Earlier this week, I came up with a draft calendar for the winter. It is (at least to me) very familiar. The first month of the race season is West Yellowstone, followed by BC – this year it’s Silver Star and Rossland. Then US Nationals, which are in Rumford. Having Nationals in Rumford means that the SuperTour will stay in the east for another week and pay a visit to Lake Placid, where it will tag along with SLU Carnival. After that I may go to Minneapolis and check out the new courses in Wirth Park. Come February, I will probably repeat my Boulder (Sun Valley)-Aspen trip and do my best to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. March will hopefully be a trip to Europe – the Engadin and Birke are close to certain, and if things fall into place I might go back to Rogla. If I’m game for more when the end of March rolls around I’ll head back to Sun Valley to wrap up the season with the Tour of the Sawtooths (though I really wish the plural of the Sawtooth Mountains was Sawteeth).
I bring this up, because I want to discuss the nature of this blog. Over the last five years I’ve chronicled my ski career largely through the places I’ve been, the sites I’ve seen and the races and workouts I’ve done. For the most part, it’s been a successful formula. I’ve certainly posted less over the last few years than I did initially, but I don’t know really know if that’s because this formula has run it’s course, or I’ve just run out of things to say. The reality is probably a combination of the two, but I do think the format has contributed to me feeling like I don’t have much to say. There are only so many ways to describe a gorgeous ski, a hard workout or a bad race (actually, I tend to describe those mostly with silence). I would also say I don’t do a lot of describing of the really good races – on those days a picture usually suffices.
All this is a way of saying that things are going to change a little here. I mentioned this in September, but I’m saying it again now. One thing that will change is that the posts will get harder for me to write. Without getting too philosophical, I will say that posting about tangible things is relatively easy for me. When I have something to say, I can say it. The words tend to flow quicly and easily, and I don’t do much (if any) editing.
The photo posts, race reports and epic training sessions may still find a place here, but I’ve written enough of those articles in the last 5 years that I don’t really feel the need to keep cranking them out. Instead, I like to explore a little bit about what ski racing means to me. How it makes me feel. Why I’ve done it for so long. You know, the bigger, harder to answer questions. I also want to write well.
