How I got awesome at skiing

I'm not sure how to explain how I got awesome at skiing in written form, so I thought a video might help explain why I'm so damn fast...

Tour of Anchorage

Well, yesterday was the tour of Anchorage. The weather was gorgeous, with crystal clear skies and bright sunshine all day long. In the morning it was warmer than its been recently (around 10-15 degrees at the start, instead of the -5 to -10 that have been typical for the past week+) and afternoon highs must have been right around freezing. Trail conditions were rough, owing to some really strong winds over the past week or so with no new snow in weeks. The groomers were able to get most of the windblown debris off of the trails, but at the cost of softening up the snowpack so that the 1500 skiers in the tour turned many sections of the trail to a slow, sugary consistency. The worst was one section of about a half mile of uphill trail along the coast which had accumulated a ton of windblown dust that was groomed into the aforementioned sugary snow. As I skied over it I thought to myself that it looked and felt like I was skiing over sand. These poor snow conditions slowed the race down considerably: the median time for the mens 40K race was 2:50, compared to 2:35 last year.

I would say my day took the trajectory of the weather, rather than the snow conditions. I kept a steady pace for the first 30K (with one quick break to check my blood sugar, have a snack and swig some coffee at the pit stop Beth set up for me where the route went past our house - thanks again, babe!) and had enough juice left to pick up my pace a notch for the last quarter of the race. This included the biggest hills of the day and I got to pass a lot of people on my way up them, which was some much-appreciated motivation and a nice reward for my effort. I was even able to muster a sprint across the finish line during which I passed exactly zero people who were in my race, but it still felt good.

All in all, I finished in 2:41. Considering that the race was about 15 minutes slow due to course conditions I was surprised and very happy about the time, which put me in 103rd place out of 265 racers. Thats in the top 40% and my goal was to be right at the 50th percentile. Finally, although I was (and am) quite tired, I wasn't sore or in pain with the exception of a blister on my right foot.

So to review: beautiful day, better than expected finish, happy skier.

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Postscript: Beth took some pictures, so if I'm not drooling or snotty in them I'll repost them or link to them here once she puts them online.

XC skiing stuff

Well, this is the time of the year for skiing, and Beth and I are in a cross-country ski class that meets Mondays and Wednesdays to fix our technique and get some exercise. Considering that my current technique can be best described as "wild flailing that somehow propels me in a generally forward direction," the class should be really beneficial. Having such miserable technique does make me awesome at the "getting exercise" part of the class, though. The other night one of our instructors pointed out that I was combining the inefficiency of the blah-blah-blah technique almost seamlessly with the lack of power of the blah-blah-blah technique. Having now uncombined and then recombined my styles, I'm now a bit better off, but I still have a long way to go.


Speaking of a long way to go, I signed myself up for the Tour of Anchorage, a 50K cross-country ski race that loops around a large portion of the city. The race is in early March, the weekend after our classes end, so I hope I'm ready by then. I know I can drop down a notch and do the 40K race instead (which not only is shorter, but avoids by far the largest hill on the course), but now that i'm signed up for the longer race that will seem like a failure (even though if I had just signed up for the 40K in the first place it would seem like a great accomplishment - guess I screwed that one up). Anyway, its definitely lighting a bit of a fire under my butt to get out there and train, which is kind of nice. It's been a long time since I've had a training goal like this to commit to (holy cow! was my half-ironman really almost a full decade ago?).





If you want to know anything about the race, you can check it out here. If you don't want to know anything, then don't click here.

Also, I'm pleased to report that Beth had a bit of a breakthrough on the "hills are our friends" front. I still wouldn't say she's thrilled about them, but she reports the discovery that by hurtling herself down one hill at breakneck speed, she will have extra momentum as she begins going up the next hill. Maybe it's not quite the same as loving hills, but it seems like a step in the right direction.

Winter in Alaska (part 2 of 3) - It's the Little Things

I know it's pretty cliche to say that its the little things that matter, but the truth is that cliches are like onions - they've got a lot of layers to them (get it? it's another cliche!). So I don't mind saying that when it comes to getting through a winter in Alaska, it's the little things that matter.

Like, first of all, there are the little things that will make you miserable if you don't do them. So make sure you bundle up before you go outside, because there's a big difference between taking the dog for a walk when it's 5 degrees out when you've got long underwear on and when you're just wearing a pair of slacks. And it doesn't just apply to things like walking the dog - there's no reason not to be wearing that long underwear under your slacks all day at work, since it was cold in the morning on the way in, cold at lunch, cold when you went to get coffee and cold on the way home. Come to think of it, pretty much everything in this category has to do with wearing enough clothes, but I guess that just shows how important dressing appropriately really is.

Second, there are the little things to do that will make things a little nicer, keep you a little more sane and generally stave off cabin fever. To me the most important thing here is to keep getting outside. You may not want to be outside all day like in the summertime, but getting out for a half hour to ski, walk the dog, ice skate or even bike to work instead of driving really keeps the walls from closing in. Then, when you get home you can take a nice hot shower, put on that long underwear we talked about and enjoy the heat from a roaring fire in the woodstove. All of those thing feel pretty sweet on a cold, dark day. Some other nice things are cooking a really good meal (kitchens are warm!) and then eating it with plenty of wine. The trick is basically to first convince yourself that its not so bad to go outside and then once you're back to believe that being cozy inside your house is the best thing ever (without regretting that you went outside in the first place.

Third are the little things about winter up here that are really great. The way that snow sticks to trees for days or even weeks after a snowstorm or icy fog is beautiful, the steam and smoke rising from a thousand chimneys on a cold, clear, still morning belongs in a postcard, and with the sun rising and setting at such a low angle there are beautiful sunrises and sunsets every clear day that last for over an hour. Watching Bella play in the snow is an absolute treat, and watching her curl up for a nap in front of a warm fire afterwards is about the cutest thing in the world. When it stays so cold and the sun is so weak, snow never turns to slush, so your feet never get soaked with icy water and the world stays white and bright without turning grey after a few hours. There are groomed ski trails and zambonied skating rinks all around town, with local kids and adults enjoying them every day despite the weather. Backcountry skiing is a short drive away, with snowshoeing even closer. Neighbors stop by to warm up and share a bottle of wine. People decorate for the holidays, because its so much nicer to come home to a house lit up by Christmas lights, so neighborhoods have a cheery glow. The case of beer that lives on the back step is always cold. Moose come into the city for the winter and can be spotted several times a week. On dark weekend mornings it's always easy to sleep in, and on dark weekday mornings, this is a city that cares about its coffee, so whether you're buying beans or brewed you'll have a mug of something warm, tasty and strong. The Iditarod goes a block from my house (the freaking Iditarod!!!), and so do the world sprint sled dog championships. Basically, there's a lot going on here that couldn't happen anywhere else, and sometimes there's nothing better than to just soak it all in.*

* As long as you're wearing that long underwear.

Ski Train to Curry

Yesterday we rode on the ski train from Anchorage to Curry, AK, an old mostly-abandoned ski town near the edge of Denali National Park. The trip had everything: beautiful weather, good food and drinks, amazing scenery, fun people and a polka band. We opted for snowshoeing instead of skiing, which seemed like a good choice because it let us get off of the beaten path and tromp around in the woods. The highlight of the day was butt-sledding down a 35-40 degree chute on the way back to the train, but we also hit a moose with the train and some drunk guy got arrested for moving peoples' shoes around the train for no apparent reason. We also saw several bald eagles, several non-smashed moose, and the views of Mt Denali and the Alaska Range were fantastic in the morning and afternoon, before clouds and snow moved in towards the end of the trip.

Here's a video of the polka band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSJ_mkTvBU0):

And some pictures of the scenery:

Alyeska Weekend

Beth and I went down to Girdwood on Friday afternoon, where we met up with about 10 of her friends from work to stuff ourselves silly and drink too much. Almost incidentally, we also went snowboarding and cross-skiing. If one measures the success of a ski weekend by the heftiness of ones breakfast burrito, as I do (and God help you if you don't even eat a breakfast burrito on a ski weekend), then this one must have come in at about 23 ounces. Big success!

The mountain was in good condition, with the kind of weather that I have sorely missed for the past couple of months, and the scenery was beautiful. Don't believe me? Well here are some pictures to prove it:

first a couple of panoramics from Saturday

and then a couple from XC skiing on Sunday