Nothing much

Only thing that is happening now is a tiny bit of biking, and preparing for Ski nationals out in Colorado. Other than that the only interesting thing that happened was the storm that passed through the last few days. We only ended up getting 6 or 7 inches of snow, down from the predicted 16, I think because it was a lot of hail and freezing rain. People were quite wussy during the storm. Some refused to go outside for 3 days. Lame, people are lame...

On a good note, we are flying out to Colorado now instead of driving, I think that must be the reason tuition was raised again! ha.
A personal computer will soon be working for me again, so maybe I can add some photos when that happens.

Untill next week...(Colorado)

Lets go ride a bike...

Yesterday was quite nice, nearly 50 out. So naturally I skipped skiing and rode my bike (good thing too, because the ski team said they skied in 2 inches of water). I started riding at 2ish did an hour 15 solo, during which it was warm enough that I did not need gloves! Then I came back to town and met up with some others to do a group ride. Mosty people went in a bit early to get an hour or so, but Brandon and I kept going and did just over 2. I felt quite good, very hungry at the end though...Last night a few of us bikers watch the Tour of Cali (ToC). Jens Voigt is great, all out attacks all the time. Thats my kinda rider!

Today it was unfourtunatley not quite as warm. Nevertheless I suited up and was off. Finn, Brandon and I met up with some townies and we went out on the northwest passage. Brandon apparently feeling good, so he kept picking it up. Being that I have no real need to do hard or tempo right now I just sat there and watched him do his own thing, unlike he said, he did not drop us. I (we) simply just let him do his own thing. Near the end it just happened that I responded to a jump by Brandon, which brought Finn along. Which led to a race of a few miles to the town line. It was pretty fun, a bit of rotating, a bunch of attacking. Finn tried more than us other two, but he was unable to lose us. Then on the last short uphill Brandon tried a little attack that failed miserably. Finn countered, then died. Then I went but did not get a gap, by then it was the sprint and as Brandon was nice and rested, and being a sprinter got the line.
Then tonight more ToC, not quite as fun to watch as yesterday, but not bad...

Winter to spring

in 12 hours.
This weekend was regionals for skiing, in Marquette, MI. We had quite the haul to get there. Almost 8 hours of driving.
Saturday was the 10k skate race. The rumor is that that particular course is the hardest in the midwest. It very well could be, it was friggin hard. Lots of steep uphills, and only tiny downhills. It was very hard to recover. Despite the course, I had my best skate race ever. I was able to hammer the uphills even though I was dead tired. I just relaxed and my technique improved greatly, combine all these things and you get good results. I think I was 33 or so out of 80ish. Which I am pretty sure is my best skate result any where.

Sunday was the 15k mass start classic. Somehow I lucked out and got the very last position in the echelon, not that it mattered too much since some people behind me had a straighter shot when the trail narrowed down, but I was not complaining. It was quite a fast start, and I was able to avoid breaking anything. Somehow I ended up farily far up in the pack, for the first few km it was crazy, people everywhere. It was impossible to pass or be passed. Eventually it began to spread out and I got some breathing room. By the end of the first lap I had gotten into a nice little group of 5. The 5 of us skied the rest of the race together (until the very end). It was really fun to be in a pack skiing, I have never been able to do that. I was always just a bit faster than those behind me, but not quite as fast as those in front. This race felt a lot like a cyclo-cross race, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. In the end the guys I was with got ahead on the final hill, but I was only a few seconds back at the finish. Overall I think I was in the mid 20, again out of 80. Oh, and the temp was about 10.

Monday, after a few classes it was time to hit the roads again. The weather was a tropical 40 degrees aand sunny, perfect spring riding. At 3:30 a whole bunch of us (10 or so) meet to go and enjoy the warm roads on our bicycles. So off the massive group went, some people took off at about an hour 15, but a few of us went for 2. It felt great, skiing has put me in great shape for biking. All I need to do is build my strengh up and Ill be set. We will have to see what happens with the weather and skiing, I still have to ski my best in Colorado in a few weeks...

Well...

Since my computer has been broken, updating has been complicated. I've got a bit of time now so.
Computer issues suck. I of course want to resolves them, so I took my computer to the Apple store on Moday. The tech guy looked at it for a bit then something very very close to "your computer is completely hosed, wait did I say completely, I meant..." and there he trailed off. That is never a good thing to hear. So that was that, I sent for it to be fixed and it was shipped in today. Before I sent it the Olaf tech guy wanted to see it. I brought it in this morning, after a minute or two he said "this is the deadest iBook I have ever seen." The weird thing is that I did not do anything to it, at all! It just decided to die, and I have never heard of an Apple just quiting like that. But, what can ya do...
(Now collecting dontations for the we love Jake, so we will pay for his new computer fund)

Other than my computer being toast, this week has been decent. Went for a bike ride with Sean on Monday, then felt great in intervals yesterday. But now it is deathly cold out again, and oh it is Valentines Day, which means it is also Father Boyce's birthday. So happy birthday dad.

Something not so familiar

but first a bit about yesterdays ski race.
The night before I picked up some van keys, we were supposed to have two vans but I thought nothing of it when I picked up the keys. Anyway in the morning after breakfast someone picked up the van, and it turned out to be a mini van with four seats. That was no good since we had to take 12 people. So we scrambled some cars, I came back to my house to pick up mine. Then since it was cold and had not been started in a while it of course did not start. So I had to call Public Saftey, who brough an uncharged battery pack. Therefore had to go back to their office and get a new one. Eventually it started and we left. Only an hour late. But we still made it on time to the race. During my ski of the course somehow I crossed my skis and fell, onto my pole. And of course this time it broke. Great start to the morning!
Also Friday, my computer broke. It wont turn on. Everything at once!

Anyways today the high temp was 25. I walked outside and started sweating. With this heat wave (25 degrees warmer then the last 2 weeks) I just had to go ride my bike. So that is exactly what I did. It felt great, until near the end. It turns out skiing has just knocked my climbing legs right out from under me. I was fine on the flats, but the hills were a lot harder then usual. I have not felt that weak on my bike for a long time. Although my cardio system is working quite nice. I must rebuild my legs. And soon!

Not a whole lot

has been happening recently. The only big thing is that the semester has started, so far I like all of my classes. However, we will see what happens when the work starts pilling on. So far I have spent just about $30 on books, thank you library! Why buy a book to use for a couple of days, just check it out. If I need it again, very simple to get. Plus I am saving paper.
In the world of athletics, it has been quite cold. Monday Finn and I rode trainers for 2 hours and 16 minutes, so the I would not freeze my lungs by skiing. Then the past few days have been skiing. With an emphasis on technique.

Which is colder,

-40 C or -40 F?
This picture can help you figure it out.

This is what you need to go outside. The thermometer in my hand says - 23.4 air temp.

It is cold...

Too cold to show skin...

well at least as little skin as possible

Life in the arctic (v.2)

is cold, just look at the forecast. I might have to not go outside for a few days. Not much warmer down south. Definitely way to cold to go ride a bike.
Before it got even colder I decided to go check out the ice formations on Park Point and at Brighton Beach. Here a few of the photos.

Cliffs

holes

Tess and Hazel for scale

Close up

untitledmy personal favorite
Into the distance
cave
frozen in place

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...