Stripped down to bare steel...

... then building it back up again.



The old air-cooled bike might not yet quite be road-worthy, but the CB750 Tourer is no longer the oily, dirty rheumatoid tosser purchased earlier this fall. In the last days it's become an avenging angel of misery; only of the prettiest kind.

That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

FInal Rollerski of the Year

Power Training, XC Ski StyLe

With snowy mountains in the horizon and the days down to the single digits before I'm waking up to stride-and-glide most every morning, my power training has been changing with the season. And while Mr. Hazle or Karl Erickson or Mustafa might call into question my defining this as "power," the time has come for me as a more endurance-oriented athlete to turn gains in the squat and clean into something I can use in the ski tracks. If you got a minute, check it out ...

Winter Approaches

With winter approaching, I thought it might not hurt to convince the junior high cross runners to help stack a cord of wood. I tried telling them this made for a great core strength. I think they were a bit more motivated by the ice cream that awaited after.



The last two weekends I've also pinned on the racing number, for a very low-key farmer's market 5 km in the heart of the Okanogan Valle, and this four mile hill climb last Sunday, on the eastern edge of the North Cascades National Park.



In just over a week, though comes the time to say goodbye to the Evergreen State. It's winter and skiing - and ski racing - that I'm after. The stoke is high. The form feels solid. I have a ticket saying I'm headed to Oslo next Saturday, and a cabin in the woods of Sjusjoen, Norway that awaits. The adventure continues...



...next time, from one North Country to Another. This time the Norwegian Ski Scene - and the days of midnight darkness await. And I can hardly wait.

Progressive Weight Vest Training