Attack of the bird

So there I am this morning, sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a nice bowl of tootie fruities. Then all of a sudden I hear some fluttering and a bird flies right past my head. This was very confusing since all the doors and windows were closed. I have no idea how it got in the house, maybe it was a phantom bird. But it sure was. The dogs did not notice it until it flew through the kitchen either. And of course they went crazy when they saw it. Quite entertaining, bark bark bark, chirp, barkbark, chirp, and so on it went. It took me a bit to figure out how to catch it, but I decided a plastic garbage can would be best. So I chased it around for a bit before catching it. Then let it fly away into the negative degree weather. I think that is why it came in. Maybe it felt the heat by the dog door and somehow found the strength to push through it, but not out.
When it was sitting on the window sill it was kinda cool because I could see its breath fog up the window. I did not know they had that much breath.

Chillin'

trying to fly.

movin up

Another weekend, another race, rather two more races. This time we went to lovely Cable, WI. More specifically Telemark. Quite a nice ski area I might say. Saturday was a skate race, last week basically all I did was work on technique which if I can get it down will make me a lot faster. So I just relaxed and thought about what I was doing, it paid off and I had one of my best skate races in recent history. I still feel I can go a lot faster too. The only problem was the course. For a little while the trail was nice, no rocks of anything, smooth, that kinda thing. Then for some stupid reason we turned onto a side trail that was crap. Rocks and sticks everywhere, dirt coming up too. There where also some large hills on this loop. On these hills it was really crap since everyone pushes their ski hard into the snow on hills. I was passing a kid going up on of the hills and then I hit a large rock I think and just stopped, not good for my skis or me. Oh well, I survived. All in all I finished just about 20 places higher in the skate race this weekend compared to last. It was pretty much the same people too. Things are lookin up.
Sunday was the classic race, since there was not enough snow to track a big loop, we just did a 2.2 km loop 6 times. The course was a good one, went up for nearly a km then back down. then up a short steep hill then some flat then up again. Since it was such a long downhill after the first uphill I just hammered it up and rested on the way down. My plan worked quite well and I got back the title of fastest classicer at olaf. wahoo. I also moved about 15 places up overall as well. I guess I am remembering how to ski. Also my place on the team for the trip out to Colorado has been secured. Sweet, a free trip!

my upper body looks ridiculously small, haha.

This week we have off before we start the regular semester. The team was going to go to Giants ridge, but we decided to stay in Duluth for free. All the people are staying at Lunds which means my house is nice and quite. HA!

indoor champs

The team did it again, we are the indoor frisbee champs. It was a decent game, at one point we were up 7 to 3. then something happened. and the score was 8 to 8 for the last 21 seconds. Luckily we scored right after the buzzer ending the game right then. Good thing too because I had an embarrassing drop in the endzone that could have sealed the game.
Yesterday during skiing I was not feeling that well, had to stop intervals. Today I dont feel any worse, but not any better so I am taking the day off. Hopefully I will feel good by tomorrow. I was sick for the coming race last year too. Not fun at all.
Besides not being 100% skiing is going well. I want to ride my bicycle, but it has just been to cold. It is supposed to be cold next weekend to, so maybe in a few weeks...

Warmest ever

weekend at Mt. Itasca. Usually the temp never gets above 0 when we are racing up there. This weekend it was a very warm 20 something. Very different, but anyways the races:
Saturday was a 10 k classic (it was supposed to be a skate), since the snow is a little low we did the smaller 2.5 km loop, not the 5km loop. This made me very happy, since the 5 km loop goes to the from the bottom of a downhill run, to the to and beyond. The smaller loop only half way up. The race went pretty well, we nailed to wax which makes racing lots more fun. I felt good almost the whole race, just a few times my back and foot hurt. In the end I ended up 2 seconds behind Nels. Pretty good seeing that last week was my first whole week on snow this year.
The best part about the race is that less then 5 seconds before I started I sold an Olaf hat to the starter. He said "um ya ya"
I said "wanna buy a hat"
"yes"
"sweet, ill be back"
"3,2,1 go!"
ha, good times.
By the way, hats are still for sale.

Sundays race on the other hand was not so fun, it was skate which for some reason I have always been not as good at. I really wish I could figure it out, but I just can't. I felt great for the first two laps, then I just died. I have no idea what happened. But it was not fun. It was a total of 6 laps, which means 6 times up the big hill. Needless to say I was toast by then end. I am just glad that race is over for the year. wahoo.

This is me being very tired...

Enjoying the weather?

So a few weeks ago Sean invited me to go down to Des Moines, Iowa (his hometown), because Lance was coming. Naturally I said yes, so yesterday was the day. We cruised down yesterday afternoon. Somehow Seans mom was able to get us into the predinner reception with Lance, where we could meet him and get a picture with him. So I got to meet Lance yesterday, the last time I saw him he was doin his thing:

Now, a few years later he was wearing a nice suit and a yellow tie, and not beating up on anyone.

I was trying to figure out what to ask him, I did not want it to be about biking. Since he always talks about that. Since it was figgin cold out, I asked him how he was enjoying the weather. He said, "We just got here and we are leaving right after." I assume this meant he was not enjoying it. ha. After he was done with photos he was standing around talking to a couple of the guys in his posse, ha. I wanted to talk to him, that would not be stupid, but I just could not think of anything to say. Of course right after he left I got something. I remembered at ski practice we were talking about whether he would be good at xc skiing. I shoulda asked him if hes ever done it or is going to. Oops. guess I'll have to give him a call or something.

After the reception, we went upstairs to a very large room where there was a thousand or so people. There we ate dinner and Lance gave a speech. The dinner was OK, and the speech was good. His main point was that we need to spend more time and money and researching cancer prevention and cures. He threw a little politics in (criticized the current gov't for spending so much on Iraq while cutting the NCI budget). He said a good amount of funny things too. Oh, also I like to think I inspired his intro, he said last time he was here (for Ragbrai) it was the hottest weather he had been in. Then yesterday it was quite cold, the coldest hes been in. ha.

crash!

Last night I was riding my unicycle about, and got going a bit to fast. Somehow I got caught up in the pedals and proceeded to fall off a curb. It kinda hurt, although it does not look to bad. It hurts quite a bit. But you know what they say, never give up. So after recovering for a minute or to I got back on and rode the rest of the way home.

Back to the racing

Since I am still on the ski team I traveled up to Elm creek to do a team time trail. It was in the duathalon format. For the guys a 7.5km classic then switch skis and do the same on skate skis. The girls did 5km of each. I was quite lucky that I had my wind block long underwear, that stuff is amazing, without it I would have frozen. Anyways I am mildly pleased with my results, my classic skis were not as fast as the others, but regardless I was able to stick with Nels until the last downhill into the transition zone. So I ended up second in classic, skate ended up not going quite so well. My skis were fine, but my calves cramped up soon after starting. Not much I could do besides keep going so thats what I did. I lost a bit of time to Nels and Ollie (who decided to join in the fun, he is the coach). Jens almost caught me, near the end, I saw him coming and decided he was not going to pass me so I took off. Found my 5th gear if you will. It was great, he went from being 5 or so seconds behind me to being 20ish in the last .5 km of racing. It is comforting to know that if I want to I can do that.
Overall I finished second of the racers on the team, this makes me happy and baffles me at the same time. Happy since the top 3 or 4 are going out to Colorado. But I have hardly been training for skiing, I have not rollerskied once this year, nor lifted. Counting Yellowstone I've skied less then 15 time, and without Yellowstone I think the total days on snow is 4 or 5. For me to beat people who have been ski specific training since last spring is quite strange. I think the debate of whether biking helps skiing is over, it for sure helps. Fun.
The real test will come next week when we go up to Mt. Itasca. Hopefully I will do even better!
Pictures maybe to come later.

Also I just saw to cardinals outside, I thought those were warm weather birds, or?

candy cane fun

where did it go???

tired

Yesterday I though it was too cold/windy to go ride bike. So at 2 I went out for a run, I was really hot and the wind was not bad. So I quit that and went over to meet Sean to go for a ride. It was really quite windy. 22 gusting to 28 or something like that. We went into the wind for about 45 minutes, then turned around and made it back in about 25. It was great on the way back. On the way out some cars got pissed off, right after one went by the back right door was shut. I can only assume that somebody wanted me off the road and were willing to hurt their door for it. Then right after that some guy in a big white pickup had to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before he went around, he revved his engine multiple times and was all pissed off. I really don't see why people get so angry, but whatever.
After dinner I got to play some soccer, I got on an intramural team. We got beat but it was pretty fun.
This morning I woke up at 5 40 to go do some skiing, up and down the downhill runs at a place in the cities. I am exhausted now, and still have more things to do today. Crap.

Sean is like the energizer bunny, he keeps going and going...

lots to little

yesterday lots of riding. 5.5 hours in the wind, to much work to write about. So I won't!
Today I was feeling tired and had a runny nose, it was also a little chilly. So I decided to not ride outside. Finn, Brandon, Sarah, and I went and played some tennis, then some basketball. Then after dinner our frisbee team had a game. We won by a lot to a little. Good times. Then Finn, Brandon and I waited around until the games were over then we rode inside.

it was mildly entertaining, warm and only the wind one creates. Also a lot more entertaining then trainers...

Also, Olaf gear is finally in the works. If you want something lemme know.

Sean and Jakes world tour

The journey got off to a great start when Sean knocked on my door at 8:15 (plan departure of 8) and I was still in bed. I don't know if I turned my alarm off or never set it. Either way I was late. Sean went out and rode around a bit while I got ready, then we were off. We went west. Somehow by going west we ended up in Montgomery (Alabama). The some more west and the a little north we ended up in Heidelberg (Germany) it was sweet! We kept on cruising and soon enough we showed up in New Prague (Czech). After a little more riding we came upon Little Chicago (Illinois). We also cruised all over Le Seuer County I think we were in France at that point. We also passed close to Vesilse, a nice little Italian town. Since we went west originally that would mean that we also passed through Asia, but we were going so fast I was not able to read the town signs, although we nearly stopped in China to get some food at a restaurant.
Overall it was a good trip. A little bit fast, I mean 4 hours to get around the world, you do the math, we were cruisin! I think next time we will go a little slower and enjoy the sights...

Support the nordies

It just so happens that I am being told to sell some hats. Now these are not just any normal hats, they are St. Olaf skiing hats. Not only are they nice hats, but much of the proceeds are going to support the nordic ski team, which believe it or not I am a member of. But anyway the hats are nice, they are merino wool, and polypro. so quite soft and stretchy. I just looked them up on gear wests webstie, there they cost 27, without the Olaf advertising. I however am selling them for 25. So you are saving $2 and supporting a good cause! If your interested send me an email, or call.
here is what it looks like.

not to shabby

In other news, I am back at school, and Sean and I are riding bikes.