With just two months until the start of the Sonot Kkaazoot, it is definitely time to start increasing both the intensity and duration of your ski workouts. This can be a challenging time of the year because the Birch Hill venue will be busy with Besh Cups, high school regional races, Town Races, and Junior Nationals between now and the start gun of the Sonot Kkaazoot. It may take a little more creativity and flexibility to squeeze in those longer and more intense workouts when the weather doesn’t cooperative. However, just because it is -37 deg F at Birch Hill on Sunday when you normally do your long overdistance workout doesn’t mean you have to resort to the couch like one of our AWOL SCUM:

Layers of clothing may render a skier less fashionable than lycra speedsuits, but who is going to recognize you on the trail under these conditions?

We have ample snow so get out and enjoy it. No excuses. On Sunday, these skiers had the Birch Hill trails virtually to themselves (only Bad Bob Baker lapped them twice). One of the skiers above has had 11 orthopedic surgeries and was still out there. Another of the frosty guys above had major back surgery last winter. Another skier owns a bar where late weekend nights are the norm–hardly, the occupation that would be conducive to getting up on Sunday mornings to ski several hours–yet he does. Why? Because all these skiers feel so much better skiing than not. Besides, the Sonot is only 8 weeks away.These are no young pups as all but one of the skiers in the bottom photograph is over 60 years old.

See you on the trails.

Photo from lower 48 courtesy of Carl (aka Thumper) Hemming, Birch Hill photos by Bill (Poles) Husby.