Ski Day 2

I promised myself that I could have a "Ski Vacation" this winter break, since I can't go anywhere and there isn't really much to do with the more transmissible covid going around. I really don't want covid to ruin my actual vacation in January, so I'm trying to keep it extra safe. Also, I've been hanging with the family, and they are definitely on the conservative side with covid restrictions, so I feel like I should be too. But, skiing is all outdoors, the lifts that I have been on are the open ones, so I think it's fair game.

I went to a new mountain today - Crotched Mountain. It's a kind of unfortunate name, but it was a nice mountain! They have one of the fast lifts, and they have two nice long green trails. Unfortunately, to get to the green trail from the fast lift, you have to go down a blue which was narrow, crowded, and really icy. It was so stressful! I did that trail 6 or 7 times, and then had to switch back to the slower lift one. I was really happy with my skiing - I feel like I'm getting a little bit more of a hang of how to point my skis downhill, bend at ankles, knees and hips - but starting from the ankles, and let my whole feet lead the edging, with knees being an aid. There were a few times when I got going down the hill and I could feel myself getting a good edge and just sailing down - it felt so free! I mean, there were still little kids passing me, but for the first time I actually passed people! 

Crotched Mountain is pretty far from the highway, and getting there took me on some smaller roads, which was fun but also I wasn't excited about driving back in the dark. Combining that with the fact that we did 250 squats in parkour yesterday, and I was done around 3. At that point all I'd had to eat that day was oatmeal and a banana, so I got a huge slice of pizza. mmmm. When I got to my car, my phone didn't get a signal - I was a little nervous because there was no way I would just find my way home. I started by following a car with MA plates and then fortunately the phone got a signal!

Totally Awesome Day of Skiing

First ski of the season today. and this time I decided to take a lesson, which was totally worth it. I went to pat's peak with my nephew who has skied a lot more than me - like, he's gone on ski vacations and does the black diamonds. We split up and met at the bottom when he did the blacks.

Anyhow, I decided that I should take a lesson this year to start off with and fix some of the little things that I was maybe doing wrong, and learn how to stop. Because when you can really stop, then you can also go faster. We got there a little before 10, so I could take the 10 am lesson - I was trying to decide if I should do a private or risk it with a group, and decided to do a group one. Which I'm so glad I did, because I was the only one in my group :) So, I got a private lesson for group rates. The teacher said that I was a "blue" or level 6+ ish - they only have 10 levels and 10 is freestyle. So, that bumped up my confidence a lot - she said I skied beautifully :)  What I learned:

1. She had me go from one edge back to the other edge, just back and forth. I think I'd been thinking of my knees as driving the turn, but really it's about getting from one edge to the other. Of course!
2. She said to use all four corners of my feet equally - skiing doesn't just come from the toes, or just the heals. It's the whole foot that's driving the shift between edges. 
3. To stop, the easiest thing is to do a J shaped turn and go slightly uphill.
4. To do a hockey stop, do a turn, straighten up a bit as you come into the turn, then bend, go to a 90 degree angle, and get the edges in. Important fact, I can actually do them!
5. When we ski, we lean forward, keep the body facing downhill and weight on the whole foot.

After, I did the green dot several times, then moved onto the blue squares, which I did several times. The green dot was feeling easy at the end! I think the new boots made a huge difference because they really mold to my feet and it was easier to get them to shift. We got there at 10 and left a little after 3 - I was freezing! I need to get some hand warmers.

It was so fun, and I liked going with my nephew! I hope this will be the year that I start thinking of myself as a blue square skier :)

30 Days of Yoga!

I actually did 30 Days of Yoga! Sometimes it wasn't easy and I didn't want to do my evening yoga, especially after a long day when I'd already worked out, but the nice thing about Adriene's workouts is that they aren't too long, so you can remind yourself that it's only 30 minutes or so. And I can do anything for 30 minutes.  The last week or so especially I've noticed that I've felt really good; not too creaky, a little less stressed and more zen. I'm going to try to keep it up and see how long I can go without breaking the streak.

Today I'm going to the hand doctor to see if they can drain my elbow lump. It's still about the size of a golf ball, and I'm always bumping it on things. I hope it's easy to drain, and the doctor isn't like "it's a little golf ball, why are you wasting my time?"

Hopefully tomorrow I'll go skiing! I was going to go today but it's raining and supposed to be a wintery mix at the mountain - I hope the skiing is OK after that. My goal is to take a lesson so that I can see if there are little changes that I can make that will make a big difference. Because I want to go skiing a little more this year, now that I have nice boots.

In the meantime, I haven't been hiking in NH since I do parkour on Saturdays and Sundays, but I have gone for my little walk in the fells most weekends. With the virus on an uptick, and my elbow, I haven't been climbing for a while. I'm trying to decide if I want to go back. Maybe... I am boosted. In the meantime at-home yoga, parkour and skiing seem like a better bet.

Update: the doctor was super nice and drained my lump. It turned out it was all blood. I'm icing and compressing it in the hopes that it doesn't swell up again.

Bursitis

I finally went to the urgent care to see what was up with my elbow. Nothing broken, the doctor said that I have olecranon bursitis and should use RICE. And she had the medical assistant wrap it with an ace bandage. She told me to see a hand specialist if it's not better in a week or two. By the time I got home my fingers were purple from my arm being wrapped and I felt a little like frankenstein. So, we will see if the swelling goes down. 

Today in parkour we each chose something that we wanted to work on and were our own coaches. I worked on doing a 360 turn on the low rail, which I can do about 20% of the time. I like to step backwards half way around and then spin around the other half of the way, going on the balls of my feet. After we practiced things, we had a chance to show each other, and explain what we learned. And, I had one of my times that I did it right in front of people, and finished with perfect balance :). It was pretty awesome. The secret is really bending the knees and keeping your core and hips over the bar. After class we went for lunch and had a fun time chatting about life and parkour and such. Parkour people are cool.

I got home and thought that maybe I could get back into running if I was just running a mile. I mean, it's just a mile, and I decided I could go as slow as I wanted. That didn't sound too hard. I was already in my workout clothes, so I ran up the street to the corner and back, which turned out to be .96 mile. My average pace was 11 minutes and 26 seconds, but some of the time when I looked at my watch I was running less than a 10 minute mile. Other times, I was running a 13 minute mile, so that balanced it out.

I did day 12 of yoga today - I feel like I can do the full month, and it's been really nice!