Whistler Olympic Park - trail report

Well, here we are, back in rainy Portland, after having spent some time up north previewing the Nordic venue for the 2010 Olympics in Whistler. We made it up to Vancouver last Saturday, before heading up to Whistler on the 99. They are totally expanding this road, which basically means they are blasting out a bunch of rocks, to make room for a wider highway. It seems pretty amazing that they are going through all of that just for the Olympics, but I guess, that's what they had to do to get the bid. Now thinking back to last summer watching China's Olympics, w/ the 100,000 seat stadium, I think of what Vancouver has that may be similar? hmmm, they have a metrodome like structure! good luck with that. And whistler has no big venue that holds alot of people, but I guess by comparison, nobody watches the nordic races (compared to figure skating) so they are probably fine. BUT, one third of the events are going to be at whistler Olympic park (between xc, biathlon, jumping and nordic combined).

As for the Nordic trails... well, we had perfect conditions. And hardly anyone was there. Actually there were a lot of people on Sunday, but virtually no-one was skiing on the Olympic course, so it seemed empty pretty much where ever you were skiing. There is over 50k of trails. I have no idea why, but most of the rec skiers stayed on the 'recreational' trails (which were spectacular BTW). As for the Olympic courses, it was my first ski on Olympic class trails, and I thought the hills would have been steeper. They didn't seem as hard as I thought they'd be, but i was not ski racing on them either, I'm sure they are hard enough, but especially the Biathlon trails seemed easy? Camp ripley biathlon had way steeper hills.

We had one day when it wasn't as sunny, but it was still quite awesome. here are some looks:

Like skiing at bachelor on it's best day, with better trails and 100 times better scenery.


start grip tape was grippen and gliden!


These guys spent all day getting the jump ready, but nobody was jumping!


The huge jumps. This event would be the ultimate one to snag tickets for next winter.


Here's a wide view of the stadium, that will look much different next feb.


Podium!


I highly recommend a trip up there to ski, it is amazing. We will be back that's for sure. We just need to find time off, and get hook ups on excellent lodging in whistler, Thanks Belinda!

PC Free

Got rid of the old PC! If you want it, send me 65 dollars and I'll fed ex it to your door. (but it doesn't work, but the parts still hold at least 100 dollars of value on Ebay.

This is the first post from the new mac mini, which is so far, flawless.

One lab report, and one paper, and one presentation away from being done with Winter term 2009. Should have everything wrapped up in the next 30 hours, but it seems like I need more time. After that, it's looking like we're going to be on our way up to BC to preview the 2010 olympic nordic trails. Holy shit that will be sweet. Full report to follow, from where we go, which is still up in the air, but it's looking like Whistler.

a funny one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

The outlook...

So, the blog has been very, well... tired. With all the BSSN internet sites like twitter and facebook, the blog is getting neglected. and it's harder if not impossible to tap out a decent blog post on the iphone, and twitter is super easy, cause posts are short, so I put the twitter feed on the right, but I don't even 'tweet' that much. School has been busy.

So, anyone who comes here with an attempt to gauge (or gage) my fitness level as it applies to running ultramarathons in record time, well they are going to have to wait until Saturday. All I'll say is, I will be at the starting line, and also that I will try to run the first lap at a reasonable pace.

My Hagg mud forecast is also as follows: It will not be unlike last year, and may even be less muddy. We have been having humid air so the grounds are not dry. We just have not had alot of rain, and the rain will hold off until saturday evening or sunday, according to the forecast right now.

The final piece of news for the blog today, is that I have a job interview today.

BSSN: bull shit socail network

Obama

2008 is gone

Just for the archives, here's the results... with most recent listed first.

• Autumn Leaves 50k, 3:40:14 (PR!)
• Vancouver fall 5m, 29:27
• CGRC Pumpkin Run 5m, 32:27
• McDonald forest 15k, 1:04:35
• Overlook park 3k XC
• Timberline 1/2, DNS
• Pints to Pasta 10k, 37:34
• Twilight Crit, DNF
• Old River Ramble 10k, 38:53
• Starlight Run 5k, 19:04
• Hagg Lake 50k, 4:24:50

School (half way point.)

First I have to say the weather has been great for the past 2 days. We're talking 50 degree-sunglasses days, of which, you don't get very many of here, during this time of year.

On to the real blog entry: So, I'm about 1/2 way through my 2nd for-ray in college. So far, I think the most important information I've learned are concepts in mathematics and electronics. Also, I've thought alot about our society's problems (like the financial crisis of 2008) are pretty much a direct correlation of human beings not being able to understand the exponential function. That is, e to the x (or e^x). I am beginning to understand it.

So this winter term of 2009, I'm taking 4 or 5 classes and here they are... Digital Signal Processing (DSP): Hands down the most interesting and awesome class I've taken so far since going back to school. Really cool stuff taught by the most inspiring instructor at OIT. This is not required for the REE program (that I'm enrolled in), but our director is letting us use it as an elective, since 3 of the renewable energy students are taking the clss. I couldn't not take this course. I have in fact considered switching to the EET (electrical engineering technology) program. probably wont... Fluid Mechanics: good concepts, great textbook, horrible instructor. Enough said there, but it's really too bad, because they just hired this guy, and he's basically reading the text to us. Embarrassing really. Photovoltaics: so far, more to do with azimuth angles of the sun and net present value / return on investment than how the shit actually works. Energy Economics: So far (i know it's only been 1.5 weeks) more about boring supply / demand curves that anything too interesting. This is an elective that I'm taking but I'm considering taking this instead: Biofuels and Biomass: even though I don't really expect to go into this in the future, it is probably going to be more interesting that economics. So i don't think I'll stay in 5 classes, but I have to decide by Friday.

This Saturday will be 5 weeks till Hagg Lake 50k. Laurie is doing the 25k this year, so we've got the training plan all set. Like last year, it will be my first race of the year, and I have cautiously optimistic goals, since this will be my 3rd ultra!!! Now I'm a veteran, and probably most importantly, a Hagg veteran. I know now, what that second lap feels like. Holy shit and well, I wasn't going to post anything about this, but we got a new ride, (I should really say, Laurie got a new ride) and it's f^*&ing awesome. Peace out.

subaru impreza outback sport

Big snow, still snowing