Well, I'm thinking about starting this blogging business up again, however coming at it from more of a training point of view this time. As the snow starts to cover the mountains I've been living in for over a year, I am setting my sights on some lofty goals. All of which are centered around ski mountaineering racing (ski mo racing). If you don't know what this is (because very few people do, even here) it is this: Put skins (let you travel uphill on snow) on your skis, run up a snow covered mountain, take skins off, blast down said mountain, repeat. Last spring roomie Scott and I were introduced to this sport at the 5 peaks ski mo race here in Breck. It was 4 accents, equalling around 8500ft of vert. Both of us were very rookie. I, for one, was wearing a bike jersey, my relatively ginormous backcountry ski pack, using womens skis that were light in the ski world, but ridiculously heavy in the ski mo world, and a pair of rental boots that weighed a bit less then my own pair. And besides making crucial newbie mistakes, like letting our food freeze, and wearing rental boots (I had huge blisters for the last 3 hours of a 4.5 hour race), we had a blast and managed to not do horribly. I should also mention that my training was basically my winter of backcountry skiing. Trudging slowly up a skin track or through powder on a heavy set up. Scott had a few days on his, i'm gonna call it mid weight set up too (super light compared to a normal BC set up) but also never really trained to go fast. Basically what I'm getting at, is I got the itch...we both did. Here is a video of the five peaks in Breck, Scott and I make an appearance at 0:12 (you get to see my awesome set up) and again seeing scott cruising a 1:49 and my amazing duct taped water bottle holster at 1:54!

There are a few reasons why I'm gonna focus on ski mo racing this year. The first comes from my abysmal performance at the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs 50 miler in may. With the record snow fall, it was really hard to get a good ultra marathon base. I had to drive and hour and half at the least to find some good dry trails and on my wage as a liftie, it didn't happen too often. I did do alot of snow shoe running, but i just wasn't getting the volume (perhaps my refusal to run on paved roads was a bit stubborn). In what I hope is a correct prediction, training for ski mo racing is going to be great cross training for long distance trail running. It is considerably less impact letting me get more vert per day then running, i'll be doing a lot of vert and I think that it should be very beneficial for my climbing and descending legs once the snow melts, and you don't really get to go 60 mph snow shoeing. Another reason I wanna focus on it is because I think I can do well. I'm a strong aggressive skier and apparently that can be a real advantage in the sport (or rather a disadvantage if you aren't good) and I'm no stranger to clocking 10,000 ft of climbing in a day or getting after it for more than 6 hours. I will also be one of the youngest guys competing. Turns out, most 23 year olds (in Breck anyway) wouldn't be caught dead in lyrca, unless of course it was under 3 layers of tall tees and and a extra long hoodie, as they waddle to the bars so their jeans don't fall off. Basically saying that I'm hoping to get some sort of sponsorship out of this winter.
So this blog, for the time being, is going to be a look into a very inexperienced yet hopeful and motivated ski mo athlete's quest to wow some people and himself. I have no coach, only a few friends who dabble in the sport, and basically only my past experience in highly competitive endurance sports (if I can even call collegiate xc an endurance sport anymore) as a reference for training. It will be quite the experiment. But if it means I get to be outside enjoying this magical place, I am more then willing to get a little dirty figuring things out. Real training (I've been running and skinning) will start just as soon as Mtn Outfitters receives the bindings I ordered which should be by the end of the week. My basic plan is to spend the first month and a half to two months just getting out there and spending time on my skis logging alot of vert. Then I'll starting adding some threshold workouts as well as fast interval training to get that turnover better. And of course I'll be doing some long days hopefully once a week. I'll be tracking my training with my Garmin, mostly to see how much vert I'm doing, I'd like to see how much I put in this season on skis and possibly make a goal to work for.

This blog also might include a sub blog entitled "Bro Diaries" A look into the phenomenon of 'Being a Bro' from the perspective of an active young gentlemen from the inside of this otherwise lazy and ridiculous age demographic. I already have plenty of stories for this sub blog, from the ridiculous attire this community comes up with, to the comments I hear on the bus or at work. Here's a teaser: "I like disk golf, but man its just alot of hiking around, not a big fan of that" Awesome. Stay tuned for an in depth look to the a people whos only contribution to society is supporting ma and pop tall tee shops and local bars. Am I being elitist? Yes. OH! just remembered a conversation I overheard of a Snowboard instructor explaining to his student what "steeze" means. Gotta love Breck.

Well off to go run, got turned around by ski patrol this morning skinning up breck and therefore did not get the workout I intended. Dumb.


If you want more info on ski mo racing go here.