On real snow! The coverage isn't great by any means...but we are skiers, and when there's any snow at all, we ski! I had almost forgot how amazing skiing on real snow is. I had the biggest grin on my face the whole time. It was simply...amazing. Makes me remember why it's worth it. Why i train all summer, running, lifting, rollerskiing, and other activities that mimic my sport of choice, but never really come close to it's awesomeness. Why i'm perfectly content to live out of a suitcase 4 months out of the year. And why i want to try and get as great as i possibly can at this crazy sport.

We're here! And there's snow! Not a whole lot, but enough to throw the ole rock skis on and give it a go. We race in 13 days...enough time for more snow to come, for us to build some red blood cells, and to get used to skiing on the real stuff again!

The second CXC/Ski and Tea clinic is coming up fast! I'm particularly excited about this one, because i'm hosting. The last one, lead by Maria, focused mostly on dryland drills. This clinic will be the next step in the progression. It's going to be about 50% dryland, 50% on rollerskis. A lot of the women attending have never been on rollerskis before, which is both a little scary, and exciting. Exciting, because i get to teach them from scratch. No bad habits to break, just straight good stuff from the beginning. Scary...because i hope i don't break anyone. But my teaching skills have come a long way from the first time I tried to teach one of our Tech runner girls to rollerski (sorry Cindy....it didn't scar though, right?), and i'm pretty confident that everyone will come out scratch free and with some serious improvement to boot. So mostly, really excited.

The clinic is this Saturday, from 8am till noon. We're going to meet at the OO warming cabin, and then move over to Larsen Road for the rollerski portion. I've got loaner rollerskis donated from both the Hayward HS team and New Moon, so we should be covered for those without their own. It's not to late to register, either. We've extended the deadline till day of clinic, so just show up ready to learn and we'll sign you up!

In the last college ranking list that Playboy magazine published, they listed University of Wisconsin-Madison as the biggest party school in the nation. There were many reasons why Playboy felt that they had earned this distinction, but their annual Halloween festivities were high on the list.

I mention this because it's a measure of how tame my life has become. Heather and i are down in Madison for the weekend, which happens to be Halloween weekend, the weekend of biggest party of the year at the biggest party school in the country. And what are we doing? Eh, you know, fitting skis at the local shop (Fontana Sports), doing some clinics, training, hanging out with Yuriy, and going to bed early. We didn't even bother to bring costumes. I know...seriously lame.

And we'll be doing it all again tomorrow, so if you're in the area, be sure to say hi. We've got a clinic in the morning at Badger park, and we'll be at the west branch of Fontana all afternoon.

New toy: a pressure mat for more precise ski fitting. Apparently there's only two of these out there. One belongs to the Canadian national team, and the other to Salomon USA. It's seriously cool stuff. If you want to see it in action for yourself, i'd be willing to bet that it's going to be out in Yellowstone for the Fall Festival expos.

Coach Natalie: "I want you to start with a thin layer of Toko green base, and then we'll cover with a few layers of Toko blue..."

Heather and I started the day off right by attending the Ski and Tea practice. Costumes were optional but encouraged, in honor of the day. Some of us dressed up, some did not, but everyone was there to work hard. These ladies did 10 repeats up Boedecker hill in an hour. 10! And as hard as i tried to get pictures of their "pain faces", they kept on smiling! Geesh, you'd think they were enjoying themselves or something.

Pain faces below, after a weird gap that i can't seem to get rid off. Click on them for a bigger picture.

I just got an email from then Norwegian consulate, and my personal number is in! That means all i have to do is make a trip down to Minneapolis, sign my name, and i'm an official citizen of norway! Sweet!

Just a few flakes this morning, but still. It's coming.