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.

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.

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 in 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.

Biking

I will probably continue to bike as my primary exercise until the snow flies in December or January. Although, with the wet days (wet and cold don’t mix well), I don’t ride, so my exercise has been waning, lately. After the snow flies, I’ll probably haul the mountain bike up to Calumet to ride the snowy roads with a friend. I’d like to do this once a week, but once or twice a month may be more realistic in the heat, er, cold of winter. I might go to a spinning class or two, as well. Our local social riding group does a series of spin classes in November and December.

Skiing

This is what makes Houghton incredibly special. Not only is there downhill skiing, telemarking, snowboarding, and God only knows what else going on, we have some of the best cross country ski trails, period. The grooming is top notch and we have miles of trails for skating and classic skiing. So, that is what I do. My primary form of exercise is skate skiing.

Snowshoeing

This is a great social sport. It’s also great strength training for your legs. It also warms you up pretty easily, although 7 below zero usually finds a way to chill you. The reason I bring that up is because zero and below usually means no-go for the skate skis, so the snowshoes come out.

Kamikaze Sledding

Tubing in the backwoods – before you know it, you’re out there for three hours bumping into trees as you slide down giant hills. Awesome.

Weight Training

I’m actually going to start weight training probably next week. I’m waiting to get over this cold. No need to spread it. I assess my cycling weaknesses and address those with my winter weight training. For example, I had a huge knot around my right shoulder blade that no one could work out. It was from mountain biking. So, I figured that strengthening my back would alleviate that issue for the next summer. I was right. I concentrated on strengthening my arms and back (whole back) and I haven’t had any back issues this year. This year, I’m going to add legs into the mix.

16 oz Curls

Ok, when you’ve got a most excellent brewery in town with $2.50 pints, how could you *not* include this into your exercise regime?

***

Today’s Menu

Breakfast
2 slices chocolate zucchini bread with butter – ~15 points

Lunch
Milkshake – 16 points

Dinner
Salad
• Lettuce, tomato, cucumber – 0 points
• 4 Morningstar Chik nuggets – 4 points
• 14 g croutons – 1 point
• ½ oz cheese – 3 points
• 3 tbsp homemade ranch – 2 points

Total POINTS: 41

Note: Um, yeah. I have chocolate zucchini bread in my fridge and I love butter on it. It’s really the only thing I put real butter on. I also wanted the milkshake. Being sick is very bad because I sit on my butt all day and I crave bad-for-you foods. When I exercise, I crave healthy foods. I better get well, soon.

The good news is that, even though I’m taking in a lot of calories, I’m taking in a considerably lesser amount because I have to post it all to the world. Ali, I think this was a great idea.