Week 14 - something's trailing me

Love winter, love winter, love winter.

But, it makes running difficult. So, I'm going to be skiing for a little while as a winter replacement. Yesterday (Saturday), I groomed myself a trail on the walk/run course. I knew it was going to be cold at night, so I wanted to get the air out of the snow, as that helps the snow firm up and become something pleasant to ski on.

Problem is, I don't have any grooming equipment... or a snowmobile! Solution? Tied an old headboard and footboard, from a dead bed, together and tied that all to myself. Then, I just pulled it through the snow, along the trail. I used snowshoes to pack things a little more. It was a challenge at times, and the first time around got my heart rate up to a pounding 175, but each pass got easier, and I eventually groomed it pretty well on the fourth pass.

You can see the results above. This is the portion of the course that comes out into a hay field before returning to the woods. Given the low light conditions (it was about 16:30 and sunset was starting) I had to find a spot with enough openness for some light! The shot below is of the same portion of trail, but looking back onto the track I set today with the skis.

That was just the first pass, though. I skied around today for about five loops, a little over a mile. It's been a very long time since I've done traditional diagonal Nordic skiing! But I did have a few moments of good form on some of the flat areas, and felt a nice kick and glide rhythm develop. I was kind of silly and forgot my iPod, so I didn't get any base-line times for my skiing over running.

So, I groomed the trail yesterday, and skied on it today. But, I'm not the only one interested in the trail, apparently! At left is an imprint from a deer, who decided that walking along my trail was easier than trudging through the deeper snow...

I mentioned seeing a couple of deer last week, and I've seen all kinds of tracks in the snow, but none of them followed my trail, until this guy (or girl) came along. It's nice to know that all that huffing and puffing with dragging the headboard through the snow was not only worth it for me, but also worth it for all the fuzzy little forest creatures, too.

In the end, it was a fun, outdoorsy kind of weekend. Which certainly reduced my guilt at playing a lot of Mass Effect 2, just released on PS3, in the evenings! Next week, I'll return to timing myself, etc., now that I've got a proof of concept for the ski trail.