This is the roller I pulled around while wearing
snowshoes.

The ski trail after rolling. Notice how deep the
classic skis sink.

The trail after 27 laps of skiing – two yesterday,
25 today.

This trail has fairly tight turns as well as
opportunities to build speed.

What do you do if you really want to cross country skate ski and there isn’t a trail near your house? You make one.

At least that’s what I did. It was an act of desperation and I was pretty sure I was going to fail, but I decided to give it a try, anyway. Hey, what did I have to lose; a few hundred calories?

I spent quite a bit of time outside, yesterday. I went out three times donning my snowshoes so I could work on my winter masterpiece. Here is the process of this labor of love:

1. With snowshoes on so I wouldn’t punch holes through the snow, I pulled my dad’s roller around to lay out the trail. The trail is twice the width of the roller. It packed the snow down a few inches, but not enough for skate skis. I had to figure out how to pack it down more firmly.
2. The only tools I had to further pack the snow were my own two feet. Wearing the snowshoes, I walked on every inch of the trail to pack the snow down as much as I possibly could. It was dry snow (good for skiing), but it didn’t want to pack. About this time, I was wishing I had a groomer.
3. I rolled the trail a second time to pack down any loose snow leftover from snowshoeing.
4. I tested the trail. After nearly two hours of working on my ski trail, I was tired and was able to ski a lap in each direction. It was difficult and I wanted to figure out how to further pack and smooth the trail, but I just didn’t have it in me.

Today, I went out for my first ski workout on my new trail. It was a little challenging at first because it was bumpy, I hadn’t been skiing much this year, and I needed to warm up. After about 15 laps, I noticed that the trail was starting to smooth out a little more to look more like a skate skiing trail. It became a little less bumpy and I was growing accustomed to the new, less-than-perfect trail surface.

Overall, I am quite pleased with my effort to create my own skate skiing track. It is a short loop that I still have to measure, and it most certainly can get boring, but it sure beats sitting on a trainer for an hour. I am quite thankful for the opportunity to use my skate skis.

My parents’ yard is a pretty little place full of trees. It makes me feel good to see coniferous trees while skiing the new loop. While it is fairly flat, the yard does have an incline, so there is an opportunity to build speed while going downhill, and to put my climbing muscles to work.

My only worry is what the upcoming weather will do to my latest masterpiece. I hope the weatherman is wrong and the temperatures stay below freezing.

Project Ski Trail: success!

Update! The ski trail is .1524 km, or 500 feet.

I took the skis to Tech and waxed them in the chalet, yesterday. I ran out of Rex blue after dribbling it onto only one and half skis. For those of you who don’t wax your skis, Rex blue is the best wax for skiing in temperatures in the mid- to upper-teens. Well, having one half of a ski to do, I had to get creative.

I scraped some of the wax off of the first ski and melted the shavings onto the second ski. It took quite some while to carefully spread the wax along the base of the ski. I’m pretty sure there is a Finlander out there, somewhere, who is shaking his or her head at me for this feeble attempt to wax my skis. Nevertheless, I had myself on those skis and flying around the Tech Trails in only 45 minutes.

Okay. I wasn’t flying. I was still snail-pacing it, but at least I completed all of the green loops on the upper trails. It usually only takes me about 45 minutes to skate all of those trails, but it took me one hour and 20 minutes, yesterday. Yikes. At least I was out there.

I’m interested in reading about your early-winter experiences and how you are continuing to get your sanity trail time. Please share in the comments below.

With the threat of possible rocks and sticks on the trail, and no wax on my skis as well as no time to tend to them, I decided not to ski; but I couldn’t fully support that decision. I had been in Houghton for less that 20 hours and I needed to do that one thing that is simply Houghton: take the skate skis out for a little ride at the Michigan Tech Trails.

I did not go very far or long, on Sunday. The snow was slow, I was out-of-shape and carrying around some excess weight (still am two days later ), and my skis were not properly waxed. I felt like I was going to die, but I still managed to get a few loops done in 55 minutes.

Dead tired and in pain, I was quite happy to have gotten a ski in. The Tech Trails are also a bit of a “social hour,” because so many people go there. The parking lot was full. I had the opportunity to chat with people I haven’t seen since I left the first week of October. It was nice. I am certainly glad to be back.

Just so we can see my improvement up until the New Year, here are my stats:
Time: 55 minutes
Distance: 4.7 km

This is seriously bad because I should not be on the trails for any less than 75 minutes, and I should be able to do at least 7.8 km. This is my goal for Christmas.

Still, white birches reflected pastel colors resulting from the illumination of the setting sun. The sky was clear and a nearly half moon was high in the deep blue sky that was transitioning to night. Occasionally, I would spot a star that was previously hidden by the sunlight. This is the vision I saw while finishing my two-hour skate around the Michigan Tech ski trails.

After almost two hours of skiing, I would stop at the top of every climb, open my arms and tilt back my head to allow for deeper breathing and the drainage of snot somewhere other than out of my nose (hey, if every picture were beautiful, it would be boring ), and take in the view of the moon against that gorgeous blue sky. Blue is my favorite color, so it makes it that much better.

I would stand there and marvel at the different shades of blue that terminated at the orange sky surrounding the sun setting on the horizon. The tall, white birch trees were the perfect compliment to the sky. I was happy. I was in pain and ready to eat, but I was happy.

As my breathing slowed, the world would get quieter. The absence of wind made the experience seem magical, as if I were in the winter scene of a Christmas greeting card. It was quiet, and I was surrounded by some of the best art nature has to offer.

The Gritty Details

This brings me to the details of my workout. I skated for 125 minutes. This is five minutes longer than my last good ski on February 16th. The distance was the same (17.1 kilometers). However, I skated from the Nara trailhead to the top of the hill in 34 minutes. I previously did it in 40 minutes. To repeat what I said in that day’s blog post: “Holy wah!” That’s quite an improvement, especially for a girl that’s recovering from a persistent chest cold.

After my hard effort up the hill, I skated the green/easy loops at the top. I had to periodically stop because my quads were burning. I’m assuming the burning was the result of my mega-fast climb. Upon completing the green loops, I knew I had to somehow get back down the hill. Going downhill is pretty demanding of quads, as well, so I stopped at the chalet for a granola bar and water. I also quickly stretched my quads. Then, I was off.

The downhill was fast and fun. I felt confident and I wasn’t snowplowing nearly as much as before. I felt quite stable on my skis. The last two loops were difficult, though. It took a lot for me to climb the hills on those loops. It hurt and I was hungry. This is where that beautiful sky came in. It gave me something wonderful to enjoy while I was taking mini-recoveries from the pain.

My persistence paid off. In terms of my diet, I burned 18 POINTS which I could put toward food. This was great because I took in a few extra points at the Monday night potluck. It was also good because I got to eat a filling dinner and even indulge in some pickled bologna (like pickled eggs, except it’s bologna).

Reality

The problem with training like this and being on a weight loss plan is that I often gain weight after a workout like this. It’s not fat. It’s muscle. After a few years of abuse, my body has learned to adapt to hard efforts, so I put on muscle fairly well. For those of you who aren’t too privy to this kind of information, this means that I could lose fat, but gain muscle and, therefore, weight. Muscle weighs more than fat. It’s actually a great result, but the scale can’t differentiate. With this in mind, I chose to include an additional measure of my success: waist measurement. I took my baseline measurement, today, and I am hoping that I have a fairly consistent decline in size as the days go by.

The inspiration for all of this jibber jabber is today’s skate skiing workout. I spent a little time at work, then a little time at school, and I wanted to spend a lot more time in my comfortable bed. Bed happens to be one of my favorite places, these days. Even though I wanted to not put forth any great physical effort, I chose to go, anyway. The expanding waistline was the inspiration for that little bit of motivation.

It is worth noting that, while my weight is holding steadily at ten pounds above my race weight, my waistline has shrunk enough to allow me to comfortably breathe in my jeans. This is pretty obvious foreshadowing for the outcome of today’s workout and evidence to how my body responds to abuse.

The Thursday before last, I ventured out on the Nara trails for the very first time. I also attempted my first two black (expert) loops: Skidder and Hemlock. I was feeling pretty gutsy, so I also did all of the green (novice) loops at the top of the hill by the main trailhead. For easy reference, I did Hemlock and Skidder, all of the green trails, and all of the Nara trails except Tanglewood and Homestead. That turned out to be a 120-minute workout covering 14.9 kilometers (9.25 miles). That’s pretty sweet, especially considering that I’ve never done a workout with that degree of difficulty, before.

Recall my state of mind, today: I would have rather been in bed than on the ski trail, in short. I headed to the Nara trailhead, put on my newly-waxed skis, and began what seemed like a rather slow skate. I followed the usual course (this is the third time I’ve done it, so it’s becoming the new usual). The you’ve got to be kidding me hills were no longer a joke, but just a regular part of the trail. I began the long climb up Skidder and Hemlock with much resting – that breathing thing. It was very difficult. I felt like my heart was trying for a jail break, it was pounding so hard. When I finally reached the top – Core Loop – I decided to attempt all of the green trails, just like I did a couple of Thursdays ago. I wouldn’t allow myself to head back down the hill, just yet, because only 40 minutes had surpassed since I began my skate. Forty minutes!!! Holy wah! No wonder my heart felt like it was trying to break through my chest wall! This was five minutes faster than that first Nara skate…on a climb!

By now, you have probably figured out that today’s climb to the top was done in [personal] record time. That is one heck of an improvement over an eleven-day period.

Still feeling like doo-doo because I had yet to reach that 50-minute mark, I moved around Core Loop and its green branches (the green loops shooting off of it) in an effort to reach that endorphin rush of no pain and lots of happiness. I worked on my technique and slowly began to realize that the imperfections of the trail beneath me no longer affected my skiing. I was [kind of] gracefully moving around the green loops like I was actually a good skier.

Upon completion of the easy stuff, it was time to head back to Hemlock and ride the hill down. Let me tell you, it was FUN! I did what I did that first time: I skied down the trails with speed and ease. I reached the point where my thoughts shifted between, “Woohoo!” and “This is really going to hurt if I fall, but I don’t care…” I even let out a couple of laughs that were a combination of great satisfaction, excitement, and joy.

I eventually reached the Ridge Trail (Nara) and skated onto the Tanglewood Loop. I was feeling great. I was also starting to realize that I was feeling a little tired and water was the only savior I sought. I kept skiing, anyway. As I hit the end of Tanglewood and merged back onto the Ridge Trail, I was in the midst of giving myself permission not to do Homestead (the last in the series of Nara blue loops) when I approached it and skated onto it like a magnet being drawn to a refrigerator door. “This is fun going down, but it’s going to suck coming back up,” I thought to myself. “Oh well.”

I completed all of the green loops, Hemlock, Skidder, and all of the Nara trails in 120 minutes. Think about it for a minute: I did it in the same time as I did eleven days ago, but I did two additional loops. It was at this point that I realized why my heart was making its presence so known during the climb. I skated 17.1 kilometers (10.62 miles).

Let’s compare:
* February 5: 14.9 kilometers (9.25 miles)
* February 16: 17.1 kilometers (10.62 miles)

Both of these were done in 120 minutes. Today, I improved my two-hour skate by 2.2 kilometers (1.37 miles). That is one heck of an improvement!

Tomorrow, I think I will head to the main trailhead to do two laps of the green trails. It isn’t a very exciting workout, especially since I’ve been skating these very trails for four winters, now, but I figure an active rest day is just what I need after achieving such an incredible personal record.

My friend, Amanda, and I took a little snowshoe journey out to the Copper Harbor Lighthouse last Sunday. It was during that excursion that we acquired the photos for Monday’s photo essay and Tuesday’s lighthouse story.

We began the day with a little ski excursion up at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, where new ski trails were created over the last summer. There is also a Perimeter Loop, which is a groomed track around the golf course.

After 45 minutes of skiing, we returned to Amanda’s house for sandwiches made by yours truly. These wonderful sandwiches were made with love and consisted of whole grain bread embracing turkey, provolone, tomato, lettuce, sprouts grown by Amanda, guacamole, and mayonnaise. This is my favorite sandwich.

After sandwiches, we set out for a snowshoe hike around the Copper Harbor Lighthouse. We spent quite a bit of our time hiking on Lake Superior, mostly within Copper Harbor. We acquired a lot of great photos, and we even made it in a Copper Harbor Cam photo – something that Amanda has been trying to do for a while.

After snowshoeing, we ran errands in town. We actually had a list! We finished the errand-running with nachos at the Mariner. I was craving fake cheese from another place, but Amanda gave me a pretty awful look, “Do you know what’s in that stuff? It’s not real cheese!”

“I know, but I like it anyway.” Anyway, that’s how we made it to the Mariner for nachos with real cheese. I like cheese.

We finished up the evening with a moonlight hike around the local ski trail running along Lake Fanny Hooe. We ended up on Lake Fanny Hooe. It’s was a pretty cool experience. If I had a camera I knew how to use, I would’ve gotten some pretty nifty moon shots. Ah, well, the moon will be full, again.

I think Amanda liked the Triple Header, as she called it. I hope we do it again. It felt really good to get out and do so many wintertime activities around the Harbor in one day.

See Amanda’s account, The Energizer Snow Bunnies.

It was a beautiful, quiet day in Houghton. I decided to head over to the Michigan Tech Trails to start my skate ski at the Nara Park trailhead. I knew I was capable of skiing these loops because I did it last week. It has been a week. Uh, oh.

I followed last week’s route heading up and down the you’ve got to be kidding me hills. That thought was still with me. The difference is that the snow was crusty, a little rutted from previous skiers, and really fast. Hmmm. I was not feeling confident, but I skated on. I headed up Skidder and Hemlock (original MTU trails) and turned around at the top to enjoy the ski down. The problem was that I still wasn’t feeling confident.

Once I got back to the Nara trails, I started climbing back to the Ridge Loop. It was here that I took another breather (while skiing advanced loops, I find that I must dedicate time to breathing, especially after lots of climbing). As I sucked in some fresh air, I looked at the map of the new trails. I could either skip Tanglewood, which was another 1.3 k of intermediate craziness that I hadn’t yet been acquainted with, or head up to the next unfamiliar loop, which was shorter and the last of the intermediate series. After giving myself permission to skip Tanglewood, I decided to skate it.

This kind of behavior is quite typical of me. While biking or skiing, I often give myself permission not to do something either because I’m worn out, or I just don’t have the motivation. I’m not just blowing smoke up my patootie, but giving myself real, honest-to-goodness permission not to do something. There is no guilt for not doing it. Then, the tough girl side of me decides to do it anyway. Who cares that it’s going to be hell, right?

Tough Di headed down the first Tanglewood Loop hill. The snow was more powder-like and the hills gentle. It was definitely an intermediate loop, but it was so different from the madness of its neighboring loops. Suddenly, I found myself taking the hills and turns with less care. I was feeling good. It was then that I realized that I had been skiing for 50 minutes. No wonder! I have proven to myself, time after time, that I require a 45-50 minute warm-up before I start to feel really good and the pain subsides. I finished the Tanglewood Loop in this incredible state of mind. I could feel no pain.

Next time, I’ll have to pay more attention to how I work, and allow myself that 50-minute window before I hit the harder stuff. Scary hills are so much better when you’re filled with endorphins and fear is nothing but an afterthought.

Today, I drove to the Nara trails – the secondary trailhead to the Michigan Tech ski trails. This trailhead lies just south of Houghton. I have to say, if you are an intermediate to advanced skier, this the trailhead for you.

Nara proved to be a bit of challenge for me. The very first loop is a green loop, a beginner loop. That’s very cool. I skied onto the Ridge Loop – a blue loop. Almost immediately, I stood there looking at a hill thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” No, skiers don’t kid in Houghton. The fact is, what you see is what you get, and you will always be challenged. I chose to meet the challenge.

I quickly realized that the intermediate Nara trails bridged the gap between the [old] intermediate [blue] Michigan Tech ski trails and the [old] Michigan Tech advanced [black] trails. My desire to try something new was just what I needed to meet the challenge of bridging that gap.

While skating on the new Nara trails, I had a lot of “You’ve got to be kidding me” moments. I did not succumb to my fear, however, and met the challenges. I eventually made my way to a black diamond trail (advanced) by the name of Skidder. My first experience with Skidder was a steep downhill to the right that, well, freaked the crap out of me. I stood at the top debating whether I should take the skis off and walk, or suck it up and ride down. I ultimately chose to ride.

It didn’t seem to take too long for my somewhat out-of-shape body to make its way to the Core loop, the gateway for the upper trails. I skated around that loop to the green loops and did all of them. The highlight for this little excursion was meeting my drinking buddies on Oak Loop: Don and Carl. You see, I first met these guys at The Library. The joke between Don and me was that I didn’t believe he had a wife (he always talked about her, but I never met her), and he didn’t believe I was really a biker (I always talked about it, but he never saw it). This was resolved in the fall of 2008.

Lately, I would show up for the after ski, but I wasn’t skiing. Today, I did one hell of a ski (almost 10 miles) and showed up for the after ski. In fact, I was the first one there, and I skied the longest. Yeah! Of course, the after ski proved to be entertaining, as usual. In fact, I was part of the entertainment, as usual.

It feels really good to be skiing, again. The fact is, my athletic endeavors are a large part of who I am, and today was a great example of getting back to my core.

We started on the Copper Harbor loop. It runs from town to Ft Wilkins State Park, through the park, and back to town, again. It turned out to be the perfect beginner loop. It offered great views of the park and Lake Fanny Hoe and had nice stretches of easy skiing for practicing technique.

I am oftentimes quite vocal when getting outside and having a great time. I think it has to do with my ability to be easily amazed and entertained. I would ski a bit and then ask Johanna how I was doing. “You’re doing great!” she would say. I would remark on how I got a good glide or beam with pride when I could ski uphill.

After lunch, Rachel and I headed up to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge to meet a photographer and a videographer for some promotional work for recreation in Copper Harbor. No one else showed up, so Amanda, Rachel, and I were the models by default. Now, when the three of us get together, it isn’t exactly a G-rated meeting. We are sick, twisted, giggly, fun-loving, aggressive women who play off of each other quite well. It didn’t take long for our true colors to shine through, and the photographer loved it.

You know the joke about being so ugly the camera breaks? Well, I can tell you that I have no business being a model. Oddly enough, the photographer’s camera wouldn’t work, so he had to borrow from the videographer.

We started the photo shoot with a snowshoe hike. After the first few pictures, the photographer wanted us to “go back and do it again.” We all turned around to head back to our starting point when I encouraged Amanda to run. She started running, tripped, and flew face first into the snow. I start laughing at her, tripped, and flew face first into the snow. Rachel just stood there and watched and laughed at us like the idiots she knows we are. It was great fun!

After the snowshoe hike, it was time to don the cross country skis, again. What is really funny about this whole photo shoot thing is that none of us have been classic skiing for long, and this was, in fact, my very first day. Fortunately, skate skiing turned out to be a great foundation for practicing classic skills.

I really enjoyed the Mountain Lodge trails. We didn’t do many of them because we were only looking for the potentially great photo ops. We skied down a pretty exciting hill on the golf course. Rachel insisted on going first, so I followed her down. She got going really well; so did I. As I flew downhill, I began to yell, “Whooooo!” while laughing at the same time. It turned out to be more like a staccato “Woo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!” much like Daffy Duck. Yeah, I’m a dork.

I saw Rachel approach a corner and go flying off the trail. I, of course, laughed. The remarkable part is how I automatically picked up my right ski and used it to plow down the hill and slow the pace a bit. I safely navigated around Rachel and enjoyed the ride down the rest of the hill.

When all was said and done, Rachel and I had both completed two hours and forty minutes of skiing along with an hour of snowshoeing. It was a pretty busy day that is definitely worth repeating.

Instead of actually get to the Tech Trails in time to do my part on the volunteer end of things, I ended up getting stuck in a ditch as my truck was sucked sideways on what looked like road, but wasn’t.  To make a long story short, a lost cell phone and two hours later, I was dropped off at the Tech Trails by a kind stranger (thank you, kind stranger ). 

I managed to arrive in time for the races and awards ceremony.  It was  a neat experience, and it sounds like the team is looking forward to hosting this race, again, and giving it a bit more PR. 

One of my mountain biking/beer drinking friends gave me a ride back to my vehicle and pulled me out of the ditch.  I was then on my way to Copper Harbor.

The following are some shots I got of the two-dogged long race.