The First Day of the New Year

Tomorrow marks the first day of the new year--for xc ski racers. The coming week includes May 1st, which is traditionally the time when skiers start doing a little more intensity after having the opportunity to take a mental and physical break from training and racing. By this time of year, we've also had the chance to analyze the previous season, write down new goals, and map out what needs to be done in order to accomplish those goals.

My logbook holds I a detailed account of each workout I have done, which helps me try to ascertain what training corresponds with my best performance. Here are a few of the '09 statistics:

--Month with Highest Volume of Training: July
--Months with Highest Intensity of Training: September and October
--First ski of the season (excluding summer skiing on the glacier):Oct 8th
--Number of times I went rollerskiing: 92
--Number of times I went running: 173
--Percentage of time skate skiing of total training: 22%
--Percentage of time classic skiing of total training: 22%
--Percentage of time double poling only: 1% on skis, 1% on rollerskis
--Months that included xc skiing as training: May, June, July, August, October, November, December, January, February, March, April
Placer Valley yesterday, on another epic April crust skiing day.

It's a good thing I enjoy training, because there is an awful lot of time put in for a relatively minuscule amount of time spent racing.
--Total number of races or time trials: 39
--Total number of ski races: 29

They say, If you want to be a fast cyclist, CYCLE. So, if you want to be a fast skier, SKI.

When I was going to school in Denver, people would often ask me, "You go up to the mountains a lot. How many ski days do you have this year?" Counting ski days has always been foreign concept for me-- skiing has just been a way of life and I just go every day possible. But, for curiosity's sake, I did finally tally up the grand total this year.

--Number of "ski days" I've had this year: 162
--Number of times I went skiing (snow only): 202

This is by far the most time I've been able to spend on-snow, so it's fortunate that I am so passionate about skiing. If I didn't love to ski, I probably wouldn't be able to look back at this past year and think, "that was awesome!"