Winter in Salt Lake City is far more harsh than in Oregon, and although it's technically feasible to ride year round, it certainly isn't recommended. All the rides/hills are either too snowy to take a bike on or the weather is too uncomfortable to be outside in, so riding essentially put to a halt. However, not all is lost, as Utah is known for having some of the best snow in the world, as the U.S. national ski team lives and trains in a city that's only 20 minutes away. On top of the short drive to the snow, virtually all of my cycling friends/lab mates/even my advisor race nordic in the off season, and (easily) convinced me that I needed to give it a shot.
I first attempted to skate ski in December, and I hated it. I mean absolutely abhorred it. I fell over 40 times the first day and showed absolutely no improvement from the first minute I was skiing till the hour after I started. I began to question if this, or any winter sport, was right for me. Skate skiing is a combination of technique, balance and aerobic power, of which I had absolutely none of the first day I attempted to ski. I couldn't propel myself forward with my legs, so my arms did the majority of the work while I struggled the entire day and my friends went off and had fun. My legs would become ischemic and continue to burn from the consistent tense state they were in trying to maintain balance, which was causing me to use an enormous amount of energy without actually going forward. 50+ year old women would fly by me while I recovered from every 45 second burst of effort. It was a miserable experience.
Fast forward a few weeks, and I finally started to get my balance down. I still couldn't go over 200 meters without having to take a break, and certainly not if there was a hill, but by mid January I was moving. By February I was up in the mountains 3x a week and getting noticeably better every time, and I really started to enjoy the sport. I would say that only the past two or three times I've been skiing I've felt truly comfortable with what I'm doing, and can really do what I actually want to do on my skis. I can balance effortlessly, sprint up hills and glide with confidence down them. And of course, now that I'm confident with what I'm doing, the weather warmed up here (which is unusually early for Utah). All the snow at my favorite places either melted or became un-skiable over the past two weeks, which is a real shame. My season is virtually over.
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| Round Valley was my favorite place to ski, located up above Park City. |
I've been fortunate enough to ski in some amazing places, including Park City, Solitude Resort, and Soldier Hollow, which is where the 2002 olympics for Nordic were held and is consistently kept in pristine olympic quality conditions. I still have the option to ski up at the higher mountain ranges, but my head is out of it. It'll be 56 and sunny here today, and by no means would I rather nordic than ride or run. The snow will last up in the resorts until late April, which lends the opportunity to go downhill skiing a few more times this year, but I'm already thinking about Nordic again for next year.
I'm in full transition to running mode now. With a 10k next week and a half marathon in a month, I'm really excited to see how I'll perform this year. After these races I'll most likely settle back in to mediocrity with cycling or maintain my running mileage and really try to compete in a few more half marathons this year. We'll see how this year turns out.
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