ROAD TRIPPIN'

My car needs another oil change, and I just got one three weeks ago.

Jess Snyder and I drove from Rochester to Houghton, after a stop at Wegman's to take advantage of their bulk food section. We got to the Canadian border and I realized I'd forgotten my passport, but since I've never needed one before, I didn't worry about it, until the border guard gave me grief. He did, however, let me into the country, and we did successfully make it out of the country, too. In the interim, I taught Jess to drive stick. She's a quick learner, and I think she managed to avoid destroying my clutch.

We spent the night at the canal between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior (I think?) and finished the drive in the morning, which meant we were able to ski today. I liked that part.



After the coaches' meeting, we headed to walmart, where we picked up material and puffy paint for our team flair for the team sprint. You'll have to wait for those awesome pictures...


Our fridge looks like a bloody garden during summer. check my recipe page for the new series I'll be posting this week, "eating like a PRO on the go". Yeah, we're cooking for ourselves this week, but we're eating daaaamn well.

snow report

For anyone in this wet gray city:

Harriet is skiable. Its icy, and not bad but not great, but the guy on the snowmobile has been out with a tiller. Lots of debris down, though.

Mendon Ponds at Quaker Pond area: skiable, as in, there is full snow cover. Icy under some wet slush. No major rocks that I could see. I don't speak for the ski trails, though.

Mt Pittsford: icy, very icy in places, but full coverage around the loop. Some places were actually good (the top of the hill). Avoid the horseshoe turn... its sheet ice.

I've gotten to ski with some Pittsford kids the past two days, and it makes me feel like I'm actually useful. They are so full of questions, and I don't always have the answers, but I try. Am I good enough to ski in college? Should I do JOs? How good were you in highschool? Why can't I kick up hills? Do I really have to classic if its a skate year? Can you give me technique tips? How do I improve my endurance? How did you decide on a school? Is it possible to have a long distance relationship in college? Do the college teams have to wax their own skis? What happens if you can't make the carnival team? Do all the schools have development teams? Did you have friends outside the ski team? Are there a lot of parties at college? Where do you ski when you're at college? Do you train on the race courses? How much do you have to travel? How often do you get to come home? Are you still in touch with your friends from highschool? If I'm not that good at skiing yet will the coach help me out or just kick me off the team? So-and-so is skiing at X school and I'm faster than her, does that mean I can automatically ski at that school? Should I do ski camps over the summer? Do I need rollerskis?

I was thinking about CSU, and the quality coaching that those kids get. Two to three to four practices a week, with a coach, often many coaches, getting technique work and drills and waxing tips and training tips from people who've been doing this sport for a long time, no wonder we turn out some pretty good skiers. I wish there were something equivalent in the Rochester area. If I had any desire whatsoever to live here, I would start a club, for kids from any highschool, of any ability, the only requirement is that they really want to become the best skiers they possibly can be. I want to start a club where eventually all the skiers are faster than me. If only there were something like that in this area; there are so many talented kids whose highschool coaches just don't have time for them, who are just dying for more information on how to become a faster skier. Pittsford has 103 skiers this year. Three coaches. All with a real job outside of coaching. How is that even supposed to be possible!??!

Section V turns out the best skiers in the state, aside from NYSEF. Is it any wonder that the Mid Atlantic Team is always last or second-to-last at JOs?? Every other region has clubs for juniors who want to become good skiers, so that they at least have the tools to take it to the next level. It burns me that there is nothing like that in this area. So much talent! So much potential! I know we don't have much snow, but hell, Boston gets less snow than Rochester and CSU turns out some damn good skiers! There is no reason that Rochester can't compete at that level! People say that the competition level in NYS is lower than New England--it is lower--but we can raise it. There is some good racing up in Lake Placid, the powerhouses of the D3 schools are in NY, and the numbers at the highschools are more than enough to foster some really quality skiing, if only someone were there to teach them. Sure, XCRochester has to work on the master and senior contingent, but why not have a junior club too? So that the kids who DO want to become superstars in this sport at least know what it takes? arrgh.

Reindeer Roundup

I skipped the Osceola world famous christmas race (and my chance to win PIE!!! Enjoy that pie, Jess), and hit up the Reindeer Roundup in Lapland Lake on my way home. This was a two-fer, as there was a ski-o here in the afternoon, so I could hit up both. The race was a continuous pursuit, 5k-5k, and they held it on the same trail for both classic and skate. We all lined up, self-seeded, and I got in behind a girl in a Dartmouth suit, not sure who it was. We go off, and Steph Crocker takes the lead for the girls (amid rabid master men and wobbly highschool boys) until things thinned out a bit. Then I heard someone cheering for both Steph and for Ali, so I figured it was Alison Crocker I was behind. She was starting to let Steph get away, so I went around her and skied behind Stephanie for a while, until Alison caught back up, with a junior kid. We skied like that for the rest of the 5k, which was pretty flat, with gradual uphills and fast downhills in the tracks. The rain hadn't hit Lapland yet, but the snow was sure wet.

Switching to skate stuff (there wasn't enough room for a true stadium, so our skis were all stuck in the snow by a flag with our bib numbers), I discovered how tricky it is to skate well when you have a track on either side of a narrow trail. Ali and I had faster skis than Steph and the junior girl, so we pulled away, and proceeded to ski pretty easy for the rest of the 5k. It was hard to ski hard, marathon skate was the technique of the day, and as the tracks were so fast anyway, that seemed to work. I led for most of the middle of the loop, and then right before the end I let Ali go by, because I didn't want to be in the way... what was I thinking? there is no room to pass on this finishing straight! Anyway, that meant that she got in first and I was right behind her, wondering if there was a way to sneak a ski past her. This may be the first and last time I ever ski with Alison Crocker... I'll take it! We ended up 6th and 7th overall, which is always nice.

That afternoon I did the ski-o... I don't think I'd eaten nearly enough food after the ski race, because I bonked pretty hard. I also wore my warmups, because I'd been cold beforehand, but I ended up just steaming myself to death, and naturally I didn't have any water. I navigated horribly, making at least one mistake on every leg, and stopping a couple times just trying to re-orient. Overall, a miserable race for me. The straight-line distance was 8.8k, but with all the twists and turns at lapland, I ended up skiing about 15-20k, and it felt like 50. ugh.

Driving back to Rochester, I went through one of the heaviest rainstorms I've been in in a couple years. It wasn't so bad that I could feel the water bouncing off the road and hitting the bottom of the car, but I couldn't see much past 2 feet ahead of my bumper. I could barely make out the lines next to the car--that was kind of scary. If only it had been snow! All the snow here is essentially melted away... I guess its a good thing bristol now makes snow on a nordic loop. Ahhh, loop skiing on manmade snow... its a good thing I'm used to it!

Winter Solstice

Nine hours of daylight today. Too bad I'm spending all of them indoors.

We've gotten more snow in the past month here in Boston than we did all last year. I'm going to go with the assumption that both years might be a little out of whack. Cities are not good places to have lots of snow. The lack of places to put the snow makes everyone grumpy, and then fewer people play in the snow, which leads to much unhappiness. Because after all, playing in the snow is the purpose of my being. I can't wait to go sledding when I get home!

Ninja style

More self aggrandizement. What can I say, Dobie wanted someone to practice his fancy flash thingies on before the guys came through and me and Jess were skiing a cooldown. And since I have nothing interesting to say, I'll just keep putting pictures up here.

Russian grandmother style, or ninja style?

At least I was having fun...

this scares me.