Oh, and we’re supposed to get about 5 more inches of snow today.  This is just wonderful.  

That is all, I must go back to bed.

Since then, I have had two more skis on the field, a strength workout, and three glorious days working with the pre-k through 5th graders at school.  That first day on snow was glorious simply for the fact of being on snow.  The snow was super wet and I had to stop so much to kick it off the bottom of my skis, but I didn’t care.  Yesterday, though, was a completely different story.  I resolved to try and do my AT intervals on the bit of crust that I hadn’t tracked up the day before on the half of the field that hadn’t melted.  I thought that the skiing might be rough and that I might have trouble getting my heartrate up as I would be turning around so much.

I was wrong.  It was the best AT interval session I have ever done.  Maybe it was because it was the first interval session I have ever done.  Perhaps it was because my heartrate was just below threshold the whole time.  It could have been the perfect temperature, gorgeous sunset or any number of things.  I know that a huge part of it was because my technique felt so awesome.  As I was striding on my $25 garage sale fischer crowns on 1/4 inch of crust with grass and sand in spots, I felt like I had been born with classic skis on.  I couldn’t imagine what it will be like to be in tracks on race skis.  Then, I remembered I have never classic skied on snow before at all  Last year I only learned to skate, and that was all the equipment I had.  How the heck did my technique get so good?

I have been catskiing since April.  That’s how I learned to classic ski so well, and how my lower body has gotten so strong.  I almost can’t believe it, except I experienced it.  Check out the website www.catskier.com.

Besides the exciting skiing that has been taking place, I have had some time off from cooking at camp and been playing with the kids at St. Joseph’s school in Baraboo.  Those kids are hilarious and tons of fun.  Being an aid is like the best job because I get to hang out with them at all the best parts of the day — recess, lunch, recess, library, recess, projects, plays, recess. I have been having so much fun between school and skiing.  I may have had a little too much fun though, because I am feeling a little too close to sick for my comfort.  In the name of good health, I have decided to skip my strength workout in the morning in favor of extra sleep before I fly home to NY for some Thanksgiving with the family, and new scenery for training.

1) Forgetting the cool part of the workout about which I was going to blog.

2) Trying to do VO2 max intervals at 6:30 am 12 hours after I did a sick strength workout and then realizing I need to scrap the whole workout halfway through.  (that happened this morning, I know not to try that again.)

3) Having to replace a bungee on my catski in the middle of an interval.

4) Realizing 3 minutes into my 3 hour long slow distance ski that I am starving.

5) Waking up and realizing I don’t have to work so I can ski all day, but it’s a rest day.

6) Waiting for snow!

7) Dryland training for 9 1/2 months.

When the valve on my hydration pack freezes.

9) Skiing as hard as I can and suddenly my heart rate monitor is reading 37.  My heart rate is not even that low when I’m sleeping.

10) Getting passed by some grandpa with better skis than me during a race.

Truthfully, it was a bit of a stretch for me to even think of those ten things.  This website probably doesn’t have enough storage for me to write about all the things I love about skiing.  I sure don’t hate skiing.  I just hate waiting to ski!

In the last training week, I endured a rest day.  Right, we all know they are important, and we attack them with the same intensity and focus that we attack any of our workouts.  But, the truth remains, most of us would rather work out every day.  I distracted myself enough by causing some trouble around camp, catching snowflakes on my tongue, and some sightseeing at Mirror Lake State Park.  This is where I usually train, so it was nice to be moving slow enough to look around and enjoy the view. 

I also survived some intense, uphill, VO2max intervals, (8 of them, 5:30 each, to be exact), some AT intervals, general strength (which I detest) and a 3 hour CATski.  Keep in mind, that all of these are done alone.  Day after day, hour after  hour, it is just me and the sound of the CATskis, the thoughts in my head (dangerous) and the stories I make up about the olympics, being on the US ski team and meeting Bjorn Daehlie.  Most recently I spent about 45 minutes of my workout imagining what would ensue if I happened to come upon the USST training at MY state park. (I read somewhere that if you are the only one training for the olympics at a state park, that entitles you to ownership).

I have also, so far, survived the illness that is running rampant around camp.  Ranging from a bad cold, to pneumonia, I have been doing everything I know how to stay healthy.  This includes, but is not limited to, getting extra sleep, remembering to take vitamins, drinking extra water, and changing my workout schedule on days where I feel even remotely off. 

If all goes well I will be not only surviving, but winning, my first race on December 13. 

First I had a few visitors on a beautiful, sunny, Fall day.  It was nice to have them walk with me as I catskied for 3 hours.  Even so, I had to keep us all entertained.

First there was this pipe that was running across the trail I was trying to catski down.  I couldn’t go around it…I couldn’t go under it…I couldn’t go in it…Naturally, I tried to ski down it.  A little later we came to a nice playground near the lake, meant for small children.  Or small adults?  First stop — the swings.  This was a great core workout. 

Next, some monkeying around…

And some of the scenery of the day and other photos from the weekend can be seen here. 

After that it was off to Milwaukee for a rest day involving High School Musical 3, a Matt Maher concert.  In case you missed it, you can check out what you missed here.  It was an awesome concert, and we had a great time being Matt Maher groupies and even getting backstage.  Hey, I know how to keep myself entertained on rest days.  These things also help to keep things in perspective and make sure I don’t forget skiing isn’t the only thing out there.  Speaking of rest, I have been reading Pete Vordenberg’s book, Momentum: Chasing the Olympic Dream.  I figured it would be a good thing to read since I am also chasing the Olympic Dream. 

Then, finally, this happened

Or maybe that was just my dreams.  It’s hard to tell really, since my dreams always come true.  Anyway, it snowed on Sunday during a double pole workout.  Nothing actually turned white, and it mostly melted before it even hit anything.  But it did motivate me for that day, and was a sign of things to come.  It was very exciting when it continued to snow for a couple hours while we played some flag football.  This used to be a speed workout for me, now it’s more like level one.  It snowed a bunch yesterday as well.  Things even turned white for brief amounts of time.  By sunset it was just starting to mess with me.  Soon enough I suppose…

Until there actually is skiable snow I will continue the dry land training and the excitement for races and the opportunity to compare my skiing with a year ago.

The first thing I have been waiting for is the busy-ness (or business) of Autumn to slow down.  There have been groups on camp just about every day in October.  When not cooking for them I have been busy teaching religion to the middle and high schoolers at our church, working with the youth Mass band, and playing with the youth groups.  In between all this I managed to find enough time to work out just about every day, some days even twice.  The training has been getting harder and more intense.  Many days I have felt like an elite athlete, except for the part where I work before, after and between all workouts and have trouble finding time to take in enough calories.  This is why I have not had time to write about all the great training I have been doing, and why I look forward to work slowing down the next couple of months.

In the past couple weeks, since returning from the Pork, I have been getting in some quality workouts.  I trained without my heart rate monitor for a while (there’s that waiting thing again) and had to really rely on my gut and my body to know how hard to go in intervals, etc.   Since getting it back however, I have been realizing all this training has been paying off.  I am having to work harder and harder to get in the right zones for my intervals, and have been going faster and faster in level one.  I am eagerly awaiting snowfall so that I can put my new body to test on the ski trails. 

Meanwhile, however, I have been keeping myself busy.  Though pushing myself is never really an issue, I have been challenged by many of my recent workouts.  Most notably the 8 X 5:30 uphill intervals in level four.  I did these in town, since I was visiting a friend, instead of at camp where I normally workout.  I am pretty sure that at least two people photographed me.  If I wasn’t in the middle of the interval I definitely would have stopped and charged them for my picture, or at least asked them to sponsor me.  I also probably got so me strange looks as I lay in the grass on the side of the road between intervals.  I have also done some loooooooong slow workouts and been greatly enjoying the changing scenery around me.

Another thing I have been waiting for is some type of sponsorship.  Of course, I have been doing some work towards this.  I applied to team clifbar and am waiting  to hear back from them.  I have also talked to the local shop Wildside Adventure Sports, it seems I will be able to work something out with them.  I am sure that other opportunities will present themselves, I am just waiting to think of great ideas.  I also tell as many people as I can about my Olympic dreams and lack of funds/equipment.  Often, this results in a one time/super generous donation.  This happened recently. 

So I am waiting for a lot of things…but training is good, work is good, sleep is better than ever.  All in all, life is good.  I feel stronger physically, mentally and spiritually every day.  It is a good feeling to fall asleep knowing that I took solid steps towards my goals that day.  Now I just can’t wait to do some races and see if I am doing as well as I perceive myself to be…

Pork

October 8th, 2008

1)I can feel myself getting stronger and fitter

2)I am definitely recovering from that awful illness I had a couple weeks ago

3)It will probably start snowing next week and not stop until June

4)The colder weather has made working out so much more comfortable

What’s even better than those things, though, is that I have gotten to share my love of training and skiing with many people the past couple weeks.  My coach was here, so it was nice to have someone to do LSD and hard intervals with.  I do get tired of talking to myself… We even had a friend join us in working out at Mirror Lake State Park.  Although he was running, not catskiing, it was nice to keep running into someone on the trails who we knew!  This is not something that happens to me often.  In fact, I’ve spent many hours out on the trails without seeing another soul.

Several friends have also showed interest in skiing lately, and have been asking for lessons.   My spare poles and boots have definitely been getting used well!  It’s so exciting to think that, come winter, I will have plenty of people to ski with.  It’s more exciting to think that all these people might come to love it as much as I do!

More on the students later, and soon some pictures of the changing colors.  Speaking of changing colors, Iw will be up in the Porcupine Mountains camping, relaxing, and getting in some quality training this weekend.  I can’t wait!

After a nice long night of eating and then sleeping, I woke up and get ready to do today’s workout - LSD.  I affectionately refer to it as LBD-Long Boring Distance.  Let’s face it, by September 20, these workouts can be kind of boring.  Especially if, like me, you are not fortunate enough to be part of a team or at least have training partners.  I do about 99% of this stuff by myself.  I start to feel like I am crazy, talking to myself about how pretty the trails are.  “Wow it’s such a nice day”  “Yea, it’s nice and sunny and just a beautiful day.”  “It’s 80 degrees and I’m sweating like Niagara Falls.  It would be a more beautiful day if it was 20 degrees and I was gliding down this hill.” “Yea, come on your time will come though and this will make it so much sweeter.”  “Right, I feel much better. Now, how long have I been catskiing?” “Sweet, only 2 hours 38 minutes left.”  Awesome.

Seriously though, these workouts are a great time for me to pray and think and do such individual matters.   However, there are some times where there’s really just nothing going on in my head and then I get too unfocused by how hot it is, how much time I have left, how people are looking at me like I have 12 heads because they have no idea what catskis are… 

But today I decided to spice things up.  My workout was to be about 2:40 with 4×30secs level 5 mixed in.  I knew exactly the hill I wanted to do those on.  This hill is long and steep, and the last 10 yards get even steeper.  This is not a hill I usually go near while catskiing, because it is so far from my house.  I prefer to catski out the door, and a level 1 catski is often slower than a normal walk.  I go to the state park a mile away, do one trail and head back home.  Today I decided to be adventurous.  I planned to ski part of the first trail, hop on the second, and then sneak out to the road to take the back way home.  I figured I could do all this in 2:40.  Actually, I figured it would take longer, but on the off chance I did it in that short a time I decided to try.  The new route definitely helped keep me from getting bored. 

It actually was a really nice day, too.  Though extra hot, there were plenty of leaves starting to turn yellow and red, and the parts of the second trail I haven’t seen since the spring are just extra nice to look at.  I always think I’m dumb for not bringing my camera, and then I remember I’m working out.  Everything just looked exceptionally beautiful today.  This opportunity to experience nature has always been one of the reasons I’m sure God wants me to ski.

There are other reasons why I feel as if it’s not just a joke that I’m doing this whole ski thing.  Countless things have happened that others might shrug off as coincidence.  But I don’t believe in such a thing, and these instances are proof to me that I am doing a good thing.  Today was a perfect example.  My catski ended up taking over three hours.  On an already long and potentially boring workout, I misjudged the route, making it take longer.  But I loved it.  I never felt tired or bored at all, until right when I got back to camp.    Two other funny things also happened at this exact moment.  First, I drank the last of the water in my hydration pack.  I really hadn’t filled it much at all, and shortly after starting the workout I realized that was a mistake and that I was going to suffer.  But I never did.  For the entire workout, whenever I wanted or needed water it was there, until that moment.  The battery on my mp3 player also died at that exact moment.  I don’t normally enjoy listening to music while working out outside, but I had brought some this time to entertain myself.  The rechargable batter was almost dead when I started, and I expected it to last about 25 minutes.  I figured after that I would go back to the sounds of nature and rocks shaking around in my head.  They actually lasted the entire workout until I stepped back on camp property, my legs started to hurt, and my water ran out. 

It was crazy.   And beautiful.  And fun.  And sweaty.  I am pretty sure Jesus was skiing with me.  It was like the loaves and the fishes except it was the water and batteries.  It’s always been like this with me and skiing.  Things always just fall into place at just the right time to help me get what I need so I can continue to pursue my dreams (which are really just expectations).  I always think I’m so funny because I joke about things and then I actually do them.  But sometimes it’s evident that God is feeding me the lines and they’re not jokes.  They just sound crazy coming out of my mouth, because even I don’t know where they came from.  These are the kinds of things I reflect on when I’m working out by myself for hours each day…

Sure, I probably should have seen it coming and done something about it.  But this is a ton better than I would have done last year.  Playing team sports my whole life, including college lacrosse, have worked my mental muscle memory into this immediate reaction when I’m sick, “So what, get up, get dressed, go to practice, work as hard as you can anyway, no excuses, do you want to win or not?”  I’d say this was a big step I took, since I didn’t even have to repress those thoughts this morning.  My immediate reaction was to cancel all my workouts and stay in bed.  I finally pulled myself out of bed around 11:30 to shower, force myself to eat, and restock my fluids.  Except for a brief stint on the couch, I spent much of the rest of the day pursing such activities as sleeping, reading, daydreaming and sleeping until around 2:30.  At which point I had a little work to do in the office before cooking dinner for a group of 50 here.  I was moving pretty slowly at first, but once I warmed up it actually felt good to be doing something! 

About that daydreaming I did all day though…I spent some time reflecting on the beauty of my job this year.  That is, I woke up sick and was able to s