Really, really sore today

My abs are sore from Tuesday's workout.

My biceps are sore from the past two workouts.

My back is exhausted from the last two workouts.

Every time I moved while sleeping last night, it seemed that something hurt and woke me up.

Last night's CrossFit workout just added insult to injury after Tuesday's workout.

Row 1000m ( I did 1500 because I was a bit early)

Mobility warm-up

Ten minutes of rope-jumping practice.

Then the main event was 10 rounds of (15 x 135# deadlift, 15 push-ups) as quickly as possible.

Because of my shoulder, I did dumbbell presses instead of push-ups. As the sets accumulated, I was almost laughing at the absurdity of the weight I was using. The 135# deadlifts were easy and I got through every single set without a rest.

For the DB presses, I started at 2 x 20#. After a few rounds, I switched to 15# DBs and I still struggled. I was having to rest more than once in just about every set.

I forget what my final time was, to be honest. It was either 13 minutes and change or 16 minutes and change.

Either way, 150 deadlifts is a lot and after two hard workouts, I'm hurting today. I am working from home, so I won't be at CrossFit tonight. If I do anything at all, it will be an easy run.

Tomorrow, we have a big snowstorm coming, so I'll probably work out at the regular (not CrossFit) gym tomorrow.

Hopefully, the clinic where I'm supposed to get my shoulder checked out won't close due to the storm.

Enhanced "Tabata Something Else"

CrossFit last night was awesome.

First, we did a group mobility warm-up. I had problems with dead hangs from a pull-up bar because of my shoulder. I can do band-assisted pull-ups with no pain, but just supporting my full bodyweight in a hang for a minute was an issue.

Next was back squats - 10 x 3 - every minute on the minute. I was guessing that 225 would be an appropriate weight. Because the class was crowded, we needed to find partners at the same weight. I worked with Ken, who also thought 225 sounded right. Then, I noticed that we had more weight on the bar than anyone else in class. And, the coach said we should be at 70% of our one-rep max. My one-rep max is about 300, so my guess was a bit high. But, both Ken and I found that the weight worked well and while it was work, we got through the reps just fine. I actually found that my form improved as I did more reps. I think I relaxed a bit and was able to get deeper into the squat position as the sets progressed.

Then, it was time for "Tabata Something Else", which is usually as follows:

Tabata pull-ups (as many as possible for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, 8 rounds)

Rest one minute

Tabata push-ups

Rest one minute

Tabata Abmat sit-ups

Rest one minute

Tabata air squats

Your score is the sum of all of your reps. However, our coach decided to enhance the workout by adding Tabata rowing as a fifth exercise, with the total calories burned added to your score.

I did the pull-ups with an assistance band.

I did dumbbell presses instead of push-ups because of my shoulder injury.

The rest was as prescribed. I scored 338, with my highest score in air squats (112) and my lowest in rowing (44). All in all, it was a good workout, and my recent consistency with working out is really starting to pay off. I'm really enjoying CrossFit these days because the workouts aren't killing me.

Oh yeah, I finally get to see the orthopedist about my shoulder this Friday. I thought I was going to see him last week, but when I arrived at the office, I found out he was on vacation. There had been a mix-up. This week, I may need to fight my way through a huge snowstorm to get to his office, but I intend to be there.

Amazing Skiing Weekend

This was the last weekend of work as a ski instructor for the season. Amazingly, we had mid-winter conditions and the trees were full of nice snow.

We spent two days exploring new tree runs that the girls hadn't skied before, some of them very steep and challenging. The only real trail we skied all weekend was the mountain's toughest double black diamond. And, despite some firm snow, even that one skied pretty well.

We got to watch the crazies try pond skimming on Saturday, trying to ski a across a really cold pond, but usually ending up submerged. We had a party for the kids and the parents on Saturday. And then on Sunday, we just skied.

At the end of the day, there were lots of hugs and goodbyes. Nobody is sure who will ski with whom next season, and that added to some anxiety for the girls. I think they would all like to remain together as a group, but after three years, it's time for some changes. Some are going to move to a more advanced program and some won't. Some of them will really benefit from working with a new coach. Some might stay with me.

But for now, the teaching season is over and I get to ski with my family for the rest of the ski season - a month or so.

But, come November, we'll be getting ready to do this all over again. After ten years as a ski instructor, I still find myself already anticipating the next season before the current season ends.

RX'd!

I joined the CrossFit gym perhaps six months ago. Every night on the board, the main part of our workout is broken into four levels - Rx'd (prescribed), Level 1 (easier), Level 2 (easier still) and Level 3 (easiest).

I normally do Level 1 or Level 2 and I've never done the Rx'd workout. And, on occasion, after being at CrossFit a number of days in a row, I've ever resorted to Level 3. Last night was my 3rd night in a row, but my fitness is increasing, so I thought I'd do Level 2 again. But, I looked at the workout, and realized that the prescribed workout was within my range:

5x5 seated box jumps - Sit on one box, and in a fluid motion, leave the one box, move the hips forward and jump onto the other box. For the first time ever, I hit 24" jumps, which was exciting. But the most exciting part of the workout was this:

10 front squats

2 deadlifts

9 front squats

4 deadlifts

8 front squats

6 deadlifts

.....

1 front squat

20 deadlifts

The prescribed weight for men was 135#. I can do 135# deadlifts just about all day long, it seems. I figured I would finish last (the goal was to complete the workout as quickly as possible), but I knew I could do it.

It turned out that the hardest part of the workout was actually cleaning the bar from the deadlift position to the front squat position after every deadlift set.

Some people had done the workout in 10-11 minutes, most were closer to 12-13, and it took me 16+ minutes. But, I did it and I was thrilled.

I have my final weekend of skiing this weekend. I should probably rest today before skiing all weekend. But, I might do an easy run instead.

CrossFit

My CrossFit workout last night was too easy. For the first time in a while, I selected the wrong level, and should have picked a higher level.

We warmed up with some stretching and then some partner drills with medicine balls. The next part of the workout was split presses in sets of 3-3-2-2-1-1-1-1. But, my shoulder is not ready for split presses yet, so the coach had me do back squats instead. Because I'd done them the day before on my own, I was a little tired, and didn't push the weight too much, maxing out at 245.

Then, the main part of the workout was as follows:

Sets of 50-40-30-20-10 reps for two exercises:

Kettlebell swings

Jump Rope double-unders

If you can't do a double-under, you are supposed to multiply the rep count by 3. I looked at the weights for the kettlebells and settled on level 2, with a 26 pound kettlebell, and a prescription of single rope jumps, rather than doubles.

I finished the workout in just under 10 minutes and it wasn't as hard as it should have been. I probably should have mixed level 1 and 2, and done my rope jumps as 150-120-90-60-30 instead to make it more challenging.

Tonight will be CrossFit again.

Work, train, sleep, ski - that's pretty much my life right now and I can tell that I'm finally getting more fit rather than backsliding or remaining static.

Quick lower body workout

It snowed most of the day yesterday, and with one of our Subarus in the shop, my wife was driving a rental car that is nearly worthless in the snow. So, I had limited time to do my workout last night before I had to pick her up from work. Because my shoulder is still sore, I stuck to lower body work:

Squats: 10@45#, 10@135#, 5@185#, 3@225#, 1@275#, failed at 295 (I aborted the last lift by not dropping to parallel; I could tell I wasn't going to make it back up)

Deadlifts: 10@135#, 5@185#, 3@225#, 1@275#, 1@295#, 1@305#, failed at 315, even though I got the bar off the ground and then came up short.

Static Lunges: 10 per side with a pair of 20# DBs, 10 per side with a pair of 35# DBs, 5 per side with a pair of 45# DBs

18" Box Jumps: 3 sets of 10

Tonight is CrossFit. I just hope there's nothing that will really hit my shoulder. It's been nearly 3 weeks since I hurt the shoulder, and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. It's definitely affecting my ability to sleep at night.

Weekend Fun

This past weekend was my next-to-last teaching weekend of the season. The season does seem to get long at times, teaching for 16 straight weekends most seasons, while maintaining a full-time job as well. Plus, I taught for two extra holiday weeks this year and took a two-day ski clinic. But, as teaching draws to a close, I'm always somewhat sad. I really enjoy the time I spend with my students, even when they are acting a bit crazy, like they were this past weekend.

Friday night after work, my wife and I ran an easy 3 miles outside - my first outdoor running other than sprints in many months. I went home, took a nap, woke up, cooked dinner, ate, and went to bed early. I really seem to be sleeping a lot recently.

On Saturday morning, the mountain was pretty frozen (the intersection of Daylight Savings Time and March skiing on the east coast often means that yesterday's soft snow is bulletproof the next morning). I did some training on some intermediate terrain and found it a bit treacherous. Just before lunch, I did an intermediate trail with the group and it seemed to be solid sheet ice. It's a ski-able surface with the right skills, but no one's favorite terrain. By the time we finished lunch, the sun was out and we found some soft snow for the afternoon. I had a big group this weekend - all ten girls assigned to my group showed up for the first time this season. The reason for that, I assume, was our Sunday plans.

After skiing on Saturday, my son and I headed home. My wife was cooking dinner, so I took a nap while dinner finished. After eating dinner, I watched some basketball and then listened to the Division III women's hockey championship on the radio. The local team won in only their fourth year as a varsity sport - pretty impressive.

On Sunday morning, I met my group of ten girls again. We skied for an hour before swapping our skis for snowboards. Most years, I snowboard with the group, but because of my recent shoulder injury, I opted out this time. But, we had two great instructors and all the girls made great progress in a few hours. This once-a-year snowboarding day is very popular with the group, and I was glad to see them have so much fun.

After skiing, we once again headed straight home, because our poor puppy was spending his longest time ever in his crate. We were too late; he just couldn't hold it that long. Poor guy. But, we got the crate cleaned up quickly for him.

Once again, I took a nap, for about an hour or so this time. It was my turn to cook dinner, so I woke up at 6:00, cooked dinner, watched a little TV, went to bed to read about 8:30, and fell asleep by 9:00. I had a tough night of sleep though. It's been over two weeks since I hurt my shoulder and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. It seemed that every time I moved last night, pain in the shoulder would wake me up.

Luckily I have an appointment to see an orthopedist on Friday, to see what's going on with the shoulder. I can handle a few more days like this, I hope.

Tonight I'm going to lift after work (it's snowing hard right now, so I'm nowhere close to the CrossFit gym), but I have to be careful not to aggravate the shoulder.

More CrossFit fun - including some outdoor running

We had a warm day yesterday, so we got to do our warm-up outdoors. We did a series of short sprints and some leg mobility work, like high kicking, cross-stepping (karaoke - how is that word spelled when it's exercise and not singing?), butt-kickers, sprints, shuffles, etc.

After that, we went inside to do some strength sets. We started with 3x5 of front squats. Because of my sore right shoulder, resting the bar was difficult and I only did 155# instead of closer to 200#. Then, we did 3x5 of strict presses. My shoulder seems to do well in the vertical plane of motion (overhead presses) compared to horizontal presses, such as push-ups or bench presses. I would normally have done 105-110# for this workout, but I stayed at 95# to be safe.

I do have an appointment with an orthopedist to talk about shoulder next Friday morning. That was the earliest appointment I could get, so it will have been 3 weeks from injury to evaluation. Hopefully, I'll see some improvement in the next week and be able to cancel the appointment.

After the strength work, the main workout looked easy:

5 rounds, as quickly as possible:

20 air squats

20 box jumps

20 rope jumps

It really sounded fairly easy - maybe 8 minutes or so of work. But, when you weigh what I weigh, gravity is not your friend. And, as the box jumps accumulated, I got pretty slow.

One rule about box jumps is that for a rep to be legal, you must achieve full extension, either on the box or as you are jumping back off the box. Many people cheat by landing on the edge of the box in a flexed stance and dropping right back to the ground. Those people all did finish the workout in 8 or 9 minutes. But I did every jump legally, and it took me 14:18. It was a good contrast to Tuesday's workout, which left my arms sore.

Today, my wife and I are going to run outside after work.

This weekend is my next-to-last weekend of teaching skiing. As much as I love the teaching and the skiing, I'm looking forward to having my weekends for running again soon.

It was close to 60F outside when I woke up, but the temperature will be a lot cooler than that all weekend. Tomorrow morning, the snow surface is going to be very firm.

Death By Tabatas

The subject line wasn't really the title of the workout, but it felt that way. I was tired from the weekend, tired from Monday's workout, and then the warm-up for this workout was more than usual. Here's how it went down:

Five minutes of stretching and foam rolling. I focused on my left IT band, which was sore after sprints on Monday.

Then, 6 times the length of the gym, with a partner, of each of these exercises:

Fireman's carry (or piggy back)
Band resistance (try to run while your partner tries to stop you)
Wheelbarrow (I had to skip this one due to my right shoulder still being sore)

Because I was the second heaviest person in the gym, I partnered with Del. Del was a basketball star at a local college and has played semi-pro football. He is about 270 pounds of solid muscle. But, I can do a 300 pound back squat, so I figured I could carry him piggyback. And I did. The coach got a picture of him carrying me as well:

After we finished the partner tasks, we did pull-ups - EMOTM style. That's Every Minute On The Minute. For ten minutes, we would do 5 pull-ups per minute. The goal was strength - we were supposed to barely finish the 5 reps. Some people (like Del) wore weighted vests to make them more difficult. Some people (like me) used assist bands to make them easier. I could barely do the last one in each set, so I think I picked the correct bands.

Then came the Tabata intervals. In the link, they talk about Tabata sprints. But, you can substitute just about any other intense exercise for sprinting, as long as it is very taxing to do it for 20 seconds and then 10 seconds is not quite enough rest. Normally, when we do Tabata work, it's a single exercise, something like bodyweight squats. But last night was four different Tabata workouts strung together:

Sumo deadlift high pulls

Push-presses

Planks

Back-squats

We got a one minute break between each of the four minute sets.

All but the planks were done with a barbell, but at fairly low weights. I used just a 45 pound barbell for my reps.

The goal of the workout was as many total reps as possible. For the planks, you got one point for each of the possible 160 seconds you were in the plank position.

I did 85 of the high-pulls, 61 push-presses (my shoulder was limiting me a bit), 150 seconds of planks, and then 81 back squats. The spot on the floor where I did my work was covered with sweat. It was a good workout.

Today is a rest day.

Weekend skiing and Monday Workout

This past weekend was really interesting. After a big snowfall early last week and a moderate snowfall on Thursday, it rained most of Friday. Saturday morning, the mountain seemed like a giant ice cube, yet I could tell from some of my pole plants that there was still fresh snow under the icy veneer. Skiing on Saturday was not a lot of fun, so I concentrated on teaching for a lot of the day. But, as the day warmed up and skiers broke up the crust from the rainstorm, the skiing improved through the afternoon.

Sunday morning, I woke up and it was 36F and pouring rain at my house. I had visions of a repeat of the previous week - pouring rain, wind, no students, no skiing, etc. But, as I drove to the mountain, I got a nice surprise. At about 1400 feet in elevation, the rain changed to snow. It had been snowing at the mountain most of the night. It wasn't nice light powder snow, but it was fresh snow.

We did an hour of instructor training and found the skiing to be excellent. Suddenly, everyone was in a great mood. Six of my students showed up and we spent some time getting warmed up on easier terrain. And then, they started begging for steep moguls. I wasn't about to say no. By now, I'd heard that the summit had 8" or so of much lighter snow. And, we had two double-black diamond bump runs that we hadn't done all year. So, after our warm-up and a brief lesson, we headed for the steeper terrain. One girl was kind of nervous, but after she skied the first part of a trail called Paradise, she relaxed. She realized that she belonged there and she just had fun. Next we tackled a steep line right under the Castle Rock chair. This is an all-natural part of Sugarbush, sort of like a mini-Mad River Glen tucked inside Sugarbush. Liftline was amazing. Even the spots where rocks and ice are usually waiting to get you were fine.

After a late lunch, we changed our focus to skiing in the trees. After a couple tougher tree runs, I noticed that some of the girls were tired. To be honest, so was I. So, we headed in for a hot chocolate break and then finished the day with an easy groomer. All in all, it had been a great day.

Monday, I worked from home, so I didn't make it CrossFit. I did go to the gym last night for this workout:

Deadlifts: 5x5 at 225#
Squats: 15/9/6 at 135#, 185#, 225#
Cable Rows: 3 x 10
Chin-up grip lat pulldowns: 3x10
Sprints: 10 x the length of the parking lot

I wanted to do more upper body work and less leg work, but my right shoulder is still too sore for any pressing movements in any plane. It's been 13 days since my ski fall that hurt the shoulder and it's not any better. I'm going to give it one more week of rest, and if it's not any better, it will be time to see the doctor.

On a side note, I'm a big fan of Akira Kurosawa's films. It seems that the news from Japan these days is eerily similar to the segment of "Dreams" called "Mt. Fuji in Red".

"Hawks" Workout

Rather than type it myself, here is what we found on the wall when we got to CrossFit on Tuesday night. I have to admit that I scaled the workout. I did my deads at 135#, thrusters at 55# (shoulder still sore from skiing fall last week), 18" box jumps, crappy burpees (but I did them), and for the walking lunges, I used dumbbells so I wouldn't have to stress my shoulder too much. Lastly, I'm terrible at double-unders, so I did straight rope jumping. And, it still took me 37:35. I'm still sore today.

There was a lot of emotion in the gym on Tuesday. By the time we finished, people just seemed both physically and emotionally spent. It's never easy to try to understand why a nice guy and talented athlete is suddenly gone at age 25. It doesn't even have to be a nice guy or great athlete to leave you wondering. But, perhaps it just makes less sense to me, having known Ryan, even a little bit, and knowing his father very well. Maybe it's the father side of me where is scares me the most. I can't imagine burying my own child, and yet I know it happens to parents all the time.

We got a lot of snow this week. It's been kind of a crazy week for me, to be honest. I'm really looking forward to just skiing this weekend, and leaving the week behind. Skiing, even when I'm teaching a group of rowdy teenage and pre-teen girls, is one of the few places that feels really peaceful to me these days.

Despite rain today, I'm hoping to have good snow this weekend. It will be above freezing for most of the weekend and the snow should be soft.

Two weeks from Sunday, on the 27th, I'll be done teaching for the season.

Still sore

What I hoped would be a rest day yesterday for my shoulder and quad turned into a significant double-workout. In the morning, I spent about 90 minutes removing snow so my wife and I could get out of the driveway and go to work.

After work, I spent at least another hour doing additional clean-up - cleaning the deck so it won't collapse, cleaning out the walkway to the compost bin and the propane tank, and opening up the porch a bit more than it had been.

Tonight, I should probably get out the roof rake with another rain/snow storm due in on Wednesday night into Thursday. We're in that season now where we can have huge snowstorms or huge rainstorms, and some storms are a little of each.

Tonight after work, I'm going to CrossFit. We are doing a memorial workout for Ryan Hawks, a member of our gym who died in a skiing accident a week ago. I know his father well and I got to know Ryan a little bit. He talked in the gym about just "going out west to do some skiing" and that was about it. I didn't realize that he was a world class skier until his last competition made the news. He grew up skiing in the Mad River Valley, which is where Sugarbush is located. His death really affected a lot of people I know. So, tonight's workout is going to be brutally hard, in memory of an elite athlete gone at age 25.

Weird Weather and Ski Clinic Follow-up

On Friday, it was sunny and warm. It would have been a wonderful day to ski. On Saturday, the forecast called for light rain most of the day, with significant winds. Somehow, the rain never really showed up, but warmth did, and we had a great spring-conditions skiing day. It was a very enjoyable day, and I skied the group hard, knowing the forecast for Sunday was much more ominous.

By Saturday evening, it was raining. Overnight and into the morning, it rained hard at times. I took the paved roads to the mountain, afraid of mud and ice on the non-paved roads. My son and I got to the mountain about 8:00, the time I usually take a group out to do an hour of instructor training. But, there was no training in this weather.

My son and I sat in the lodge. I needed to get dressed for skiing, but if a few children or their parents texted me or called me, I would have no students, and I wouldn't work for the day.

By 8:30, this had happened, so I never had to put on my ski boots or uniform. By 9:30, my son knew he had no students. We had the day to just ski if we wanted, but it was nasty - windy, raining sideways - just not fun. We went out for breakfast instead.

Then, we went home and took a nap. (Old, tired people do that when they can.)

About 3:00, the temperature had dropped close to freezing and we had some sleet and freezing rain. By 6:00 p.m., it was snowing. Sometime after midnight, the snow really picked up in intensity. At 6:00 a.m. this morning, I tried to let the puppy out. The snow was as tall as he is.

So, I got dressed and spent almost 90 minutes snow-blowing the driveway and digging out and cleaning off the cars. Just as I was finishing up, the plow came by and dumped a huge amount of snow at the top of the driveway. I may have gesticulated in a not-very-nice way to the driver. It seems that my annual $6K in property taxes only gets my driveway plowed shut after every snowstorm - not much else.

So, I cleared the driveway exit, sent my wife off to work before they could plow it shut again, and I got showered and dressed and headed to the nearest WiFi location. It turns out that the town where my office is got hit really hard. The University of Vermont is closed and our offices are on campus. The buses aren't running there. The whole city seems to be shut down. No one came to the office today. I might be the only person working, but I'm not even close to the office.

On another note, on the first day of my ski clinic last week, I took a hard fall. At the time, it didn't seem to be a big deal. We were working on something called pivot slips, where you have your skis perpendicular to the fall line, and you slide along the fall line. At times, you completely flatten the ski base to the surface of the snow, steer the skis 180 degrees and you are again moving down the fall line with the skis perpendicular to the line. The entire time, your upper body is facing downhill, looking where you are going.

The examiner was reminding me to fully commit my upper body to the direction of travel, allowing the edges to completely release. Wanting to be a good student, I committed. Way too much. I crossed my center of mass over my skis, and while moving downhill at a decent rate of speed, the downhill edges of my skis caught the snow and slammed me to the ground. I landed on my right side pretty hard, and I landed on one of my ski poles. I felt OK the rest of the day, but started to hurt later that night. My right quad is bruised, my abdomen is a bit bruised, and my right shoulder is really sore. It hurts to raise my arm in certain ranges of motion. Removing a shirt by pulling it over my head is nearly impossible and very painful.

So, I think I need to let these issues heal. My quad will be OK in a few days, but the shoulder really worries me. Recently, a lot of my mid-week lifting has been arm-dominant because I do some much leg work while skiing. If I can't do certain lifts (and I'm sure I can't), I'm not sure what I'll do in the gym for the next week or two. But, I need to do something.

This afternoon, I'm leaning towards a snowshoe run, if the trails have been groomed by then.

Ski Clinic

Tuesday night at CrossFit, our workout started with three sets of heavy deadlifts. With a very important two day ski clinic on Wednesday and Thursday, I kept the weight low at 225, rather than 305 or so, which about what I would normally do. I did work hard on strict presses, doing 3 sets at 105. I am to the point where I can do the three sets of five reps at that weight, but not 5 sets yet.

Then, we had 12 minutes of burpees, pull-ups and rope jumping. I did a low level, again, saving myself for the ski clinic. My sets were ten burpees, ten band-assisted pull-ups, and 50 single-under rope jumps, repeated as often as possible in 12 minutes. Others were doing double-unders and I'm not very good at those yet.

After a good night's sleep, I arrived at Stowe on Wednesday, a bit anxious about my clinic. This one felt like I was playing in the "big leagues". I'm starting down the path to get my PSIA Level 3 certification, the highest certification level for a PSIA member. I achieved level 2 about four years ago.

Level 3 certification happens in 3 parts. First, you have to pass an online test.

Next, you take a 2-day skiing exam. Three different examiners ski with you, and 2 of the 3 must agree that you meet the standard for you to pass.

Then, you are eligible to take a 2-day teaching exam, broken into 4 segments, each worth four points. You need 10 of 16 points to pass that exam.

This week, I took a prep clinic for the skiing exam, which I plan to take for real next winter. The coach for the clinic went through all of the tasks that are part of the exam, and worked with us to improve our overall skiing and our specific tasks. As I expected, I'm not ready yet. But, I was afraid that I would be in over my head - a marginal (at that level) skier surrounded by amazing skiers. As it turned out, I was probably mid-pack in terms of talent and not all that far behind the top people. However, a number of runs on some very steep icy terrain did a great job in exposing the primary weakness in my skiing - a failure to fully commit my center of mass to the turn - something that is truly a leap of faith on steep terrain.

I got some great feedback, my skiing improved, and I now know what I need to focus on to meet the standard by next season.

I also need a new pair of skis to assist with this process, and that didn't really surprise me either. Now, I just need to figure out how to pay for them.

After a rest day today, I'll be teaching skiing in the rain for the next two days, it seems.

60 Days into the Year

Today marks the 60th day of the calendar year. One-sixth of the year (approximately) is gone. I don't really make resolutions at the start of the year, but it's nice to periodically assess how I'm doing with the things I really love.

So far this year, I've been to the gym 15 times and to CrossFit 8 times. Tonight should make that 9 and 16. I've skied 22 days so far this year. I haven't been to the gym and skied in the same day, so I've been "active" for 38 of 60 days. That is simply not enough.

My weight remains too high. My diet isn't what it should be. I'm never going to get to where I want to be if I continue the way things are going.

After today, I will be skiing four of the next five days. For the first two of those four, I'll be a student. The other two will be my normal teaching work. One good thing about the year so far is that I'm skiing as well as I ever have. Nonetheless, I'm likely to have my ego bruised at the clinic I'm doing the next couple days - exam preparation for the PSIA Level 3 skiing exam. But, I'll simply do my best and ask the Examiner for constructive feedback.

I have four weekends of ski instruction left. After that, I'll continue to ski, but not as often as I'm doing now.

Work remains busy. Having a family and a long commute remains an issue. But, I have to find a way to make this all work and get my training done. In past years, I pretty much made training my top priority. I feel like I can't do that right now, but if I don't start doing better, I won't lose any weight and I won't get any more fit. Right now, I'm simply not happy with my weight or fitness level, especially my endurance.

Hopefully, on 5/1, I'll report that I've turned some things around during the next two months of the year.