Lake Placid Loppet

So, I managed to put together a pretty decent race and get 4th at the Lake Placid Loppet. For those not in the know - the Lake Placid Loppet is a 50k ski marathon on a very hilly course. Last year I did the half-loppet (25k) and the course definitely caught me off gaurd and ill-prepared. This year I've been doing some focused long hard skis (thanks for the company Dan!) since I got back from Egypt and it definitely paid off.

The course is 25k long and is a figure-8 shape. So, last year I did 1 lap in 1:30. This year I did 2 laps in 2:41. That's progress. Helen raced as well and she improved her time as well by 6 minutes for the 25k - even though she said she felt like she skied the race easier than the year before!

The start of the race gave me good confidence as the early pack in the first couple kilometers included Eli Enman and Eric Tremble - 2 guys who I sometimes train with on the skis. Eli went on to take his first victory in Lake Placid (hip-hip-hooray) and Eric ended up in 3rd spot. Eric and I both ski for the Northwest Vermont Nordic Ski Club.

Probably the best part about the Lake Placid race apart from the challenging course, is the banquet afterwards. The food is plentiful and actually really good (I think - its hard to tell though because a piece of wood could taste good after a 50k ski race). Its a fun atmosphere to just sit around with everybody and talk about the race that just happened.

In other news here are a few other things I've done lately:
-Went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival (at UVM put on by the Skirack)
-Taught a free Sunday morning skate ski lesson at Bolton Valley (10:00am every Sunday)
-Won a Wednesday night practice ski race at Sleepy Hollow (Its fun under the lights)
-Traveled to Boston for the CCB team mid-winter pow-wow dinner at Steve Pucci (my equipment is way too good for me!)
-Went to an on snow demo down at Stratton to try out next years x-c ski equipment (somethings I loved and somethings I just liked)
-Scheduled my late winter VO2Max Test up at UVM for biking (oh wait, I need to do that)

go Go GO - Jake

A Good Skiing Week

Monday: -25 minute run w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-2 Cycles of Strength Exercises

Tuesday: -120 minutes skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Wednesday: -60 minutes skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups
(Sleepy Hollow night race - 1st place)

Thursday: -150 minutes mixed skate and classic skiing
(Stratton on snow demo)

Friday: -35 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-1 Cycle of Strength Exercises

Saturday: -180 minutes skate skiing
(Lake Placid Ski Marathon 50k skate - 4th place)

Sunday: -45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

The Winter Rolls On

Monday: -25 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-60 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Tuesday: -150 minuts skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-2 Cycles of Strength Exercises

Wednesday: -90 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Thursday: -35 minutes running w/ 2 x stretching and situps & pushups

Friday: -105 minutes skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-2 Cycles of Strength Exercises

Saturday: -Off

Sunday: -60 minutes skate skiing
-60 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Another Week - a little bit more.

This is for the week of January 21-27.

Monday: -75 minutes skate skiing
-45 minutes classic skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Tuesday: -45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-1 Cycle of Strength Exercises

Wednesday: -40 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-75 minutes skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups
(Stowe Nordic Club 5k race - 2nd place)

Thursday: -60 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-45 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Friday: -1 Cycle of Strength Exercises

Saturday: - 135 minutes skate skiing

Sunday: -60 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

2008 Training Begins

So, in an effort to make myself open to public scrutiny if I am irresponsible with my training and I going to start to publish a weekly breakdown of what I've done. Here is the week of January 14th-20th.

Monday: -45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Tuesday: -45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-15 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Wednesday: -35 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-30 minutes on computrainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Thursday: -60 minutes skate skiing
-35 minutes running w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Friday: -45 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Saturday: -120 minutes skate skiing w/ stretching and situps & pushups
-30 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps & pushups

Sunday: -30 minutes on trainer w/ stretching and situps and pushups

Pyramids and Such Happenings

So, we made it over to the pyramids at Giza on New Years day. Some interesting things of note. The city comes up extremely close to the area. I guess I had this image that they are way way out in the dessert way away from civilization, and that is not the case. Also, there is a whole range of different structures and pyramids of many different sizes in Giza. Its not just the three pyramids you see in the pictures.

My mom and dad went over with Helen and I in a taxi piloted by one Mr. Abul Mena (aka Captain Nemo). It was probably about a 45 minute drive from the apartment. Captain Nemo told us how the drive used to be a 3 hours drive before they built the large connecting road. When we got to Giza I was interested to see that just outside the gate to the whole complex was a Kentucky Fried Chicken. So, the Sphinx's eternal gaze is now looking at a KFC sitting 500m away.

We first drove up to a high point that looks across to the pyramids where we took some pictures of the pyramids in the back round. Then, we drove down to the base of the pyramids and walked around the grounds for a while. The pyramids are truly monstrous. The largest of the pyramids (which is the biggest in the world) is made up of around 2.5 million stones which weigh 30 tons each (referenced from Capt. Nemo). So, its really heavy. I walked down into one tomb of a smaller pyramid - which was awesome. Its something else just descending into the earth bellow a structure like that. There was also something called the Solar Boat museum there as well which is something pretty amazing. It was getting towards the end of the day so we zipped down to the Sphinx said hello and then ducked out the gate to meet Capt. Nemo behind "Kentucky" as he called it for short.

The last part of our Giza New Years day was spent getting coffee and tea over at the Mena House - a very deceptive name for one of the most famous Grand Hotels in the world. The hotel shares no relation to Capt. Nemo, but he did tell us proudly that it is the greatest hotel in the Arab world. Kings, Queens, Presidents, Movie Stars, and I have all been there. Out the window of the tea room we ate in was the Great Pyramid looking down at me (with no "Kentucky" in the view). I had a Cappachino and Feta and Tomato sandwich with Tempinade (olive spread). It is amazing how international Cairo is. It is the meeting point of the World - where Asia, Africa, and Europe collide.

Happy New Year Everybody.

Islamic Cairo

So, the last couple of days have been spent exploring the mosques and historic buildings is Islamic Cairo. The buildings are pretty insane and make the cathedrals and castles I've been to in Europe look:
A: new
and
B: small.

We've also gotten to see what some of the street life and scene is like here. Compared to Bangladesh there are many more tourists here (which is expected) but the street life has the same wild feel to it.

Here is a pictorial of the last 2 days:

These places are really big. How big you ask?...

I mean really big!!! That is Helen standing in the Sultan Hassan Mosque. These are buildings for Giants.

This kid was on a one speed cruiser bike with about 100 loaves of loosely stacked bread on his head doing one handed track stands in the middle of Islamic Cairo (bumpy, buisy streets). Damn.

Helen and I strutting our stuff. You have to take your shoes off or get these little shoe covers put on your feet when you go into a mosque.

Booyah!

This is something called the Nileometer. It was used for measuring the water level of the Nile - which was in turn used for adjusting the taxes. M.C. Escher anyone?

Big walls. This is Ibn Tulun Mosque. The oldest in Cairo.

Minarets and satellite dishes. Old meets new.

Mr. Horse taking a break. In Islamic Cairo there is still a fair amount of horse and cart traffic.