Single Swizzle

Sturgie

The crash begins at 2:35 in the video – its funny because even the announcer takes notice of the pile up!

Start of the 2010 Birkie

Most often the drive in competition comes from the art of trying to put together that perfect one.  I must contend that competition is an art and the Birkie is that fine piece of canvas waiting to be perfectly accomplished.  The Birkie went down perfectly on Saturday and a perfect Birkie, some could say, it was.

Toko released their straight forward tip on the Monday of Birkie week and because of the weather pattern it did not change a bit throughout the whole week.  That makes for easy waxing and little anxiety.  One thing I find intriguing was Toko’s structure recommendation.  Every time they release some new tool or gadget they seem to insert it in all their wax reports.  Could it be to get desperate and gullible skiers to buy a product and boost their sales?..?  I don’t know but I didn’t buy into the need for structure and stuck to what I have been doing to years.  And to be honest – I had fast skies…riding up on everyone on the downhills and getting great glide out of them on the uphill.  Who knows…but I called their bluff, not mention it saved me 60 bucks as well.

After skiing in from McNaught Rd on fresh cord, I continued to warm up in the -3 degree morning. It was picture perfect and as I watched the first two waves of the classic racers take off I made my way into the wave coral and did everything I could to stay warm for twenty-five minutes. Finally at 8:35 the gun went off and wave one was released. No more than ten yards out a skier ahead of me went down and there was nothing I could do to avoid what was coming. Before I knew it I pile drove the skier’s face into the snow with my knee and the domino affect began. In a split second I went from wanting to have a good start to be at the bottom of a fifteen skier pile with poles snapping and men cussing. It was not pretty, although I don’t really know what it looked like because as I mentioned before I was at the bottom. After what seemed like a minute I was able to wiggle my way out, stand up, check my poles and try to salvage a race the sure got off to a bad start. With both poles intact I found myself at the back of wave one with a lot of work to do.

At the back of wave one on the powerline

I didn’t panic because I knew there would be no use in panicking. Instead I began the work of moving my way through the back of wave one and into a pace that I could sustain for 50k. I hit Firetower Hill feeling strong and yet needed to be patient because of the traffic. I felt awesome at the mammoth climb at 17k and I felt amazing at OO. I grabbed a new H2O bottle from my brother and decided to skier a bit harder and maybe work with some of the skiers around me. I was able to ski stronger but no one wanted to work together.

Halfway at OO

As the sun soaked the trail, the snow got faster along with my skies. I skied the portion from OO to Mosquito Brook the fastest yet and came out feeling strong and ready for the few hills that await. I skied my way to Bitch Hill, dominated the thing, emptied out onto Highway 77. The last part, including the lake, flew. I continued to catch everyone on the downhills and felt like I was effortlessly skiing across the lake. I skied a sub three-hour race and actually knocked ten minutes off my previous best.

Ayden's first Birkie experience

This years Birkie, for me, was perfect. I felt like I had just performed my perfect race by perfecting the canvas that so many times has perfected me. Shout out to Aaron, Nate, Hank, and Sarah for great races as well. All five of us accomplished sub three hour races – something that I think some in the group didn’t think would happen three weeks ago.

Thanks to my Family for stopping in and taking care of Ayden while I got out on the skies to train. Thanks to Nikole for her support and encouragement and thanks to Ayden for…well…being Ayden. I began the season uncertain how it would go but ended up skiing a perfect race to end all seasons. Thanks for all your support. Now off to put the summer wax on the skies and pump up the tires on the mountain bike…

Single Swizzle

Sturgie

Future Birkie Skier

1993 Korte

It’s funny how you can catch yourself in the moment thinking “how did I arrive at this point, right here, right now?”   It would be unnatural to sit down and map out your life, giving detail to each event that led you right up this thought.  I mean seriously – if it were not for my mom and dad strapping plastic boards to my boots and throwing some sticks in my hand when I was three I probably would not be sitting here right now thinking about what pair of skis I am to use for the Birkie on Saturday.  Or what happened in 1993 that led me, a fourteen year pre-pubescent teen, to think that I could ski 16 miles on wax-less TRAK t-1200 rental skis that my parents bought from the local hardware/sporting good store that was going out of business?  Either way these two events would make that map I was talking about.  And I’m sure these two occasions had a great deal of influence on how I have arrived at this point, right here, right now.

Ayden and I head north tomorrow for THIS.  And now, friends, we’ve got ourselves a game….

Single Swizzle

Sturgie

That has been the order of the family over the past couple of weeks.  It’s been fast paced to say the least.  Ayden moves about more on his feet now than on his knees.  He found his “private part” and now looks like a dog chasing it.  Nikole continues to care for her boys and is still, she won’t say this, training for a 1/2 marathon this spring.

Birkie is right around the corner and this is my final week of intense, high volume workouts.  I have the pre-Birkie this weekend followed by the Hinder Binder next weekend.  Hopefully I will use those two races as confidence boosters because right now I sure don’t feel fast.  Like it or not, I have to be ready -

More to come….

Not-so? fearsome 4some....

Start of our 3hr ski

He got his first birthday celebration in on the 2nd of January in Greenbay with all his cousins, Aunt’s, Uncle’s, and Grandma and Grandpa Tingley.  We are pretty sure he had a blast eating his first full piece of cake and one whole scoop of ice cream.  Plus we also think his cousins had more fun celebrating his 1st birthday with him.

On the 10th I took off over to the Cities and spent two weeks at school for my intensives.  I won’t tell you what you missed while I was there but I will tell you what I missed while I was there.  On the 12th, Ayden took his first step(s) – 5 to be exact.  So I missed that.  And then I missed his actual birthday on the 14th.

But I did make it back for his big birthday celebration on the 16th with all his family, relatives and friends.  He had  a “pj monkey” party will a full spread of food, monkey toes, cartoons, and pajamas.  It was a great time and Ayden has been blessed with such a great circle of family and friends.

In the meantime – mom has been sneaking into the gym and getting some workouts in.  I think she has a plan for some 1/2 marathons this spring and summer.  She hasn’t said so herself but I think there is a conspiracy brewing.  There are exactly 30 days until the Birkie.  I’ve been skiing quite a bit but not racing (which I’m very fine with).  We will see how the season goes.  This will be the first Birkie where I specifically had to switch my training from quantity of skis to quality of skis.  Big difference but at the same time I’ve learned a thing or two about myself.

Boards and Cord from this end…

Hey I'm 1

Hello people

oneski twoski...

Need some snow…

Ayden did get out for his first sled of the season…quite entertaining in that he really didn’t know what was going on but enjoyed sittin there while other people toted him around taking pictures…

Single Swizzle,

Sturgie