Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Finished roughing out all the Day 1 courses for the US Classic Champs. I'll put them aside for now and look at them later. I imagine I'll make some changes once they've had a chance to ferment a little, but it was nice to see I didn't have to work very hard to put together some workable designs--a tribute to the terrain.

Cold and crisp out, but the sun was nice and took the edge off of things. Tracks were freshly groomed for great skiing!

A chilly way to close out the running year. Nothing melting out in Laramie today, and the valley albedo is about as high as it gets. Beautiful views out to the west side of the valley.

Full tilt blizzarding Yowsa! conditions, all roads closed, and therefore no Happy Jack skiing today, and that's for sure. Fully expect to have to repeat this workout later.

C • 2

When all the roads out of town are shut down by howling blizzards, the bike is not a bad option to take.

After a few days of colder skiing, the place you feel it is...in your arms. Not as cold or as windy as yesterday, and the trails were in great shape!

The last vestiges of the dregs of the tail end of yesterday's snow.

Big wind, big chill.

Sleeping in until 10:30 or so this morning was the perfect set up for this fine ride! There's nothing like getting up fully refreshed in the morning, and that's for sure!

About 2", very fine and light. Powder Yowsa!!!

But, wait, there's more--a new supply of Yowsa!!! has just started up.

On the cold side, close to 0F, but little wind so not bad, and with very fine grained snow falling the whole time. Several inches of new, ungroomed snow was already on the trails.

Got out at midday and the conditions were super nice: freshly groomed trails, new snow hanging off all the trees, sunny, and only a little bit of wind. The parking lot was jammed like bangalore--can't remember that so many skiers have been up during the holidays before.

"Whole Lot Of Snowin' Goin' On"

After an extra leisurely morning, Kris and I headed up for the trails in mid-afternoon. It had been snowing lightly all day up until about then, and there were about 6-8" of new powder perfect fluff as result. The parking lot was obviously popular, and a good number of skiers were out enjoying the Double Gonzo conditions. So fine!

After skiing, I was pretty hungry, so I had some leaves. And then I remembered that an empty package of dried cranberries might have had one last cranberry wedged in a corner, and when I looked, I was right! I was so happy, and I ate it all up. What a Christmas!

Ran shortly after nightfall, out onto the North Prairie, and until the full moon rose. There was a gossamer thin layer of cloud for it to shine through, which gave it a pale milky yellow aspect. The town was beautiful and quiet and nobody had automaton devices in their yards playing endless Christmas songs. Christmas songs are fine, but the automaton devices are not.

I ran back on the golf course, which was devoid of golfers. Possibly the course was closed, possibly golfers don't like playing in snow at night, and possibly glofers are just durn scairt of the rising full moon.

The best part was no televangelists attempted to snare me and turn me into one of their minions.

Beautiful conditions with 2-3" of new snow coming by surprise in a quick "here it is, there it goes" storm that the forecasters overlooked. Trails were perfectly groomed, and the moon was as magnificent as a full moon can be.

I am almost positive not a single song from Tom's (well, disorienteer's) playlist came to mind, and I will leave it as an ambiguity as to whether that was a fine or not so fine thing.

Now, not that anyone asked me, but if I were putting together a playlist for tomwcarr, I would keep in mind that it doesn't take much to fully occupy the mind of an applied mathematician. And so I would keep it simple and the entire playlist could therefore be distilled to a single song: "If 6 Were 9". I'm certain that would be ample to keep him busy and content for at least several hundred hours worth of workouts.

C • Particle man 8

A decent ski on a decent winter solstice with a nearly full moon burning down, at about 98.6% illumination or maybe a tetch more. The winds were on the attack today!

The Weatherpeoples said there might be a little snow to take care of today, maybe an inch or two, but instead we got some Yowsa!!!

Excellent Yowsa!!! workout! There's potential for another Yowsa!!! workout this afternoon, if the snow keeps coming.

A double Yowsa!!! day already, and there's still plenty of day for more Yowsa! Yowsa!!!

There were a couple of inches of new powder today, which was in the process of being groomed by the time I got out on the trails. It snowed lightly nearly the whole time I was skiing, until the end, by which time the moon decided to put in an appearance. Great conditions!

Mild enough out that snow is melting off the streets even though it's overcast. Definitely snowing over on the other side of the valley. Maybe--hopefully--some will hit the XC trails on this later.

Snow quality = pretty good; snow quantity = on the low side, compared to past years. Time for some more snow!

Snow sparkles in the moonlight.

Sunshine was big the wind was lusty.

8 x 5 minutes, out in The Flats. It smelled like Burger King.

Considering the wind, there were surprisingly few trees down. Temps were almost balmy, maybe even above freezing--whew! Spotted 14 skigurls, 5 guysonskis, 8 dawgs, 2 sets of turkey tracks, and 0 sub-morons. I don't think the sub-moron crowd is especially attracted to skiing, though you never know.

First time my arm has felt nearly back to total strength and utility since the smash-up at Possum Trot. At any rate, I was able to ski completely normally at last. Probably still a good idea to not fall again anytime soon though!

Excellent sunshine, and even though it was a bit windy, the temps were moderate to the point that all was necessary was a light jacket. Quite a fine day to be out on the trails.

Just after sunset, when things start getting a little chillier again.

Luckily, there was plenty of fresh air, thanks to the kind of wind you only rarely see anywhere else.

My skis were very slippery. I wonder if it is possible some sea squid juice got on them somehow? Or maybe it was related to the fact that I gave in and waxed them. But I'm not going to do that again this year, and that's a promise!

About 2" of fresh, powderlight fluff.

A little chilly, and nice skiing on more new snow. 0F at home when I returned.

Very nice ski at high noon. Great snow, great sun! I was the only desperado, though there were a few other skiers out.

Storm clouds moving in? Many fox tracks, no foxes. But that's ok. I still got my guitar.

At noon, it looked great outside, but--dadgummit--the highway east was closed and entire swaths of truckers were festooning the east end of Grand Avenue, not to mention the Wal-Mart parking lot. Must be wind, icing, and multiple wrecks up top, otherwise the highway should be open! If you step outside, you can hear the mournful cries of a thousand XC skiers, who just want to go skiing.

Got lucky and managed to squeak through a narrow window of opportunity as eastbound I-80 was closed nearly all day, opened briefly in the mid-afternoon, and then shut down again. That was enough for me, but not for most others, as I only saw two other skiers the whole time I was out. It was windy, but not cold, and the skiing in the trees was super terrific!

I suspect the towing and salvage companies made out like bandits today, with lots of wrecks due to wind icing on the most vulnerable sections of the interstate between Laramie and Cheyenne; realistically almost the entire stretch is vulnerable, but who would trade it for Houston?

Perfect--not too much, not too little.

Snow fell overnight and into the mid-afternoon; maybe 8-10" new powder in total? Conditions were quite good, and all the trees were decked out in white. The trails were all but empty when I arrived, but were pretty busy by the time I left at dusk.

The new snow has been skied in, the trails groomed several times, so now I think we are fairly well prepared for a new helping of snow!

Very close to dead calm again while I was out skiing, and that plus some sun made it so fine.

Out on the north prairie, with a light wind from the north that was chillin'.

Full sunshine, and winter crisp temps! Fast snow.

Easy run in the late afternoon sun. Only a tiny breeze. And Denver is even going to end up beating the Chiefs. So fine!

Skiing debut for the 2007-2008 season, at the Happy Jack trails. Pretty decent snow cover considering how the trails looked on Tuesday, and--more importantly--no falls! To top it off, it was all but dead calm, which almost never happens.

I had to take it easy with my left arm, but it's coming around.

All the skiers I saw were very happy.

It was almost as cold out as it would be for a typical Possum Trot. brrrrr!

Up in the hills; 4-5" new snow made for soft footing. Excellent!

Decided to try some off road biking to see if my arm could handle that yet, and basically it was fine for that. Looking snowy over in the Snowies, but not so much in the Laramies. : ( The forecasters are advising there is hope, however!

I ran up at Happy Jack to scout some of the trails for myself, and confirmed that, yes, we need more snow, and that, yes, if you are willing to sacrifice some ski bases, some of the trails are skiable now.

But a big storm would help matters greatly, and the rumor is one is headed this way tomorrow!

It might not have been cold out, but it was still too chilly to be riding without some gloves!

C • Fingers 2

Hip still pretty sore, but it feels entirely like a bruise on the outside of the hip, and as far as I can tell my little crash and burn didn't do anything to re-initiate the hip problem I had last year. But as a sound safety measure, I will keep my fingers crossed anyway.

Thought about trying some light running, but then thought better of it and did a little biking around Laramie instead.

Maybe not Sweet Home Chicago, but home sweet home at any rate, after finishing off the drive through Husker Country. The most interesting thing I saw in Nebraska today was, of all things, a camel out in a barn lot along with some horses, llamas, and cows. You don't normally expect to see camels in Nebraska.

The wind fortified considerably on the west side of Sidney, and by the Wyoming border it was blowing something proper. Warning signs on the interstate between Cheyenne and Laramia stated: Strong 60+ mph wind gusts. I don't know what the technical difference is between strong and ordinary 60+ mph wind gusts, but I do know what the practical difference is. And today the practical difference was a string of three semi-trailer rigs in a space of about a quarter mile that had been blown over just beyond Vedauwoo. It looked like they had probably been hit by one great gust all at the same time, and it also looked like it must have happened just before I was driving by, since one truck was still blocking a lane, and since the tow trucks hadn't arrived yet. The wind was really howling demons on that last stretch from there to the Visitors Center!

Yesterday I violated the 2nd commandment of O', which is: Thou shalt not fall. An unseen tendril of barbed wire reached out and grabbed a foot, and I went down hard on a dry streambed of rocks. I was very glad to lay there and gradually realize I hadn't broken anything or cyclopsed myself, and to be able to get back up and start jogging out of there. Once I finished though, pretty much everything on my left side stiffened up quickly, and today I'm limping from a big bruise on my hip and I can't quite get my left arm up to the horizontal. Lifting anything much heavier than a book with that arm is a problem.

But I was glad to find out that I can still exercise on a trainer without difficulty! And I'm guessing that in just a few days everything should heal up and be about normal again.

Counterbalancing the smashup from the fall, I ended up with by far the fewest scratches I've ever had from a Possum Trot. Usually my legs end up with too many scratches to count and hamburgerish in appearance, but this time I only have two or three scratches, and they're tiny scratches at that.

C • what, no pictures?? 4

Possum Trot. Report to follow? Maybe. Fun weekend, and for the folks who missed it, too bad--you missed it.

Meanwhile, good news on the skiing front; reports out from Laramie state that grooming of the trails has commenced today. Yea!

On the way back home, I stopped at several places in Nebraska for rest breaks, and I asked a few people each time if they had heard about the Possum Trot results and what their race analysis was, but all anyone wanted to talk about was the new Nebraska Head Coach. Very baffling, eh?

C • skiing 5

No question about it--the weather in the KC area has turned distinctly Possum Trottish, and just in time! Lots of cold rain and even some wind. Perfect trotting conditions. So fine!

Orienteering at the west end of Clinton Lake. Not sure what the event was except that it wasn't the Kansas State Championships and that the fields were full of tall grass prairie. Fortunately the tall grass prairie wasn't infiltrated with infidel briars or even any just regular briars, and so the day did not go down as a bloody affair. It was windy with episodic light rains, but not cold, and so overall an improvement over the typical Trot weekend type weather.

For my efforts, I won some green tea powder goat butter soap--and that's no joke--which, according to the information printed on the packaging, promises to make showering with a member of the opposite sex unusually interesting! Now, that's a prize!