skate ski success....

me in my skate ski's...below rio on the rovers run-moose meadow trail today.

black bear trail cuts across to hillside and south bivouac trail systems. you can go for miles in anchorage...it's one of the things i love about this town. miles and miles of trails out there.

sandra and gail come off the trail to the parking lot of n. bivouac. sandra is on regular cross country ski's.

sharon and her malamute, cooper. i guess they just started mushing class. sounds like a blast. maybe i can go out and watch her one of these days. i bet cooper will do great at that one!

the ski's above are my skate ski's. i bought these a few years back and took a lesson. since then everytime i've attempted to skate ski i've been a dismal failure. i've heard that kids pick up skate skiing quite readily and have a more difficult time with regular cross country skiing. adults on the other time pick up the regular cross country skiing readily and have more difficulty with skate skiing. i may have to obtain video of both to help you see the difference. the boots on the skate ski are sturdier, but can still lift off the ski. the ski is shorter and the poles longer. i guess it could be seen as kinda ice skating on ski's. where as the regular cross country ski's you use the groomed groves in the trail, the skate ski's use the open groomed area. i attempted to take a picture of me skate skiing, but that wasn't my best shot....or my best end. :-)

anyway...despite past frustrations with skate skiing i decided to try it again. the snow seemed optimal for a beginer like myself . it was soft, thus allowing you to dig in on the diaganol. i took blossom along with her chuck it which served as a distraction for me. i tend to overthink my skate skiing so playing with blossom i think helped me to just relax and ski. it's very tiring and my hip is a bit sore tonight, but it's a great work out and i actually had a fun time out there. i didn't feel like a total fool on the ski's. i still need to bend my knee's better, but overall some dude on the trail said i was doing pretty good for a novice.

before i went skate skiing i took blossom and rio on the same trail system for a walk on rover's run. (campbell airstrip trailhead) . i had awoken sore from my laps the past two nights...i did 50 laps last night at the club. well...50 laps in my counting is 25 laps i guess. i count coming and going and officially you are just supposed to count down and back as one lap. from what a few other swimmers said last night 30 laps is a mile. i'll have to check on that one. i still alternate with the kickboard, but i'm doing less of the back stroke and more of the regular front stroke. was debating going again today, but felt like i'd worked my body enough for one day. probably should have just gone.

baked some chocolate chip cookies. i like the dough. while they baked i watched some "bones" and part of a show on tech stuff. when i popped in they were talking about the unmaned drones flying missions in iraq and afghanistan. it's the first time in warfare where the "pilots" of these missions are flying from the safety of a building 7000 miles from the actual war. i guess these "pilots" are flying from arizona or something and they are now training "pilots" who have never flown actual planes for these missions. it would be strange to blow up the enemy and then go home to dinner with your family that night. to never actually be in danger. they were talking about the new virtual war that only our side is fighting at present in these regions.

guess one the captains from deadliest catch had a stroke. he was docked in st paul at the time. he apparently has been flown to anchorage since then. could be in my hospital, but i'm off so i don't pay much mind. the report online said he'd had surgery. that generally means a bleed which needs to be evacuated. st paul is a long ways out there. i've been out there. it's located some 300+ miles off the western coast of alaska. it's a long flight and weather is obviously an issue out there at any time. not a good place to have a medical issue. i'm not saying anything negative about thier medicine out there, just that it's very remote. many of those places just have a clinic, no blood supply, sometimes no doctor. if they are lucky they have a nurse practitioner. more often it's a health aide. it's a 3-4 hour flight to a hospital at least and that is just if you can fly a plane at all. st paul is a larger town than thier neighbors on st george. i think st george has around 100 people and st paul may be closer to 1000? can't recall.

monday walk was fun as usual. really just sharon, chris and i doing the walk. sandra opted to do her own ski thing..regular cross country...and gail ended up getting there late and meeting up with sandra. sharon keeps a good pace so i didn't take much for photo's. we need some fresh snow too. not much to take pictures of this week. here's hoping. we all joined up at kaladi brothers for hot cocoa afterwards. well all except gail as her duke needed to be worn out more. blossom actually brought me the toy several times last night so i know she wasn't totally wiped out. tonight...she's wiped. no toys required.