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2/18/07- I would eat spaghetti for a bad cause
Its just that good. Like if there was a fundraiser for the KKK. Of course then I would drop kick them in their hooded heads. I raced the Book Across the Bay (my hometown race) for the first time in about 8 years. Racing in the hometown is great, especially when the race is at night. For the first time in probably a year, I didn't set an alarm for either morning this weekend and it rocked. I slept in on Saturday and vegged out most of the day. I got started on the skis an then me and my housemate Katie and I drove over to Washburn to register. After registration we headed back to Ashland, finished waxing and had a snack. We dawdled a little too long, and got to Washburn at about 6. I was definitely a bit stressed. I was pretty happy when the pushed the race back 15 minutes because it gave me a bit more time to warmup. Even after my warmup I still wasn't feeling too great, but I lined up the skis between Scott Nesvold and Borg. After a sweet group version of the national anthem, we were off. I had a really poor start and lost a bunch of places. Bob Peterson (I think, it was some guy in a Riverbrook suit) took a dive right out of the start, and ended up coming by me about a k in. He pulled me for most of the first half of the race before I fell off the pace. By that time I'd managed to hook up with Scott. We traded a pull or two, but I think Scott probably did more of the work. I couldn't see straigh much of the second five k. Scott surged way to far out and I just stuck on his tails. I bided my time and snuck by him in the last 50-100 meters, which was good for 19th place. I guess I was satisfied with it, though of course I wish I'd had a better start, because I think I could have hung with the top 10. Results are up. Post race I hung out chatting with people until things were shutting down. I also picked up part of my top secret Birkie outfit from coach Cogger. It was good fun and I got a chance to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. Today I went for a long classic ski up at Ashwabay, where conditions were phenomenal. I was shooting or 3.5 hours, with probably a bit of skating at the end, but I ended up locking my keys in the car, so when I went to get my skate boots, they were unavailable. Doug and Beth were taking off right about then, so I hitched a ride into town with them. I lost about an hour on my ski, but that's just fine since I'm feeling pretty tired right now. This week is super duper ultra top secret Birkie training, so watch yourself. Ok, I can't back that up. Seriously, looking forward to the birkie I'm definitely feeling the rock skis. The only probablem is that the rock skis are definitely not hardpack skis... I guess we'll see how the week unfolds, and what conditions are looking like by then. I'm out.

2/13/07- Singles awareness day-eve
Racin' this past weekend was awesome. Saturday I did the Pre-Birkie, which was nice and chilly. We started down at the Birkie start. Everyone waited until about 2 minutes before the start to show up and pick up their chip, so they had to delay the start five minutes while people got chips. The start was fast, and then not so fast. We went pretty hard from the gun, but then most of the powerline section seemed relatively laid-back, and I was within sight of the leaders heading into the woods. Actually, I was skiing right about next to Nikolai, who won the race, going into the woods. Rewind a bit, the big gate in the middle of the powerline was closed. We weren't going to go around it, we're going to go through it, weren't going to go over it, so we went under it. It was actually kind of fun. Back in the woods, people finally started to get moving and I tucked in with Borg. By the time we hit the korteloppet trail, a nice group had developed and somehow I got to lead the merry bunch. We skied for a while until there was some jawing back and forth and Borg went to the front. I was pretty happy to pick up a bit of a draft for a while. Just before we hit the Birkie 5k loop Borg said something about splitting things up, so I moved to the front and skied pretty hard on the gradual downhill section. I opened up a bit of a gap, but I was all by myself so I backed it off and let the pack catch back on. Up and over a couple hills and the group was mostly sticking together with Tim Trudeau and some other people taking some pulls. I was feeling pretty good, so as we hit the backside of the Telemark bowl, I went to the front and threw it down. The only person that stuck with me was Steve Sonnesyn. I kept the pressure on the last couple hills hoping to maybe drop him too, but no dice. He took the lead on the last downhill into the bowl and led up into the stadium. I made a valiant attempt to take him down in the sprint, but waited just a hair too long to wind things up and lost by a couple of feet. The race was good for 15th about 4:30 off the winner. It was great to feel strong skiing in the pack and the tactics were pretty interesting. Oh yeah, and I once again had great skis on Mike's old RS11s. The next day was the North End Classic over at the North End trailhead. The course looked pretty good, but thin, so after a little nick in the skis yesterday, I decided to run my rock skis. A little VR40 bummed off of Scott Nesvold was the order of the day. I lined up pretty late, but still snagged a spot in the second row without too many evil looks. The start was wicked fast with none of the mucking about of the day before. Maybe the singletrack 2 k in was motivating people to get to the front? I settled in with a nice group including Mike Haag. We skied, trading some pulls, the group started out pretty big, but by the end of the first lap had settled down into only a handful. Towards the middle of the second lap I had been pulling for a while, I stepped aside and let the guy I was skiing with pull through. This strategy backfired pretty solidly when I tripped over myself on the next uphill and lost him. After my little stumble I seemed to be in damage control mode. My kick seemed to be leaving me and it wasn't just technique. I'd gone pretty long on the kick wax, and when I checked the skis at the end of the race it was all gone. Mike had dropped off the pace, but while I was skiing along had caught back up to me. We skied together for a bit, and when Steve Kramer came cruising by, I tried to hang. No love there. I hammered it in to the finish, good for 17th. None to shabby. While this race had some tactical skiing going on, there was a lot more movement between the groups I was in. I'm still not 100% pumped about how I'm classic skiing this year, but it isn't too bad. After the race I enjoyed some delightful lentil curry soup. Delicious.
In other news, the Book Across the Bay is on for this weekend. They're going to plow snow onto the course. I say they better. The bay is pretty thin right now. I'll be throwing down in the hometown event for the first time in ages this year. Should be fun. Will I win? Umm, I think not. In other skiing news, the Birkie claims to be on for a full course. I say I'll believe it when I ski it. Barring major meltdown, I think race, even a full race is possible. I also say that barring a major snowstorm I sure won't be using my good skis. I'll be throwing down on the old faithful peltonens that took a beating at NorAms. They love the soft stuff, so that isn't entirely a bad thing. That's all for now foks, I need to eat some popcorn. Out.

2/7/07- Real Winter-I love it
I have to say I'm a big fan of the weather we've been having lately. I mean, if we could tack some snow onto the temps, I probably wouldn't be able to contain myself. Last weekend I took it easy. I volunteered for the Valhalla Summit, helping out with timing. After the race, I got out for a 2 hour classic ski, which was awesome. Sunday was much the same, except I went skiing on at Ashwabay for the first time this year. It wasn't groomed, but it was a nice ski regardless. Its hard to have a bad classic ski when it is that cold. Looking forward, I'm planning on racing both the Pre-Birkie and north end classic this weekend and then cranking into my last real period of training for the season. It should be rockin. Now I need to go eat ice cream. Out.


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2/18/07- I would eat spaghetti for a bad cause Its just that good. Like if there was a fundraiser for the KKK. Of course then I would drop kick them in their hooded heads. I raced the Book Across the Bay (my hometown race) for the first time in about 8 years. Racing in the hometown is great, especially when the race is at night. For the first time in probably a year, I didn't set an alarm for either morning this weekend and it rocked. I slept in on Saturday and vegged out most of the day. I got started on the skis an then me and my housemate Katie and I drove over to Washburn to register. After registration we headed back to Ashland, finished waxing and had a snack. We dawdled a little too long, and got to Washburn at about 6. I was definitely a bit stressed. I was pretty happy when the pushed the race back 15 minutes because it gave me a bit more time to warmup. Even after my warmup I still wasn't feeling too great, but I lined up the skis between Scott Nesvold and Borg. After a sweet group version of the national anthem, we were off. I had a really poor start and lost a bunch of places. Bob Peterson (I think, it was some guy in a Riverbrook suit) took a dive right out of the start, and ended up coming by me about a k in. He pulled me for most of the first half of the race before I fell off the pace. By that time I'd managed to hook up with Scott. We traded a pull or two, but I think Scott probably did more of the work. I couldn't see straigh much of the second five k. Scott surged way to far out and I just stuck on his tails. I bided my time and snuck by him in the last 50-100 meters, which was good for 19th place. I guess I was satisfied with it, though of course I wish I'd had a better start, because I think I could have hung with the top 10. Results are up. Post race I hung out chatting with people until things were shutting down. I also picked up part of my top secret Birkie outfit from coach Cogger. It was good fun and I got a chance to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. Today I went for a long classic ski up at Ashwabay, where conditions were phenomenal. I was shooting or 3.5 hours, with probably a bit of skating at the end, but I ended up locking my keys in the car, so when I went to get my skate boots, they were unavailable. Doug and Beth were taking off right about then, so I hitched a ride into town with them. I lost about an hour on my ski, but that's just fine since I'm feeling pretty tired right now. This week is super duper ultra top secret Birkie training, so watch yourself. Ok, I can't back that up. Seriously, looking forward to the birkie I'm definitely feeling the rock skis. The only probablem is that the rock skis are definitely not hardpack skis... I guess we'll see how the week unfolds, and what conditions are looking like by then. I'm out.
2/13/07- Singles awareness day-eve Racin' this past weekend was awesome. Saturday I did the Pre-Birkie, which was nice and chilly. We started down at the Birkie start. Everyone waited until about 2 minutes before the start to show up and pick up their chip, so they had to delay the start five minutes while people got chips. The start was fast, and then not so fast. We went pretty hard from the gun, but then most of the powerline section seemed relatively laid-back, and I was within sight of the leaders heading into the woods. Actually, I was skiing right about next to Nikolai, who won the race, going into the woods. Rewind a bit, the big gate in the middle of the powerline was closed. We weren't going to go around it, we're going to go through it, weren't going to go over it, so we went under it. It was actually kind of fun. Back in the woods, people finally started to get moving and I tucked in with Borg. By the time we hit the korteloppet trail, a nice group had developed and somehow I got to lead the merry bunch. We skied for a while until there was some jawing back and forth and Borg went to the front. I was pretty happy to pick up a bit of a draft for a while. Just before we hit the Birkie 5k loop Borg said something about splitting things up, so I moved to the front and skied pretty hard on the gradual downhill section. I opened up a bit of a gap, but I was all by myself so I backed it off and let the pack catch back on. Up and over a couple hills and the group was mostly sticking together with Tim Trudeau and some other people taking some pulls. I was feeling pretty good, so as we hit the backside of the Telemark bowl, I went to the front and threw it down. The only person that stuck with me was Steve Sonnesyn. I kept the pressure on the last couple hills hoping to maybe drop him too, but no dice. He took the lead on the last downhill into the bowl and led up into the stadium. I made a valiant attempt to take him down in the sprint, but waited just a hair too long to wind things up and lost by a couple of feet. The race was good for 15th about 4:30 off the winner. It was great to feel strong skiing in the pack and the tactics were pretty interesting. Oh yeah, and I once again had great skis on Mike's old RS11s. The next day was the North End Classic over at the North End trailhead. The course looked pretty good, but thin, so after a little nick in the skis yesterday, I decided to run my rock skis. A little VR40 bummed off of Scott Nesvold was the order of the day. I lined up pretty late, but still snagged a spot in the second row without too many evil looks. The start was wicked fast with none of the mucking about of the day before. Maybe the singletrack 2 k in was motivating people to get to the front? I settled in with a nice group including Mike Haag. We skied, trading some pulls, the group started out pretty big, but by the end of the first lap had settled down into only a handful. Towards the middle of the second lap I had been pulling for a while, I stepped aside and let the guy I was skiing with pull through. This strategy backfired pretty solidly when I tripped over myself on the next uphill and lost him. After my little stumble I seemed to be in damage control mode. My kick seemed to be leaving me and it wasn't just technique. I'd gone pretty long on the kick wax, and when I checked the skis at the end of the race it was all gone. Mike had dropped off the pace, but while I was skiing along had caught back up to me. We skied together for a bit, and when Steve Kramer came cruising by, I tried to hang. No love there. I hammered it in to the finish, good for 17th. None to shabby. While this race had some tactical skiing going on, there was a lot more movement between the groups I was in. I'm still not 100% pumped about how I'm classic skiing this year, but it isn't too bad. After the race I enjoyed some delightful lentil curry soup. Delicious. In other news, the Book Across the Bay is on for this weekend. They're going to plow snow onto the course. I say they better. The bay is pretty thin right now. I'll be throwing down in the hometown event for the first time in ages this year. Should be fun. Will I win? Umm, I think not. In other skiing news, the Birkie claims to be on for a full course. I say I'll believe it when I ski it. Barring major meltdown, I think race, even a full race is possible. I also say that barring a major snowstorm I sure won't be using my good skis. I'll be throwing down on the old faithful peltonens that took a beating at NorAms. They love the soft stuff, so that isn't entirely a bad thing. That's all for now foks, I need to eat some popcorn. Out.
2/7/07- Real Winter-I love it I have to say I'm a big fan of the weather we've been having lately. I mean, if we could tack some snow onto the temps, I probably wouldn't be able to contain myself. Last weekend I took it easy. I volunteered for the Valhalla Summit, helping out with timing. After the race, I got out for a 2 hour classic ski, which was awesome. Sunday was much the same, except I went skiing on at Ashwabay for the first time this year. It wasn't groomed, but it was a nice ski regardless. Its hard to have a bad classic ski when it is that cold. Looking forward, I'm planning on racing both the Pre-Birkie and north end classic this weekend and then cranking into my last real period of training for the season. It should be rockin. Now I need to go eat ice cream. Out.
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©2005 Paul Belknap All rights reserved. Why do I do this? Check out About Contact Me My disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are mine and mine alone and they do not reflect the position of Gonzaga University, if they did, you would be hearing as much about their nordic ski team as their men's basketball team. :)