Wintery Mix

New England weather at its finest. I am currently living in the Northeast Kingdom, making my way through a training block that has gotten off to a bit of a slow start due in part to the snowy and rainy weather, or as they say around here "wintery mix". This descriptive phrase was unknown to me before my voyage out East, but after 5 years or so of dealing with this slush from the sky I have learned to factor it in a couple of times every winter. The good news is that the temperatures are slowly dropping back below freezing and snow fall is beginning to dissipate. Pretty soon the race track up at Burke Mountain, my training site and home of some important upcoming races in the next couple of weeks (NorAm Finals, Eastern Cup Finals), should turn rock hard as it gets colder, making for some great racing conditions.

Tomorrow the Vermont schools return from vacation meaning I will be back at work with the Ski and Ride program after training or during some off days. My ankle is not yet fully healed so some relaxing skiing should be just what the doctor ordered, allowing me to excercise the ankle in a compressed atmosphere and activate the muscle (good) without jamming it from a rut on a course (bad).

Finally, nice job USA! I can't decide if I am more impressed by the medal haul of the US alpine or nordic teams. My only experience watching nordic races is from rooting on my teammates at various NCAA Championships, so to watch so many races over the last couple of weeks has been pretty cool. I'm not sure how nordic skiers feel about the coverage from NBC, but it seemed pretty good. I can't say the same  for the coverage of alpine skiing, which was never aired live and canned into spotty 15 minute segments. Hopefully by the time Sochi rolls around whoever is covering the Games will have figured out how to get good ratings and allow viewers to see more than the top 3 and a token American racer. Of course, if I am a competitor I won't have to worry about it!