More Aches and Pains!

Saturday, November 10th, some of us decided to drive up to the Royal Gorge in Tahoe to get another day of skiing under our belts. It was so hard getting up that morning. All day Friday was a holiday fest b/c of Christmas parties. I didn't get home on Friday night until well after 10pm. Rolling out of bed on Saturday morning to meet up with my mentor for the drive to Tahoe was not easy. We both were a bit rough around the edges at first.

We made the drive with no problem, we even arrived early! I soon found out that no other beginners were showing up. I was surrounded by people that have been cross country skiing from anywhere from 6 to 30 years. Talk about being slightly intimidated! Oh who am I kidding, I was petrified!

The trail started on a hill....great! I knew that I was in for a hard day when I got less then halfway down and fell hard. Luckily my mentor and my coach were both there and they taught me how to turn around. Which when you think about it, doesn't seem that hard, but when you are in skis it is a lot harder then you think. I sort of got the hang of it when I decided that I would try the hill again. I fell a few more times, but I have mastered the graceful fall, if you believe that exists!

My mentor and I decided to take the easy loop, and it proved to be more challenging then I thought. Mainly b/c it was downhill. That is when I decided that I needed to know how to snowplow (a way to stop) immediately. After doing the small loop we decided to stay in the track area for me to get my ski legs. The track is pretty flat. After doing that several times we decided to go on a longer loop. By this time another one of the more experienced people decided to go with us. So the group of 3 took off.

I noticed that when I didn't think too much about snowplowing I was able to do it pretty well (though there is definite room for improvement). But when I started thinking too much about it I would biff it immediately. I need to learn to not be so nervous on the skis. We are pretty flexible on the skis so I need to learn to trust myself. Once I can do that then I think I will be better off.

In the 2 hours that we were skiing I had 2 major falls and several (oh who am I kidding, hundreds) of minor falls. One of the big falls I landed on my bruise from last week and I knew immediately that bruise was just doubled in size. The second major fall was when I was trying to snowplow and I leaned to far over my skis and I face planted. Talk about embarrassing. That was the fall that I thought I wouldn't be able to get up. My bad knee felt strange as I was going down and I immediately thought that I was going to dislocate it again. Luckily that didn't happen and I was able to get up and continue going.

Overall I had a great day on the snow. I had great people that were there helping correct my form and push me along! I felt great afterwards. Ask me how I feel today and I can't say that I feel as great as I did after I finished. I am sore like I have never been sore before.

Ask me if I enjoy what I am doing and the answer is a heartfelt YES. I love this new sport. I love the fact that our team is so big and we are all doing this for a good cause. This is definitely a great experience. I know that I have more aches and pains to come, but I am okay with that. I am welcoming them with open arms. :)