Faster skiing

My office was closed today because we had a big event over the weekend - the best part was that I didn't actually have to help with the event! I just got a free day off :) After sitting on my couch for a bit I visited with a friend who is fostering a puppy (so cute) and then went skiing. It was sunny but really cold out, which actually feels like perfect ski weather to me - I always work up such a sweat. The best thing though, was that there was almost no one there, and the whole place was open. There wasn't a single person lying in the tracks or just standing there that I had to pass - it was much better in terms of annoyance factor.

I watched a few youtubes last night to work on my understanding of the mechanics of skiing, and I think they were helpful! According to my watch I was going about 3.2 miles an hour, which is still a pace I could walk, but it's faster than yesterdays. For part of the time I really felt the balance shift and glide as well as the kick back. And, I am getting more comfortable with the angle of my weight being forward.

I did three loops around the bigger track and on the second loop I did an extra circle around the long flat part for some extra practice. According to my watch I went 4.3 miles in an hour and 22 minutes, most of the time in zone 3 for heart rate, but a full 20 minutes in zone 4. It's funny how much easier it is to get my heart rate up doing skiing than it is erging at the gym. 

The only thing that I haven't really figured out for myself is the water situation. I don't have anything to carry it in, and I'm always so thirsty when I finish. I suppose I could just stick one of those small water bottles in my pocket. 

All and all, I was pretty happy with the day's exercise, and enjoyed it so much more than a day at work :) 

Ski and Swim day

Today is one of my swim friend's birthday and so we were planning a group dip at the lake. Also, we had snow last night, and it was beautiful out. So, I decided to combine skiing and swimming into one adventure. The plan was to go skiing for an hour, come home, change, and then hit the lake. Unfortunately my bed was a little too cozy, and my coffee a little too good, and by the time I was ready to go ski there wasn't time to come home in between. So, I made it one big outing.

I made a cake for my friend last night, so I had my skis, the cake and my swim gear. Plus all the necessary clothing changes - my swim suit and easy to take off/put on clothes and my dry robe. It was so much stuff - I think I've traveled to foreign countries for two weeks with less equipment. I took my skis out first, put them in the car, and brushed the snow off. While I was there the guy who parks next to me got home - he drives this massive 4x4 truck (which at first I wasn't excited about, but I have to say that he can fit it in his space just fine, without being a hinderance to me at all). Anyhow, he helped me clear my car and we chatted a little. Then I went back inside, changed into my ski gear, and took two more trips to bring everything else out.

When I got to the ski area the parking lot was completely full. Fortunately my outstanding parking karma once again worked, and someone left with perfect timing for me to get their spot. I changed my shoes (so much easier to do with cross country than downhill), grabbed my gear and headed up to ski. Even though there were a ton of people there it wasn't that crowded because the whole place was open. I did a much bigger loop than I had been doing - it's a little over a mile. I had time to go around twice, and then I did a few quick back and forth passes closer in to the lot because I was running out of time. To some degree I am getting the rhythm of skiing - it feels a little like skating where you are pushing with one foot and gliding on the other, and to some degree I have a long ways to go. On the bright side, it seems I was moving faster than most of the other skiers in the little track things. But also, they were moving slower and it was kind of annoying. I kept having to step out of the things to pass people. And as soon as I step out of the tracks I'm slower - so frustrating. I should have several more opportunities for skiing this week because my office is closed tomorrow and then I'm going in on Wed and Thurs, so I can go after work. According to my watch I went 2.8 miles in an hour, which again is just a little slower than if I walked. I did get my heart rate up pretty well - over 20 min in zone 2 and over 25 min in zone 3.

After I finished skiing I was so hungry! I thought that I might need something to eat and had brought an orange, which definitely wasn't enough. I had just enough time to stop and get a slice of pizza, which I chowed on in the car, before swimming. 

My friend is a teacher at a school that was actually closed for a couple days last year due to norovirus, so needless to say I didn't put candles in the cake for her to blow out, instead we just lit a regular candle, sang, and she blew that out. Then we went for a dip. 

The water is still 35 though the ice shelf has melted back a lot. I was thinking about doing a real swim, but just couldn't psych myself up for it (I did one on Saturday, so I felt like I had done my hard-core work for the week.) Instead I went out to the ice and found a spot where I could climb on it - it was pretty slushy and thin, but there were still some solid bits. I could feel the ice moving as I was standing on it so only stayed up for a moment. It's supposed to be really cold again, so maybe we will have more freezing. After our swims we all ate cake (which I have to say was delicious), chatted and bounced around to warm up. 

Yesterday I went climbing at my fav gym, metrorock. I warmed up with a 5.7 on autobelay, then I did a 5.8, 5.9, and three 5.10's - an a, b, and c. The 5.10 b killed me, I fell so many times. I really liked the c - it's in my favorite chimney, though I also fell on that one. And the a is on my fav slab - I just fell once on that one. I cooled down with a 5.7 that was fun. My arms were toast at the end, though I think seven climbs is pretty good.

5 weeks

5 weeks from today is the big race! I've been dipping, but only swam swam once recently, and it was brutal. I decided I better get back to it so I'm acclimatized and ready, but I have to admit I was dreading it. It's about 32 out today and cloudy, as we arrived at the lake there were flurries coming down which was pretty cool. 

It's gotten warmer and the ice is melting. Unfortunately it's floated towards the dock and there isn't a ton of space for swimming. And, there were four other people there, so I had to share the space (and since I don't really swim in a straight line in open water, that's kind of a problem). I was so dreading it by the time I got into the water, but then it was actually fine. 

Because I didn't want to cut myself up on the ice, and my goggles fogged up, I wound up swimming pretty slowly. And I had my super warm gloves and wool socks under my booties. So, after all the dread it was completely fine. The water didn't feel that bad (though it was 35) and my hands and feet weren't freezing. I did feel a little breathless at first, but then I was completely fine. Probably in a big part because I was swimming pretty slow. I counted strokes, but at a certain point I lost track because I couldn't see well and was trying to stay away from both the agitator and ice. In the end I only swam about 145 yards, which isn't that far, but I decided it was OK because my face was in the water for about 9 minutes, and that's what I need to be working on now. After the swim we warmed up, danced around a little, and then I came home and am spending the rest of the day on the couch.

I did a swim last week that was brutal - I got into the water and couldn't breathe. I wanted to get out, but I made myself finish. It was so hard. Funny how today was so much easier. I'm going to try to do at least one swim swim a week until the big race as a way to prepare.

This week for work we were at HMS for four days. I biked there two of the days with a blue bike e bike. It was mostly nicer to bike there than drive - I took the bike path to the MOS, crossed the bridge there and then went down the bike path on storrow to mass ave. The only part that wasn't bike path was from mass ave to the school, but a bunch of that had protected bike lanes. The one thing that was hard was on friday it was so cold, and there was a wind blowing off the charles river. I was freezing! My hands hurt just like when I am swimming and when I looked at my face when I got there it was red and blotchy. Still, better than sitting in traffic. I could never have biked like that when I worked downtown, but the infrastructure is so much better now.

Coyotes by the lake

I went with a friend for a late-ish dip at the lake tonight. We got there at 6:30 and by the time we'd procrastinated and such, we got in for our swim at about 7. It was a little warmer out than it's been, without any real wind. The ice shelf has definitely melted some, but a few places that I tested felt firm enough to climb on. I didn't want to cut myself up again, so I resisted the urge. We stayed in for 10 minutes, and my watch said that the water was still 34.

I have been having some pretty intense zings with the nerves on my hands and decided that maybe I should protect them a little better. I bought these kayaking gloves from Amazon that are amazing. They are three layers - a waterproof one, a neoprene one for warmth and a fabric-y one for more warmth. It almost felt like cheating because my hands weren't in pain.

After our swim, while we were drying off we heard what sounded like a massive pack of coyotes on the other side of the lake. They went on for a while, howling and barking and creating mayhem. It was pretty cool, though I was glad that the sound was coming from the other side of the lake.

Back to swim lessons

I went back to swim class today. I wasn't especially excited about it, but once I got there it was fine - it felt good to be in the pool again, doing real swimming and getting an aerobic workout. And, I was able to time my swim speed and did a 100 yard swim in about 2 minutes and 10 seconds, which does convert to doing a 200 meter swim in less than 5 minutes. Of course, once you add in the cold factor it becomes slower and longer, but still less than 7 minutes. Which is what I have been doing at the lake.

In the pool it's a lot easier to focus on reaching and pulling, something that's harder to do when I'm thinking about how cold I am. But, I need to remember to focus on that when cold water swimming. I'll have three more lessons, so a good chance to practice and remind myself of what a good swim stroke looks like. 

Ice Shelf

The ice shelf is back! Hooray! It's even earlier than last year - it's been a pretty cold winter. We went for a dip on Saturday and of course I had to climb on the shelf, twice. It was pretty hard to get up there because the edges are so smooth and there wasn't much to grab hold of when I was trying to get up. Eventually I broke enough of the ice to make a little indent, making it easier to swing my legs up and get on top of it. Once I was up there things felt pretty solid and I was able to stand for a second before getting back into the water. After I felt like it was too short a time up there, so I climbed on it again. I was so proud of myself for not cutting my legs up, but then when I got out of the water I realized that no, I had just not felt it because I was frozen. 

I've been having a lot of spiciness with my hands and wrists, and I just ordered new swim mittens that will hopefully help. On new years I could feel some zings from my wrists when they touched the water - not good. I know on the swim fest day I will be in some pain, but I'm just going to have to live with it. Otherwise I don't necessarily want to do permanent harm to my nerves with my silly hobby.

I signed up for four swim classes at mit to work on my form and speed again. I'm not super excited about it, but once I go I always enjoy them. I also got an annual ski pass for cross country skiing at this place near me that makes snow. I went today for about 45 minutes and did 3 loops around their space before calling it a day. I am feeling a little more comfortable on the skis, but also my right leg is a bit sore. I have to go 15 times to make it worth getting the pass, which I am using as a motivator - I've been 2x now, so only 13 to go :) I kind of like that I can just go there for 45 minutes, just like I would go to the gym for that long, so that's another good thing about the season pass. It's a lot of exercise-y things for me to be doing, because I'm also trying to keep up with yoga, strength training, stretching my IT band and keeping my glute strong - I guess it is good to be busy with exercise this time of year.

My post swim legs:

 

2026

I've been enjoying a quiet vacation, and had a relaxing NYE and NY. As in past years I spent NYE at yoga - the same place as last year in jp, and it was really nice. The class went from 10:15 - 12:05, with about an hour and 15 minutes of flow, half hour ish of restorative and then a meditation that started right before midnight. I really like the instructor alot and she doesn't take it easy just because it's late at night. So, the first part was pretty intense flow. I was so glad when she slowed it down and we did our restorative - I usually don't love restorative because you do kind of just lie there. But at 11:30 pm it works. During the meditation I thought about what a crazy year it's been around the world and felt grateful for everything that I have going for me. 

On NY day we had our fourth polar plunge at the lake. It was freezing - definitely one of the colder days we've had ever. The beach is completely frozen so we wound up doing it at the lower lake and having a little party in the woods after. The water is still around 35, so people weren't really hanging around for too long after going in. We had a bunch of new faces and waves of people. I kept my hands out of the water, but even so they were freezing. It was a tough on for sure. After I went home and felt cold for the rest of the day.

Today I went for another cross country ski. The place here that makes snow isn't as nice as it was going out in the woods, but it was super easy to get there, and it's good for me to get lots of practice. I bought a season pass for the year to force myself to keep working on my skills. The best part so far is when I'm on a trail that's a little downhill, so I can just glide. There is a circuit there, and I went around it 5 times which took me an hour - according to my watch I went 2.86 miles with 169 elevation gain, so again just a little slower than if I was walking :). Looking at my splits, I did get a little faster with each lap, so that's something. The ski area is convenient, inexpensive, and they make snow, which is really nice. But there are a lot of people there, which can be a pain. I had my first fall today because a woman stopped at the bottom of the hill (it's a small hill, but still a hill) and just stood there, in the tracks, because her friend fell. I was coming down and yelled to her, but of course she didn't move. And I can't stop that effectively so I had to fall to not hit her. The good news is that I was fine after, nothing bad happened, and I was able to get back up. So, I guess it was a good learning experience, even though I am still pissed about it.

The other thing that happened this year is that my garbage disposal died. It's been giving me issues for the last month or so, but yesterday I looked at the disposal and it was dripping water out the bottom, which just isn't a good thing for an electric appliance to do. I unplugged it and looking into replacing it - which is something I hate so much since repair people always charge a ton to women. I watched a bunch of youtubes about replacing your disposal and it didn't look that hard, so on the way back from skiing I stopped at the hardware store and bought a new one. And I replaced it myself! I feel so accomplished and adult (even though it wasn't that hard because I put in the same brand so I didn't have to do any of the difficult parts). The only really bad moment was at the end when I realized that the flange thing wasn't on, and I thought I was going to have to take the whole thing off. But then thankfully I realized that you just put it in from the top of the sink. Phew! I'm going to be watching for leaks for a while, but I'm super proud of myself.