victoire! part deux!

yes, i am still the undisputed champion amongst my age group among people of my age group who elect to show up to ski in the race!

suck it, those of you, in my age group, who didn't show up to kick my ass! yeah!

today was the classic leg, which means, you have to do the traditional 'diagonal stride', which looks kind of like a shuffle. you put grippy stuff in the middle of the ski, so when you weight it, it grips, and you get 'kick'. I spent two hours helping getting skis ready for kid skiers. used mine as a test pair for a variety of waxes, which left them... uh, manky. i should have taken the time to fix them, but, they seemed 'ok.' i spent the time left warming up. it was reasonable to think i'd miss my start...

but, with the help of 30 plus people, who kept telling me when the start was i made it.

and then, promptly fell on my face in the start. literally.

it was a pursuit start, which meant, i started behind the guy who finished in front of me, by the time he finished in front of me. i made up some time on him, and basically did ok, but i would have liked to have don better... the course went flat, down hill for about 1.75 km, then turned and climbed, for about 2.5 km, and then a screaming downhill. (total, 5km, 2 laps). so i slowly reel dave in, catch him at the top of the climb, and watch him glide away on faster skis (that's why i think i should have re-done my skis after all the testing)...

i'll try to throw a couple pics up, yes, including the one of me on my face.

all in all a good weekend... 59/68 days on skis. so, some rest, some travel (travel days don't count as rest days, i hope you know what i mean), with lots of hard stuff and long stuff thrown in. the next three weeks will be more restful, but w/ a 30km skate race, a 15km race where you change gear in the middle of the race, and a 10km race that i'm trying to improve my time from an earlier race on the same course. i'll cut my skiing back a little, but i struggle with the fact that skiing for fun is more fun than training for events... this week, a mandatory taper (exams, and travel), next week, 3 days only (all shorter, harder), and the last week, 3 days, all short and fast. goal is to ski the 10km in 32min (weather dependent, of course): by my ridiculously complicated spreadsheets, i'm half way to the 32 min goal (from 37.5min), with no taper. taper research indicates that properly tapering (significant decrease in mileage, like down 80% with all work done at race pace, resultes in high benefits. ex: 29 seconds for 5km runners). that's a lot. If I can get 2 minutes from base, 1 minute from taper, 1 minute from technique improvements, and 1 minute from luck, and 30 seconds from desparation, i'll be there.

i'll let you know.

not breaking a pole, falling over, missing the start... well that's worth negative negative time...

VICTOIRE!

That's either french for victory, or the name of the new Ford. Regardless, sweet Victory today. Today was a 10k Skate race, and I rolled through the field like a LOCOMOTIVE. At speed, not when it's getting up to speed, and it's real slow, and can't turn...

Take Two:
That's either french for victory, or the name of the new Ford. Regardless, sweet Victory today. Today was a 10k Skate race, and I rolled through the field like a Ferrarri. But a dependable one. And one that's good in the snow.

Take Three:
That's either french for victory, or the name of the new Ford. Regardless, sweet Victory today. Today was a 10k Skate race, and I rolled through the field like a stallion. But not like one that injures an extensor ligament...

Take Four:
That's either french for victory, or the name of the new Ford. Regardless, sweet Victory today. Today was a 10k Skate race, and I rolled through the field like a flippin' magical digital spaceship piloted by someone with an extremely high mitochlorian count. That means, the force was with me.

Yeah. I like-y.

Yes, today, I walked away with my first ever straight up victory in a 10Km freestyle (Skate) race.

And now the rest of the story.

There I was. My 250-300 calorie breakfast of 1/2 cup oats (dry measure), yogurt (dollup), blackberries, banana, and honey have set up perfectly. I've restricted my coffee intake, and hydrated carefully, but not excessively. I've rememberd skis, poles, and boots. Everything else is gravy, but i've brought that too. Hat, ski suit, etc. I'm good to go. A nice easy warm-up just under an hour before race time, then back up to the lodge, to, uh, use the lodge, nuff said, take off warmups, and then back down. Now, 20 minutes before race time, i take a hit of hammer-gel from my hammergell dispenser bottle, sip some more cytomax. And motor around a bit...10 to go... I've been double checking start times with other racers skiing around, and i'm set. I feel flat, but not stale, but i've not tapered at all for this race (And won't until march for the 2 big days at the end of the american masters in bend, a 15km classic and 30km on sat/sunday in late march)... plus, i've been racing a lot, and the whole 'hurts so good' thing is always great after, but everything up until the bell gets the nerves going... But i'm dialed in. I've 6 minutes to go, 3 x 100 or so, speeds to get the rythym, 4 minutes to go, 3 x 60 of double pole only to be ready for the double pole mass start (line up next to in front of or behind 100 other aggressive skiers. flail arms wildly whipping sticks around for 100m. try not to break a pole. enjoy!)... As I return to the start, I notice that the start area is strangely empty... i mean, the high school kids who just finished racing, parents, other coaches, etc, but, where are the other nose/ear hair types... another summit coach looks at me as i quizzically move towards the start, and asks, 'Luke, aren't you racing.'

'yes,' replied luke.
'Well they've started,' said coach peterson.
'yeah, right, good one,' said smith, as his watch clearly indicated 1 minute to go...

but as luke moved further towards the finish, another voice cried out, 'dude, aren't you racing.' Luke became less sure that he was in fact on time. At this point, 1000 people pointed and stared (no, not really), as Luke realized the error of his ways, and dropped the hammer.

Time lost, unknown, but would later turn out to be a couple minutes.

I cranked as best i could and started reeling people in. The two lap race took me by several mockers, i mean supporters. I finished. But, Oh yeah, I won. That's right.

I won....


My age group...


Un-opposed...

oh well.

Tommorrow, Todays first place finisher starts on classic skis at 10:00 am. The rest of us start based on how far back we finished today. My 2 minute handicap kind of sucks at that point... but no one's fault but my own. 10 km classic race.

More to follow.

ULTIMATE RELATED POST.

why am i still in ultimate talk? i don't know. but, to answer the criticisms of a recent post, here are my thoughts on diet, and a year round macro cycle of training for ultimate.

1) diet. recently, ultimate prognesceti (i just made up that word) ben wiggins posted a long winded email about diet on RSD. I disagree. If you care to look up ben's diet, do so, but here are my thoughts. Ben focuses on day to day variations of diet, but I think that you should eat well every day, and then, focus on nutrient maintenance on game day.

I have in the past posted longwinded stories that an ultimate players diet should be based on fish, chips, and beer. Here is the truth. That is a bad diet. Your diet should actually be based on the following principles.

1) Many small meals
2) A diet varied, and rich, in fruits and vegetables, minimum 5, and almost no maximum. I aim for 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. A serving is a cup of fruit, or a single fruit, like a banana. I typically start the day with either a bowl of oatmeal, w/ 1.5 cup of frozen berries (which i microwave first), and one banana. That is 2.5 servings.
3) To continue the many small meals theme, I include in my feed bag the following. 1 apple, 2 oranges, and a pear. I also include a 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bowl of pasta, chicken, and veggies, and a 1/2 sanwich of HIGH QUALITY DELY STYLE chicken breast, salami, and cheese, and a V-8 6 oz can. I value the fat in that sandwich, and the fruit provides closure on my goal of 9 servings. By 3 pm, i have consumed 7.5 servings of fruit and veggie. I usually have a granola bar, or some almond/raisin trail mix in the feed bag to eat in the 30 minutes following my workout to provide glycogen reloading, and one more serving of veggies (1/4 cup of raisins = 1 serving of veggies). I eat at 5:30 a.m., 9:30 am, 10:30 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, and then the post workout feed. What i eat from the feed bag is based entirely upon what i am hungry for. Protein/Car/Fat/Fruit. Dinner usually includes a salad, usually based on either baby arugula, or mixed frise greens, as they are high in vitamins. Sometimes I substitue a homemade gazpacho. Recipe follows:

32 oz can tomatos
1 jalopeno.
onion
1 spoon of garlic from one of those jars of pre ground garlic
cilantro
oil
vinegar
salt
blend

mix with one 8 oz can of V8, 1/2 cucumber, cubed, and 1 slice, home made bread, torn into 1 inch cubes.

season to taste. when lazy, skip steps 8-10, and dip low fat chips in previous mixture.
Note. Yes: that's a salsa recipe. But it's super cheap, and unbelievably high in antioxidants.

sometimes for breakfast (when not lifting weights) i make waffles. i use a mix. Hain brand. Buckwheat variety. Equal to in fiber or exceeding the oatmeal.

FOCUS on a varied diet. Make sure you eat immediately after working out. If weight gain is an issue, make sure that you eat 2-300 calories of carbs after working out, and then fight the FAKE hunger that will come later. Count your calories, and eat a diet that is based on the food pyramid. You think you are: you are not.

Tournaments: Get more salt. Eat many, small, meals. Use cytomax (etc), gu(etc), but use byes to eat sandwiches etc. If you eat enough meals and snacks, you should UNDEREAT at each meal. You should meet you caloric needs by the end of the day, but don't exceed. If you eat too much, it's in the way. If you eat too little, you bonk. I like a feed bag of the following:

Drink: Cytomax or Heed
Protein: Beef Jerkey or Beef Chunks (REI)
Carbs/Vitamins: Dried fruits, especially pinapples, raisins (pinapples provide vitamins not normally in your diet) and RIPE bananas. Do not eat green bananas. Causes digestive blockage.
Carbs: Bagels are fine. Also include fat.
Fat: Nuts. See bagels. Almonds or less good, peanuts. A half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is good too.
Vitamins: Oranges, bananas, tomatoes... whatever your stomach can handle. In the summer, I prefer seasonal peaches, nectarines etc. Easy to digest.
Eat icecream in the evenings, and eat a varied meal of lean protein, veggies, and complex carbs. Sushi is great. Don't eat fast food. The fat is appealing, but if you eat right there is plenty in your other sources of food. You will still crave it. Tough shit.

TRAINING:
Ultimate training is a year round commitment. The challenge an ultimate player faces is this. As a new player, you need to play all the time. As an older player, you need to take care of your body. I recommend the following program for a club player. Maintain periodicity. Take 1 day off entirely each week when training high impact (running). Minimal, take a day of active rest (swim/bike). Out of each 12 week macro cycle, take a full week as easy. NO FRISBEE. NO HARD OR LONG RUNNING.

1) Pre season. Mileage, Weights, and Throwing. The goal is to heal old injuries, develop strength, and maintain basic skills. Keep mileage moderate. While running is the best, biking/ swimming/ skiing is acceptable, but be aware that frisbee is a running sport, and some base running is required before sprinting. Weights should focus on major lifts. Bicep curls are worthless. Focus on lifts that accentuate multiple muscle groups and efficiency. Full parallel squats, bench, chin-ups alone are acceptable. Remember that 6-12 reps develops hypertrophy (muscle size) where 1-6 lifts develop power, and 12-20 lifts develop endurance. I recommend periodization. 1 month of 3 sets, 12-20 lifts, then 1 month of 3 sets of 8-12 per set, and 1 month of 1-6, high power lifts. If this is too much, skip every thing, do 3 sets of 3x10. Please don't bother w/ calf raises, curls, ets. Do explosive squats, and chin ups if you do nothing else. If you are fit, now, and in the early season is the time to incorporate plyometrics.


2) Early Season. You will be in maintenance weight phase. Fight the urge to skip weights for practice. The weights help sheild you from injury. Adjust weight to protect yourself. Workouts will move towards speed. Avoid the temptation to run HARD more than 3 days per week. Use weights/cross training/ and stretching to develop the shield you need to prevent injury. Continue to refine your throwing skills. Now you should always include dynamics (high knees, butt kicks, etc., but remember, adequate rest is always required)

3) Season. It's summer. Maintenace lift. 1 to 2 times per week, again, if you are hurting somewhere, this is MORE reason to lift, and less reason to 'run through it'. As your team develops tactics, you personally need to adapt you training to make you a better, more explosive player. Now is not the time to incorporate plyometrics beyond dynamics (which you can, and should include in all warm-ups where sprinting will be included). When injured, do not skip lifting. Focus especially on your mid-glute (accentuated by bar-bell step ups), and appropriate abdominal work. The abdominal core, accentuated by bridging (shoulders on ground, knees at right angle, ball between knees, straighten one leg, while not allowing hips to drop) will benefit.

4) off season. it is best to take one week off for every 12 of training. The challenge is to maintain your health. while you may want to return to frisbee asap, take one week off from training. Here is the frisbee challenge: DO NOT TAKE TOO MUCH TIME. Move into 'pre-season' phase asap. Take time from frisbee. Take as much as 1 month from throwing. DO NOT rest too much. That said, off season is the shortest season. Heal up wounds. If hurt, focus on cross training, and easy training.

OK, diet. exercise.

what do you want more of?

Watching video should improve your play. Strategery and tacticalllity for the next time someone bitches.

race results.

so, not terrible, not terrible. 150 skiers, mass start (there was a 2nd wave too, and a 3rd, high school race behind that). I was jammed, and skiing 18 abreast in a trail groomed into a single lane jeep road... ok, that's hyperbole, but you get the idea... got to the part where we descend 200 meters in like 4 km (trust me it's pretty steep) and i'm doing fine, and then a guy comes by me dressed in a fake muscle suit and a minotaur hat. now, i had skied this section before, and i knew to take it easy, w/ a sharp turn coming, going about 50 km/h or so, i knew i should slow down, but i wait too long... i mean, shit, a CARTOON has just passed me, so i'm running up on him and another guy, i try to speed check and blammo i'm down... i try to roll off to the right, and i get one sweet matrix move in, but an out of control skier (a kid i know) doesn't hit me (thanks matrix move) but i look up, and there's a 6 inch long stick fluttering down in front of me.

i suddenly realize that it's not a stick, it's a chunk out of my, uh, you would think ridiculously expensive, pole. so i hop up, collect the parts (shafts are 100, whole poles, like 150) and keep going. 3 or 4 km later it flattens out, and i get a pole from a course monitor.

it's about (no kidding) 25cm shorter, and it's for the wrong hand... but, i keep going, and about 7km later including a big hill, i see a friend of mine, and he gives me his pole (it's only 3 inches shorter than mine, and the correct hand (left)). i figure i'd lost as much as 6-10 minutes in this time, and i go on to ski pretty well.

i finished in 2 hours, 54th out of 130 or so... if it had been 8 minutes, i'd have been around 30th, which is wish in one hand and you know what in the other territory, of course... but i learned a ton about pacing, as i reached that, 'sometimes you got to say what the eff' stage and worked well...

so it was fun. replaced the shaft after i got home,, bought some groceries, and now i'm resting up for a big evening of nothing. there's a banquet, but i don't have the stomach to go see someone else win a pair of poles in a raffle with a number one off from mine.

tommorrow, probably go ski the course backwards, or just go ski easy for a couple hours.

so, felt good. if i could have said what i'd like to ski the race in, 1:45. If i'd ski'd it in 1:50, that would have been super. i'm excited though. with no taper (yet) my times are improving rapidly, a reflection of somewhat improved technique. so, while vancouver in 2010 is not likely (that's understatement), my main goal, improvement, is being met.

nordeen...

I'm up, reading the news, and getting ready for the 'Great Nordeen' Ski race, a 36km race... luckily it's all downhill, er, except for the parts where it's not. It's not that I can't ski 36 km, it's just that it's too long for me to race well. So, time to suffer it up. I got my new aero haircut goin' though, minus the 4 pounds of afro (and big apologies to the woodowl who had nested up there), so i ought to be cranking.

For about, say 18 km.

Oh well. The conditions are as good as they can get, i should have the skis waxed for the right temperature, i took yesterday off, except for 30 minutes of biking, and that whole work thing, ya know, so it should be good.

In the interest of improving my classroom teaching, i gave a survey to my entire 52 person classroom. The results have conclusively proven that i'm 'too hard (30), too easy (2), awesome (5), a jerk (2) and that in the opinion of many students, 52 is too many for a classroom.'

That was useful. No actually it was. While the results demonstrate the usual things you'd expect about HS students (like 3% will hide behind anonimity to make jerk comments like it's the teachers fault for everything), it was worthwhile to learn that some kids, even high achievers, have a difficult time finding a way to express themselves: I'll probably repeat the experiment.

Of course, It's also clear that students want
1) an 'A'
2) entertainment
3) to do no work
4) to complain that the above teacher is too easy and a joke

if you are
1) hard
2) you are a jerk
3) and you should give easier assignments
and
4) go slower

I love to hear how kids complain about every possible educational situation. What can I take from this? Continue to refine my craft, work hard, etc. I think I found a few more hours to give. See, I'm putting in about 50-60 hours per week in the classroom and prep and grades, and another 10-18 hours per week as an unpaid coach. But if I stop eating, I can get 8 hours per week. Likewise, if I cut out bathing, thats another 3 hours. And finally, I'm going to cut my sleep to 2.5 hours per night.

eureka.

the amazing thing is how truly fun and exciting the job is.

ski, ski, ski...

and work... everyday is pretty similar. up at 5:30. turn on coffee. shower. drink coffee. make breakfast. pack feed bag for work. update school website. go to school. 2/3 days per week lift... teach like mad... ski... eat... home... eat... read... eat... juggle... bed...

sunday, the 'fun race'. 10 'raced' 4 couldn't pay attention and got lost, 2 quit.
monday, 20 km, slow, slow, slow... and easy... tuesday, weights in AM, i dunno 12 k and some pickups with 6 of the km up up up... today, classic skied for a bit, then did 4 x 4 minute intervals... tommorrow, steady state 'easy' ski, (oh, and some morning weights)... friday, rest.

gotta get after the stretching... sore muscles...

starting to get excited about frisbee: generally hard to ski in afternoons after mid march, so it's a great time to start playing frisbee... but i'll miss the 5 and 6 days a week of skiing...

that is all.

End of the Hard Week

S'Ok, last week was a hard workout week... starting last saturday, intervals, sat, sun, tues, and thurs, took mon and fri off, skied 15 k saturday (5 at near race pace, and 1k at a sprint), skied 15 k today (13 at race pace, changing gear midway from classic to skate in a friendly 'skiathlon.')
Lifted (squat/bench/lat pulldown) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Played some guitar.

I actually feel suprisingly pretty OK. Tommorrow, probably two to two and a half hours easy. This next 12 days, probably 5 total harder workouts (Say, 3tempo skis, and two interval, with some moderate distance at an easy pace), and start off February w/ an easy week, and then ramp up again.

In terms of Frisbee, well, cool your jets friskee, Mid February is the start of Frisbee Season around here, so it'll be 2 to 3 days per week of me waxing rhapsodic on the virtues of 'dutch drill', big picture v. nuts n' bolts, and how much of an interference it is for me to have to coach in the afternoon when all I want to do is ski.

By April 1, it's Frisbee coaching 5 days per week (although I kind of want to modify that a little this year. I'd still like to ski, and I also give up a lot of my training time to coach). By may it just doesn' t matter. I can train it up after practice ends. So maybe I should just write off April as my low volume recovery month, or ride the trainer.

In terms of personal growth and development as I attempt to stave off the imminent geriatric threat of early onset presenile dementia, my efforts to become a polyglot are stuck in monoglottony, w/ tendencies towards a bit of french studies. The guitar is coming along, i'm faking my way around my screwed up pinky (thanks ultimate!) as I figure out how to play Bb and the like.

Pin juggling is on hold, i need pins of my own.

Speaking of which, now i'm off to read some french.

training...

Lessee, sunday, more intervals, say, 5 k warmup, then 4 x 4 minute classic ski intervals.
Monday, rest day, weights,
Tuesday, 1.25 hr ski, w/ intervals in the middle.
Today, 1.25, easyish ski.
Learned to basically juggle clubs. Still have a way to go, but say... 10 catches? Super fun.
Made salsa, cooking chicken and beans, heat tortillas... mmm...
Aston Villa v. Manchester United while I cook. Might switch over to the NPR...
OK. Oh, listen to the Cow's with Guns link on the right. Good fun.

10 worst things a teacher could say..

10 things a teacher might say that would be contradictory to the educational process.

1. How many of you want to go to college -- show of hands. Really? Now keep them up if you still believe in the Easter bunny.
2. No, I don't believe your bladder will burst if you wait five minutes.
3. Look, I'm sympathetic, I really am. I'm just not going to do anything about it.
4. (var)It's not that I don't care, It's just that, oh who am I kidding. I just don't care.
5. Oh dear. Your file says you are average. Humanity is doomed.
6. (var)Have you considered joining a monastery? yes the catholic kind. right, no kids for you.
7. How 'bout a nice warm cup of shut the f&^K up?
8. Oh, could you just grow a pair?
9. All this, and $6.50 an hour.
10. No, I was not always this cynical. I used to give half a shit.

Note. This is SATIRE. If your irony-meter is stuck in sarcasm, well then you are probably one of my students. If you are critical of these statements, meant to be humorous, well, I refer you to the bill of rights, and ask you to leave.

don't call me romo.

"In a back-and-forth game that ultimately hinged on a botched 19-yard field goal in which Tony Romo bobbled the hold, the Seahawks survived 21-20 on Saturday night to send Dallas into disarray" From ESPN

I watched in horror as Tony Romo huddled in shame on the bench. I wanted to go over and tell him, shit, Cowboy, we've all screwed up before.

But then I realized, we haven't all 'bobbled the snap that would have led to the game winning field goal in front of 60,000 people.'

Ouch.

I went skiing today. (No kidding, says someone, somewhere, sarcastically).

The road to the mountain was closed due to howling winds. So around Noon, went up w/ one of the coaches, and did intervals. Well first we skied oh, 5 k, then we did 4, 4 min intervals in fairly heavy ungroomed snow.

So it was inelegant, but sweet. I love intervals.

Friday was an easy classic ski. IN the pitch black. And my head lamp sucks. (too cloudy for moon to help). It was awesome.

Thursday was a 1.25 hour skate ski in crummy grooming, in a huge storm. Also, awesome.

Tommorrow, 2 hour classic ski, with 3 x 3 minute intervals (monday is rest, er... except for all that teaching stuff)... but it'll depend on the weather...

Ate like a champ... waffles/fruit/yogurt... little later, more of same... skied... pear, pinapple juice, baked potatoes, meat, cheese, carrots, hummus, salad, shopped, got my new vest (broke the zipper on last one, nice factory warranty, thanks desente

oh wait... then i ait more. black beans, rice, and kale greens in a broth... yummm...

Tommorrow, if i don't ski, i'll grade the other 32 sets of essays (each set is 5 essays), (18 done), and er... eat.

lots.

another day in paradise...

... but it's raining like hell. and about 32 at the mountain, 42 here... white rain all around. a shit-ton of new snow. but too warm for good skiing. i'll hit it tommorrow, when it should be 1.5 feet of fresh, and a high of -7 C... perfect... But significantly, this is the first day i've not skied Since Dec 18th, which, along with the 15th, 11th, and the 8th, and the 4th. And 3 days in november. Pretty much the only days I haven't skied Since november 18th. So something like 37 days thus far. And yes, the ski suit needs washing. But not 38 days worth. Like 2 or 3.

...today, i made a list of things to do... kind of a year end thing, and making a list of things to do is easier for me to do than doing. casualty of the great ritalin experiment of the 1990's. Ritalin worked great for me for the year or two i took it. 4.0 at college, dedicated in my workouts, and then one day, i ran out of Ritalin. And I forgot to get more.

Flash forward to now, well, I'm more of a 'big picture' guy now...

Here's the way the list started...

Yearly Goals
1) Always get grading done on time. Eff that.
2) Achieve improvements at Nordic Skiing, Biking and 5K times. Certainly do-able, and enjoyable.
3) Coach, and play frisbee from March until, say, mid september. Maintain form, attend 3 tournaments. 3 Doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a drive to get to most tourneys worth, especially, 'competetive' ones. But it will force me to be consistent with my stretching, and help with everything else. Plus, it's fun...
4) Oh, improve my teaching trade craft, blah, blah... i should probably throw that in there...
5) eat out less. Add additional savings towards retirement...
6) Juggle 5 balls (ambitious)
7) Continued Improvement w/ guitar.

I'm not even going to bother with like, keep room clean, etc...


That's close enough to 10.

This brought me to daily goals...

1) Ride trainer for 2 hours. I went and got a video of the 1999-2000 world cup cross country pursuit, so i'll have something to look at. but i need the LSD (long slow distance) of a bike, more than i need to run, so... I'll probably do this. Especially if it means skiiping
2) Clean room
3) Organize garage, do laundry
4) Grade papers (52 of them, 6 essays each)
5) Play guitar... (A-hA! now we're back in the realm of realistic, achievable goals)
6) Juggle.. ditto
7) Read some Harry Potter in French, or do some excercises in French.

Just to round it out to 10, let's combine 2-4 into some more realistic goals. I know it sounds like i'm just eliminating the onerous chores in favor of screwing around on my computer, and doing some more palatable tasks...

8) Prep skis. Done and Done... well, i'll get around to it.
9) Clean wax box. Ok, fine, whatever.

Hey look something shiny...

But the new year is a time for fun-lists as well. And since i have no real desire to do anything 'relevant' or 'productive' Here's my list.

Top 10 names I would want to name my kid, if i ever get married, and ever have a kid. You see how productive this is. But my dad wanted to name me Huckleberry Finn Smith, and while I'm pretty happy with my name, and well, with me, I think I might change my name to Huckleberry Finn Smith. Or Joe Kick Ass.

10) A category: Boys names based on Automobile names. You might think these are stupid, but you have no creativity. Big shout-out to my friends at Jeep. I mean, CRV just doesn't roll off the tounge, and western themed names can't be beat.
Laredo, Commanche, Lariat, Cherokee, Ranger, Bronco (although, i prefer Bronko), Eagle, Mustang, Trooper (the one japanese entry in the top 15), Cougar, Jaguar, Rover, Commander. You pick 10, and it's a top 10 with in a top 10

Cars that failed the test Cimarron (worst Caddy ever, basically a Chrysler K-Kar), Pinto, DeLorean, 325i, and Caravan, Gremlin

6) Girls names basded on automobiles. (yes, I just skipped 9-7, you think i'm really going through with this whole process?) Corvette. Miata. Marquise. Lexus. Alero. Lumina. Actually, most of these are not as good. I just can't imagine burdening a daughter with the name Alero.


Special Mention: Invicta Black Prince Wentworth and Vincent Black Shadow.

1) Tonk Blartron Smith.

intervals

this morning, classic ski'd. in case you don't know, here's the wiki for nordic skiing. my kick wax was awful, and has been every time i've gone for about a week and a half, after about 10 other days of beautiful classic skiing. the conditions have been marginally harder to wax for, but i've decided that the main reason is simply not enough wax for the skis, or i weigh less than i think, or both. they are fairly stiff skis, and i am fairly light, for winter standards.

tommorrow, i'm going to try, more wax! crazy.

the ski was 30 minutes of drills with the students, and then, 30 minutes of just skiing, while working on various specific techniques for 90 seconds a pop.

then i came home, ate more, played guitar, and went skiing again. this time, a full moon skate ski. should have left later, as the clouds were far less of an issue than i thought they'd be. the apparently gray sky was actually a VERY thin layer of clouds, and it was good light for skiing. the track was icy after the warm day, which affected my technique: when it's that 'fast' it's difficult for me to commit to the ski, basically, i get going too fast for the dim light to maintain good balance and form. that said, the intervals were productive.

after a 15 minute warm-up, 4, 4 minute intervals. with 4 minutes rest. the intervals were basically uphill, then flat, then back uphill. then a 10 minute cool down.

Frisbee corner. If you do a winter training program, intervals are great. Do a month or more of just base first, then intervals for a month. If you are running (instead of biking), be extra careful to go easy, or better yet, bike or swim easy on your off days as running is higher impact.

then, a noodle/stirfry, and ice cream.

big storm coming, w/ 11 inches predicted for wednesday night, 2 feet or so for the storm. Thursday should be awesome skiing on the down hill side. Racing saturday. School is on the horizon. Garbage is getting picked up tommorrow.

That's all.

happy new years

friday, a brief ski that felt... awful... that night... food poisoning. they say your body doesn't remember pain. that said, at the moment said alien tried to burst from my stomach, i in fact remembered vividly, my last battle w/ the microbial beast.

so i didn't ski on saturday, ski'd sunday, for 7km classic, then 7 km skate, then helped host a clinic (note, i say host: we had real talented coaches that did the real teaching) that involved say, 7km plus 3 other say 1 km 'technique sessions', then home for dinner, and then back for another say 6 km? what's that? think it's a lot.

today. raced a leg in a 3 x 3 new years relay. so i'm officially calling it a rest day. passed on the 'new year's frisbee game, as it was, well, a rest day... and i'm sort of in training...

tommorrow (and all week) the plan is one day per week ski, some weights... we're expecting a big dump (say 2 or more feet) of snow later in the week, so, i'll probably go telemark or alpine on those days... if i do, i'll probably skip the weights on those days.

sigh back to school in... WAIT... oh yeah. one more week of vacation.

ate sauteed kale greens and black-eyed peas for dinner, supposed to bring money and luck in the new year. i've been remiss the past few years. we'll see.

played a little guitar, studied some french, might MIGHT go ski the full moon again tonight... weather dependent, i think it's cloudy...

today...

break has been good, lots of skiing. yesterday was ridiculous, 4 hours (in two skis) about 40 km... arms are toast... today, a 1.5 hour skate ski, probably like 15 km or a little more, steady, easy pace... then a 2 hour break for lunch, and back up, and on the snow for 15 min warm up, and 4, 4 min intervals with 4 minutes rest, and 10 minutes cool down. snow was abrasive and slow, and my form was OK... i'm at a stage where i reach a certain exertion level, and my form suffers, so i'm gradually working to improve my form, so that i can hold form to match my out put... it's ... delicate.

the intervals were on a gradual uphill to flat/uphill, so i was able to use V1 and V2...

i play it by ear... i'm generally inclined to make hay while the sun shines, treat the vacation like a 'camp' with as much skiing as i can stand, but i'm aware there are physiological downsides to going going going. like... uh, gone. but i try to go easy most of the time.

i don't know if i'm getting 'better' as fast as i could get 'better', but i know, relative to last year, that i'm skiing better, just by the vast increase in volume. my theory is that i'm trading 'training' theory (i.e., ski easy, moderately) for skiing fun, and hopefully improvement will continue.

in a year or so, i'll definitely have to train smarter, not harder... but by then, hopefully abillity will allow me to do similar work load with more appropriate effort (read, go easier)...

i haven't gotten around to grading all the papers, i'm only noodling on the guitar a little (my hands are always cold and tired), and no significant reading, in english, or french.

i hope that next week (next year) will be a 'taper week' with only one day per week skiing, when i'll have time to grade, and chill/relax and feed my head.

that is all.

and more...

christmas, skied (telemarked) for a couple hours. good snow up high, a little wet down low. yesterday, some crappy intervals (and in, i skied crappy)... like 4, 4, 3, 4, 4... today skied like 21 km... and now i'm sitting down for a few minutes and heading back up... to do like a 1 hour classic ski...

tommorrow, should be about intervals in the morning, and a more leisurely ski in the PM.

going to take some pics soon... for those of you who live where it's warm...

2 gnarly wrecks on the road up and back... should be safer going up at 3:00 pm though...

so, like 31 days?

29 days and counting...

tired this morning, but got in a solid hour and half ski at a very pleasant slow pace. the race was a debacle. i skied like $#!^, grip wax was same, etc. oh well. i'm inspired to start training in earnest now. where others will be ramping up over the holidays for holiday indulgences, i will be going fully macrobiotic, lean, wild protein, hunted and killed with my own hands, 1.5 hours of stretching each and every day.

and ice cream.

lots and lots of icecream.

tommorrow, thinking it's going to be worth paying to ride the chairlifts, so i'll do that for a couple hours, take a brunch break, then skate, and classic for 1.5 hours....

maybe this will be the year i get to 100 ski days... of course, maybe this will be the year i get up and dunk again. hmm.

today, threw in an hour of guitar, and juggled a little... over to some neighbors for some christmas eve dinner. peace.

according to the map it's 9.6 km, w/ 400 feet of rise... so i did that twice, in 40, and 37 minutes, (note, to who ever reads this, it's really just so i can figure out 'next time' what i did, how i did it, and how i was feeling. i'm aware that you, any possible readers, do not care what i had for lunch.

but if you do, you'd love to hear about breakfast.
waffles, yogurt, blackberries, syrup, coffee.

shit. i just realized that the $100 i spent at the store, did not include syrup.

for lunch... well i had an apple, a bananna, and 2 oranges around 10, then i had peanut butter and jelly on leftover waffles at 10:30(out of bread). this is a suprisingly good sandwich by the way. the buckwheat waffle is a strange color, but nutricious and delicious. at 11:35, after a ski team meeting where the head coach did the talking, and i just lamented the fact that i didn't have a spoon, i trotted down to the teacher's lounge where the principal and his wife had a big spread. i had chips and bean dip. returning to the classroom, i had pasta with fresh carrots, brocolli, and cauliflower. after a little while i had an apple. then, the ski, and at last dinner. a light repast of chips and home made salsa, and hummus and fresh veggies.

can you tell the fridge was out of meat? then to the store, where after spending a ton on groceries, i ate again, a gourmet meal of 2 corn tortillas, refried beans, a scrambled egg, and vermont cheddar, with a little hot sauce and garlic worked in there.

tommorrow, either waffles with jam, or oats, the usual meal... but man, those buck wheat waffles are gooooooddd....

tommorrow is a classic ski day... and a big feed day, as the bread should be coming out of the machine now. the sandwich, will be turkey and salami with cheddar on home made white. i mean, i just can't deal with the low fat content of the turkey alone...

if you came from ultimate talk.com, and if you made it this far, here's a frisbee point.

a great drill for developing your throwing is to get a stack of discs (all you have). and practice throwing game throws to a space, and a target, then jog and get them. i.e., if you have 5 frisbees, fake a backhand to move the invisible mark, then pivot, extend and throw the same 'leading forehand' to a cutter 5 times. they will all land in the same place. next, pivot, and throw 5 hard flat throws to an imaginary team mate who is making a hard comeback cut. measure success by having the discs fly low, level and true on a straight line past a point where they would catch them...

wait. this is so bogus.

make a friend. play catch...

race a coming...

so since the race i've skied another say 8 days? So that's like 24 or so. have not gotten around to lifting, although i'm going to try to do some yoga tommorrow morning... classic race saturday... i think i'm just doing the 10 k, but there is a 20 k race... it depends on who i can talk into betting on what... not that it's outcome dependent... this type of bet, i usually bet way above myself, but i keep the stakes low enough, and it makes it more fun...

Some fresh snow dressing the trees for some great scenery, and a couple of amazing skis, scenery wise, whether it was getting lost. er... lost-ish. long story for a couple hours in the woods, or catching a couple of sweet sun sets w/ the sun and the mountains... well, you get the idea... every morning right now i get sunrise and alpenglow on the mountains in the distance behind school... school is very busy, basically it's taking as much as 30-1 hour of prep for each class of 85 minutes, not counting grading.

the grading is suffering. so am i, but the workouts go a long way towards clearing my head each day.

i've gotten back into the swing of plugging away at the guitar, and the french... the juggling too, although, i've a lot less time right now... luckily, i have little or no life...

started reading sideways (as in the book they made the movie from. haven't seen the movie, and i hear the book is good)...

that's all.

what i'm listening to...

this guy is a genius, if you didn't hear him on NPR this weekend, or at whatever hipper than me places you live...

www.jonathancoulton.com

i recommend (highly)

re: your brains

code monkey

the acoustical version of 'baby got back' is certainly nice, too... nice to hear such a true to the original source material of that other seattle legend, sir mix-a-lot.

nothing to do with frisbee.

yes, it's ski season, and you know what that means. what did i have for lunch. where, and how much did i ski. what am i reading. how is the juggling coming?

first of all, the overview. I spent 6 days in yellowstone over thanksgiving at a ski camp. We took 15 hs students, plus another 10 or so who are dually enrolled in a ski training program that trains for both hs races and JO's (junior olympics).

We ski'd 2 times a day, for an hour or so. The rest of the time was taken up, getting ready to ski, winding down from skiing, and eating. By the last 2 days, the desire to ski overwhelmed skiing, and i skied like 30 or 40 km per day. That took 3 ski's per day, over an hour sometimes.

(that was 6 days of nordic skiing).

Then I moved into a new house, about a mile from summit (my work). Accessible by a well plowed bike path, my studded gary fisher kaitai (1996) with the new fenders is serving me well. This has been a HUGE boon to my work, as it frees up over an hour per day. The house also has 17 foot ceilings, a true boon to the juggling.

I attended a 2 day clinic that a US Nordic Wax Guru, and general skiing stud, (and his wife is a Gold/Silver/Bronze medalist... all in the same event... can you tell me who that is), that helped somewhat. Then skied, tues/wed/thurs/fri/sat, including some epic full moon skates. I also spent a lot of time updating my HS Website: You can see what i'm teaching, if you like.

Then I took Sunday and Monday off to concentrate on a tight IT band (my poor skating technique aggravates a general tightness), before skiing Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Friday. (We go up after school, about 18-26 miles, dependant upon venue.

Today was a race, a 10K. I skied it in 37 something, 7 minutes faster than last year at this time, 35% off the winner, about 15% off where i'd like to be in the next year or so. It was also about a minute faster than my spring time on the same course, on what was slightly slower conditions for me. I wanted to go 36, but I blew my splits (my bad, lack of experience in race tactics (maybe the big minute or two), questionable wax / base prep (worth seconds, not minutes), and fatigue from lots of skiing, and a bad night's sleep from a good deal of work related stress. Last year in this race, I was the 'overall most improved skier in bend.' To repeat will be difficult. The race is filled w/ sandbaggers, and a comporable 15% improvement will be 5.4 minuntes, and a really difficult 5.4 minutes. I think I can approach that w/ improved technique (drills and video), longer slower days that the improved technique will allow, rest and intervals in the last 3 weeks prior to the race, and an effort to nail the wax and base prep.

So, 16 days of skiing (and like 24 'ski workouts'). I'll either take sunday or monday off as a rest day, and start working out again (i stopped lifting for yellowstone, getting use to skiing stress, and a mild back strain from moving that i didn't think squats/hang cleans/ and dead lifts would really help.

I'm racing a classic race in 2 weeks (10k) and maybe a 5k in a week. It's tough for me: as a relatively new nordic skier, jumping into longer races is tough. The 5 K should be more my speed: at least it won't kill me. I was wrecked today, barely able to keep on my ski's for the 1 or 2 k ski back to the lodge after the race.

In other news, I bought a new waffle iron, and a bread maker. This may cost me getting that digital camera i had my heart set on, at least for the next month or so. I also bought a new guitar (a cheapie) as i was using one belonging to a housemate at the old place. Right now there's a 'bananna / wheat' bread cooking that looks, to my uninitiated eye, to be going swimmingly. Tommorrow may be french toast.

Oh, and at my house-mates insistence (an no real resistance from me), we got the cable internet w/ the cable and the sports package. Hello, english premier league soccer. Tommorow, I think Chelsea is playing Arsenal.

I've done a poor job on the french with the move, but look to get back into it tommorrow....

Um. A buh, A buh, A buh, a that's all folks.