Moronacity

Having lived in and/or associated with the great Upper Peninsula citizens for over five years, I have finally succumbed to the appropriate pronunciation of the word sauna. Having come from Lower Michigan, I tend to say, “saw’na.” That just doesn’t sound right, anymore.

While reading an excellent cross country ski magazine, I came across an article about the glorious sauna. One of the first things this magazine did was set its readers straight about the pronunciation of the word: sow’na. How ’bout that! Merriam-Webster gives both pronunciations, while The Free Dictionary gives only the former.

The Upper Peninsula, especially the Keweenaw Peninsula, has a large Finnish influence. These American citizens are often referred to as the Fins, or Finlanders. The culture is different, here, and it is rich in Finnish tradition. Now, Finnish tradition isn’t exactly something I’ve wanted to delve into. It isn’t as romantic as French culture or as appreciated as Italian (nothing can beat Italian food!). Finland is not on my list of places to visit. However, I’ve found a great appreciation for the culture and traditions that have been handed down and evolved within this little peninsula and I look forward to learning more.

Many people in the Keweenaw speak or understand some Finnish. Some were born in Finland while others were raised by native Fins. They are proud and many of them are full of life and energy and they continue to pass on the traditions of the old country. The sauna is one of those traditions.

It is an incredible feeling to hit the trails with cross country skis for a good, hard workout of about two hours and then hit the sauna. It isn’t unusual to feel chilled to the bone once skiing has ended, and the sauna cures that chill. The sauna can be used therapeutically, alternating hot and cold. Take a sauna. Take a cold shower. Cycle through.

The list of health benefits of the sauna is comprehensive and can be found in the Wikipedia article along with much more information and many references.

Everything was packed, from my freshly waxed skis to my sauna towel to my shampoo and conditioner. I was good to go. I got out of class and, as I was walking to my car, I realized that I had forgotten my ski cap and my gator. Go figure.

With a wind chill in the upper teens, I didn’t want to go without my gator. My lungs wouldn’t appreciate that. They like the incoming warmed air. I had to think fast. I had to work out. I…went to the SDC and weight trained for 20 minutes. I hit the sauna, showered, and made my way to dinner.

Nice save.

Today’s forecast: blizzard.

Growing up in lower Michigan, I thought blizzards were reserved for the North Pole, Santa Land, Rudolph and the eight, tiny reindeer. Obviously, I was wrong.

I have endured through ~four blizzards thus far. Today might have made five, but I don’t think we quite reached blizzard conditions. We don’t necessarily get a lot of snow, but the wind sometimes blows the snow off the road even when we do, so it is difficult to tell. One place may have an inch of snow and another may have a few feet.

Just what is a blizzard, anyway? A blizzard possesses the following qualities:
• Falling or blowing snow
• Wind in excess of 35 mph
• Visibility of less than ¼ mile
• Lasts more than three hours

For me, blizzards aren’t necessarily a big deal. Life still goes in. I still have to go in if the hospital needs me. I still have to go about my day-to-day activities. The blizzard doesn’t care that I have to do that stuff, and I don’t care that the blizzard doesn’t care. We both just go about our business.

I do have to clear my driveway a bit more than usual. Today, I will snowblow some tire tracks so I can pull out to the end of the driveway. That way, I can walk out there if I actually have to go somewhere, tonight.

To clarify, blizzards aren’t necessarily accompanied by lots of new snow accumulation. I’ve had bare spots on my driveway after blizzards and my snow banks really didn’t rise in height. The reason why today’s “blizzard” is a bit of a pain is because it is accompanied by lake effect snow. Add to that the fact that I live quite close to Lake Superior, at a higher elevation, and in the snow belt.

I am not complaining; quite the contrary. I am fascinated by our weather, here, and even more fascinated with how we deal with it, and we really don’t think much of it. A lot of snow? Cool! I get to ski! Snowshoeing has just gotten more exciting! The sled hill should be a blast! Better throw more wood on the fire. And the beauty…

Winter in the Keweenaw truly is a beautiful experience. Everything is bright and white. The sunlight dances across the snow and the moon lights up the night like there is magic in the air. I wish I could capture that beauty with my camera just as I experience it. Unfortunately, cameras don’t capture the experience. They only capture a just a hint. Perhaps I can give you an idea of that beauty by describing it as a scene in which you would expect to see Santa, Rudolph, and the eight tiny reindeer flying across the sky.

For more information about blizzards, check out the United States Search and Rescue Task Force’s Blizzard web page.

Andrea tagged me to post up six random things that people don’t know about me. I don’t think this is going to be that easy because I think everyone already knows a lot about me. Okay. Here goes.

• I first went to Lansing Community College for the education transfer program to Michigan State. I wanted to be a teacher my whole life. It didn’t pan out. I’m glad.
• I never thought I was smart enough to be a doctor. I placed the position high on a pedestal and I thought it was completely unobtainable by me. Look at me, now.
• I am much more of a leader than I like to admit. I ask a lot of questions and like people to guide me, but I take charge as soon as I get the confidence. I’m a take charge kind of gal.
• I have a tendency towards low self-esteem (this surprises A LOT of people).
• My first impressions are almost always wrong. People have to earn my trust, and I am more than willing to allow them the opportunity. If someone rubs me the wrong way, I give them second, third, and fourth chances.
• I love to socialize, but I am actually a very private person. I enjoy living alone and I need my space. It is also difficult for me to sometimes know how to act around others. This is usually because I have a difficult time relaxing and being myself around strangers.

This is the part where I would normally tag people, but Andrea already tagged almost everyone I know, so I will tag the following people:

Erin
Glen
Sean

• The snow is beginning to melt and the days are noticeably longer. It’s time to break out the road bike.
• National Trails Day kicks off the summer.
• Fat Tire is the culmination of our hard work and the end of summer.
• Cyclocross season is crisp and colorful with varying temperatures.
• We took a trip downstate the weekend after the Keweenaw Chain Drive.

I was discussing an event with a team mate and was trying to remember when it happened. I found someone laughing at me when all of my temporal references were in relation to bike races rather than months and holidays. That is simply how it works.

When I chose a weekend for hosting a Trekker’s ride, a weekly ride for our local community bike club, I chose the weekend after the Great Deer Chase, but not the weekend just before Fat Tire, because I would be doing trail work that weekend.

It really is funny. It says a lot about my priorities, and I’m not the only one who uses this bike culture jibber jabber.

Whenever I use races and other cycling events as time references, my friends understand me perfectly well. In fact, they use the same language and no one thinks twice about it.

Let’s convert the above cycling time references to normal time:
• National Trails Day is the beginning of summer – the second weekend of June.
• The Fat Tire Festival is Labor Day weekend.
• Cyclocross season is fall.
• The Keweenaw Chain Drive is Father’s Day weekend.
• Roadie season is spring.

Do you find yourself using bike speak?

I came to a realization concerning my training. I felt my cycling routine was getting stagnant, and the dreary, wet weather made me long for snow. We finally got snow. Good snow. In fact, the Michigan Tech Trails now have a nice base layer of snow and people have been skiing for several weeks.

I decided to go skiing after church on Sunday. I packed up my things, went to Mass, and headed to the ski trail for my inaugural skate of the 2008-2009 season. I was nervous. I thought I was going to fall flat on my face. I thought it was going to be difficult and my out-of-shape body was going to rebel.

My goal was to do the green loops as a seasonal warm-up. I wanted to skate ski for two hours, but I wasn’t expecting to actually do that. I skied all the green loops and found myself gliding into the first of a three-loop series of blue trails. I tackled it. Then I tackled the other two. It was climbing up the hill on the last two loops that made me cry uncle and decide to quit when I got back to the parking lot. I headed for the trailhead and found myself gliding back onto a green loop, again. “Ok, I’ll skate two of the green loops that have fun little runs.” I really didn’t have to convince myself. It was fun!

I finished the last run and skated toward the trailhead and then veered right back onto another green loop. Before I knew it, I did all but two green loops a second time! Yeah, I was having fun.

When I made the entry into my training log, I found that I had finished all of these loops in one hour and fifty-five minutes. This was a record time! Not only did I manage to skate without merging my face with the snow, but I managed to do it spectacular form with a personal record. What a great way to start a season!

My realization was that sport cycling is a critical component of my year-round training program. Just as cycling was becoming old hat and improvement had waned considerably, the time came to switch to my winter sport of cross-country skate skiing. What I’ve found over the course of the last three years, currently entering into my fourth season, is that these two sports complement each other spectacularly! They maximize the use of muscles that the other doesn’t, yet the development of these muscles is critical for moving to the next level. For example, skate skiing maximizes the use of my quads and glutes, to a much greater degree than cycling. Unlike cycling, I can’t change my form or cadence to allow for active recovery of these muscles. I have to use these muscles if I expect to glide up a hill with any speed. It is a lot of work. Come spring, my cycling suddenly shows significant improvement because of the cross-training over the winter, and vice versa. Climbing especially benefits.

While riding once every one or two weeks throughout the winter is useful for muscle memory, having a different, dominant sport in the off-season can produce drastic improvement over the winter. I’ve been forced into this method because of the weather changes in my area, but I enjoy the diversity and the rest. In the end, my body thanks me because it gets to rest chronically abused parts for a season while building up different areas. This method is good not only for performance improvement, but for minimizing the chances of an overuse injury, keeping the mind fresh, and strengthening weaknesses that could otherwise become a persistent problem.

In a nutshell, cross-training is all it is hyped up to be.

I have a passion. I am passionate about my sport. I am a mountain biker who fell in love with cycling almost as if getting swept up in a whirlwind romance. At first glance, I don’t give a lot of my time to cycling and all it entails. However, if you look closer, you’ll find that I am a very busy person who tries to give a lot of my free time to the sport and related advocacy issues and events. While obligation has been the spark for many of my actions, passion has quickly taken over to make me follow through on my commitments. In the cycling world, I love what I do, what I am a part of, and what I’ve become.

One of the sources of my frustration is with people who frequent the MMBA message boards. There are several people who are hateful and do their best to irritate others. There are others who can’t focus on one’s main point and rip the point apart into unimportant arguments. Others can’t stand that you may actually be onto something and have something to offer beyond what they know. Some insist that more time spent is better experience. Unfortunately, some of these people are board members of the Michigan Mountain Biking Association. That is my frustration.

This isn’t just another Internet forum. It is also a tool of communication between the organization’s members and non-members – people on the outside looking in. As a state-wide organization, it is an important tool that brings the members closer. For example, most of the members live in the Greater Detroit Area. Very few members live in the Upper Peninsula, like I do. This forum bridges our geographical gap to allow us to communicate and fight for the same issues. What I don’t like is how some people use this forum to belittle others of lower populated areas and act like these remote areas have absolutely nothing positive and cutting-edge to contribute. I am beginning to feel like some of the others who have told me about this already-existing viewpoint left the organization because they felt, in a word, alienated.

I could follow these people and leave the organization. I could take my support and give all of it to the local level. That isn’t what is happening, though.

I was recently persuaded to run for one of the MMBA At-Large Board Member positions. I reluctantly submitted my application for election. I have no experience on this scale, but many people are behind me for whatever reason. Some think it is great because there will be an Upper Peninsula representative on the board. Some simply want a new way of thinking within the board. Others know that I ask a lot of questions and I am an advocate of accountability. I can promise that I will bring integrity to the position.

Even if I live up to all of these expectations, there isn’t much I can do if I work with people who would rather fight against me than take my ideas into consideration, and consideration is all I want. To me “that won’t work” or “what do you know, you’ve only been riding for there years” is completely unacceptable and ignorant on their part as well as disrespectful towards me and others like me. That attitude towards me won’t allow me to represent the membership with a more open mind and take different ideas into consideration. I won’t have much of an effect. I’m not saying that the board is worthless and rude, but I do know that there are some people who have been in volunteer positions with the MMBA for several years, and they are overworked and need a break. Perhaps that is why they don’t always come across as warm and fuzzy. That is why I am asking potential MMBA members to join, and all members to consider running for one of these state board positions.

I want the state board to have a fresh perspective, rather than one that is most likely the product of overworked volunteers. Electing new board members from all over the state is something I would like to see. I won’t be heart-broken if there actually is a choice for voters this year and I don’t get the position, but I will be disappointed if none of us have a choice.

MMBA At-Large Board Member – Information provided by current At-Large Board Member, Ed Hug
• The board of directors is the main policy body for the state-wide organization.
• The board sets the direction for MMBA
   o decide what is the best direction of the organization
   o decide where to allocate resources
   o oversee the work of the executive director, treasurer, and other director positions
• Duties include
   o monthly board meetings and committee meetings as needed
   o the board usually meets via teleconference the second week of the month
   o three in-person meetings scheduled in 2009 (one being the annual meeting, two others
      hosted by chapters)
• Time commitment
   o starts at ~three hours per month and depends on your interest, committee
      participation, etc.

If you are interested in actively participating in a positive change for the MMBA send an email to simse AT ntcna.nissan-usa.com with the following information:
• Applicant’s history/accomplishments with the MMBA
• What the applicant would like the MMBA to achieve in the following year and how the
   applicant will help the MMBA to achieve that goal
• Other MMBA members who are familiar with the applicant’s work, preferably a chapter
   officer or trail coordinator

Voting will take place in February. I will have more information on that in January.