Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Well, I had aspirations of getting in an additional skate this morning, but the timing didn't quite work: when it got light enough to see at about 6:30, there was about a half-inch of snow on the ground, just enough to obscure the ice surface, so I skipped it.

Snow dealings, round 1a: my driveway. I could have sworn I had some earlier snow dealings this season, but I can't find any reference to it in my log. In any case, I'm now feeling a little dumb, because I've had this snowblower for over a year, and it never worked properly until today. I hadn't realized until recently that it has two shear pins, and one of them was broken. Now that they're both intact, it works great, and made short work of the driveway and the mailbox, probably only about 10 minutes to do everything. It wasn't a tremendous amount of snow, but still.

Snow dealings, round 1b: cleared off Mom's car and did the steps and driveway corners, not enough to be worth logging.

Snow dealings, round 1c: Nancy's driveway and walk. The snow in Westford is a little wetter and heavier than what fell at my house, and it kept sticking to the shovel, which was annoying.

Hickory Hills. This was a little HTFU training, because the only time I was going to have enough light to see the ice was if I went at sunup before heading off to work, and even then it was tough when heading east because of the glare. It was 15F, minus my own self-generated wind chill. The ice was quite nice, with bumps in a few spots from snowmobile tracks and some frozen bubbles here and there, but I found some areas that were virtually zambonied. Hands got cold, my lower back got a little tired (it usually does), and I think my skates could really use a good sharpening -- I've got Dad's old sharpening jig, which I ought to look at and see if it's at all obvious how to use it, or call up an old friend of his for instruction if it isn't. This is the only "winter sports" outing I've done this season, I'm always pleased if I can get at least one good skate on outdoor ice.