Paddleboarding

I am out in Bend, Oregon for a ski camp this week. We ski on snow in the morning and train 'dryland' in the afternoon. Yesterday we tried a little paddle boarding. It was really fun.

Dennis getting us all lined out

I need to work more on my balance. In the first 20 minutes I took a step back and walked off the board. The cold water made me really work on my ankle angle to make sure I didn't get wet again.

Flexing Skis

I picked up a few new pairs of 2011 Salomon skis this year while I was racing in Europe. They are awesome. Chuck, you have to try this wet klister ski.

2011 Salomons- these skis are awesome

Mark has a really slick system to flex the pockets of each ski. I mark each ski the same to help speed up the process of how best to wax them.

Mark and the Mantec

Mark and Nordic Ultratune help me manage my ski fleet each year. Mark does some of the best stone grinds in the world including many skis that were used in Vancouver in February. The Ultratune shop is a ski technicians dream and I could and do spend a lot of time in there. You can tell Mark is an engineer; everything is very organized and exact.

I spent the morning using feeler gauges to mark the kick pockets on my new skis. After fresh grinds they will be ready to go for the 2010/11 race season. It was pretty entertaining to watch the stone grinding process and how excited Mark would get when each grind came out. Each time he would bring the ski over to me to show how nice it looked, just like a proud father. Mark is way in to it and a great guy to have working with your skis.

Biking with Dad

Yesterday I did a bike ride with my Dad. We were lucky to not get wet.

Time to put the watch back on

I put my watch on at the beginning of the week. I now have wear it constantly. I even sleep with it. I take my morning heart rate to monitor my recovery/health, record my distance and interval training and make sure that my naps are just the right length. I have enjoyed the month of April, taking more time to 'recover' than ever before. It has served it's purpose, I feel great.

The first CXC Team Vertical Limit training camp of the 2010-2011 this season has begun. We got right after it with a VO2 Max Test on the treadmill on Day 1, Friday. (This is a running test on the treadmill where the speed increases every minute until you can't go any faster. I made it to 10mph at a 9% grade.)

Saturday we rode the RASTA (Rhinelander Area Ski Trail Association) bike race. This was a big move for me as my biking skills have plenty of room for improvement. The trails were covered with a dusting of fresh snow and overall it was slick and muddy. I felt great though and had a really good race. It is great to be back at work.

Some of the hills I had to get off my bike and run

The Cook Brothers battling it out

Great skier representation in the race: Bryan Cook, Me, Garrott Kuzzy, Karl Nygren... plus others like Steve Pribyl, Adam Swank, Chris Cook, Kenny Statz, Matt Zak...