Monday, December 17, 2007

My new favorite word - bombogenesis

Bombogenesis is EXTREME cyclogenesis. What the hell am I talking about? Basically, it's a weather term that relates to intense low-pressure systems that form rapidly over water. For years, my wife and a few friends and I have used the term "weather bomb" to describe huge wintertime snow events that skiers love so much.

This fall, I found out that there is an actual weather word that leads to some of these weather bombs and that word is bombogenesis. We've had two of them recently, and yesterday's skiing was absolutely amazing. The drive home after skiing was a bit sketchy, but the snow was amazing while I was skiing.

Last year, skiing was terrible at this time of year. Things improved in late January and early February, but the season didn't really get going until the Valentine's day storm dropped almost 5 feet of snow on the mountains.

Right now, the skiing is as good as I've ever seen it in December in Vermont.

My only complaint this weekend came from Friday's workout. Friday, when I did squats, I changed my stance a bit. A wider stance (don't even think of that Senator from Idaho right now) can put less pressure on the knees while squatting. I decided to change my stance on Friday to see how it felt. I did feel like it was a bit more gentle on my knees. However, that stance change, and the fact that I went straight from squats to deadlifts, left my hamstrings aching all weekend. Squats usually hit me more in the glutes, but not this time.

It's amazing that such a small change could make such a big difference, but I felt it all weekend long.

This morning, I spent some time snowblowing the driveway and then I managed a quick upper body lifting session (3x15s with 30 seconds rest) before work. Tonight, I'll run for about 45 minutes before a Select Board meeting.

This week, I'll run 30 or so easy miles, ski 2x and lift 3x. Next week, with the holidays, I'll run less and ski more - a final running rest week before I start increasing my mileage on the first of the year.

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