The ski vs. bike indecision strikes again

   Another winter season is underway and I kind of miss riding my big bike already.  A day of shredding trails in Auburn did a little to relieve that, but I'm hoping to get out more soon. With the GRT schedule beginning in the southwest/SoCal in mid-March, I'm looking at about 2 months to get my rear in shape and get some bike time in.  My biking self and skiing self are a little at odds right now with the dilemma of the season: what do I want to do with my ski school "career" and being halfway to my Level 2 cert?  The teaching part is going to be a bit more challenging than the ski, and a bit more expensive; worth at least a few entry fees or tanks of gas to get to races.  The resulting pay raise is also not a whole lot.  As much as I enjoy being a ski instructor, it really doesn't make enough to support a habit of racing bikes without working a ton all summer, and also doesn't leave much energy to train before/after work for racing.

   At the same time, I'd feel really dumb having half of a Level 2 and bailing, because as long as I keep paying dues and doing clinics yearly, I would be able to maintain it indefinitely whether I was teaching or not, which could come in handy later on.  I think I've just talked myself into going for it, gotta finish what I started!  A Level 3 might have to wait for a while until I'm not trying to focus on bikes as much.  It sounds like the candidate has to to eat, sleep, and breathe skiing--not just any skiing but all the drills and demos and teaching progressions and movement analysis and...you get the picture.  I'll still be able to ski well hopefully long after I get tired of crashing and hucking myself off things on two wheels.  For now I'll stick with skiing powder as much as possible, thanks!

   Next week begins my immersion into skiing nerdliness back at Alpine Meadows, and I'll try to do as many in house clinics as possible to fill my brain with creative and useful progressions and drills.  Teaching adults is definitely my stronger suit, while kids challenge my creativity to no end, and over half of the teaching scenarios we will be presented with in L2 are children.  Coming up with fun games and tricks to get kids to do what I want them to do is at the top of my list so I don't flounder if I pull one of those scenarios out of the hat!  Knowing a variety of kid teaching tricks would make teaching them a lot more fun instead of a headache trying to come up with entertaining things to do.  Obviously, I am not an experienced babysitter.

   I'm hoping that I can get in a lot more bike time than previous years, among all this skiing insanity, and for once actually be ready for early season races skills-wise.  I've also noticed a correlation between more cross country/skate skiing, and backcountry hiking, and going into bike season with better overall fitness for pedaling.  All of those are infinitely more fun that riding an indoor trainer, and I've found that skate skiing is a great tool for interval workouts if I am so inclined.  Telemark skiing in the resort is a great way to get a quad workout since I'm basically doing lunges down the hill.  I'm trying to find a way to make the best of being in a snowy world for half the year and still have success racing bikes, so if I make a concerted effort to get out on the snow in all different ways every week it should be a fairly well-rounded training program.  I'll add in some weights and get on the climbing wall for upper body strength, and hopefully do some outdoor climbing trips in Bishop as well.

An integral part of my winter training!