hot run up sanitas yesterday. There were lots of people on the trail, which is not my favorite, but it was still a good workout.

More news! just got a new pair of beautiful Karhus. Jak Team 100's. These are doing nothing to quench my thirst for snow, just making me more stoked for skiing.

ouch

crazy tough dryland today. A good reminder that I have a long way to go to get into skiing shape. Lots of running and jumping. quads are screaming at me. ouch.