Exskis me

Let me give you a glimpse into my childhood.

When I was about 7, we moved to Norway for 3 years (3rd, 4th, and 5th grades). For 3 years, this place was where we'd go when dad wanted to get away. I have no idea how many times we went (maybe only 3 for all I know), but in the haze of childhood memories, it seems like we went EVERY weekend. Obviously, that wasn't true...we also went to Hemsidal and some other places. But for me, childhood skiing is defined by Blue 8 at Trysil.

Blue 8 was this sweet little hill that was maybe 400 meters in length (it seemed a lot longer at the time - maybe it was and I'm way off, I dunno) and had moguls at the top then these fantastic giant rolling mounds at the bottom that basically screamed, "GO SUPER FAST AND JUMP OFF ME!!!"

Sort of like this, but without the actual jump ramps. I think if they'd actually had ramps my mom wouldn't have let us ever see the slope.

Sigh. This is the reason I don't ski in New England. It's just not the same.

Anyway, all mountain snobbery aside, tonight's ride is going to be a day of skiing. Minus the 3+ hours of hot chocolate breaks I always made my mom take with me. Secretly, I think she liked them as much as I did. :-D

The ride is going to follow the purple line:

It starts at the black star in the bottom left.

Now, an important note about skiing in Norway. Most of the lifts are what they call "T lifts". You don't sit on anything, you kind of put the thing behind your butt, squat a little (not a lot or you'll fall), and hope for the best. It's a team effort to stay on the stupid thing, and if either of you falls or stops paying attention, you're both going down. The worst thing is that just at the end there's always a massive upslope that weeds out the weak and makes you ski the slope of shame all the way back down to the bottom to start over again. Because lord knows no one wants to take their skis off and then trash that last little hill by digging their moon boots into it.

So the lift line actually goes super high, which is why you can't just grab onto the thing again if you let go. Some of them are like 50+ feet off the ground. These things are no joke. I think this is also why few Norwegians use poles. Combine poles, idiot gloves, scarves, and a T lift, and you've got a disaster.

Anyway, back to the ride.

So for every lift, we'll be doing an easy seated climb. I wish I could do some kind of hover for these, but that's not actually good for your knees. Maybe I'll turn this ride into a Strength class for next week, who knows.

For the mogul hills, obviously we'll be doing jumps. For the green that goes from the top of the first lift to the bottom of the second, I can very distinctly remember the point where it suddenly stops being downhill and if you don't have enough momentum, you stall out completely. So we'll do a standing run for that and then add on resistance with the emphasis on kicking back, like we'd do with skis on. God I hated that part. Dad usually tried to do the ski pole sling shot with us, but even that didn't always work out so well.

For the black slopes, we'll be either running with resistance or in a very fast (80-90 rpm) standing climb. Because going downhill at an uncontrolled rate of speed may be fast, but you're tensing up so much to brace yourself against impact that it *is* actually a workout. Not a small one either.

The last green run will be the cooldown. I put us on a lift that had a few runs to it, so I can add another one if needed. :-)

The playlist is still in progress, so I'll post that later today or maybe tonight, depending on when it gets done.

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UPDATE***

Here's tonight's playlist:


Hello Hurricane - Switchfoot
How do you do!  -  Roxette
Saturday Night  -  Whigfield
Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh)
Cup Of Life  -  Ricky Martin
Inspector Gadget Rave
DHT - Listen To Your Heart (Techno) DHT
The Sweet Escape  -  Gwen Stefani Ft. Akon
Italobrothers - Stamp on the ground.
I Wanna Be Sedated  -  The Ramones
Rock You Like a Hurricane  -  Scorpions
Candyman  -  Christina Aguilera
If I Had You  -  Adam Lambert
Vice Verses  -  Switchfoot
Always  -  Switchfoot
Iris  -  Goo Goo Dolls

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On a totally unrelated note, there's a new weekend open for Tough Mudder New England. July 14-15. Who's running it with me???