Pyxichick - I am lucky to live here! Sounds like a lot of the midwest has been getting snow this year. Glad you've been racking up the k's! It's too cool that you're a Bear Chase skier. I live 5 miles from Swedetown. Do you ski the long or the short one? I typically do the short one - I always bonk in 50k races (and puke anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours after), and I haven't done one in a long time. 20-30k seems to be my race distance, but it's hard to train for anything longer than that. 26k is my longest ski so far this year.

I'm really looking forward to working at Nationals tomorrow. It's the individual sprints. It's also supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow and Sunday (with a little rain predicted starting Sunday ), so it shouldn't be too cold.

Caribou & Roadie Gal: I always die the first few days of skate-skiing too (and the first few days of striding, which I managed to get through this week - now I can walk again!). I tend to let my training fall apart in the fall, when it gets cold & rainy and starts getting dark early, so ski season always begins painfully.

Well, next Saturday I'll start helping out with the local kids' ski program, and a couple of weeks later is my first race of the year.

Have a great season, everybody!