Saturday, January 31, 2009

Highland

Today's ski at highland was very good until the snow started melting.
For a change, the tracks were better on the lake trail (photo) than on
the trail to the nature center.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ski Things, Good and Bad

Participater:
Classic skis you can wax
Craft clothes
Gas station sun glasses
Swix blue extra
Elm Creek
Post-ski NFL viewing and beer drinking

Hater:
Layering with wool (don't believe the hype)
Post-ski grocery shopping
Temperatures above freezing
Footprints on ski trails
Temperatures below 0 F

What wax are you using??


I get this question a lot for some reason. Swix blue extra is always the answer. I have only been skiing for a couple years but I find that this stuff works from 5 F to 25 F. Actually, it was a little grabby at 5F. It costs 8 bucks. Go get some! I'm incredibly fast and all, but I'm not getting paid by Swix to say these nice things.

Theo W Ski

Usually, I pedal or golf this track. This time, I'm here to get some
pre- race intelligence. What a fun day!!!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Doh!

My plan was to eat a quick breakfast, then do a 2-3 hour ski at Hyland. The problem is my boots were riding around in my wife's car during her morning routine, which started slightly before mine. Instead, I mustered the mental toughness to do two and a half hours on the trainer watching episodes of "The Wire".

An unrelated bummer was a couple days ago when I re-broke my Garmin Forerunner 50. It's about a year old, and the watch band doesn't want to stay on. If I had to do it again, I would have bought a bike mounted unit with GPS. What they should really do is come up with Bluetooth bike computer sensors and heart rate monitors that interface with the iPhone. I would buy that in a minute. Instead, I'm stuck with my old broken-banded Garmin duct taped to the stem of my bike.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Snow Baby, Snow!

I'm looking out at my neighbor's porch light seeing some determined flakes coming down. I want some nice conditions when I return for my beating at Elm Creek this Wednesday. What I really want is good conditions for the City of Lakes Loppet. I'll be touring with my wife at the Luminary Loppet and racing the next day in the classic race. I don't know that classic skiing is the best off-season training for mountain bike racing. I'm guessing skate skiing emphasizes the legs more. More and more, I get the feeling my upper body is doing most of the work. At Elm Creek, as I progress with my skiing skill, I do more and more double poling. I can go nearly all the way around the snow making loop that way. I think the main thing is to get that heart pumping at 150 rpm. I would probably wreck myself skate skiing anyway.

I see the flakes have turned to freezing rain. Do they make klister for mountain bike tires?