Beautiful Day

Tried to get up somewhat early to get a jump on whatever training I decided to do. I set the clock for about a quarter til 7, but I forgot one important step. I didn't turn the damn thing on. I ended up waking myself up around 7:15.

C-Dawg and myself decided it would be a good day for skate skiing. After 5+ hours on the trainer this week, I was ready for something a little different because my ass was starting to get numb. The only thing is we our timing was a little off to get up into the hills. We hit the 70 (we don't really say that around here) around 8:30, which, is pretty much the most popular time to go to the mountains. One reason I like skate skiing so much, is one can usually time it where one misses most of the traffic. I guess we weren't thinking this morning.

Despite the traffic, I don't know how you could have asked for a better day. Sunny day, not much wind, felt good, and snow conditions were good. Of course this means, you go out and hit some of the hardest trails at The Thumb. Not the hardest, but a damn close competitor for that title. They call it Lactic Grande, so I'll let you draw your own conclusion about the profile of that trail. When we hit the highest point of the trail system, there was a great view of the valley to one direction and a great view of The Divide on the other side. Can't ask for much more than that. Of course, I didn't have my camera, but if I would have, it would have been cloudy.

We made the long, fast, and sketchy drop back into the valley and on to the lodge. Had a little americano break, which, gave us the boost we needed to finish up our adventure. We ended getting in 3 hours. Pretty solid day on the skis especially considering the vertical. Nothing like Christmas weekend though. Big Sky has a nordic center called Lone Mountain. Lone Mountain=straight up. Short summary: 1.5 hours up (1800 ft), 45 minutes down. And when I say up I mean it. There wasn't one slight decent the whole time to the top.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to finish up the week with nice 4 hour road ride. Hopefully the weather will hold. I've really been craving some dirt time, but I just can't seem to make myself drive to the trails.

Well, I was going to type in a little blur I saw in Rolling Stone. It cracked me up this morning, but now as I am reading it, doesn't quite get me like it did 14 hours ago. I must have been high on the espresso.