January, Cold Season, and Chinese Downhill!

I got sick last week and still shaking off some of the garbage. You know, that nice hacking congestion and clogged shnoz. With all the travel over the holidays it's no surprise one of us would catch something. Just glad it was me and not Kate since she starts her schooling back up. It's been awhile since I've gotten sick, but such as life. It's January, so I'm not whining too much about it. Below is the weekly log which is basically nothing, but with today's first visit to our local ski mountain I have a little reflecting to do.

Ok, lets get the log out of the way:
- 2000yds straight in the pool,
- 6-mile run through the snow along the Boise river.
- Two 45-min rides on the trainer. Heart through roof at half power. Cut it short.
- Full day of Skiing today.

Yeah, Kate and I hit the slopes today. We were planning to head up the mountain on Saturday, but I still wasn't quite up for it because of the cold. We got there today to find some perfect weather and some beautiful slopes. Head out to Kate's blog for some kick-ace pictures and such.

Skiing was my passion as a kid, yet growing up in Northern Wisconsin you had such "iffy" snow conditions that if you got 2-months of skiing it was good. As a kid I was on the local ski team and did pretty well at slalom, giant slalom, and jumping; however, my true love in skiing was downhill. Fast fast fast. Once again, living in Wisc you have some limitations to downhill courses, but you make due. I'm sure I have the unofficial record for the most runs at our local ski hill in one day. The second I was at the top I would rip into a full tuck to get down then head right back up. Franz Klamer was my skiing idol (also checkout his 1976 gold medal run at YouTube) so I would mimic him the best I could. Franz was a downhill god back in the 70s and 80s. If my tuck-run took 30-seconds it was probably too long. Up down up down...all day. Pretty friggin sweet.

To make and save money, my Mom was the head kitchen cook at the ski hill so her boys could ski free. Then she was off to some other job (e.g., waitressing, cleaning, etc.) just so her boys could have some of the same things the other local boys could have. I look back and it's pretty amazing how my parents made the hardships so transparent. As an adult now I can only admire and hope I can do the same for my rug-rats some day (scary thought).

It had been since 1995 since I last skied and that was a quick trip to Cascade in southern Wisconsin. Don't ask me why it's taken so long to get back into the sport. I suppose it's easy to phase out when you don't live anywhere near a ski hill in Illinois. When I lived in Wisconsin you could drive 2hrs north to some of the best skiing in the midwest. From Bloomington it was just too hard to plan a trip and I never hooked up with people that showed much interest. Over time I guess I just phased it out and replaced it with running and eventually triathlon.

Oh yeah, so you ask, how'd I do after coming out of retirement? I was a freakin rockstar homies!!!! :) Actually, I'm not ashamed to admit that I did pretty well considering the time away and on new equipment. I seemed to fall right back into things though I did crash and burn on one of the double-diamonds. That was humbling to say the least, but a ton of fun. I'm ready to head back!

Peath out-th,
Drew.