Fun & Fitness over 50

Today Mrs. MTBMan1 and I went to Stratton Mountain in Vermont for a day of skiing.
First of all, this cost us nothing except the gas to get there, courtesy Warren Miller .
Warren Miller creates a ski movie every year and they have special showings around the country.
For the price of the movie ticket ($22) you get 4 or 5 free lift tickets plus other goodies like a subsciption to Ski Magazine.
This was a great day. Temps went up in to the 30s. Blue skies. Not too crowded. They've had a great snow season so the snow was superb.

We drove out to the area they call the Sun Bowl and wound up spending the whole day there. It's nice because you can park right by the lodge whereas in lots 1 and 2 you have to shuttle over to the main lodge area and then hike a considerable distance through the resort village.
Plus, it's sunny! :-)

We did 2 green trail runs to warm up on Lower Middlebrook (indicated by the yellow line over on the left)

This trail is OK if the snow is not too cruddy and heavy which it wasn't. It's mostly a series of rollers. The only downside is the long slow runout at the end. Eventually you are hoofin' it up to the liftline.

After that we tried Churchill Downs to Lower Kidderbrook which we had never done before.



This is a great run. Fast and the grooming was excellent all day. The only drawback, again, is that it eventually joins Middlebrook and you have that long runout and pole or hike back to the lift line.

After sufficient warmup, we hit the blues. When you get off the Sunrise Express lift, Sunriser Supertrail is just to the left.



Of course, being a blue, it's a much steeper trail. But it was very doable since the snow was still fairly soft and because weekday traffic is relatively light, the grooming held up.
Access to the new half-pipe



is on the lower part of this trail. We actually went through it at the end of the day but barely went up the sides! We're not freestyle ready!

The next trail we tried was Lower DownEaster.



This was our favorite. It was fast, groomed well and interesting in that it had a lot of variety, side-slanted slopes and steeps with a fast runout at the end that, thankfully, allowed us to coast right up to the lift line.

One other blue we tried today was Gentle Ben



which we were not too crazy about. The start is steep and very cruddy. Then it levels out for along ways and finally winds along a fairly narrow track with crud that wasn't too fast, so you wanted to go straight out but then your ski edge would tend to catch in the crud and go where you did not want it to go. Not too pleasant. It was a long run!

All in all, we tore up the day. Probably did more skiing in one day than we ever have done. Haven't been this sore since I started skiing 3 years ago! :-) Stratton has some great blue trails on Sun Bowl. We highly recommend them!

Here's some video from today:

This Monday we went skiing at Butternut in the Berkshires, Mass.
They have $20 tickets Mon-Thurs. and we had $10 off coupons for each.
Oh, yeah!!!
It was a great, bluebird day. Not too cold but cold enough to keep the snow light.
I think we both did well. We skied a lot until our quads were really burning and it was quit before we got hurt!
Here's the video! Don't forget, click the YouTube logo twice, then select "watch in high quality" once you are redirected to the YouTube site!

Today was my fourth day in a row xc skiing. Each of the previous 3 days, I skied 35 to 50 minutes before work starting just before 1st light when the horizon was just starting to turn pink. Those times were at 5 Rivers Environmental Education center about 5 minutes from my house.

Today I went to Thatcher Park, about 1/2 hour away and skied for 1 hr 40 minutes. It was a decent day, sunny, in the 20s I think but with a bit of a wind, less of a problem in the woods.

I started out from the parking area called Paint Mine and followed the blue trail which is part of the "Long Path". A trail that runs from NYC north to Thatcher park.

Conditions were skiable, a little hard packed but not bare ice.

The first 45 minutes were almost all flat and uphill. When I turned around, it was on a fairly steep and bumpy section so I had a little trouble. I hadn't got my XC legs back yet. I've been used to downhill skiing with shaped skis. (Turn skis, turn!)

But before I got too far, I relearned my snow plow and step turns well enough that I got through just fine and had a great time.

Here's a map of the trails and some pics:

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

My ski tips

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

It's cell tower city up here!

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

More cell towers

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

Classic XC heaven!

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

A ravine off the trail

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

More trail

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

This stretch wasn't too steep

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

From 2009_01_24 XC ski at Thatcher

As I've mentioned before, I really love downhill skiing but due to time and money constraints, I can't do it as often as I like, even often enough to consider it regular exercise.
Also, regarding road cycling, which I also love, since the weather lately has been a little snow almost every day, the local roads have not been conducive to any extensive riding out to the rural areas.
So xc skiing it is!
I first cross-country skied in my mid-twenties when I was living back at my parent's house in southern New Hampshire. I was working at a dairy farm. In the winter, when it snowed, I would usually knock off work about 2PM because we were not able to work out in the fields and I didn't do the milking. There was a cross-country ski center that opened up about 5 miles away and I wound up skiing about 4 days a week that first winter. I became friendly with the owners and they pretty much let me ski for free or for an occasional donation.

I had shunned downhill skiing as being too much rigamarole, too expensive, too crowded and too fashion conscious (it is) for me until about 3 years ago when my wife decided to get back into downhill (she had done it as a youth) and convinced me to try it. Of course I loved it and learned to deal with the negatives.

Now cross-country seems less appealing but I have got back into it as a second best alternative. Really, though, it's great. It's great to be on skiis, out in the fresh air. You can do xc in colder weather 'cause you work up a sweat no matter how cold it is.

The main thing is not really to compare downhill and xc just because they're both done on skiis. You have to look at cross-country as more of an aerobic workout closer in nature to cycling because of the rhythmic "kick-and-glide" aspect of the activity. Also, it's a way of being out in the woods in the winter; enjoying the peace and solitude of nature.

Ahhh! I forgot my camera! And it was so pretty.
The radio man said it was 9° by the time we left but that was Albany.
Up in Berne, who knows what it was. This is how they describe Berne:

"The center of the Helderbergs - It's all down hill from here!"

I met Brad at his house, then we drove a few miles to his father's house where he keeps his ski gear.
From his father's house, we set out on skis into the woods on trails which eventually hook up with state land which has marked trails on it.
It was beautifully quiet, not even a breeze and the sun was shining.
We were not bothered at all by the cold except for my left big toe which was hard to keep warm but not a big problem.
We skied for about 1 hr and 15 minutes. My average HR was 139.
Most of the trail was flat with a few hills.
My right binding bail, which gave me trouble on my last ski, held up pretty well, although those 75mm, 3 pin bindings are a bother to get into.
Also my left boot in particular is separating from the sole in the front.
One time a couple of years ago I fell on a fast descent and the sole on one of my boots (not these) ripped completely off and I had to ski back on one ski.
It's kind of neat that you can do that but very tiring on that one leg!
Well, I'll ride these until they give out and then I may switch to another pair of skis that I have with a different type of binding. The shoes I have for those are a little tight for me but maybe I'll try thinner socks.
It was great to get out.
Maybe tomorrow? And DON'T FORGET THE CAMERA!!!

We've been having a bit of a cold snap here in the Northeast over the past week.
A few days ago, I went out in the AM for a XC ski in the town park, about 5 minutes away.
The temp was about 10°.
I parked in my church parking lot as there is a trail from there leading right into the park.
It was a little windy too. The snow was great. I love skiing on windblown snow.
Nobody around. Just encountered one woman walking her dog.
Just a few minutes in my boot released from the binding. After a couple more tries I just couldn't get it to stay attached so I headed back to the car.
Fortunately I have another pair of skis. I went home, picked those up and went back to the park. I don't generally use those skis because they are too short and narrow for my weight and height.
The fitness trail at the park consists of 2 separate loops mostly in the woods. The first loop entrance was blocked by a large tree that had fallen across. I had to bushwack my way around it.
The trail wasn't as good as the other day at 5 Rivers because many more hikers had trampled it down but I still got a good hour out of it.
I was pretty warm. In fact, when I got back the inside of the jacket I was wearing was soaked with sweat. I guess it doesn't breathe too well.
I fiddled with the binding on the other skis when I got back. The bail was bent out of shape. I was not able to bend it back completely right but I think it'll work. At least I hope it will 'cause I am going to try to use them Saturday with Brad up in Berne. I called EMS to try to get a replacement bail but they don't carry them.
I suppose these 3 pin bindings are out of date. The current bindings they are selling are high-tech like everything else. You can't just buy new boots or skis or bindings if you need them, you have to get everything new or they won't match!
We'll be going out about 10AM tomorrow and they are calling for about 4° by then!
Should be fun! I'll bring a camera.