Training Log Archive: Swampfox

-21F at 8:43 am w/ full sunshine, so at last a decent winter day!

C • same here 6

Most excellent Yowsa!!!, with several inches of powder waiting to be removed this morning. Full sunshine, and everything was beautifully white.

Checking the records, I see a new low was set yesterday (-9F), and another will tumble today (-20F or -21F, it looks). That will undoubtedly warm the hearts of climate deniers--so ironic.

Made the effort to get out skiing in the middle of the day to take advantage of the sun. It was still cold, but the sun plus the way I was dressed meant I was warm enough. In fact, it was almost being like a living hot fudge sundae. Once I got warmed up, I was almost too hot in the sun, and would quickly cool off in the shade. Maybe something like being in a a sauna with occasional dips in the icy lake.

It was beautiful out, if cold. Skis weren't fast on the new snow, but that was okay. Skied about 2 and then ran for 1 (that's seconds, not hours.)

Mild, sunny, windy conditions meant there was at once places where dry snow was blowing across the trails while in other places yesterday's really nice snow was transforming and glazing. Very oddly, the place where there was the most glazing was on a steepish hill that faces more or less to the north. Very hard to figure that one out. Maybe that where warming winds concentrated their fury.

Bumped into racer X8A7 just as he was finishing up; I wished him good luck for Birkie this weekend while refraining from pointing out how out of shape he looked and how sluggishly he was moving. Ha, just kidding. Graham always looks very fit and he races like he has a rocket mounted on his back.

After skiing, I did a running Tour de Headquarters, mostly on fresh bike tracks, but also on some shorter sections with no traffic and well drifted in with wind driven snow. Saw no moose, but that doesn't mean they weren't out there.

Supposed to really swing and be much colder tomorrow, after today's mildness.

Skied and ran; very good skiing conditions.

Also, I saw some of the coverage of women's biathlon and women's XC, and not even one second of figure skating, nor any hint of curling or hockey. In retrospect I have to wonder: could I have just dreamed it? But if I check the results and see that Norway just barely edged out Sweden in the women's XC relay, then it would be weirdly accurate dream.

And speaking of little Norway ("little" here is not meant to disparage but rather a reference to a population roughly the equivalent in size of that of Colorado) and looking at the medal counts, Norway is completely impressive. Maybe it helps to not have the national distraction of being led by an idiot madman?

C • Carefully administered, state sponsored, doping program 6

Nice snow and good skiing. A little more snow fell overnight. Followed up with a short run at dusk and finished up in the dark. The tree across the snow bike trail has already been sawed out.

Very nice to wake up and see a few inches of snow fell in town overnight--it's been a while. Fun Yowsa!!! this morning. Hopefully even more snow hit the ski trails up top.

Several inches of new snow (at least) up at Happy Jack; everything had been rolled and the trails were soft. The skiing really felt good to me, and I ended up skiing long and passing on running. It's the best I've felt since being since being sick, and both my arms and legs felt pretty lively and strong.

Hopefully this new snow will be enough and weather will hold up (no super warm and sunny days) so that conditions will be good for the state high school championships in a week.

Strong winds today, and even if not super strong, they were blowing straight across the interstate, creating interesting driving conditions for high profile vehicles. Only noted one tree down though, across one of the snow bike trails. Skied and ran, finishing up just after dusk, which is settling in after 6 o-clock these days (when the sun is out.)

Spotted very fresh tracks today where I saw the bull moose yesterday, but never could get sight of whichever moose was making the tracks. I bet it was the same guy, though.