... and we're back...

Mountain bike season is officially here.  Between a lot of days on snow, work, and my general despisement for riding a bike to nowhere in the basement, I didn't exactly spend a lot of time on the bike this winter.  I've been trying to catch up for the past few weeks - I rode a couple of days while in Utah, despite some pretty good leg fatigue from skiing the big terrain.  And last week, the weather was amazing, so I spent more time at higher intensity on the bike than I should've.  So much fun, though.

I had no serious goals this weekend.  A very easy day on Saturday to loosen up, a proper warm up and mostly remembering how to eat for racing Sunday morning.  At Fair Hill, there was an AWESOME women's field!  Nearly 30 sport riders showed up, split into the young'ins and the not-quite-as-youngin... I'm still in the former for another couple of years.  I was racing against some friends from cross as well as a few chicks that I mashed it up with last year in the Beginner classes.

After a mellowish mountain bike race start, I was third into the woods, with the top 5 of us in a little line.  I spent some time encouraging the girls in 2nd and 3rd intermittently to not let whomever was in the front take off - I was there for fun and it's always more fun to race against someone you can see for at least a couple of miles.  Eventually, the winner gapped us, and I was happily trotting along in 3rd without seeing anyone in my category for the next lap and a half - a few of the (faster) not-so-youngin ladies passed us with ease.  Slowly picking off guys that I was using as rabbits, I worked my way up and was surprised to find the 2nd place woman in my sights about two miles from the finish.  We both bobbled a few times on weird little rocks, but I managed to get past her and push the pace - it was hurting to do that, but I wasn't about to let her win the sprint easily. 

When I got to the field where there's a grassy, uphill finish, I was geared up for sprinting.  Stood up... uh oh, not much there in the legs.  At all.  Thankfully, my work in the woods had gapped her, so I held my position to take 2nd. 

Then I nearly fell over in the finish chute.  My heart rate moniter seemed to think my max heart rate was 199.  I almost believe it.

Happy with the result, but my lap times weren't as fast as I was shooting for. 

On a side note - the new timing chip system didn't seem to work perfectly as it took nearly 2 hours for results to be posted.  But, when they finally did the podiums, they (for once!) did the women's podium first, which mean instead of getting to choose from the dregs of a prize table after all the men's categories (many of which went 10 deep for prizes), we got to choose from a whole table of loot - I scored a sweet new pair of Tifosi's for my efforts.

Linking (thud) turns (thud) on the (thud) bunny trail...

Yes, I am a geek.  I have a four year plan.  It's related to skiing.  At least I'm willing to admit it.  Part of that plan says "learn to snowboard".  I had only ever tried once before - 14 years ago, when I was first teaching.

A recipe for disaster: 5 young ski instructors, 0 snowboarders, 1 icy night = 2 runs of going straight to a crash then straight to the shop to return the rental board.

I had in my head that it might be a good weekend to go play.  The fact that it's spring along with some exceptionally unfun weather (rain, rain, rain, again) meant that few people were there to teach.  But it was raining.  Like really raining.  So I was hanging out (bored) indoors.  Until someone brought out a vew-do board for me to play on.  After figuring out this side-to-side balance thing (in my ski boots, no less), it was clear - it didn't matter how hard it was raining, I wanted to go try something new.

I trekked to the rental shop.  They were super helpful - out of probably 2000 snowboards, they had only rented 5.  I went to the ski school - my buddy Nate was ready to brave the rain with me.  I was sent back to the rental shop for wrist guards.  By the time I strapped my right foot in, I was sweaty.  Very sweaty.  This beginner stuff is hard work!

After a few straight runs and a couple little turns, we headed up the lift.  By this time, another ski instructor who knows how to ride was with us.  Lucky for me, we were dressed almost identically, so from afar, the stalkers in the lodge couldn't quite tell who was who. She's much better than I am.  Probably has something to do with marrying a snowboard instructor.

Really, you want me to strap both my feet in?!  Okay, but now I can't get up.  Seriously... I can't get up from my heelside edge.  Half the time I get up on the toeside just to flop right back over onto my rump.

And you want me to turn?!  Already!?  I can't even go straight on this thing.  Okay, but... uh oh... thud.   Okay, here I go... arg, what's that?!  A gully in the middle of the bunny hill?  Sure I'll ride a mini halfpipe on my first day (sidenote: this was a proper gully with lots of mud and grass by a few hours later).  If by ride you mean go down the middle of it.  And crash at the bottom.

But, by the end of the day, I was mostly linking turns on the bunny hill.  No one ever said learning to snowboard is easy - I'll go a step further and say that man, those guys teaching on a busy weekend have it way tougher than us skiers.

And yes, I rode for a while again on Sunday.  Part of the four year plan, remember?  Toll on the body:
Bruises.  Both knees.  Good thing it's bike season and I've gotta break these legs out to the sunshine.

Ending with a few thuds... sort of...

Ski Liberty closed last weekend.  I know there were puppy dog eyes around when Eric (the GM) came through on Sunday, announcing we were done.  I had hoped for a spring weekend.  A proper no-one-else-is-here-and-we're-going-to-clinic-in-t-shirts weekend.  A Saturday night kick-the-keg event at the tavern.  But alas, rain and a forecast of 60degrees this week meant it was not to be.  It's spring.  The incredible season ended on a rainy day in the middle of March.  Thud.  There were other thuds, but that's for another post.

Some of us have spring trips planned.  Some of those trips are centered around an exam.  Thankfully this year, my spring trips are just for fun. Good luck to those pursuing their goals. 

Bluebird days and long drives

We went to Vermont Monday.  After work.  And came back last night.  This is something that I think college kids do when they can sneak a day of bigger mountain skiing in.  Guess it should make me feel young? 

For the first time since early January, I skied somewhere other than home... and could see the top of the mountain from the bottom.  I've skied at several other places on other trips...all in the rain, snow, and/or fog.  It was great to ski in the sun of a March day - even better because it was a Dev Team training day with Matt Boyd.  8 or so of us got together for some good old-fashioned ripping with a bit of arguing about skiing thrown in for good fun.  I learn a lot from watching my peers on the team - it's fun to celebrate everyone's individual strengths and work to improve our weaknesses.

We did some "Bode Miller" turns yesterday on the wide open blues at Mt. Snow... the muscles in my hips aren't feeling like a college kid's at the moment.  I'll blame it on the 7+ hour drive home last night.