Having practiced in the front yard the previous evening, yesterday, I was deemed ready to ski from one end of our block to the other. Then, we threw the skis in the back of the car and drove over to Picnic Point. I think I put in close to a mile on skis. Haven't fallen yet. Haven't scooted out of control anywhere. Just loving the snow... and the ski instructor.
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32 comments:
Cross country skiing is really a blast. I hope you two enjoy it.
Trey
It's fun when the ski instructor is cute.
My teeth ache.
And you're the reason why.
Something to do in the off-season: One fall, decades ago, I saw a guy in Ann Arbor on the ancestor of these:
http://www.nordicskater.com/skiskett/index.html
I think you'll find it's a great way to get outside and enjoy the winter.
Your husband has given you a great gift. I introduced my wife to long distance running by encouraging her to jog one minute and walk five. Within a few months she ran three miles without stopping. She has now logged 9 marathons to my 3 and can outrun me anytime.
Good luck and don't fret if you fall. Everybody falls.
It is true. Blondes have more fun.
@Michael I'm good at falling. I fell off the bike 4 times this summer. One reason the skiing is working for me is that I'm not afraid of falling. I'm a real faller.
NICE! Just...
BEND THE KNEES. BEND THE KNEES!
Meade is probably drumming that into your ears, as I speak.
Cheers,
Victoria
And tomorrow you will get to rediscover all those muscles you no longer thought you had. Looks like Meade will get a chance to brush up on his massage technique!
wv: anaminf - that sound of Althouse falling into a bank of newly fallen snow.
It must be love.
Only love would make somebody go out in this kind of weather just to indulge the "instructor".
Did anybody read the news that Picabo Street donated a million dollars to the Park City Medical Center in Utah?
They named a new wing after her.
They call it the Picabo I.C.U.
* rimshot *
Not all relationships can survive when one partner instructs the other.
Many find it hard to be patient with someone they are emotionally invested in, in the same way they can be with a stranger or casual acquaintance. Likewise, the instructee often finds being instructed more difficult in response.
That you two can handle this probably says something about your personalities, and the strength of what you have.
Did you just ski across the lake, or is there another trail near Picnic Point? I'm taking up XC skiing again having taken a long hiatus. There are a lot of nice trails near Baraboo where I live, Devils Lake among others.
Meade is a patient man extraordinaire.
Ann, I told you he was a good one.
But don't let him know I said that.
Hi, Elder! And thanks! I hope you know just how beautiful a man he is.
It's wonderful exercise and one of the few I looked forward to when living in the North, in the winter.
As a nature guy, I also found a curious phenomenon when doing trails in the woods....for some reason, my experience was the motion of a cross country skiier is different enough from walking that animals could be approached closer than by a human on foot (or they just stayed where they were and ignored the strange gliding things that passed by them).
Two male ruffled grouse staged a fight one time and tumbled right over my then GF's skis. We passed by the local herd of elk, ignored, on a few other occasions.
A good compact set of binocs is a wise addition, too, because you notice things off trail with the loss of leaf cover you may not have seen if you went the same way in spring through fall. But difficult to get to by breaking trail on skis.
One year we found a small cave blocked from ordinary view by heavy brush and went back in the summer and found Indian sign (soot on top of entrance, chert flakes lying right on floor of the tiny space, and a fissure in the rock blocked by wedged stone and mud.). A local ex BF of my then GF was an amateur archaeologist and pronounced it "virgin" and Ohio State excavated it in 1992.
May you have similar enjoyment and even discovery, Meade and Althouse! (And I wish many times I had had a digital camera, back in the day....the SLR was bulky and a real bother to good smooth skiing...there were lots of "oh, I wish we had a camera with us" moments.)
Have fun.
In case your instructor didn't mention it, in my experience, a common rookie mistake is not using the pole straps. You need them to make full use of your arms, which are much stronger than your hands.
Get some better ski clothes though. It's aerobic not a stroll in the park!
It's a lot of fun to ski at night when there's enough ambient light reflecting off the clouds and snow to see by (not street lights). Try the arboretum or somewhere else woodsy with ponds & lakes.
Beautiful hat!
Next step, get a water ski tow rope tie it to the back of your car and take Meade out for a really fun ride.
@Heather Meade's mother knitted that hat for me.
@c3 I know all about the clothes, the layers, blah blah, blah, but I also knew I was not going to exert myself that time and didn't want to get cold.
Sounds great! I have a friend who was talking about breaking out the cross-country skis here on Monday when it snowed heavily, but she didn't end up doing it. I was thinking about going snow-shoeing that day, but I didn't do that, either. Maybe I'll do one or the other this weekend, depending on the conditions.
Bissage: Your Picabo Street joke reminds me of the old Frank Deford line about her name sounding like "the red light district in a Disney movie."
This is one of the best comment threads I have read in some time. Thanks to all!
You'll do fine!
That little down hill luge you did this summer told us that ;-)
So what's a little x-country skiing?
wv batisms
What you have when someone takes a p?
Good on you for trying something new. I sometimes wish for a more adventurous companion.
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