Month Without Posting - a good sign for Ridn!

Yes, it has been more than one month since my last blog entry. Work and play have kept me very busy. Work entails customer meetings while winter weather makes them assessable; play has been snowboarding on great snow and trying to keep aerobic fitness up and body weight down.

An excellent opportunity to combine work and play occurred in March when I was able to travel to Reno / Tahoe to attend the Western Dairy Management Conference. I arrived early and left late in order to get three sun-filled days of snowboarding in the Sierra-Nevada's. While snow levels were lowest their in years, at about one-half of the normal amount, nevertheless, the riding was first rate. The first two days were with coworkers Jim and Bennet at Mt. Rose and Squaw Valley. The base was deep and carvable top to bottom - no eastern ice! While there was no western deep powder, it still a blast. The last day I went solo to Northstar and enjoyed the Backside Runs that are steep, yet very rideable as soon as the snow softened.

When I returned we got a St. Paty's day 2-footer that made Killington into the deep powder paradise I was seeking out west. I was able to go on a Saturday morning when the crowds could not get there due to roads being plugged with snow. The entire complex of mountains were left ungroomed and natural, so I finally had the chance to let my Malalo ride on top of loose snow. It was great to ride the bumps when the bumps were soft.

As far as aerobic fitness is concerned, I was only able to get one decent road ride in before the big storm put things on hold again. And that ride was a hand and foot-numbing experience. I finally had to hook the Y-Foil up to the Cyclops and do some indoor training in the back room on the first day of spring - it was 5 degrees outside!

Decision time came this past Saturday. Do I finally get out and ride the bike so I have some fitness for the fast-approaching Battenkill-Rubaix (a 56-mile race on climbing dirt and blacktop roads) OR get in one last day of Killington snowboarding?? Killington won out and it was a great day of attacking the soft bumps on Chute and Bunnybuster. Today (Sunday) will be the road riding day.

Still trying to combine work and play, I found a bike store in Sacramento that rents Trek 1500 / 105-equipped road bikes, so I can try to ride out there when working the first week in April.

It is a great thing to be able to work riding into working and to have the dilemma be which type of riding do I do today?

A Day With Dwichael

Killington tours, spinning and ice biking rule! Paltry snow levels and ice cold temperatures predominate early February conditions. Temperatures below 10 with windchills well below -10 have forced the cycling activity inside for the most part.

Donna keeps encouraging me to accompany her to Dan's Saturday spin sessions at the Y. It has been a good way to keep some aerobic fitness and it is fun to listen to the different levels of activity that people deem 'normal.' A break in the temperature, and with conditions at the upper limit for snow depth, on Sunday I got a great workout doing the home trails for 1:20 last Sunday. The 3-5 inches of loose snow on top of frozen 1-2 inches provided tough resistance but doable biking. It was a great high intensity workout - like a long hill, or plowing though sand or mud. So, it was a good weekend of spinning and biking.

The 'bread' to my ridn 'sandwich' during this period was two tours of Killington. I hosted a Dairy Specialist from WI for the week and on Wednesday we spent 5 hours on the best that VT has to offer. It was his best day of skiing ever. We had a guide in Matt S who has skied K since childhood, so I learned some new terrain. We worked our way from Ramshead to Bear Mtn and back. Lots of time was spent riding alongside the obstacles on the Terrain Park. I even did a ride down the giant 1/2 pipe - not exactly looking like a flying tomato!

On Sunday John T came up and spent the night. We got up early hitting the Ramshead Quad at 9am sharp. We did the same tour of the mountains as I did last Wednesday, spending a lot of time on Cruise Control. We even got in a couple of runs on the double diamond under the K-1 Gondola, as John was trying to impress some women that were in the Gondola with us. John kept me entertained all day with his caffeine-induced, animated monologues and longings for female companionship. His divorce becomes final this week and he was just a'twitter. We had a great time reminiscing our days in Washington County. His office mates have dubbed him the clone of two characters in the show "The Office," and I would say they have him well named! We stayed at it all day, without any breaks, until 4 pm closing - the best day of ridn so far this year! I worked hard to keep the speed up so I could stay with John who enjoys high speed and not too many turns. It was good for improving my technique. A new wax layer and sharpened edges helped as well.

I write from Louisville, KY, where I am doing seminars for John Deere. I left Albany yesterday at 4pm and today Donna reports about 20 inches of snow in the driveway, with more coming down! I return on Friday and hope to get some powder riding in!