2010 Ski season wrap-up

I finished cleaning the klister and summerwaxing glide zones last night, that's pretty much the only time all season when I think I have too many skis. Especially classic skis, that have been sitting with klister for a month at room temperature... I'm happy to put the skis away, I have no idea what next season will bring, but its a long way away, and I'm not in the mood to get after it just yet. Those are the sort of feelings you should pay attention to, so I'm putting off writing a plan until at least May, and probably won't pick up the rollerskis until June or July, at this rate. I currently have a lot of enthusiasm for running and orienteering, so I'll just devote some energy to that until I break myself by early summer, according to the pattern of the last couple years.

This was a good ski season - consistent, but consistently better than last year. I like that. I'm not sure how much I want to go into the nitty gritty of my goals, but I made all my goals for the Eastern Cups (really, it was just that last weekend that did it for me, with a 5th and 2nd place), almost made my goals for nationals (I wanted a top 50, but I'm not counting the 42nd place in the classic race, since there weren't any juniors in that one, so way fewer racers), and made my goals in ski-o. I didn't make my goals on the marathon side of things, but I was happy with 16th at the Birkie and 5th at Craftsbury, and I think I'd rather feel pleased with the race than gripe about how I was one place out. This is a strangely positive outlook for me. So, I'll leave it at: A good season. Most importantly, I had a ton of fun coaching and doing ski-o, so that will ultimately be my plan for next season too.

I'll leave you with photos. Because they sum up the season better than words.

Jess and I went to West Yellowstone, which was fun aside from the whole getting-sick-and-losing-six-pounds-in-a-week thing.






I raced.

After a trip to Presque Isle, Jess and I went to nationals. Where we had to deal with some shit, but mostly, had a good time and raced hard.
It was pretty.

Janice took this picture - bright sun during the qualifiers, eh?Too bad it was so dark.

I went to Rumford to race, and discovered that I didn't feel like it anymore. So, I cheered my brains out for CSU.

Then I did Craftsbury, and actually enjoyed myself, despite the frigid temperatures. Strange.

In a complete flip flop of weather, I went from -4F in Vermont to 45F and sunny in California. Life was good. The skiing was good, too.

I did some races, and beat up on the boys when I could.

I went from that ski-o series to the US champs, where I won my first national championships.

Then I went to the last Eastern Cups with CSU, and did pretty well since they were flat courses, woot.

The Birkie was next, big race and fun times with the Colby boys. Last real race of the season, and it felt darn good to be done traveling and being serious and all that stuff.

So I went to JOs as a coach, as you can see I am definitely not serious. But serious about making the kids go fast, they sure performed. Super proud of our CSU skiers, as well as the rest of New England.

J2z!


I might be done being serious, but I was conned into skiing 24 hours, which had its good points. As well as plenty of miserable points, but to look at the bright side, it could have been raining, instead of perfect spring skiing weather (note that I didn't say perfect spring skiing. That would have involved some grooming).

And then we closed out the ski season with some sketchy, but awesome, adventure skiing.

Sort of reads like "the travels and adventures of Alex", eh?