Road Trip

19 hrs in the car starting tomorrow. Totally worth it to go from this:

Victor, ID

Friday Dense Fzg Fog Hi 31 °F

Friday Night Mostly Cloudy Lo 14 °F

Saturday Mostly Cloudy Hi 32 °F

Saturday Night Chance Snow Lo 18 °F

Sunday Snow Likely Hi 29 °F

Sunday Night Chance Snow Lo 18 °F

Monday Chance Snow Hi 29 °F

Monday Night Chance Snow Lo 10 °F

to this:

Tucson, AZ

Friday Mostly Sunny Hi 62 °F

Friday Night Mostly Clear Lo 41 °F

Saturday Sunny Hi 67 °F

Saturday Night Partly Cloudy Lo 45 °F

Sunday Mostly Sunny Hi 69 °F

Sunday Night Partly Cloudy Lo 45 °F

Monday Mostly Sunny Hi 66 °F

Monday Night Partly Cloudy Lo 45 °F

From Stupid to Stupid Deep

Okay, okay. I am being a bit of a wise-a** when I say that. Snow biking is not stupid. Really. I think it just has to be done it the right conditions to be "fun." My first ride just happened to be during less than ideal conditions.

Me and T-Race shreddin'.

Last Friday I rented a Pugsley from Fitzy for the weekend and arranged to go out for long day with the Junkie (thanks for the photo) and T-Race. Byers and I were supposed to go to Camp Lynda (it was canceled due to a bad weather forecast) so we wanted to simulate a big block of training on snow instead.

Enter the snowbike. Or what I now like to affectionately refer to as the "struggle-buggy." Our 3 hour ride turned into what felt like 2.5 hrs of pushing and for me about 20 min of falling over and 10 min. of riding! The company was fantastic however and if I spent more time here in the winter I would consider a Pugsley purchase. Ha. Kidding. I think I'll stick to skate skiing.

I re-aligned my priorities Saturday morning. The Pugsley was parked in the garage and that is where it stayed for the rest of the weekend. Instead, Nate, Frank T. and I headed out the door at 6:15am for a dawn patrol Glory lap. Breaking trail up to 10,000 feet in 17" of new is a far superior workout and experience than any on-the-bike training I could do. Holy-moly was it deep up there. Nate headed to the Village to teach after a lap and I kept it going for a few more south-side laps with a posse of my favorite peeps.

Suze goes deep.

Mike, Matt and Frank all smiles.

Sunday morning we woke up to another dream day: 20 more inches of new! The avy danger had increased to high by Sunday, so a day at the Village was in order. I slept in and timed it perfectly. I walked up to a surprisingly fast-moving gondi line at 10:30 just as they opened the mountain for the day. I prefer skiing the backcountry but skiing lifts in 40" of recent snowfall is priceless. Anywhere you went it was good. I found myself modifying my tele stance because I couldn't handle being hit in the face with powder anymore. It was a snorkel and nose-plug kind of day.

Monday called for another dawn patrol. It snowed again all day Sunday, so why not? Herb, Nate and I were walking at 6:45am and had a dream run down Turn 2. You know those runs you dream of? This was it. The wind had totally buffed it out and it was deep as deep can be, light and we had a perfect 2,500 ft. vertical drop to enjoy it on. Giggle-inducing powder. A perfect reminder of why we live where we live. As Nate always says whenever I say I want to move, once you ski here it's really hard to go anywhere else. He's right.My honey in a recent ad for Jackson Hole. Is it hard skiing with a husband who defines "perfect form"? Nah. He goes easy on me most of the time.

But, all good things must end. I'm heading to Tucson for the month of February to get back in the pro-mountain biker mode and train. I'm sure when I suit up for my first ride and am slathering on the SPF 1-million I will be just tickled to be there.

In the meantime, more snow is in the forecast all week. Maybe Tucson can wait?

Base Training-Teton Style

Teton Springs: fresh cord and sunshine 3 min. from my door.

The hoses have turned off. We haven't received any measurable new snow for almost 2 weeks and people in the valley are starting to get pretty cranky. I'm not one of them. Well, okay I take that back. I am a tad cranky mostly because I am taking Inferential Statistics and am stuck training indoors for another 2 weeks, not because the powder skiing is non-existent. Skate skiing makes me very happy. SSPS data crunching does not.

Typically, when Nate gets a rare day off we are going to bed early, getting up early and going for long tours in the backcountry. Instead, Nate was in the shed until all hours last night tuning up his dirtbike. He drove to Dubois this morning to go burn gas with a bunch of other jonesing powderhounds. I suppose they need some other kind of adrenalin-based entertainment than racing the tram to the bottom of the hill.

I am still sticking to skis. The great thing about being a nordic and a tele skier is that if one isn't good, the other is typically pretty awesome. I've been going to Teton Springs almost daily for long skate skis. They have a crazy-good track, it's 3 minutes from my front door and it's free. So, while it seems like most serious cyclists are out logging long January base miles, I am doing my base training Teton Valley style: a hour or so of intervals on the trainer, followed by a few hours of skate skiing or a snowy trail run. I usually finish these days feeling like I have been flogged by a sack of raw potatoes, so I think I am probably doing something right. My biceps and triceps are coming along nicely, too.

Sometimes I feel like I am just killing time until I head to Tucson for the entire month of February for some real training. But, after a few hours of rocking out to good tunes on a sunny day of skate skiing, I don't want to leave Idaho at all. I'm looking for a slower start to this year that in years past-I guess I just don't want to come out flying for the early races in March-so a little biking and a lot of on-snow training is working out just fine for me.

No snow means Maddy is getting mucho skiing and trail running time with me.

Firing 'er Back Up

Jay's pic of the day. Sunrise in Jackson Hole.
A great visual reminder of why it's so good to be home.

The quick and dirty wrap up of my last 2 months: had a great showing at Iceman, got sick before the USGP in NJ, helped mom recover from a knee replacement, tried to maintain my graduate work, stayed sick throughout all my racing in November, put on Thanksgiving dinner at home allowing mom to relax on a holiday for the first time in 40 years, got even sicker before the VERGE final in Rhode Island which finally resulted in a raging sinus infection and zero power right before Nationals.

Seeing as I couldn't hear a thing, had a head/nose/throat full of green and Nate had been at home without water for a week and a half due to a frozen water main to our home in Idaho we begrudgingly pulled the plug on the trip to Nationals. A hard decision, but nonetheless the right decision.

I drove across the country from Massachusetts with Maddy as my co-pilot in 4 days of freezing rain and blizzards and made it to Idaho just in time for Christmas. No racing, no training, no schoolwork and no snow gave me plenty of time to paint my living room, office and hallways and recover from what was a really fun, yet incredibly challenging season of cyclocross racing. I can't wait for next year!

The last month has been awesome. I have been doing a ton of nordic and tele skiing, spending lots of time with Nate and the friends I miss dearly during my busy racing seasons. I have also been doing lots of planning for the 2010 season. I am super pleased to say that I will again be riding for Kenda in 2010, a company filled with outstanding people that I am very proud to represent. There's more to report about 2010 sponsorship and opportunities, but I should probably pace myself with my re-entry into the Internets and bloggy-land and save that for another day.

Besides, at this point of the season it is far more exciting to talk about skiing. Nate and I had a great tour to Oliver on New Year's day and save for one other group, had the whole darn mountain to ourselves. It's amazing how many powder laps you can get out there once you get out there. Yesterday, Jay (the amazing photographer who took both pictures in this post) Nate and I ventured out to ski Beards Mountain, just north of Targhee. I got to drive the snow machine for the 4 mile tow-in and out and from the wilderness boundary and it was an interesting day to say the least. The snowpack is super sketchy right now and I can't tell you how many times the whoomphing, settling and shooting cracks on the 3,000 vert. climb made me almost wet my pants. Thankfully, I was skiing with 2 of the most experienced backcountry skiers I know. We collectively did some very picky route finding, skied some amazing 26 deg.powder shots and got the @*$& out of there as soon as we could. Being married to a guy with a Level 3 Avy Guide Cert. is pretty rad.

I got to tow Kowalski, Nate and Jay in and out of Beards.

There's a winter storm warning on right now, so I figure I best get out to the nordic track and skate some of the freshly groomed track while I can. The legs need a break from the DH anyway. The avalanche danger will no doubt turn to high by the time the storm hits, keeping us all out of the backcountry. Thankfully, I can still get out and ski. When Nate married me, I qualified for a free spouse pass to Jackson Hole. Totally worth changing my name for that one ;)

Happy 2010 everyone!