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I’m all signed up for The Great Ski Race, which is taking place next Sunday, March 2nd. The weather is supposed to be really nice, too, so it should be a memorable event.
I’ve tried to train for the race, but I’ve had a sore throat for the last week, and a bad cough the week before, so my condition has somewhat decreased, and definitely not improved. I’m not even close to my peak physical shape, but I’m doing it anyway. Someday, I’ll be kicking ass without having to stop to catch my breath or let my sideache (aka Sidestitch) go away.

I leave you with one of the only clips I could find from the 2007 race. It’s not a professional edit job or anything, but it’s good enough to give you a small idea:

 I’ve been missing the monthly Critical Mass event. The last time I went to one, I was one of 3 guys who showed up. Sure, it was cold and there was snow on the ground, but it was also a lot of fun.
It’s been a couple of months since then, and the weather is much nicer, so I’m stepping up and trying to get this rolling again. I’ve posted the same thing in a number of places (MySpace, CraigsList, Tribe.net, the Yahoo group for a local bike riding group).
My e-flyer looks something like this:

Reno Critical Mass
Details, details!

When: Friday, Feb 29th, 2008. 6pm.
Where: Downtown Reno. 1st Street, right next to Java Jungle.
Why: Critical Mass is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. Critical Mass is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. In other words, we’re not riding to disrupt traffic, we’re riding to encourage bicycle traffic.
How: Bring your bike. Meet with us. Make a friend. Go ride for about 1 hour.
So, see you there! :) The weather is supposed to be night, but it’ll be getting dark, so dress warm and don’t forget some sort of light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7-MxK8AvHI

So, that’s it. I guess I’ll find out on Friday how well it all goes. If you’re able (as in, you have legs and a bike, and a beating heart), show up too! :)

In a few hours, Dani and I will be on the road to Arco Arena, in Sacramento. We’re going to see the NBA basketball game between the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz. Having lived for quite a few years in Utah, Dani is a fan of the Jazz, so we’re taking a little road trip to go see how they do.
It should be pretty exciting, so I’m looking forward to it. We might even get to sit pretty close to the court for a while, if things work out. More details to come in the after-trip report. :)

Since we’re driving all the way to California, on the way back we’re going to stop by Tahoe Donner XC. I’ll do some more training for the Great Ski Race, and Dani will give it a shot for the first time ever. I’m guessing she’s not going to have a hard time picking it up, since she’s skied many times before. I guess we’ll see!

The Nevada Trail Maps.com website is finally up. The trails listed are great, and easy to sort by location and activity. I even found a XC-ski trail to check out, instead of going to a resort!

I found out about this from the Tuesday Night Riding Group, which I joined in the middle of the winter, hoping to get in the loop so I can ride with them during the week. But hey, the trails are for more than just Mountain Biking! So yay! Go nvtrailmaps.com! 

This morning I woke up early. It wasn’t even 6am, and it was still dark out. I was wide awake, because I had a dream that was remotely related to Cross Country Skiing, and in this dream all of a sudden I realized that I had only a couple of weeks to get ready for The Great Ski Race. I tossed around in bed, feeling as if it was the middle of February, and thinking that I only had two weekends to go remember how to ski, and to train really hard.

It was with great relief that later, when I checked my calendar, I found that the race was on the first weekend in March. This means that I have a little bit over a month! That is not a lot of time, but it is certainly more than two weeks.

So, it’s time to step it up at the gym, and start running a few miles a day to get into the swing of things. I’m planning on going skiing this Sunday for the first time in the season, and I hope to find myself able to ski for a few miles without passing out. :v:

Last night I watched for the first time the newest version of American Gladiators. It brought back so many memories, I used to love that show! And I do love this new one too!

Most of the games/challenges seem to be similar to what I remember them being when I was a wee lad and watched this show in Argentina, with Powerball and Joust as my favorites :), although Assault is quite awesome when the contestant actually hits the target and the Gladiator flies backwards into a swimming pool!

I also found a bit of resemblance on some of these challenges to that of another similar show, Ninja Warrior. This is also a great show, and if you enjoy Gladiators, you should check out Ninja Warrior!

At any rate, I don’t have a good memory of the Gladiators themselves from the old show, but I do like the new ones. My favorite is probably Wolf, because he’s just crazy mean. I mean, come on! He howls, he’s got the bushiest eyebrows on TV and looks like he belonged to the original cast, and pulled a Walt Disney and got frozen until he could be on TV again. On the other hand, there’s Titan, who seems to be straight out of Pixar’s studios, being the pretty golden boy. I’m sure he’ll grown on me, as the contestants kick his ass for being such a fruitcake.

I’ll end this post with an awesome video including some chilling Wolf action!

Last Saturday we went to Homewood for some snowboarding. Dani happened to score some free tickets from some friends of her family that work as Ski Patrol, so all we had to do was head up the hill and not worry about too much.

The traffic on Route 89 southbound was backed up as soon as we got off I-80, so we spent about an hour sitting in a very slow traffic. But then we finally made it, and pulled into the small parking lot, got ready and hit the hill.

As soon as we got off the lift, and looked down the hill, we saw something like this (taken from here ):

What a pretty view! I had been on a few resorts around the lake, where you can see Lake Tahoe in the distance, but never right next to it. It was quite magnificent, I must say.
All in all, Homewood was a pretty nice place to go snowboarding. It’s quite small compared to some of the other resorts, with only a few lifts and the feeling that by the end of the day you’ve gone everywhere you can go. I would not go again if I had to pay the $53 lift ticket, which is only reasonable because of the gorgeous views.

Disclaimer: I don’t have boobs.

It turns out that my workplace (Reno Diagnostic Centers) is encouraging all employees to sign up for the Race for the Cure. I’m already signed up for the 5k run, so now I just need to make sure I can run that long. Heh. It should be fun!

If you’re signing up, and don’t have a team, join my team! Let me know if you’re interested :)

I just found out about this awesome race. The Tahoe Big Blue Sprint Adventure Race sounds just like the thing I was waiting for, a beginner-level race to get my feet wet in this kind of experience.

I found an ad on Craigslist, from a person looking for a partner, and I replied saying I was very interested. Hopefully no one else replied before me! If so, I guess I’ll be looking for a partner also, because I’m really looking forward to this already, and I have just found out about it :3:

Now, to start doing a lot more cardio training and a bit less of weight-lifting. Woop!

Oh yeah, to the finals!