Training Log: June 7

Had a great meeting with Michael today. So set the tone for a rockin' day in which I got so much done! Got some film to watch, too, psyched for that.

Hiked up Kirk hill (again) today, there was about an inch or two of snow still since our last big storm blew through... someone was reporting 18" of fresh in the Beartooths and 24" in the Big Sky area!

I had some exciting news happen (which I can't tell you about yet) so I can't go ski in the Beartooths again this weekend. I think we are going to ski the Great One off of Sacajawea Peak instead on Sunday morning. So excited!

Went to the gym tonight and ripped out an awesome workout with Liat in an hour flat, we did the total leg machine (so cool), a set for quads and a set for glutes, seated calf raises, standing calf raises, face down hamstring curls, squats in the smith machine, dead lifts in the smith machine, full squats (all the way to the heel rest) on the bosu ball, which were GREAT and which I will post video of next week, and abs of doom. We did ab crunches on the Swiss ball holding a 10lb medicine ball over our heads, obliques with the swiss ball on the floor, and incline bench abs where you catch a 12lb medicine ball and go back with it, crunch up and toss it to your partner (who is standing on one foot on the bosu ball.) We did those to failure, and then just sat there at an incline holding the ball to failure. Yeah!

Training Tips: AJ Bear on the Swiss Ball

Here is some great video sent to me by Andy Docken. This is world cup skier AJ Bear working out on the swiss ball. This first video is a one legged jump, from one foot and landing on the same foot.

This is a drill that we use in figure skating as well, to at 36" platform, but from a static position, to develop explosive power in the calf, and train maximum muscle recruitment from a 0 energy position. I can tell you from experience, this is scary to do! We start on an 8" box, and move up by 10" until we are jumping up to the height of your kitchen counter.









The rest of these drills are exercises on the swiss ball, and, as Andy warns, BE CAREFUL! I'd train a bunch on the Bosu ball before going here, but I think that the requirements for balancing on the swiss ball are great for skiing and rock climbing as well, incredible core strength and body tension to keep stable on a very movable platform.

Your thoughts? Post em here!

Training Log: June 2-4: Beartooth Mts!

Oh, MAN! How fun is THIS PLACE?? Okay. Lets start here. I spent seven (count em SEVEN) hours getting ready. What the heck, Kate? Well, I learned well from my mom that you plan ALL your meals out in advance, and pack them in big freezer bags, and label them (Sat lunch) etc. And I made myself a great little luxury bed in the back of the truck, and packed regular clothes separate from ski clothes...

Yes, I know its insane. But hey, I was well prepared! Didn't take anything extra, and got to spend all my time playing rather than stressing. So there.

The drive out to Red Lodge was amazing, I've never been out there. Rolling green hills and the occasional house or cow, lots of horses. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there, and then I met up with Josh Spohler and John Faunce to ski the Gardener Headwall.

Driving up into the Beartooths was amazing, you can clearly see the glacial cut of the valley, and as you drive up and up and up, you finally plateau, and its like driving on a road on the top of the world. A very bizarre experience, I've never been on a road in a place like this, I've only hiked in... it reminds me of stuff I saw in Alaska.

So we get there, to this turn out, and there are ALL these people with their skis on! Good God! And I realize, this is like sport climbing for skiers! Super easy access, and you just have to hike out whatever you ski down, so you only pay for the turns you make, no protracted 12 mile skin in before you summit and get your 12 turns.

Holy CRAP, its like Mecca! Yeah!

So the first day, we skied this, the Gardiner Headwall, and I opted to take my new Volkl Attiva's out for the day, even though they weigh more than TWICE what my other skis weigh. But I figured, what the heck, train heavy, ski light, right? I'm glad I took em, it was the most like water skiing so far!

I was nervous as we hiked over, and Josh said it was because of exposure, but I actually really really like exposure and that fall away out in space here is my humanity feeling, I think it was because I haven't skied in front of him in months, and while we are friends, he's also a bit of a mentor for me on skis, and I want him to believe I can make it to the D team, so i didn't want to ski like an idiot in front of him. The headwall turned out to be not quite as steep as I expected, which was great.

Thanks in part to the fact that there was no skinning involved, I didn't ski like a complete imbecile like I usually do in the back country, but i was a bit in the back seat, not wanting to go over the handlebars anymore. So I skied it a bit more conservatively than i would have liked, and I think the skis drove me most of the day.

We did three laps on the headwall, (Josh and John did another, but I wanted to save my legs for the Reefer the next day) and Josh just put a bootpack in that sucker and we hiked RIGHT back up what we skied rather than taking the long way round. Coolio.

Josh's super hard core incredibly beautiful mom skied with us. I was so psyched, the whole day was low key, nothin' to prove, just ski and have fun and eat lunch and get a sunburn. (In my ARMPIT. OW.)

That night, a bit sore, we drove down to our campsite, bid Josh's mom adeau, and headed in for a BBQ at Zoe and Scotts, (old friends of Josh). They both race bikes, and Zoe teaches skiing at Red Lodge. She rips it up from what I've heard.

Dinner was awesome, they have a beautiful old farmhouse that they moved to their rather large property in the middle of nowhere, and Scott rebuilt it by hand over the course of about 7 years. What a serene existence, I gotta tell you. They were super fun people, and the night was a relaxed blast... I gotta say, I haven't sat outside in the evening air and drank beer till the sun went down without a care in the world in...uh... 6 1/2 years? Or so? I've been away, but I was always worried about the kids and Tom and if it was okay that I was gone...

This time, Tom stayed with the kids by himself for the first time ever, and we both felt like it shouldn't be that big a deal, so even though I didn't have cell reception, I was not worried even a bit. How nice. I can't tell you how nice.

That night, after hooking up with Claire (also from the Bridger ski school) we headed back up to camp (despite repeated protests that we could stay with Zoe and Scott, and we would have but all our crap was back at camp...), and tucked in for the night.

Wait, wait, before that I remember Faunce sitting on my tail gate at like 11pm sort of screaming in Josh's direction "mmff grr long board lets GO mudda fuckah down the hill you got this ACTION!" and Josh going "Faunce, you need to be more quiet!" and Faunce going "Wanna PIECE of this? Get your board, lets go FAST! Mfff mff grr" and Josh saying "Good night, Faunce." and Fonzie then proceeded to tuck his extreme ass into bed and snore away.

Here are some pics from the campsite the next morning, Faunce miraculously NOT nursing a severe hangover, Claire and Josh rarein' to go... and Roz, not eating her breakfast...

The next day we trucked back up that amazing mountain and parked over by Reefer, a long moderate chute that winds around and dumps into a beautiful bowl. We skied the bowl all day, I think I did five laps total, in different chutes, two of which were pretty steep! And then Josh told me to get out of the backseat, esp on the steeps, so my last 2 laps, I was actually skiing for real, which was great, and fun and felt powerful, but I skied over our bootpack (whoops!) like five times. Duh.

It was interesting to try and just ski, not think, and listen to what my body was doing. I did not feel my mass traveling down through an arc created by my feet this time, but I did glance down and notice that I wasn't A-framing as much as I usually do. The snow was really heavy and wet, so I thought most about progressive edges (from Andy's carving clinic) and that elbow below hand pole plant to level and stay moving down the hill. I got wound a couple of times, but the last two felt more aggressive, easier, more simlutanious. I also did my first back country hop turn! Go Kate! Of course, I did it because I sideslipped off the lip I was supposed to sort of huck off of, and I was up against some rocks, and I didn't want to waste a turn by doing a little falling leaf to get back over away. So I just prayed I wouldn't pull a SuperKate and managed to bring 'em around and ski out. Okay. I skied out with a big dumb grin on my face, doing large radius turns and spraying snow behind me. For those three turns, I was a rockstar. And then I nearly ate it. So I knew I was back in the front seat! (If a bit of a superkate, anyhow...)

It was a great day, sunny, warm, fun... we ditched our packs at the bottom and had a nice warm lunch rock to lay on after every lap. Josh kept his eye on this big crazy storm system that was threatening, and eventually, around 3pm we hiked back out.

The hike was long, but I am super psyched to report that it wasn't painful. I would say that it took a bit more than moderate work to hike it out, and I would have skied a couple more laps if the gang was up for it. I am really amazed at that, this is the first time ever I haven't been in pain, sucking wind, and just hoping my legs would have SOMETHING left by the time we got there. I felt strong, fit, and ready to go all day. YEAH!

And Ms. Claire completed her first back country adventure, hiking hard, spinning laps, and basically kicking ass all over the place. Sucks to be a hot skiing babe like her, no? WOW.

We threw on our shorts and had a beer by the side of the road while we watched this incredible storm system approach, covering the Teetons in a purple black cloud and just looking fierce. While it was still sunny for us, that storm was fast approaching.

Time to go home and hug my hubby, snuggle the kiddos and take a shower! YUCK! Man was I a sweaty mess! But I felt so so so damn good.

The drive back was just as spectacular, minus the ipod, which had died. It was so much fun, we are going back next weekend! But we are gonna take the kids and do super low angle stuff. Very excited!

Off to the gym tonight after a day of thunderstorms and movies...

Buh - bye! Beartooth Pass Bound

SEE ya! I'm going skiing this weekend! Heading up for my first time EVER to the Beartooth pass, camping in my truck, got good food, Tom's Ipod (we decided not to get me one afterall... kinda spendy and, you know... not so much with the cashflow right now...) anyhow, SO psyched to be on skis again, re read my entire blog last night to put skiing back in my head, the way I have been thinking and feeling, and I am taking these tips with me:

Simutaneous feet in crud and powder
Hand below elbow on pole plant
Feel old inside hip click as you step onto new ski (in direction of new turn)
Stay out of "rotated uphill and inside"
Feel body mass move through arc described by feet
make turns match

and, of course, HAVE FUN!

I have lots and lots to post about already, but I'll be back on Monday with my latest back country adventure!

By the way, Tom is alone with the kids all weekend by himself for the first time ever so: first: Thanks, Tom! second: Good luck with that! third: drink lots of beer! You'll be a better parent! fourth: God I hope he lets me go skiing again after this!

Ooh, and I didn't post my training log for yesterday, so here it is: hiked Kirk hill to the fire road with Liat at a snails pace for some reason. No work out today, packing! (And I didn't want to be sore, because I know Josh is going to kick my ass)

Dryland Training Drill: Triceps

Here is another great training drill you can do on the Bosu ball, this is one of my favorites. It's a triceps press with a medicine ball.

The weight of the medicine ball is continually trying to bring you out of balance, and because it is right over your head and then directly behind it, to me it seems to closely simulate the feeling of getting thrown into the back seat at the bottom half of a turn, and having to fight out of it.

Do this exercise with your free leg in a variety of positions: the one ski skiing position, leg out in front, leg to the side, leg behind. Make sure your shoulders stay square, and fight to stay stable and in balance so you can have good form for your triceps!

Dryland Training Drill: Shoulders

Here are a couple of still pics of the way we train shoulders. We stand on one foot on the bosu ball, forcing our core to stabilize while a weight is pulling it around. The weights, of course, are dumbbells, 10lbs or so, and as you do your shoulder exercises (in good form), the weight changes your balance point.

Basically, it is like recovering from a fall all the time. As the weight moves, you are constantly adjusting for it, trying to come back into balance.

Start these standing on the ball on 2 feet, and as you get comfortable, do a set with your leg in front, one with your leg out to the side, and one with your leg behind. You can also do them with your leg pulled up under you in a "flexion" posture.

Make sure your standing leg has a slight bend in it, and that you are using good form for the shoulder exercises, and good skiing form on your standing leg (ie, not in the back seat or other 'off' position.)

Shoulder exercises with dumbbells:

Front Raises
Lateral Raises
Cable Pulls for Rear Delt Raises

There are LOTS of others, but these are some easy ones to do o the Bosu ball. Some tips for better success: keep your shoulders level, and your wrists stacked. Keep your free foot out and steady using your abs for added stability, for the entire set.

Just like any normal shoulder exercise, do 3 sets of 12, alternating feet and foot position with each set. (For mass building, higher weight, fewer reps, go to failure and then go down 2 lbs, continue this until you have no weight and go to failure. For sleek, long muscles, do higher reps on lighter weight.)

Dryland Training Drill: Recover into Balance!

***UPDATE: Megan brought up a good point that I want to make sure and share with you regarding this type of training... Once you have gone past the point of recovery, you should NOT fight to save yourself, but take the fall. Let go, and fall. Otherwise, you can really hurt yourself over stressing your tendons in your knees while you try to overcome the force of the fall.***

These drills are meant to train the core and stability muscles to recognize "uh, oh!" the second you get out of balance, and recover back into balance, before the bobble becomes a full-blown fall.

Knowing when to recover, and when to let go... well, that's beyond my expertise at this point. My suggestion is to listen to your body, and utilize those well trained core and stability muscles to hold and get back in balance quickly. If it doesn't happen, let go, and take the tumble!



So I have been working a lot on one footed balance, and I was thinking about what we need to do to stay or get back in balance. Michael Hickey, my amazing coach, told me a story about watching Stenmark come around a gate, and one of his skis came up off the snow. He was able to complete the turn, without loosing speed, and force that free foot back down, just where it belongs, and make the next gate.

How oh HOW do we train for that sort of compensorial core strength? So I came up with an idea, a series of exercises on the Bosu ball (which simulates the ever changing snow surface) and a 12lb medicine ball, which simulates the force of your direction of fall.

In this video clip, we are saying that Liat (who should be just a TAD more in the front seat) got too far forward, and in an effort not to go over the handlebars, lifted a ski. Then we froze her. She holds the ball in front of her so there is continual force in the direction of the fall, and her leg to the side, as this was her immediate reaction to compensate.

Now, she holds this position for one minute, the theory being that all of her recovery muscles are engaged and actively firing as the standing foot wobbles on the ball. This way, the next time she is in this position, her recovery muscles are strong, and used to stopping the motion JUST after it happens, allowing her a moment to pull it all back into balance.

This is the first in a series of 12 or so "fall freeze" exercises that I have been training with, I'll post more as I get the videos compressed!

Thoughts? Input? More ideas? Discuss!

Dryland Training Drill: Recover Into Balance! (Backseat)

***UPDATE*** Megan brought up a good point that I want to make sure and share with you regarding this type of training... Once you have gone past the point of recovery, you should NOT fight to save yourself, but take the fall. Let go, and fall. Otherwise, you can really hurt yourself over stressing your tendons in your knees while you try to overcome the force of the fall.***

These drills are meant to train the core and stability muscles to recognize "uh, oh!" the second you get out of balance, and recover back into balance, before the bobble becomes a full-blown fall.

Knowing when to recover, and when to let go... well, that's beyond my expertise at this point. My suggestion is to listen to your body, and utilize those well trained core and stability muscles to hold and get back in balance quickly. If it doesn't happen, let go, and take the tumble!



Here is Liat doing the backseat version of this exercise. The medicine ball is behind her to represent the force pulling her back in the fall, and her leg has come up in front of her to compensate. Now we freeze.

She stands holding the position as quietly as she can, strengthening the recovery muscles that she will need to engage should she get into this situation on her skis.

This is video #2 of many exercises like this on the Bosu ball that simulate falling recovery. Try it out! Discuss! Tell me what you think! Tell me if you want more!

Balance Drills: Kate's Figure Skating Drills

I took a bunch of video tonight at the Ridge Athletic Club here in Bozeman where I train (Thanks, guys for letting me shoot here!). It takes forever to upload, so as I get them online, I'll post them here! Let me know what you think! I have about 25 exercises that I've come up with for balance and recovery on one foot wile skiing. I'd like to have more!

If we get enough, lets burn a DVD! Send your tips and ideas in, or post them here, and we'll put it together over the summer.

Okay, enough yackin'. Here is the first drill, this is what I make all my figure skating clients do in order to maintain balance as they are radically shifting position in spins.



I did this one a bit fast to make the video as short as possible, but try to hold each pose for a slow count of 25, and try to make the transitions as smooth as possible. In your layback spin, you want your standing hip to be pressed forward as much as you can, and your standing leg to be strong strong stron. Your head should be directly over your free foot.

In your Camel spin, you want your free leg to be at least level with your head, if not a good foot higher. Press your standing leg straight, and move your center of balance back, like you are trying to press your standing foot about 6 inches in front of you.

In your sit spin, try to get down to at least 90 degrees on your standing leg, but keep your heel on the ground (you can't spin on your toepick!) Your sweet spot on a skate blade is just at the back of the ball of your foot. Find that spot, and press it into the ground. If you can get all the way down so you are sitting on your heel, good for you! But when you stand back up, don't press on your knee! Points off!

Do this on both legs as slowly as you can, and do three sets (take breaks in between!) There are tons of variations on spin positions that you can add to this, and I will post some more if you are interested.

This applies really well to skiing, because when we get out of balance, we have to move, change something, to pull back into balance. Think of these spin positions as falls in progress, and your core is fighting to come back into balance, rather than giving in and falling.

Here is another one of me trying to do this on the Bosu ball, which is very VERY hard, but GREAT training. I've only made it through this drill twice without falling off the ball so far. Just keep working at it until you can do the whole sequence on both feet on the Bosu ball without falling. And then send me video of you doing it!

Training Log: May 30

Ya, I work out at the gym, ya. So I am not so much a girly-man. Right. Sorry. Chest day! Seated chest press, seated chest flies, dumbbell flies, bench press, abs on the ball with a medicine ball, abs on incline bench with medicine ball thrown at my face (that's one of my favorites) triceps over the head on a bosu ball with a medicine ball (I actually took video of this since I bet its hard to imagine), tricep pull downs, dips on the bench with my legs out straight! Finally!

No cardio today, I spent the day at my computer working on the Women's Adventure Club for the Ridge Athletic, where I got a job! Yay! Go Kate! Now, I get paid to go hiking, and I get to take a bunch of women with me and get them active and outdoors. I am psyched.

Nike answers!

Well, I heard back from them! After 3 unanswered emails and one totally rude and unhelpful phone call, I got this back after sending a nasty email. We'll see what happens from here. I hope they redeem themselves, I love the rest of their gear!


Response (Greg) - 05/30/2007 07:51 AM
Hello Kate,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your Nike Triax Elite HRM.

First off, I am sorry to hear of your experience regarding both the Elite HRM and the level of service you have received.

After some searching, I was unable to locate any recent contacts from you via our e-mail service, however, I did see that you contacted us back in July of last year regarding the Triax Elite.

However, it sounds like you are a very active individual and that a HRM plays an important part in your daily routine.

If you could kindly address the issue(s) that are occurring with your Elite HRM, I would be more than happy to assist you with the situation.

Thank you for the time you have taken to e-mail us.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Greg
Nike Timing

PS: Have you checked out NIKE iD yet? You can make your own custom Nike gear and buy it online at www.nikeid.com.

Customer (Kate Howe) - 05/27/2007 07:53 PM
Hi. I have emailed you guys three times and been totally ignored. Your Nike Timing contact us doesn't work. when I called the 800 number, the guy was an amazing asshole to me. he was totally unhelpful and unsympathetic. i spent $300 on my heart rate monitor and it doesn't work. I have been a devoted Nike customer for more than 15 years in training. I am done.

I am a figureskating coach, I coach skiing, i am a personal trainer, and I run a women's adventure club. that's a lot of clients I am going to tell to buy anything other than your gear. And you know what? i don't think you care. From the level of response my other communications have gotten, I would bet money I won't hear back from you on this one, either.

To see the review I just posted on my blog about the Nike Triax, for which I can get NO customer support or response whatsoever, please visit

http://www.skiingintheshower.blogspot.com

Kate Howe

Bodhi Wight, Ninja Master

Bodhi rocks the Balance 360 board! Check it out to see amazing video, and tell them Kate Howe from PSIA sent you for an *additional* 10% off! I'm on mine twice a day for 15 minutes, its a great core workout!

The Skiing Machine

Okay, stay with me here. I have been thinking a lot about skiing. In fact, I was skiing in the shower last night, and marveling again at how LITTLE forward motion it takes to get TOO far forward, and how MUCH you can flex into a big, hard turn. (I have a tiny little shower, so I can close my eyes and visualize the turns, make different turn shapes and so on, without feeling like I am going to wipe out in my shower.)

Not that it hasn't happened "Thump." "Ow." "Honey? What was that?" silence. "Babe? Are you okay?" Husband walks into bathroom. embarrassed silence from the shower. The shower door opens. I am rubbing my knee. He looks at me. "Were you skiing in the shower?" I nod. "Did you wipe out?" I turn red. Wait for it, wait for it... "Do you want me to get your helmet?" Smirk. Turn and leave bathroom. From the other room, voice floats back into the shower... "Or your poles? Do you want those?"

Nice.

So anyway, I think a lot about skiing and what it feels like and what feeling I am reaching for. In tennis, someone can stand behind you and manipulate your arm, so you can feel what you are reaching for. But to do that in skiing, someone would have to be ON your skis with you, bending and moving you while you are going, I don't know, 20 miles per hour?

So I have been thinking about different skiing styles, I think a lot about how Josh Foster looks when he skis, he looks solid and powerful, yet light, nimble, soft, fluid, flowing, like flexible power. Then I think about what Nick Herrin looks like when he skis, athletic, light, exuberant, goofy, happy, leaping, nimble, airborne. And I wonder, if you could EXPERIENCE what different turns feel like for different people, and you laid those experiences over each other, like transparencies, what the differences would be, and more importantly, what the similarities would be?

What does it feel like for Deb Armstrong to be in a slalom course? Wouldn't you DIE to know?

So, in my insanity, I thought... what if I came up with a simple piece of gear that would allow a coach to SHOW a student what it should feel like to ski?

So I came up with this first version of the "Skiing Machine", and as you can see it is just a platform on a big spring (since snow operates in three dimensions). You click into the bindings, you are stabilized by a harness, you have super long poles with rubber tips that reach the ground, and you can "ski" on the board. Your coach can watch what you are doing, and assist your turn shape or understanding of it by pulling on the platform handles.

Okay, so then, I thought, well... wouldn't it be even cooler if you could click into the platform and the coach could, using a computer, analyze the way you are moving the board, see where your misunderstanding of the process is, and then tell the board to move a certain way. Then YOU ski the board, and then the board skis you-instant kinesthetic response.

Okay. Stay with me here. In the next split second, I thought to myself, BUT WAIT! (This is where Tom always groans... because this is how all my sculptural projects happen, and he usually bears the brunt of them... visit Adventures in Sculpture Building and scroll down to the Best Peel for the last epic in that department...)

So now, I am thinking about Motion Capture technology, you know, where the actors wear a blue suit with little points all over it where a computer reads their movements, and can translate that information into a 3D model.

So I am thinking, what if you got Josh Foster, Nick Herrin, and Deb Armstrong to all wear this suit, going down a certain run? And their physical sensations were recorded in a mobile recording device. And then it was brought back inside to a virtual training room. You climb up on a platform and get inside this suit.

The suit would open and close, for lack of a better mental image, like an Iron Maiden (only, you know, not deadly and painful). The black teardrop shaped arms are "actuators", rubberized Kevlar or something, and it is essentially a robotic suit that you stand in. The platform is split and hinged, and computerized to move using the sensors from the skis and boots. The rest of the suit moves based on the data from the skier who wore the "blue suit".

Okay, so step inside the suit. The operator closes the suit. You relax, and go for an intimate ride virtually inside the body of your favorite skier. Hmmm.

Okay, lets take it a step further. Now YOU wear the blue suit down a certain run, trying to make the kinds of turns your coach wants you to make. The data is taken to the virtual training room, and your COACH goes for an intimate ride inside your skiing body. Now, he can FEEL where you are camping, where you are hesitating, how far back you are and why, instantly.

Sudden, perfect feedback for instant change and understanding of your skiing. Here is the next insane step: Rather than a robotic suit, make those actuators electro stim modules. Rather than going for a ride and having to be relaxed, the stims shock your muscles, just like in the Chiropractor's office (only more so), causing your body to perform the action exactly as it was performed by the recording skier. Scary, huh? But kinda cool...

Regardless of how totally insane and expensive this would be to make for real, MAN, I would love to build a sculptural mock-up of it, and make it look just super technically savvy and futuristic. Sigh.

Thoughts?

Training Log: May 29: I like to bike with Mike.

I got to bike with Michael Hickey today! It was an amazing day, starting to rain... it looked like Scotland and smelled like New England. We biked from my house in the Hyalite foothills, up Cottonwood Canyon to the trail head. Unfortunately, the trail was still a bit muddy to ride, but apparently you can take it all the way over to Blackmore!

I am in abysmal shape for biking, even with all the hiking and skiing, I am sloooow slooow slooow, but didn't feel like I was dying... need to definitely cycle more! On the way back, Michael pulled over and said, "Its gonna rain in just a second" and put on his jacket, and sure enough, here it comes. We came around the corner and the wind picked up, and we started to pedal for real, which was a lot of fun!

Once we got just before my street, though, I had gassed it out. He asked me to draft him, and I just didn't have it cardio-wise. Moderate speed all day, yes. Pedal fast all day, not so much.

Okay, now I have a new goal for cycling!

Gear: Nike Triax Elite

Crap. Crap and double crap. I have had this $275 heart rate monitor for a year. The SDM (speed and distance monitor) only works accurately on a 100m track. So, not so much with the hiking.

The watch has a little guy on a bike on it, but there is no way to use the watch on your bike. I called Nike, they said, Yeah, we wanted it to work on a bike, but we couldn't make it happen. The newer watches don't have that little bike icon. Fabulous. So much for the TRIAX (triathlon?) training tool.

It works in the pool but I have to strap my watch to my bathing suit on the shoulder or it won't read.

The data is amazing and interesting, but only when it works, isn't corrupted or lost.

I have emailed and called Nike numerous times, and have never heard back from them.

Long story short. Don't buy a Nike heart rate monitor. It breaks my heart to say it, I want the new Nike Ipod+, but with the customer service (or total dearth thereov), I wouldn't dare spend a dime, because I know if something goes wrong, Nike's response is gonna be... Tough sh*t.

So, I'm in the market! Anyone have a HR monitor that does SDM, Pool, Vertical Feet, Total Calories, Tracks HR in and out of zone, and downloads info to your computer so you can analyze your data? Post a comment here and let me know!!

What the Heck is Goin' On??

Lots of new things are going on in the blog! If you get this content delivered to you by a reader, make sure you visit the site itself at http://www.skiingintheshower.blogspot.com to see what's up!

First of all, I want to say thank you to those of you who have so generously donated to the training fund. I am on my way to buying an avalanche beacon and some other (gently) used equipment that is much needed. If you are interested in donating to the training fund, visit the sidebar and scroll down to the Paypal Donate button. No, its not tax deductible (yet), but thanks for helping out!

Also in the sidebar, you will see a new feature called "Quotes that Help", a section featuring new quotes every week or so, and why they have helped me. If you have any you like and have a reason why, post a comment here and I may use them! Please make sure you give your name and hometown, and I will credit the quote to you.

You will also find pics of my incredibly supportive team, links to folks that have helped me out, a section on Gear and Gear reviews, as well as a wishlist for gear (that goes to my Baggle Bag) The gear section is one that I hope to flesh out quite a bit in the next few weeks, all about dryland training gear, exercises, new ways to use balance equipment, as well as skiing gear and technical clothing. Please check back on the gear pages in a week or so, and I will post here when they are updated. Thanks for being patient!

Also in the sidebar are tips from the Nutritionist, as well as books she uses and links to Amazon to purchase them. By the way, anything that links to Amazon pays me a commission RIGHT into my training fund, so thanks for checking that stuff out from here!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your emails of encouragement. Please feel free to share your own stories, or to talk about your experiences in the Comments portion on this blog. I'd love to hear some more dialog!

Tips from the Nutritionist

We put up a new nutrition tip this week, so I will archive the old tips so you can find them if you like. Here is last week's tip. Scroll down the sidebar to find the new one.

Put your fork down! No stirring, scooping or prepping your next bite until you have chewed and swallowed what is in your mouth. Enjoy your food, don't gulp it!!

In which we get our Sh*t together...

Alright. It happens. So I got a bit out of the training swing of things, and heres how it goes: Day 1, well, I was swimming in an ice cold river, spent a lot of calories, and brought good food with me. Day 2, same thing, also brought good food. Day 3, no work out because it was a classroom day, and probably ate too much.

Stop: here is lesson #1 (by the way, if you haven't read Mindless Eating yet, you should. One of the things Liat tells me all the time is that you have to make rules for your food, and you have to pay attention to what rules work and which ones don't so you can make small adjustments over time.)

As the illustrious Megan Harvey says... Practice makes PERMANENT, not PERFECT. And suddenly I am practicing breaking my training and eating rules... oh no...

Right, so lesson #1: I need my Calorie King! (If you don't know what this is, scroll down on the sidebar and click on the Calorie King link.) This was the first of my daily habits to go, and its because we spilled water on my keyboard. So it was out of commission. When I don't log my food and exercise, I don't know where my calorie deficit stands, and consequently, I spend the day feeling bad for anything I eat, feeling sure it will put me into "suddenly and surprisingly fat" mode.

Okay, we solved that one, I have an external keyboard now, so no excuses. Back on Calorie King. Good.

Day #4, on the Yellowstone, did not pack well with the food, running out of food, no time to shop.

Stop! Lesson #2... know how many days in a row you are going to be busy for, and pack ahead. In fact, a NEW FOOD RULE for me is: Never EVER run out of Luna bars. Because I can eat one of those every 2 hours and NOT gain weight and not feel deprived, even if I am not exercising that day.

Okay, going to the store tonight to solve that problem. Check.

By the way, this is how Liat and I solve my food issues. She really is like a food therapist for me, and we talk or email all the time about what is happening, and how to solve it. She is highly organized, and likes to tackle and solve problems, with an incredibly positive, "Okay, how can we fix that" attitude, which makes life a lot easier.

She also keeps me from making too many rules or habits at once. Which is good, because I like to REDO and I get myself in trouble that way.

Okay, onward. Day #5. Well, its been a few days now... and it was nice to be home with the kids... and today I weighed 155 lbs (my lowest so far), so obviously the pancakes I had this morning aren't affecting me, so I can have a cookie at the recital this afternoon (are any of you screaming NO NO DON'T DO IT!! just like in a horror movie? Don't split up! Don't go into the basement by yourself! Ahhhh!! yeah, me too, actually, inside, but I turned the volume down on that little voice...)

And Liat tells me to treat myself occasionally, so I don't feel deprived, so I thought.. you know, okay...

Day 6, I did fine during the day, and then I had, uh, like 3 cups of nuts at night... Oh god... here we go...

Day 7. Chocolate. I stopped taking my vitamins. (Always a bad sign). I stopped doing my balance board workout. I ate like crap.

I called Liat in a panic. "I NEED TO HIKE! NOW!"

Okay. This morning, we did the Kirk Hill to Leverich Canyon loop and added the Hodgeman Canyon spur in so I could show her the deer skeleton (which was all gnarly now after snow and rain, and had all kinds of beasties crawling on it, too cool...)

We had some amazing talks about food and falling out of habit and why it happens. I had gone to my bad place where I like to say "Big, Fat, Ugly, Girl" in cadence with my footfalls (Hey, I never said I had a healthy relationship with food! But you can watch me struggle through it if it helps... that's the goal...)

And that was because I have gained 3 lbs in the last 7 days. Grrrrrr.

Okay. Here are the things that help: Every day is a chance to do something healthy. Talk to someone who understands and can help you turn it around NOW. Get off your ass and get SOMETHING back on track.

My next post will be about why dieting and money management are the same thing. This is the brilliant theory that my amazing Ms. Liat came up with on the hike today.

SO. I did my hike. I am still mad at myself. But I am doing something positive about it. I made a good lunch, I am going to enter it into Calorie King right now. Tom found my old white board, and I put up my daily routine on it.

Liat came over and looked at it and asked me how realistic I thought it was (she's so wise...) and then suggested that I use the calender next to it to track how many things I check off every day, and go for getting the most checks I can, rather than not completing something and feeling like I've failed. See? She's a smarty.

So that's the pic up top. And as I climb back on the horse, I'll let you know how it goes. It took 3 days to begin the train wreck, which has lasted for 7 days. Lets see how long it takes to get it back on track.

You Vote!

Alright, well its not THAT bad...

But I've had a couple of days off, and I feel... uh... anyway.

So here is the scoop. I missed the last two days at Montana White Water, due to some personal stuff (chill out, nosey. it's handled), and I have been at home playing with a storm trooper and naked peter pan for the last two days.

The amazing Bill Zell, owner of MWW, is going to let me continue to train up, which is awesome, so if I can get the babysitting thing squared away, I'll be up on the river a bunch this summer.

The Ridge Athletic called me yesterday, and we are ON for the Women's Adventure Club, which is a program I came up with, basically so I could get paid to go hiking so I don't end up looking like the above...

The program is for women 30 and up who are frustrated and think they are fat, who have had thier kids (or not!) and think their life is over. They think they can't go outside, can't learn a new sport, and my job is to change that!

We are going to go on wildflower walks, birding, hardcore hiking, paddling, mountain biking, etc. There will be a graduation camp out or mtn. bike ride at Jackson Hole, and I think the whole thing is just gonna ROCK. If you want to be a part of it, post a comment here, and I will get a mailing list up for you to join in a minute.

Put your fork down! Go hiking! Grab a paddle!!