Wondering about skiing right now. Last Saturday I had one of my best skis ever with about 40k in 2:30 hours. Conditions were perfect and we had a great group. We always say we're going to keep it slow but for some reason skiing just turns faster and faster until there are only two left in the group and there is drool frozen on the chins. Average heart rate 160. I've got some older equipment, some Fischer RCS cold, low end boots and poles and I never really cared. Now that I am getting pretty good at skiing I always want to upgrade this time of the year when I am getting into it. The problem is this week it was 45 on Sunday and it's been above 30 now since then. We went from a blizzard two weeks ago and haven't been above freezing since December. It was about -5 for a bunch of days last week and was in the teens the week before.
But, this week it is 45 and the snow is melting like mad. I have probably skied 30 times this year and would keep at for another month but when the weather turns like this I am always glad it isn't my focus. I'm sure the skiers will milk out the snow for quite a while yet and I'll be out there too, but when you're not a diehard like I am it's easy just to get back on the bike and do the endurance work there rather than ski around on bad snow. Still, I'd like to get new equipment and skis better suited for my weight but it's hard to justify when I've only been skiing for 6-8 weeks and the weather turns. I keep saying I'm going to do the Burkie next year too but with cross nationals moving further and further back the calendar skiiing will be 2/3 over before we even get off the bikes the way it is going. That is going to be a bit of a bummer as I use skiing to keep me occupied and off my bike for a couple months and I don't know how that will work if nationals isn't until January. Like last year I'll probably just end up on my old skis and equipment next year until the snow melts and then be glad I didn't invest in something I only do for 2 months. We'll see.