Sweet Skiing

It was still snowing when I went to bed last night!

And today was absolutely gorgeous.

Clear and cold.

The snow line on the mountains was way lower than it has been.

This is one of the nicest places in the world when it looks like this.

And we got to ski on hard wax! (We had great skiing on VR45). Here’s Kris Freeman prepping his skis:

Here I am enjoying the freshly groomed trails:

This morning we had a great, hard classic intensity workout. We did ten continuous six minute loops. Each loop had five hills in it ranging from ten seconds to more than a minute. We skied the hills really hard. (We were working on powerful striding. This is a continuation of the bounding work both Kris and I have been doing.) We skied the flats and downs slow, focusing on recovery. It was a hard session. (Kris had an ending lactate over 9mmol.)

This afternoon was frustrating for me. I was supposed to do a two hour skate ski, but, and this sounds absurd, my pinkie toenail was bothering me. It was debilitating, and I couldn’t ski. I have had seemingly small ailments be big problems for me in the past, so I know I need to focus on solving the problem. Instead of skiing, I drove to Wanaka to go to the pharmacy and pick up Epsom Salts, antibiotic ointment, and a “Gel Toe” protector.

This was the first time on this trip that I’ve driven a car, and my first time ever driving a manual transmission on the left hand side of the road. I drive a manual at home, so that part isn’t a problem for me; however, it took some concentration to shift with my left hand. First gear is still on the left hand side of the gearbox, so it’s on the side away from the driver. Also, the blinker is on the right while the windshield wipers are on the left. It’s a different experience.

I did enjoy going back to Wanaka because it’s a beautiful city.

It is located on a large lake by the same name.

And the surrounding mountains are beautiful (especially with new snow on them.)

New Zealand is one of the places we go that I feel I could happily live.