Starry Skies
Actually, whenever I write skies I think of my old Whitman coach August Teague who signed his emails "August likes skies" when he meant to write skis. I stopped making fun of him when I found out he was dislexic. But that's totally besides the point.
Thursday was a great day. Short run, isometric core strength, breakfast, skate uphill intervals, lunch, 3.5hrs hanging out at the Hatchery Park. I'll start with our (Kuzzy & I only, Gregg was sick for the day) time at the Hatchery Park. Last week we were doing our poling workout on the hill by the Hatchery and a group of people were having some sort of practice. After our workout we chatted with the leader, Ethel Morris, and learned that it was the special olympic nordic/snowshoe team and they practiced every Thursday. So this Thursday Kuzzy and I went down to help with their practice from 3:30-5. We warmed up with the whole group, about 15 athletes plus 2 moms, and then Kuzzy and I worked with some of the older boys. It was awesome to get to help out with a group that was clearly having fun together and wasn't too concerned with being fast. It also made me feel guilty about having a LOT of top-end ski gear when there are so many people who want to ski but don't have the equipment or the means to acquire the equipment.
I got to work with Mike Parr & Alex Mayou, both awesome, Alex was a normal athlete (I think that's the term to use although it seems to imply that the other athletes were abnormal) from the middle school who volunteered with the group. It did crack me up when they asked if I lived in the "city" or the "country." Um.. there's 2000 people in Hayward, does that make a city?
During that practice the Hayward High School nordic team showed up for their practice, so afterwards we got to chat with some of our buddies on that team. Finally, after the highschoolers cleared out, we got down to our workout.
By this time it is 5:30pm, well after dark, but the skies are clear and full of stars. The workout is poling intervals up a hill that goes up from the parking lot of the Hatchery, so we only are skiing a 200m section of pavement and after the highschool team leaves there's no cars. I can barely make out where the edge of the pavement is, but I know the hill and its curvature so well by now that I don't need to. The only real danger is that Kuzzy and I would run into each other in the dark, but we both stay to the right and watch out for each other. It was very zen. And I discovered that my poles send off crazy sparks when they slip, you miss that kind of stuff in the daytime.
Computer update: it is working, reluctantly, but I am not convinced that it will continue to work.
Thursday was a great day. Short run, isometric core strength, breakfast, skate uphill intervals, lunch, 3.5hrs hanging out at the Hatchery Park. I'll start with our (Kuzzy & I only, Gregg was sick for the day) time at the Hatchery Park. Last week we were doing our poling workout on the hill by the Hatchery and a group of people were having some sort of practice. After our workout we chatted with the leader, Ethel Morris, and learned that it was the special olympic nordic/snowshoe team and they practiced every Thursday. So this Thursday Kuzzy and I went down to help with their practice from 3:30-5. We warmed up with the whole group, about 15 athletes plus 2 moms, and then Kuzzy and I worked with some of the older boys. It was awesome to get to help out with a group that was clearly having fun together and wasn't too concerned with being fast. It also made me feel guilty about having a LOT of top-end ski gear when there are so many people who want to ski but don't have the equipment or the means to acquire the equipment.
I got to work with Mike Parr & Alex Mayou, both awesome, Alex was a normal athlete (I think that's the term to use although it seems to imply that the other athletes were abnormal) from the middle school who volunteered with the group. It did crack me up when they asked if I lived in the "city" or the "country." Um.. there's 2000 people in Hayward, does that make a city?
During that practice the Hayward High School nordic team showed up for their practice, so afterwards we got to chat with some of our buddies on that team. Finally, after the highschoolers cleared out, we got down to our workout.
By this time it is 5:30pm, well after dark, but the skies are clear and full of stars. The workout is poling intervals up a hill that goes up from the parking lot of the Hatchery, so we only are skiing a 200m section of pavement and after the highschool team leaves there's no cars. I can barely make out where the edge of the pavement is, but I know the hill and its curvature so well by now that I don't need to. The only real danger is that Kuzzy and I would run into each other in the dark, but we both stay to the right and watch out for each other. It was very zen. And I discovered that my poles send off crazy sparks when they slip, you miss that kind of stuff in the daytime.
Computer update: it is working, reluctantly, but I am not convinced that it will continue to work.
posted by LAV at 17:47
1 Comments:
Stars! I was thinking about the upside down big dipper last night. I went backpacking out in Zion, complete with my green packpack, purple tights, zip off pants, orange boots still covered in Amazon jungle mud, my headlamp, the same plastic bag filled with the same aleve packets from your mom, the green rain jacket, black fleece, black craft shirt, blue patagonia shirt, wool craft socks, smith sunglasses. It was so Peru. I couldn't stop thinking about it and telling stories to the people I was with.
I could see stars well for the first time since Peru. It made me really really happy. Then I relized that even though Vegas was 150 miles away we could see the lights from the very high plataue we hiked to on Zion.
Will I never escape it?
Good luck skiing and making art!
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