A Weekend on Snow - A return to reality

Well as I hoped they had snow made at Elm Creek, so over the weekend I got on snow for the first time since March. I've got to say it great to be back on the white stuff. Roller skis are fine for a couple of months, but I know from past experience that rolling gets old after a while. The past few years I've picked up roller skiing in September and when the snow arrives in December I am usually even still a wee bit sad to see the end of roller season. Anyway they served their purpose in that this has been the most natural start to my season yet.(ignoring the man made snow which is clearly not natural). I feel good out there, skating I feel like I've got balance I never had before, and my classic technique is no worse than the end of last year. It remains to be seen if I can translate any of that into speed though.

It is hard to get excited about ski season though, the temperatures are back to our usual global warming December temps. So highs in the 40's and barely freezing at night. While skiing on a short 2K man made loop beats every other activity out there, compared to skiing on real snow on a big trail it's a bit like the difference between swimming in a pool and open water swimming.

Oh and my post last week on swimming, turns out it is to good to be true, I am currently in Wichita, KS where the gym I go to has this weird pool where I seem to swim a good 10-15 seconds slower than in my pool at home. Anyway here I had only taken 20 second off my 100yd time which would put me in the 1.45 range, this is still a big improvement on my swimming over most of the summer, but not quite holy crap worthy

Beer of the Blog I've not had too much great beer recently. So I'm going with a beer that was at least memorable. I tend to enjoy having a beer while I prepare dinner each night. The other week while Mrss Brewski was away on business I was preparing the half pints meal. I had an Aventinus Eis -Wiessen bock. I am not a huge fan of Wheat beers but thought I'd give this a go. The flavor was kind of like a cross between a bad bannana drink and mineral spirits, only I think this stuff would actually do a better job of removing the paint from brushes than mineral spirits. Yes it's a bit potent. It was a fun meal with several rousing renditions of "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush" but I don't think I would rush out and buy another bottle(unless I was painting my house).