Sorry I'm late getting out a Backyard Update. I've been sprinting since getting home---to keep OYB afloat. Gotta get my digital accounting system up. The paperwork is all sorted, template is ready for loading, it's time to type it all in---then re-start phoning shops and selling more of Pete's books!

OK: Hightech beat Backyard in our first match. Congrats to Hightech Mike for a clear victory!

Mike beat me by 1 min in the 16k Gran Traverse, our only classic race last year...and now by 3 mins in a similar 15k classic NM Natls. He appears to be pulling well away.

...But is everything as it appears?

I note that Mr. Hightech was *farther* behind a couple local Mich skiers at the NM's than he was last year at the GT. *Hmmm!*

Also, Mike beat me by 7 mins in the skating half-Vasa, but he didn't do the similar half-Nokie this year. Yet I note that I moved a minute *closer* to a couple local skiers who did both races. *Hmmm!*

I don't think it was Backyard that let me down at the Natls. I just blew the start. Sneaky prep for starts is actually part of Backyard Lore. I usually do special pre-start stretches but I didn't remember to at the Natls. Doh! I saw Sten stretching and he won! See?

Also, my Backyard apparel kept me totally warm yet breathable in the zero degree weather of both races, so that was a plus. Remember: style points are also a part of the Challenge!

So, it was great fun to participate at the NM's. It was a whirl of elite skiers and organization. Very impressive what JD and Co. achieved! It was fun up to my race...and afterwards. During it...

The 15k course we skied was lovely. My trashed old skis were great. But I just blew it. I get a bio-mental response whenever I totally botch a race: while skiing I want to sell my stuff. In this race when we hit the first uphill I could hardly move. Game over. I had no range of motion for uphills. Plugged up plus pain. My heart-rate seemed OK. But when I realized on the last loop that a friend was right behind me, I got some morale, dug deep and at least got around the course on an efficient line. He tried to come around me at the finish but no go. He had a bad one, too.

Several of us lost our motel rooms due to not booking ahead, but we ended up with a Backyard victory: we spent a couple very fun days camping on the floor of a lovely downtown house of a friend of a friend's roommate.

My half-Nokie skate was much more fun. But no Mike! I got to the start early and enjoyed watching the frosty 51kers drop thru out of the woods. I even helped a wobbly guy put some different wax on his skis and get him under way again. Maybe volunteering is where it's at! I started my race relaxed and worked on not working and then just went by tons of people. I did a lot of V2 for the first time---achieving a major Backyard goal---and enjoyed it. My old skis were great: Start Green plus Rex Blue for the cold new snow. I glided past anyone I was near. Or is this just gravity boosting a chubby skier? I took it easy on the uphills. But I could tell that I only occasionally felt any real finesse. And whenever I did, I went much faster. More skate snow time is key here, I think. At the halfway point 2 guys gradually caught me. I hung with one the rest of the way---closing big gaps on every downhill---until a 3rd caught me. Those super steep but not-too-big hills did me in. Near the end I did a lot of my homemade out-of-track marathon skate.

The party after the Nokie also saw Backyard points scored when I had the privilege of accompanying lovely ladies for funky dancing---while wearing Sorels (thus the points)---to a fine Chicago funk band. Having a Norwegian ski racer gal later hand me whisky on the rocks out of the blue was also a highlight and surely worth a point or two.

I had asked her if her other friend had raced and she said "Yes, the 51k classic...with courage, stamina and style!" and gave a beer salute. Now THAT's what I call Backyard!

Being invited back to our new friend's house after it was all over ("you don't even have to call") was really nice.

Marquette seems like a super town! I'd never spent time there before. Classic and pretty, with all kinds of nature, history and contemporary culture all close by.

So that's it for my racing for now! Back to the yard!

I hope Hightech has Mike's season still going fine. I'm thinking that I might be finally ready to race again by...March...and maybe Black Mt!

See, Backyard ratings are best taken at the end of a season. Hightech likes to race and spend money through the whole season---they can do that due to their year-round specializing and less fun-having. With Backyard, you usually test your skiing after you do a lot of it, and you don't do it until it snows in your yard! Then you race once just before it melts. Right?

Maybe by then I'll have met another of my goals: to lose 10 lbs. I think the yard skiing already has me down 5 lbs.

Hightech guys spend a lot of time and money fiddling with ski bases. Don't ya know you just get some old hand-me-down skis that fit OK, wax em up and go? My skis went great so far this year (and last). And they fit me all wrong---way too soft---and their bases are trashed and not at all flat, and they don't get fancy wax, but they GO! Now if I could catch up to them...

Of course, training on touring skis made my first time on race skis (on the morning of the Natls) a bit squirrely, almost resulting in a spill. However, that same training, on bad trails, probably also kept me on my feet! I've had no falls at all in a long time! I give the credit to Backyardism.

Shoveling my whole driveway is getting easier and easier, so the Integrated Priorities aspect of Backyard is succeeding.

Two other families are now using my yard trails---which are mostly on the neighboring vacant church property, and are thus basically public. High marks for the Sociability Rating of Backyardolatry!

My homemade pull-behind-skier tracksetter works for both classic and skate. Just unscrew the ski-shapes for skate, and pull two loops. I think the trick is to set the track every time it snows more than a couple inches: keep it packed. You don't want to pull more than about 80# and that doesn't pack all that much snow. If you attach it with inner-tubes you can classic ski pull it nicely.

A great Backyard benefit of the tracksetter is that it simulates hills! A great thing for this flat region. --Especially when it gets snow build-up on the bottom. Man, it was like skiing up Everest yesterday! I'll experiment with spraying lube on the bottom. Usually it doesn't build-up, and still does decent hill simulation.

I still think that a few hours of Backyard action each week is enough to have fun at modest-length modest-terrain ski races. ...And that by the end of the season it will let me gain a bit on a certain Muha!