Family Day

Cindy and I spent the day together for Family Day as it should be. She shelved workout class and I shelved skiing. We went Defender driving out in the Sibbald area. Went on the demonstration forest roads, and the long road south to the gun ranges (and all the other associated places people have made into gun ranges). This gave us the opportunity to do some steep snowy old cut roads in the Defender and also down to a river bank. Nothing flusters the Defender. 

Picnic by the game of kids hockey on the shovelled lake in the mountains. 

Home on the slower back roads. 

Skiing with focus: the pursuit of quality turns over quality snow

Last spring ignited my pursuit of telemark racing, which I knew I wanted to pursue with much more focus into 2014/2015 season.  This meant guidance, equipment, effort and focus.  Cycling has Fred's, skiing has Gorby's.  I wouldn't really have called myself a Gorby, but I was also far from having the experience I needed to reach my goal - skiing at the World Cup stop in Steamboat Springs, Colorado in 2015.

On the learning side, which is most important, I've joined the Alberta Masters.  Great group of positive, helpful, quality skiers and coaches.  They alpine ski and race, however I haven't found it much of an issue getting quality learnings applicable to telemark.  We ski Saturday and Sunday at Nakiska, Monday nights at COP, all with video and coaching both on free skiing and gates.  Eking out improvement is focus on a couple issues at a time, listen, practice, execute.  It's not easy, if it were we'd all be Olympians after a dozen points of feedback, but it's challenging and the progress is fruitful if looked at over time spans greater than run to run.  Being able to ski gates with supportive people 3 days a week is amazing.

I've had to up my game on the equipment side.  I'm rotating between a couple skis and trying to find out what works best in what conditions.  They're all new old stock on ebay type deals, and I've stuck mostly with Fischers as their undrilled plates are easy for mounting NTN bindings to.

I've finally invested in a quality Toko table and Swix clamps that felt the nicest to me.  I tune every time I ski.  I'm doing high performance hard COP and Nakiska snow/ice tuning with quality tools.  Quality tools produce quality results, whether it be quality metal edge files or diamond hones.  Edges are now a pursuit rather than a chore.  It's satisfying.  I have a library of wax that suits many conditions instead of just slapping on what I have.  I know what I'll bring for important races, and although it's expensive, it's not near the cost of bike racing equipment!

I've picked up Lange race boots.  I have very skinny feet, and my feet always swim in my boots.  Not these ones.  I move my feet and my body and skis move, instead of getting lost in translation.  It's like a sports car vs. an SUV.  I got old model year and alpine race skis (slalom and GS) to make more use of the Monday nights at COP in particular.  I'm very happy with the deals accessed on all of these.  Why alpine boots?  Besides a couple days of cross training (heels locked down is weird!), the boots provided another useful set of information - it's the first set I've had that are properly canted, footbedded, etc. to deal with my flat feet and bow legs, which are both things that work directly against good inside edging.  The next challenge is to get my tele boots adapted with the canting information from the alpine fit.  Without long explanation, it's not as easy to accomplish with tele gear.  And I'd prefer to do much of it at the boot rather than shimming bindings, as I have several tele skis, and I don't want to multiply out the work, and I'd prefer not to have L and R skis.  Canted footbeds and shimmed cuffs are the first couple of steps.

Skiing is fast...  I now have Get a FIS speed rated race helmet and mouth guard to ward off concussion as best as possible if crashing, knock on wood I've still never really made head contact with snow in all these years of skiing, but it's both wise and necessary by club and Alpine Canada guidelines.  Further I have new magic underpants... ha ha... they're warm and protective. Get protective underwear for hips and tail ones with soft but instantly hard padding. And a back protector, again, warm and comfy, and makes the snow slides I've had so far a total non event! Skiing regularly at COP nights means clear goggles, an item that had been absent from my equipment list for quite a while, plus I even splurged for a second set for winter commuting at nights.

I've skied 15 times with coaching and video this season. Do it a thousand times and one might feel like progress has been made!  How to turn, how to weight, when to turn, when to initiate, how to initiate, stance, where to look, mental focus are all reviewed each run in my mind vs "just skiing". 

I've had a positive experience from reaching out to Altius Nordic Ski Club to have access to the ski jumps to practice the jump at speed and size, plus in a telemark landing.

I've been hammering away on the XC side.  It's been a mix of technique training from those who are qualified to help, and just brute force intervals.  My painful favourite is below our GS course at COP there's another 100 yards of gentle slope in between the XC area and the lift, which is partially occupied by a magic carpet for people learning.  I start at the bottom, point the skis uphill, and either skate or just double pole uphill.  The looks on the magic carpet riders faces is classic when I go faster and higher than they go... it's all good until especially the double poling ones I go until stomach muscle cramps set it!  Different muscles than cycling intervals but same engine.

 

Telemark World Cup, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

The above little note was published late last night.  It makes me happy, and puts forth the challenge once again of what lies ahead, the World Cup (and World Championships) stop in Steamboat Springs.  For those whom aren't familiar, this is what it looks like!

In that short little blurb is years of effort.  I had done all the constituent sports of telemark racing previously - tele skiing, and a dabble of jumping and XC skiing.  But to pull them into focus, sharpen them to the best I can, has been quite the mission. 

It's also been a lesson in kinship.  There isn't really "telemark school" handy, at least around here - like signing up for a local soccer team or even an alpine ski racing team.  After my first efforts last year in citizen races, I made a hierarchy and road map - the three sports, what critical performance skills/equipment/learnings I needed to accomplish in each, and what resources I could find to help me do so in each respective portion. 

Finding excellence on a ski edge or around a gate itself is a lifetime pursuit.  Same with a the glide and power of skate skiing.  Same again in the air, and all importantly, the reintroduction to ground.

I didn't have a lifetime, let alone three.  So I set out to learn as much as possible in a year.  I never promised myself or anyone else perfection, just doing it the best I can.  Measuring improvement is hard, although it has come as I've seen timed runs drop in duration.  Some days I'd think I should go home and take up knitting.  But over time the cumulative effect of all the millimeters of body angulation, mobility, sight patterns, lines, etc. started to pile up.  I heard some excitement from my coaches in person or on their video comments.  A ski patroller whom waited a second in an empty lift line to strike up a conversation with me said "it really looks like you've got those things figured out".  A couple people on the hill when I'd stop part way to lean on my poles and take a breather would say "I've never seen anyone carve telemark skis like that".  It helps to feel more confident.

But those aren't my effort.  I'd be doing the same turns I've done forever if it wasn't for the help of Mike Shragge, whom I've dubbed Telemark Jedi Master.  From chatting me up on a ski day and luring me into racing, to our afternoon skis together, Mike knows how to slice the sharpest turns around, and knows the mechanics to coax them out of others.  I'm so thankful of that.  Each incremental improvement helps, and once you feel it "nailed" in free skiing, then it's time to execute them with these rutted out icy GS courses with these red and blue poles coming at you way too quick and geez do I really have ~25m between these it feels like I have no room to.... argh!  Not to mention putting my younger lungs to the test on our skate ski lessons that served as technique tuneups to my brute force training!

But you talk to yourself down the course, you learn as you go.  Derek Mortson and Claudio Berto have been dosing me amply in their ski racing knowledge.  They're like yin and yang, and I love it.  Claudio builds from the ground up, Derek is the "hit the target" man.  It's either "turn higher, we want you attacking the line, on the edges" to "get your ass down hill as fast as you fucking can, this is racing, it doesn't always need to be pretty"!

Wesley Savillion and Max Thompson of Altius Nordic Ski Club this year were welcoming, helpful, curious and always supportive from my first "umm, hi, sorry to bug you but wondering if I could talk my way into some ski jump access..." to present! 

It's been such a pleasure to meet, chat with, learn from, and... at least thus far in actually making a first goal, not disappoint these people that have helped out so much!

Jasper

I've been meaning to ski at Marmot Basin for years, and a double header gs/slalom race weekend got me up there. I did the gs race Sunday and finished respectably on my tele setup. 

Sunday I free skied and checked in on the slalom guys. I saw a caribou on the hill. 

We left early from Cindy's Jasper strolling to make it home by dinner, with a stop at the ice fields. I have some granola bar snack to a big crow. They are smart animals. And I wouldn't usually feed wildlife, but buddy makes a life up here, and a few easy and healthy calories couldn't hurt too much. 

Memory Lane - Telemark landing practice on ski jumps

Telemark racing includes a downward sloping jump, which is required you land in the telemark position. You immediately turn either left or right around a gate. Where can I practice tele landings?  This seems perfect!

I got like 20+ jumps in as the club kids went in when they were cold and I could do two minute laps. I did 5 on the one pictures on the left, but the smaller one to left of chair (not pictured) was more useful as the outrun was short allowing me to actually enter a carve turn right away. Plus I could do like 4 tele turns from the lift to the inrun, and once the kids packed it in, I could carry speed right into the inrun which is good telemark course simulation. 

Beijing

We left Yangon pretty late on New Year's Eve. I won't mention if this was before or after our big night of partying. Err, ok, we didn't have a big night of partying. 

Cindy and I had a reasonably long layover there. I had thought we could rent a car and get lost then just push the GPS "back to airport car rental place" button. But we thought it'd be more wise to start getting back to our time zone so we got an pay by the hour hotel.  Fortunately we didn't have any emergencies that required us to Flee for Life. 

I'm always a fan of mustard, so I had to put this one to the test. 

It was good. So was the spicy beef plate we got. The mustard basically meant strong wasabi in the soy sauce. 

Yangon

We did a day of tourism in Yangon. It doesn't feel Christmassy. It's 34C and humid. I don't recall the last time I felt this heat, but it isn't in recent memory. I also don't know if that's recorded somewhere natural or on the crowded downtown blacktop with air conditioners concentrating heat outside all day.  It was basically intervals in and out of shadows for us.  

City hall. 

I missed the name, but the Hudson Bay equivalent from the British Empire originally.  Now something else. Pointy to right is a Christian church. 

Supreme Court. Our guy showing us stuff today is on a limited time scale (by us) as we're recovering from being sick. But he says the police and courts don't do much. In two weeks here, we saw one police car on the road and its two associates police men. We saw zero guns or army guys, but did see a few army barracks type places. It looked to me more like make work/basic army corps of engineers type civil work for teenage boys. 

Protest outside Supreme Court.  

Independence monument. Couple side notes: in two weeks of being here I haven't heard or seen in print the word Burma once. People seem to identify as Myanmar people. There are 135 ethnic groups, but 8 major ones. Apparently Myanmar derives from myan and ma, which either in the past or maybe still, were the Chinese descriptors of these people to the south. Myan is strong, ma is fast. We didn't see anyone moving too fast, but they sure are strong, especially for how small they are. Median body weight must be 2/3 of me for men, if not less. Life expectancy is shorter, 65 years. We were told that it used to be common for farmers to live long, but not so much anymore. I don't know if smoking was historic or introduced (ie they have indigenous stuff they smoke before tobacco) and I can't imagine lifelong exposure to absolutely belching black diesel smoke in your face helps. If previous generations farmed with buffalo work and didn't smoke I could see how it'd be a very healthy life. Let's just say that working in the fields and eating fresh food every day leaves skin cancer as probably a higher risk than obesity. 

Couple standing in nice park. 

This is but a tiny sliver of what is vended on the streets. The one thing that is apparent is men and women are equal, and everyone who can make conversation wants their country to be better. They think they did their part by electing Aung San Suu Kyi. She's one of only 4 people to be bestowed honorary Canadian citizenship too. They stress education desires for the whole population (sounds like it's now basically free or nominal cost to public for primary), are concerned about the prevalence of smoking and the lack of awareness of large scale social health ills. On a daily basis there appears to be a lot of freedom to do as one pleases. I can google seemingly any topic and can blog, which I can't do in China. They want visitors to like Myamar, to realize that it has a long history as being a gem of a country, and wish to get back. 

Apparently some Jewish guy who migrated from Bhagdad early in the century owns this, and is a vibrant figure in the local economy. 

We visited Shwedagon Pagoda, thankfully as shade was coming to Yangon.  It's the most significant one in Myanmar, and significant beyond that as other Bhuddist country people come to pilgrimage.  It's busy - we called it pagoda town as there's so much to the complex. It was partially covered for maintenance while we were there, but the whole thing is actual gold and the top is all rubies and diamonds. 

Bhodi tree at entrance. 

Main pagoda (covered with stuff). 

That thing is really all covered in plate gold. Those who perpetuate the urban myth that all the gold mankind has ever extracted is less than a swimming pool may wish to contemplate. 

Bhuddist principles don't appear in any way combative or incompatible with the modern world.  It's refreshing to be in a climate where people can be devout without being archaic at best or idiotic at worst.  I asked someone about the monks using cell phones and scooters and such, and they said Bhudda didn't have those things then so couldn't make rules about them, following old rules would be silly. But he told people principles for a good life and to think for themselves. Well, that sure seems smarter than some religious bickering in the world. 

I hope Myanmar sorts itself out. It should be rich in a way that all citizens have better lives. It has an abundance of resources. Given adequate transport, nobody should be hungry. People are educated decently, with some having access to more. More is better in this phase. It's also hopeful to see how equal men and women are in their daily routines. It all comes down to politics, which has unfortunately stifled many countries and peoples of high potential. 

Unwound by pool then New Year dinner for 2. The Russians gave this hotel to Myanmar in 1958. Rumor has it Nikita Kruschev had a hand in designing this very pool.  It was a very modern hotel at the time and has been renovated since. I would say it holds its own in the Asian hotel market, especially being on 37 acres on the lake. 

Bakke tracked down a balloon to make New Year dinner for 2 a bit festive.