The End of the Ski Season

3-15-2015 ~ Blog # 721

(David)

This has been the best ski season in my Ohio life.  We have had the constant snow for almost two months.  The girls made a snowman on January 17th, it started to fall apart a week ago; there's a trace of it left now.  Nearly every day I've thought that it was my last chance to ski for the season.  On Wednesday I skied through a mix of ice and slush (photo below).  It wasn't supposed to freeze that night, but it did.  I got up early to check the trail.  Even though it was supposed to be 36 degrees, and our thermometer read 36, the trail was frozen hard.  My tracks from the slush, however, left deep, nasty groves.  It was dangerous and nearly impossible to ski on.  After a lap I realized that the soggy, melted snow on the lawns had turned hard.  I could ski across the lawns; I had a glorious time.  I was tempted to call of work for half a day so that I could ski across random fields before the temperature got above freezing.  I groomed the trail that night with just two laps on the Arctic Cat and groomer.  I woke up at 4:30 to pee and thought I'd check out the trail.  Once again, even though it was officially above freezing, the trail was frozen hard.  I discovered that the groomer had come apart on the end of the last lap and left a big board and concrete blocks frozen onto the trail.  I broke them loose with a sledge hammer and cleaned up the unevenness with a shovel, and then skied 10K.  The Icy 10K took me 53 minutes, which is much faster than I can run.  It also took much less effort; ice provides great glide, but it can be difficult to get much power from a skate action.  I would guess my heart rate was under 130 the entire time; I could have carried on a conversation had anyone been weird enough to ski with me.  On Saturday I shoveled some snow back onto the driveway and repaired some washed out sections.  It was slushy, but I skied 3K.  Last night I groomed a bit with a shovel and this morning I double polled 2K on ice; it was terrible.  Photos 2-5 below were taken this morning.

March 11th, above

March 15th, below

Happy Birthday David

3-6-2015 ~ Blog # 720

(David)

I'm 50.  I'm actually older than dirt; I've seen things that I've made out of wood rot, and turn into dirt.  I'm not older than all dirt, but I am clearly older than some dirt.  The last thing I did in my 40's was ski 5K, late at night, on fast snow at 6 degrees F.  The first thing I did in my 50's was ski 3K on fast snow, early in the morning at 0 degrees F.  I also skied another 5K that same night.  Skiable snow is a great and rare birthday present.  I'll take it while I can get it, but can't believe that we still have good ski conditions a week into March. "Surf's Up!" essentially.  After recently buying a new camera I insisted on no birthday presents.  Joan thoughtfully bought me some reading glasses, however.  She's been listening to me complain how they keep making text on labels smaller and smaller until it's just impossible to read.  I put on the glasses, looked at some fine print and realized that it wasn't that the print was too small...

Happy Birthday Annika

3-4-2015 ~ Blog # 719

(Joan)

Annika turned 10 on Wednesday.  We went to Sweet Frog (self serve frozen yogurt) after dinner as a special treat.  Annika received lots of reading materials for gifts and seemed very pleased.  Svea and Brigitta drew pictures on the wrapping paper (great Groot, Svea) As part of her 10th birthday celebration, Annika gets to have her first sleepover with friends (at a later date).

Happy Birthday Nana

3-1-2015 ~ Blog # 718

(Joan)

Always a treat to celebrate a birthday, but when you are celebrating a 92nd birthday, it is even more special.  Yummy cupcakes and silly gifts (Nana always says she needs nothing) made for a fun evening.  We didn't notice that Joan had forgotten the candle on Nana's cupcake until halfway through the Happy Birthday song.  Everyone had to hold out the "tooooo" until a candle could be added. 

Comparison of Speeds by Human Powered Transportation Mode

3-4-2015 ~ Blog # 717

(David)

Watching the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships last week got me thinking further about a question that I've pondered much of my life: How do various modes of human powered transportation compare in terms of cruising speed?  Personally, I've always felt that I can skate ski much faster, and longer, than I can run.  Ice skating is even faster than skate-skiing, but by how much?  Clearly bicycles have a huge advantage, but again, how much faster are they?  I paddle and row; they always seem slow.

Last week I was impressed by Liz Stephen's 10 minute 14 second 5K freestyle leg in the World Ski Championships Women's 4 X 5K Relay.  Denise Herrmann was a second faster.  These times are considerably faster than the best 5,000 meter running races ever recorded (12:37).  Even if the conditions were good, cross country ski courses are always very hilly.  Cross country courses and snow conditions vary so much that "world records" would be meaningless and are not kept.  We could assume, however, that a freestyle skier on a flat oval course with ideal snow could produce an even faster time; probably no where near as fast as a speed skater, but faster.  In the  2014 Winter Olympics – Women's 4 × 5K relay Justyna Kowalczyk skied her classic leg at 13:47.  Could a classic style cross country skier (woman) break 12:37 on a flat oval groomed ideally?  It sounds reasonable.

I had a recumbent lay-nearly-flat-on-the-ground lowracer for a year or two.  It was faster than my road bike under ideal conditions, but was lame under most conditions.  It is difficult to find 5K flat course bicycle race records.  There are many records for furthest distance in 1 hour.  In the 2012 Summer Olympics Kristin Armstrong (USA) completed a 18 mile race in 37:34.82.  That works out to 28.7 mph.  This course is roughly six times longer than a 5K.  I think it's fair to assume she could complete a 5K race much faster.  Barbara Buatois holds the non-streamlined recumbent bicycle 1-hour record at a pace of 28.8 mph.  This is nearly 10 times as long as a 5K race; I'm sure she also could complete a 5K much faster.  Barbara Buatois also holds the enclosed HPV bicycle 1-hour record at a pace of 52.2 mph.  By comparison this speed is way faster than the legendary Secretariat's 1.5 mile (2.5K) sprint at 2:24.

Water is a big drag and 2K is about as long a race as I could find.  Rowing shells are clearly faster than kayaks, but still considerably slower than running, skiing or biking.  (Single scull 2K: 7:07 Rumyana Neykova, 2002) (kayak 1K: 3:52 Rachel Cawthorn, 2010)  A hydrofoil bike (Flying Fish2) may be even faster than a shell, however.  Back in 1987 a man pedaled 2K on water at 12.8 mph.  Swimming with fins can boost speed from 3.2 mph to 4.1 mph.  (Finswim - 6K, Marina Umerenko (RUS) 54:45) (Swim 10K Éva Risztov Hungary 1:57:38)

Lois McCallin was able to pedal a HPV aircraft (Mic Lt Eagle) 9.6 miles at a rate of 15.5 mph.