Back! And not that sore!

So this year I joined Andy and friends on their yearly snowboarding trip. It was awesome. It definitely solidified my interest in the snow sport, and I'm glad I have something other than cycling and running.

We flew ourselves to Denver and spent 4 nights and 3 days on Copper Mountain. There was snow the first day and then it snowed again that night, so the next day was still good. The third day started to show some ice, but by then I was much better, so it was less of an issue. I have to say Copper Mountain was really great. There were 3 little villages full of shops and food, we started on Thurs and it progressively got crowded on the lift lines, but the mountain rides themselves weren't crowded at all. We had ample room to practice, even on Saturday.

When we first got there, I was taking a look at jackets and such, cause I'm not too crazy about the Obermeyer I bought last week, and I found this. And I loved it, and so it was mine.


I'll take the Obermeyer back this week since the tags are still on. So glad I found that one. It has everything I wanted - vents, lots of pockets, no lining, and looks cool.

I hadn't snowboarded since...winter of 2008? And that was only one day. I successfully leafed down the short short mtn only once. This time I picked up the leafing again, Andy helped me with my leafing - look where you go, put your weight into it, etc. And Kasia taught me how to carve! Which is great. If you are a beginner like me, and you don't know how to get done a mtn without stopping, well carving is your trick. You probably know how to "heel", which is just taking the mountain down in a zig zag fashion while facing forward and digging your heel into the mountain. Well when you combine that with "toe" which is the opposite - you zig zag facing the mountain - you get "carving". Toeing uses the opposite muscles on your legs so that you can give your quads a rest and alternating between those gives you a carving motion. Kasia and I worked on this for 3 days and by the last day we could get down the mountain in 1/3 the time it would take use on day one. Pretty awesome. I was proud of us. =D

BTW. The mountains were so pretty. I'm so jealous of Denver.


Now don't get me wrong, after the first day I was in major pain from snowboarding for about 5+ straight hours. But as the days went on I got a little less and less sore. Today I feel pretty ok and in the next few days I should be fully recovered and back to running. I do have to say, being sore was awesome. I never push myself that hard, so it was refreshing.

Yay! I can't wait to go again and carve down the mtn faster than ever.