Behind again so I will have to add my own dates again.

Wed Mar 29
I've discovered treadmill hill climbing. What a great workout. I want to work up to consecutive 50 minute sessions with a 10 minute break in between then and maybe a meal break in there too. I tried listening to my current book Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man but that takes a lot of attention and I found my mind wandering after a while so I switched to music (I just love this iPod that I got).

Max incline 15 degrees
30 minutes at 2.2 mph
brief pause
20 minutes at 2.0 then down to 1.8 mph
I went down to 1.8 as my heartrate was consistently in the 150's and I wanted it more around 145.

What really impresses me is that it tells me I burned over 400 calories and with running I usually see 200.

Sat Mar 24
Terri and I went skiing at Sugarbowl. She took a lesson and I hung around White Pine while the snow softened up. Then we broke for lunch and after that I went off on my own while Terri rested her knee. Feeling brave I took the chairlift up to the top of Mt Lincoln to see if I could handle an intermediate run up there. Nope. The top of that run sure looked pretty expert and I crashed more than once. Finally got off the steep part and had a nice run the rest of the way down. I then spent the rest of the day around the Jerome lift and found a great intermediate run called Sunset Blvd which I got to via Emigrant Gap trail. Very nice I think I like it even better than Trailblazer which is right beside it.

Going down it I was able to work on a skating type motion to keep a rhythm going which helped a lot.

It's also right by the terrain park which cuts down the number of people on the trail as they think it's in the terrain park (it's not). It also starts way up at the top of Judah so next season I want to check out how difficult the top part is.

When we got back I put the downhill skis away in the attic and will work on Telemark for the rest of the season. While the lifts are still running and while there is a ski patrol (!) I'm going to work on it in the resorts and then can get brave and move to the backcountry. (Which is less challenging than it sounds having down it some). On April 7th I'll go up for a 2 hr lesson with an instructor named "Howdy" (yes, really). Should be fun.

I priced Telemark boots. Ouch! At least $300 even on eBay. Can't afford it now but renting costs me just under $30 a shot so I should keep checking eBay to see if I can find an older used pair. Garmont fits me better than Scarpa due to my wide foot. The size depends on if it's a therma fit liner. If so then 24.5 or 25 will work. If not then 25.5 or even 26.

Sat Mar 17
Skiing at Sugarbowl.
I'm finally starting to get the hand of it. I can now do the Trailblazer intermediate run comfortably and I can do that Pioneer Trail (both are off the Jerome lift) that I've had so much trouble with in the past. Also discovered Harriet's Hollow off Xmax Tree lift which is nice.

Tue Mar 6
Went treadmill running at the gym. I'm definitely stronger but have lost a little bite of aerobic fitness. i was able to complete a mile without too much struggle but during the next mile I had to pause a lot and finally just fast walked the rest of it. Clearly I need to run more or walk on an incline.

Especially with Shasta coming up I'll need to spend more time hiking on an incline and start adding a pack too.

Sat Mar 3
Went skiing at Sugarbowl though this time I was using Telemark skis. I should have put skins on them to slow them down as those skis were way slick

Telemark feels more natural to me and even though I'll be struggling with it for quite a while I can see it in my future. But I got tired of downhill skiers whizzing by me as a I struggled so I think for this season I'm going to focus on downhill.

I did learn that you can pretty much ski normally with them. You can snowplow and do parallel turns. It's probably a little harder with out your heel locked down but I'm sure I could get used to it. And getting up after a fall is oh so much more easy.

So my goals are for the rest of the season to downhill ski and try to become a fairly smooth intermediate skiier. Once the resorts close if I want to ski should rent Randonee. Next season I will want to consider learning Telemark. This means that I'm not going to be buying Randonee which is something of a financial relief.

I think on Shasta I'm going to snowshoe though I may still change my mind on that. Others will be snowshoeing too.

AAI just waved their new class list under my nose. They have an Alpinism II which looks way tempting but it's 1100.0 plus airfare. Sigh.

I just bought a used pair of downhill skis for a song ($36). Too bad it's going to cost more than that to send them and the seller still hasn't gotten around to sending them so they are probably not going to get here in time for this weekend (sigh). I'm also high bidder on a pair of Dalbello ski boots but I'm sort of regretting it as i want to be able to try them on first. Oh well they're only 21.00 right now but maybe someone will outbid me.