Koo-Koo Ka-Choo

It is Friday night after dinner and Grandpa and Nanna are headed to Barrie for the night and part of Saturday so I can do the loppet. As soon as the babies are in bed I will start the pre-race preparations. Waxing (skis), laundry (race attire), and maybe even a shower.

My evoloving facial hair has made this week at school a strange dichotomy of fame and infamy depending on the audience. Most teenage boys think that it is the pinnacle of achievement (I've been called a legend), while most female students are appalled and incapable of rationalizing the decision to present oneself looking like I have. This was the look for Thursday. I am the Walrus...I am the Eggman.



I don't know if the photo is a little distorted or I just never noticed how assymetrical my head is. I thought my skull was more uniformly shaped than this picture seems to indicate.

On the training front, Tuesday night I completed the race distance on the course as a bit of a test and it went pretty well. The conditions were very difficult due to the warm days melting the snow and then the cold nights freezing it back solid. Very granular and icy conditions are super fast but a little out of control for someone with my lack of technique. I crashed three times just getting a little wrong footed in an icy rut. No injuries so alls well that ends well.

Then on Thursday night I went out for a short easy ski on similar conditions which were just as fast but not quite as rutted and chewed up. I think that with the groomed course tomorrow it will be good as over the course of the day it will be softening as the day warms up rather than freezing later in the evening. Hopefully it is fast and fun.

Now I need to figure out my waxing plan. The options are shown below. I am thinking a base coat of the molybdenum wax with a bit of blue mixed in to harden it up for icy granular snow. Then I will go with a top coat of violet low fluoro so the speed is good as the snow softens and gets wetter. In the sunny spots I will be waxed a little on the hard side but at least it hopefully won't be wearing through on the cold snow. Better a little too hard than too soft which will wear through and end up with no wax at all.