Breadsmithing

Ski racing season has officially begun. Just in the nick of time too, because the snow was fading fast, even as we were racing on it. Saturday was the Hoigaards Relays up at Elm Creek. These relays have been a regular early season destination for many years. The venue, distance, and format change a bit from time to time, but they are always fun and they are always painful. This years race was the warmest ski race I think I've ever done. It was already over 40F at race start and only warmed up from there. It was a sharp contrast to my last running race a few weeks earlier. Nate was gone for a baby shower, so I decided it would be a good year to cherry pick the mixed gender race. I teamed up with Sarah Daniels, a speedy former Michigan Tech skier who just joined the Vakava team this year.

Me off on my first leg - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

The format this year was 6x1.5 km, the same as the world cup team sprint. Sarah took the scramble leg and put us in a very good position on the first lap. I chased down Rob Edman and a couple of Fulton skiers, and we kind of skied in that cluster for the rest of the race. The teams around us were mostly mens teams who started their faster skier first, so they would get ahead of Sarah and I would pass them on my leg. We were both watching for other mixed teams, but didn't see any close to us.

Sarah racing hard - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

By the third leg I was really feeling the fast pace, but managed to pick off a few new teams on the way up the one hill on the course. We got the mixed gender win, 10th overall. A pretty respectable performance, and one that resulted in us winning tasty spice bread. I assumed we had won handily, but when the results were posted it turns out we only pulled off the win by a few seconds. That would have been good to know while we were out racing, but things turned out fine in the end.

Saturday afternoon I got a chance to catch up with my friend Dr. Krystal Math, who I was excited to find out is now engaged. I also met up with an interesting gal from out east for a run around Lake of the Isles and a stop at Sisyphus. I hadn't been to this brewery before, they are popping up quicker than I can keep count around Minnesota these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

With the warm weather continuing Sunday skiing was out, so I settled a nice long run instead. The ice was out on all the gravel roads, so with Christmasy hymns in my head from church that morning I headed out to Farmer trail, a favorite long run route of mine. The ground had softened up enough that there was a farmer out plowing. I was running in shorts and a T-shirt, and we both kind of gave each other looks as we went by, probably thinking the same thing "how did you decide to do that, you know it's the middle of December right?" The air was so thick I could only see about a quarter mile in any direction. Usually when I run this route I'm looking out over the fields at the scenic landscape, so it was fun to have my focus brought much closer in. It gave the route a new and exciting feel.

Other highlights last week include heading over to Nate, Nichole, and Greta's for some P90X strength training. We have been getting together every Monday for a few weeks too do strength work. I even convinced my brother to come join in the fun. We often get a laugh at our own antics during these workouts, mostly due to the fact that our "social" get togethers almost always center around some kind of physical activity.

Nate and I doing some sneaky lunges

I've also been joining Nichole for Tuesday lunch runs. I get to push Greta around and find meandering routes through town, and Nichole gets to decide what the workout for the day will be. Last week Jeff came down and was running some intervals, so Greta and I jumped in for the last couple. The chariot stroller is pretty sweet, we were running sub 6:00 mile pace with very little extra effort, and on the downhills she was almost getting away from me (not really though, there is a leash to make sure she doesn't get too far).