Who needs warm weather when you can have this?

A 5:15am xc ski in -40ish temps with the wind chill. Nothing feels quite like banging out a few hours of skiing before sun up. My ipod froze after 1hr and it was under 3 layers of clothing.

A group photo from a ski on the weekend.

We did the Singhampton to Creemore backcountry ski on Sunday. It turned out to be one of the finest winter days yet!

Snow!

It snowed! finally after a long dry spell of no white fluff... it snowed. Skiing maybe? I think so! I had swapped out my planks for runners and two wheels the last week after most of the already hideous snowpack melted to no snowpack after the new years rain. I tried to ski Wednesday and it sucked. It was so icy under the 4cm's of fresh sticky snow. Today will be different! Yesterday was 3hrs of riding outside in the flurries on the cx bike. It actually was not that bad considering the salty slushy roads.

Great Holidays! Now to a Wicked New Year!

I have been fighting the cold, trying to get as basic with my training as possible. It is amazing how much fitness you can find from a few pieces of scraps laying around. I have made a wicked chin-up bar with a wooden dowel a a single piece of webbing to form a pull-up bar that moves in a three dimension kinda way. It seems to be helping my shoulder quite well too. I have some old dumbbells laying around for some alignment squats and a big rock for my kettle bell. I have formed a workout that I deemed "Mountain Man". On paper it looks something like this:

Warm up: Usually 1-3hrs of cardio.
I am up to 5 sets of the following (roughly 7 mins per set) with 2 mins rest between each set. It would be best to start with 2 or 3 sets and cut the reps, making sure to complete the workout with good form.

Chin-ups: 12 Full range of motion from dead hang to full lock off.  Focusing on the beginning and end of each stroke.

Alignment Squats: 30 Keep two 10lb weights in each hand. Do 5 reps with your arms by your side, then do 5 reps with your arms above your head.

Hanging Leg Raises: 25 Grab a tree branch and do them knees to chest with absolute swing control.

Push-ups: 40 Grab a Dumbbell and do 20 while hanging onto the weight with one arm then switch to the other hand. Again focus on full range of motion.

Kettle Bell Swings: 25 Grab a Kettle Bell or Big rock.

Box Jumps: 30. Find something sturdy that you are able to jump up onto with solid ROM.

Any of the workouts can be googled and you can find a good description of what each workout should look like.

The "Mountain Man" I only do every 72hrs to allow maximum rest and to properly build strength without hurting myself. I am also climbing indoors and out one or two days per week. As for the aerobic machine... I am now at about 13-15hrs of Endurance right now.