We began our day with a trip to the commissary. The parking lot was so quiet that we thought maybe it was closed. Nope. Turns out New Englanders really hunker down whenever the word "storm" is mentioned. Seeing as we were sharing the store with only about 3 other shoppers, lucky Kai didn't have to ride in the cart. Instead he did wind sprints up and down the empty aisles, every now and then stopping at the ice cream section to look up at the big glass doors and say "aaaah oooooo" which translates as "open" if you're not familiar with Kai-ese. We mentioned the word sledding on the way home which resulted in an agitated little man pointing frantically at our big orange family 'boggan, not realizing that the groceries really did need to be brought inside first. He wasn't disappointed though and enjoyed several runs before toppling backwards off a Daddy-pulled up hill ride and experiencing his first snowy face plant. It might have gone over better if his mittens had remained on his hands!
After the morning's excitement I decided to head to GBF for only my 3rd skate ski in 5 years. I stopped at the local ski/bike shop to pick up my skis, all waxed and tuned up and ready to go. The roads were eerily quiet. There was only one car in the parking lot. Where is everyone? Well, I soon found at as I rounded the corner and headed into the parking lot at the GBF. I thought I had taken a wrong turn and ended up at Burlington Mall! So this is where everyone is! It looked like most of Massachusetts had the same idea as me, to head out to the country for some quiet time on the trails. There was alot of grumbling as we all eyed each other in the ticket line up, which of these 100's of people could be blamed for this over-crowded situation? I have an intense dislike of crowds so I nearly turned around and headed for home. But then I figured, it couldn't possibly be this crowded out on the trails. And it wasn't, thankfully. We had 10 miles of groomed trails over which to spread ourselves out. I wouldn't say I had the forest to myself and I did have to avoid one crazy yedi on classic skis skating as fast as he could on a downhill, right in the middle of the skater's track, causing me to stop mid-up-hill to let him pass by. It was all I could do to stop my extra long skater's pole from "wandering" in between his yedi legs as he went by.
Skate skiing is pretty intense so I hoped I could last 45 minutes. I did better than that. I lasted a whole hour and ten minutes! It probably helped that this is the first time I have tried skate skiing this close to sea level (and the smallish hills were in my favor as well). But by the time I made it back to the car every joint and muscle ached, especially my yoga injured shoulder (yes, I do have a yoga injury if you can believe it). It was awesome to feel so physically tired and I am reminded to bow deeply to the aerobic marvels that are cross country skiers. I'll be out there again soon and so will Greg. He has been practicing his technique in his socks on our hardwood floors. I guess we better get used to sharing the trails!
1 comment:
Sounds like FUN!! Good job with a great workout!
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