The Shaggs

Sparky and I are around the same age, and we both like music. So it's only natural that certain pop culture and rock and roll references frequently find their way into our conversations when we're out on the road for ski races.  I bet if we really put in the effort, we could damn near speak in code, forming paragraphs out of references to various rock bands, TV shows, movies and events from the 1980's that none of the athletes on our team would understand. (And undoubtedly, the same would work in reverse.) Sparky's got the whole alpine team doing "Cornholio" drills on the slalom hill, and I bet there's not an athlete on that team who knows who Cornholio is. And why would they?

Geographically speaking, though, Sparky and I grew up on opposite sides of the country, and surrounded by very different musical cultures.  While I grew up in the land of boredom, and of banjos and accordians played on back porches, Sparky grew up in the thick of it in the San Francisco Bay.  San Francisco is the home of Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Metallica, The Grateful Dead, Journey, The Dead Kennedys, Primus... the list goes on and on and on. Meanwhile, where I grew up in rural New Hampshire, we had The Shaggs.  They grew up about fifteen minutes down the road from me. While it's true that Frank Zappa (also from California) once called The Shaggs "better than The Beatles", and Curt Cobain (another West Coast guy) called them one of his favorite bands, you need only listen to My Pal Foot-Foot a few times to understand that seeing the Shaggs play on a Saturday afternoon down at the Fremont Town Hall was not at all the same thing as going to a Santana concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. 

The Shaggs. Our local band.

...Anyway, I know there was something that reminded me of The Shaggs, but now, for the life of me, I just can't remember what it was!  This is so frustrating, when I try to write a blog post and then get off track with a trip down memory lane, and then I can't remember what it was that made me start thinking about The Shaggs again after so many years. 

Anyway...  On a completely different topic, we are still trying to reach our goal of $314K in pledges so that we can keep our UAA Ski Team intact.  And in order to get the word out, the team put together a little Christmas video that I think is going to be a real hit.  I've had it on "repeat" for the past week and I just can't get enough of this song! I think it's way better than anything The Beatles ever did!

Note:  as with most of these blog posts, this one is not entirely accurate. I should mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that the band Aerosmith is also from about 15 minutes away from where I grew up - but in the opposite direction. 

UAA Cup Day 2

 Our planned racing trip to Fairbanks this weekend was cancelled by you-know-what.  So we had our own races here in Anchorage.  Day 2 looked something like this.

We found the box in the attic with the old souvenir bibs in it.

Derek & Toomas in the foreground. The Pacific Ocean in the background.

Karly & Pascale

Tuva

Pascale stepped on Karly's pole. And then Karly let out a little yelp. And then Pascale said, "I'm sorry, Karly." And then Karly said, "It's OK, Pascale."
They don't know I know all this. But Kincaid Park is like my backyard, I know it like the back of my hand, and I am omnipresent. So when we train there, our athletes should probably assume that, kind of like Zardoz, I am everywhere. I am all-seeing, and I hear everything.

There was only one non-Seawolf in today's race. Seth Downs. Seth was obviously not intimidated.

B. The UAA Cup points leader in the yellow bib.

G.
It was hard for me to climb the tree in my ski boots. But I think it was worth it to get this photo.

Karly

B again.

Pascale

Trials

Magnum. In full Spencer Loop time-trial regalia.

This is a traveling race team.  In normal years, after the fall training season transitions into the winter racing season, we start leaving town regularly, to travel to places like Fairbanks, Colorado, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, Germany...  Since we're so often boarding planes and flying to other places to go skiing, it's not so bad for us if we get a meltdown or some other meteorological event that makes the skiing conditions really bad for a couple of weeks. Most of the time, during the winter, we're scheduled to go off racing in a few days anyway.  But it's a different situation if you're not on a traveling ski team like ours. You pretty much have to take what you get for skiing conditions, and if all that's available is rough, rocky, icy trails then you just have to use your rock skis and suck it up.

Sheila.

I don't know what's going to happen with our racing calendar this winter, and everything's still up in the air, as it is for everyone, everywhere. Maybe we'll get to go off racing a lot this winter.  Or maybe this will be the winter when everyone, everywhere around the world, mostly just stays home.  

The ski touring on the Anchorage Hillside has been excellent lately.

So far this winter, our skiing conditions have been an absolute early-season dream.  I've lived in this city since 1992 and I can't remember another year when the fall skiing was this good.  Maybe we've had better November skiing, but I don't remember it. We got some snow at the end of October, and then an inch or two here and there, with plenty of cool weather and no rain, and the result has been mid-winter-type conditions all through November. There's enough snow to use your best skis, and solid, deep classic tracks at Hillside (Thanks Matt Pauli!).

Karly & Espen

If I had to choose a year to be stuck in Anchorage with a global pandemic keeping me and my teammates on lockdown, this would be the year I'd choose.  Of all the places to be, this November I'd choose Anchorage for sure.  That's not to say that a chinook couldn't blow into town in the coming days and wipe out the great skiing. But so far, there's only more of the same good weather in the forecast.

Intervals the other day. Espen and Toomas in mid-interval; The Tuvas and I have finished and are going back to our warm-ups.

For today's time trial, Coach Toomas was wearing a bib from a race that took place before he was born.

And so was Espen.

Today's time trial.  And look who has finally arrived in Anchorage - our new coach Trond Flagstad!

Toomas

Sigurd

With this Coronavirus pandemic, I haven't been flying very much for work lately - only a couple days per week. I guess our local airline missed me because they sent me this box in the mail recently.

My very own jetliner!

If you haven't been ski touring on the hillside lately, you're missing out.

Anchorage. Last weekend.

I Think Maybe Rollerskiing Season Has Ended

Our hillbounding workout a couple days ago ended in snow that was almost a foot deep. I crossed paths with a friend on the trail who asked why we were hillbounding and not skiing?  To me it seemed self-evident. This was likely our last good-quality bounding session this fall. And I think it's also unlikely that the rollerskis will see pavement again before 2021. 

Toomas explaining the rules of the workout.

Siggi

JC and Derek

Though the conditions seemed more suited to skiing, an informal survey revealed that all of us were really pleased with the hillbounding workout.

During the warmdown. Helen and Uno.

We went skiing this morning. This is Derek. On his rock skis. Which turned out to be unnecessary.

Midwinter conditions and 12 degrees F. Pascale and Carly.

Toomas.  Even when he's coaching, he squeezes in a few laps wherever he can.

Hey Everybody, Hannah's Back In Town!

We've been doing our usual thing around here, while trying our best to keep our team Coronavirus-free.  So far, so good...

It's beginning to look more like winter around here.

Sigurd in uphill time-trial mode.

Espen & Pascale

The hill-bounding feels more like skiing when there's snow on the ground.

Add your own caption here...

JC and Coach Toomas.

Time-trial time again. JC and Derek.

JC and Espen. Seems like JC was everywhere at once that day.

Last weekend Sigurd pulled into practice driving some sort of Ford Explorer, which I assume he must have bought recently. I was about to ask him about it when Hannah Rudd climbed out of the back seat - but I thought Hannah was living in Bozeman these days! I was so shocked that I forgot to ask Sigurd about his car. Hannah's spent the past week here, training with us, and her presence has added to the quality and good vibe of our sessions. It's been really nice to see her this week, and I hope we'll cross paths on the racing circuit this winter. Here she is, racing our Potter Valley uphill time trial a few days ago.

Tuva Uno

Tuva The Deuce.
The skiable ice-free section of road is getting narrower all the time.

 

In the background: the Pacific Ocean. In the foreground: Tuva

In the foreground, our rollerski road. In the background, downtown Anchorage. In the distance 300 miles away, Denali (20,320 feet)

The final sprint to the finish line.

In the hills above Anchorage.

In the hills above Palmer.

I was real pleased with the quality and spirit of the womens' intervals this morning. Here's Toom leading the final meters of one of the later rounds, with Hannah, Pascale, and both Tuvas in the mix.