Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Despite being overcast all day long, temps were just above freezing, and it was enough to raise the moisture content of the snow a good bit. So the trails were on the slow side when I started skiing in mid-afternoon, and gradually got faster as temps started to drop a little and the winds picked up some. Eventually a few snowflakes in the air showed up, but it wasn't close to being a measurable amount. It's been a full month now since the last measurable snow in town. It looks like there's a chance for some snow in 2 days, but if it doesn't come, then January will go down as a dry month.

C • Dry January 10

I got up top for skiing around mid-afternoon. The parking lot was pretty full though with spaces in random places, and there were cars parked on the other side of the highway and one or two along the highway. That, plus other random aftermath, was enough to make it clear that Wee Ski must have begun today.

It was both mild enough and sunny enough that there was another first of the season today: several sections of trail had glazed or hardened up to some degree, most notably on the big south facing climb on Summit Loop. It just made for faster skiing.

It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the area.

It's been a long time since I've had even the tiniest thought about orienteering and the Olympics, but for some reason I was curious to see where orienteering stood with respect to US Olympics, and what I found is that we are nestled within a small group that also includes: football (can totally see that making it to the Olympics some day, can't you?), DanceSport (don't ask me, I have no clue), Flying Disc (can't risk appearing to discriminate against Martians, who after all come equipped with X-Ray guns and other armaments), Polo (another up and coming sport for the masses), and Underwater Swimming (the SEALs must have wielded their considerable political clout to get this included; it must involve in seeing how far you can go underwater with a single breath or something like that.) If you judge by the company kept, it doesn't look like O' is in any danger of moving on up anytime soon, if ever.

Son-of-a-Bosler! The City Council must have been reading AttackPoint, because it turns out that right after I wrote about plastic garbage bags here, they scurried into a work session on recycling, and shortly thereafter (this week) adopted a resolution to "diminish and regulate retail-use plastic waste within the city", which will kick off a multi-year process which could potentially result in a ban on same. The cause-effect relationship here could not be more clear cut.

See if I write anymore about plastic bags. I probably better be careful with writing about pizza, too! Man.

While they're at it though, it would not hurt my feelings if they also went after those worthless mylar balloons, one of which I found (and picked up) on a trail while I was running tonight.

But in the meantime, time to kick off Operation Bag Horde. Wouldn't surprise me at all if bag usage at Walmart suddenly skyrockets.

C • Plastic bags 8

There hasn't been any new snow except for traces this month. So, it's been a dry January so far. Despite that, ski conditions have been great all month. Yesterday was the first day where the snow was a little affected by temps above freezing, and had softened some and was slower.

There was a story in the paper today about the wreck I saw on Monday. There was one fatality and 9 people were injured, some requiring evacuation to Colorado.

C • 9 injured 2

Felt full of energy all day and when I got up top for skiing, the feeling only grew. I'm sure it had everything to do with much faster, dry snow, and crisper temps with some tasty west breeze kicking in as well, and nothing at all to do with the fact that I slept hard through the night and didn't wake up in the morning until more than 2 1/2 hours later than usual. When I woke up I had no idea it was as late as it was. I've examined my skin carefully 3 times already, looking for radioactive snow snake bites.

But if the "Go" light is shining brightly, then go for it, and in spite of doing intervals yesterday, I probably ended up skiing even harder today and felt really strong the whole time. Weird. It was the kind of day you want for a big race.

Ski intervals were up today. I cut the session short by one interval versus what I had planned, based on how I was feeling after the last interval I did. My view is that with higher intensity stuff, it is better to err on the side of being conservative than to risk over doing it.

Came home, had a non-vegetarian pepperoni calzone for dinner (had a vegetarian pepperoni calzone last week, so mixing it up here) and am now getting ready to watch SDSU slaughter Wyoming. Of course, it's always possible Wyoming could win against the 19-0 Aztecs, but on this night, with this team, the odds are really long. To put them in a popular context, they are even longer than the odds that the Death Star would not be blown up in the original Star Wars movie. Go Cowboys.