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December 01, 2006
I Blame Climate Change
This is bad. I last wrote in August. Now it's the first of December. And it's the same temperature. 65 degrees Farenheit today here in eastern Massachusetts. Not that that's unpleasant in itself. Yesterday, cooler by about 5 degrees, I ran 10k in shorts and short sleeves. Not even fingers were cold. But sometime after that last post I had determined to do more skiing this winter, even to set myself the goal of racing a ski marathon.
I am not an experienced skier. That is, while I have skied for 25 years or so, never very much in a given year, and never with any formal coaching. Tips from friends and relations, watching people who look good, that's about it. Anyway, that means the main thing I need to do to prepare is to ski. I've shifted my weight workouts to be more ski focused; I've lengthened my low-intensity runs; I've added hill running; I borrowed my in-laws roller skis but with no snow....
But I just heard some downhill World Cup skiing events were cancelled in Europe because of warm weather and lack of snow. Hmm.
I've told enough people about my plan to ski the Lake Placid Loppet that I gotta pretend it's gonna happen. I'll sign up--despite everyone who knows anything telling me how hard a course it is (it's the only race with a skating category within reasonable driving range and I do have some emotional ties to Lake Placid)--and I guess if I don't manage to get any time on skis I'll just be a DNS.
Meanwhile, I hope to check back in here more often with training topics and reports of my little attempts. I'm intimidated by the prospect, but I love being at the bottom of the learning curve. Just hope for some snow eventually....
22:45 Posted in X-C Skiing | Permalink | Email this