Brrr - temperatures dipped below zero!

Just last week it was warm enough for the kids and I to walk over to the club for dinner. But today, I know winter is really, REALLY here in Minnesota. It dipped below zero last night. And it was only 3 degrees at 11 am today when I was scheduled for my x/c ski lesson, so I canceled it. It that lame? Can I count it as only half-lame since I did get up and swim 3,000 yards this morning at the crack of dawn?

T-minus eleven weeks to race-day (American Birkebeiner) and I finally put my freestyle skis on last night for the first time - it was great! -- I only fell three times. But it was very cold.

I am SOOO glad I bought those roller-skis to practice with on the streets this fall.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I am doing this ski thing with a bunch of other Ironmen who have also never skied before - we are all just learning. We figured that since we're Ironmen, how hard can a 31 mile ski marathon be. We'll find out in eleven weeks. Now I am thinking the Birkie may have been a bit aggressive - there are lots of shorter races. Why did we have to sign ourselves up for the grand-daddy of all x/c marathons? Are we really that full of ourselves? What we were thinking? I had to herringbone-walk up the "hills" which at Elm Creek are what is considered "flats" on the Wisconsin course. (Those of you who have done IM Wisconsin -- imagine x/c skiing up and down those hills. It's the same hills. ) How long is it going to take me to finish this thing? Five hours? Six? What if it's really cold like last night? and windy? My fingers and face were frozen.

I'm going to check into some extreme cold-weater gear. Some old timers had on neoprene face masks. Any of you ever used one? Does is adhere to your skin? I felt like my "turtle-fur" neck gaitor that I pulled up onto my chin was "rubbing" my skin.