Weekdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days to stay out of the gym and get on the bike, whether it be in the basement, on the road, or in the woods. Now that snow is here they alternatively are my days to cross-country ski, which as I mentioned previously is a nice way to get outside, burn some calories and keep things fresh.
So, with Thursday being Thursday and not wanting to stay indoors, I stuffed myself into my newly acquired–and totally freaking awesome–Craft PXC Pants and scurried off to Deerfield for a ski.
I can’t say enough about the Craft pants. I got them at rei.com and they are everything I have been wanting for skiing and snowshoeing. They will even be great for those rare occasions when I do force myself to ride in extreme cold and snow. They are windproof, form-fitting (without exactly being SKIN tight and showing off my giblets), breathable and best of all; suspenders to help prevent that oh-so-hot winter sports gangsta look and plumber butt!
OK, enough about my pants, I don’t want to sound like some sort of Outside magazine review writing jagoff.
With just my third ski, I believe I already surpassed–or at least equaled–last year’s total and getting out three times in five days has done wonders to get my form a TINY bit better and also to totally destroy my hamstrings! They are getting less sore each day though and the distances have gotten longer; from about three miles on Sunday to nearly five miles Thursday. Hmm, maybe I should I do as most XC skiers (and roadies) do and say I skied nearly eight kilometers.
I even found some hills (AKA steep slopes) to trudge up and uncontrollably fling myself down using not one once of “extreme caution” or “good judgement” recommended by the county park.
I even broke some trail which was fun and hurt at the same time. Then I remembered that freezing rain and sleet was forecasted for later in the evening and failed to see the point of breaking in more trail when it was going to be jacked up for at least the next few days.
I called it quits with just under five miles under my beer belly and headed home to wait for the freezing rain which arrived later in the evening, coating everything in site with a thick layer of ice and most likely ruining the local trails for the coming day. It also closed school on the last day before the Christmas break.
It looks like there will be no skiing this weekend unless I drive an hour or so north where they avoided the ice but got a nice bit of snow. It also looks like with B-Man home there will be no gym time* so I guess I better attempt to force myself to climb on the trainer and burn off last night’s Bourbon Barrel Train Wreck that I enjoyed at the Mount Pleasant Brewing Tap Room.
*Yeah, I know I could force B-Man to go to the gym and slack around in the day care or go in the evening when Wifey gets home from work but I’m not gonna lie; I’m not that committed and I really don’t want to spend my Friday evening at the gym. I also don’t want to force my almost ten-year old to putz around in a gym day care while I attempt to get my body from bad to not as bad shape.