Snowboarding to train for tri? Or tri to train for snowboarding?

Going to do a quick blog before heading to bed.

Someone once said that it is not what you do, but the people that you do with that's important. I am never a people person. I get very irritated by people that are cheap, or whiny or picky. If there is one thing I learn ever since being Christian is to accept others as who they are.

Then there are friends that you just click. You don't have to know them long. And best of all, you can just be yourself. Well, today, I've spent time with two people that I will always have a lasting friendship forever. I met them both in university days. For me to spend 40,000 for school is not about degree or the paper. It is more just finding people like that just click. I guess that's $20,000 a head. Friends sure are expensive.

Anyway, away with this friendship fuzzy feeling stuff. Tonight was a blast. I am starting to control the snowboard better when I picked up speed. And boy was I zooming by everyone. There is this trail call Happy Valley. It is long and gentle. Perfect for newbies. Also perfect for fast speed.

There was also one slope call Dr. Doug. It dropped a bit and then it was for about 500 m before another drop. If you are on board, you gotta make sure you are going down the flat with some speed. If you fall, you have to dig yourself up the flat because you can't build any speed (whereas skiiers can use the poles to get themselves up). Lo and behold, I fell, head first in front of spectators. So I spent my time humiliately climbing up.

I wasn't satisfy. The slope was not steep. It was only a green. Well, second time around, it was time to redeeming myself. It was good. I was cutting left and right. Turns are tight and going down fast.

I really should have brought my camera. Next time I will. There ain't too much tree hugging incidence. Except one ride where me and my friend discovered a side route that goes along the trees. We took it. He tried to come down and went into a pole. Quite funny. They have to get someone to go and help him out. We also got warn :)....

I also have some friends that were starting out. They were in the baby hills and one girl was having a hard time learning how to lean. I spent a few rides teaching her to lean. Afterwards, a few other friends came and asked about her progress. The questions were as follow "well, did she learn how to do toe-edge?" "No" "Did you learn how to do heel edge?" "Nope" "well, is she a lost cause??"

Interesting..I thought about how i started snowboarding. I fell and I fell alot. But it doesn't matter. I had fun falling. I had fun learning how to lean. I had fun learning how to turn. I had fun going down moguls head first and making myself like a fool (that was really funny....even I have to stop b/c I was laughing at myself so hard). The point is I had fun no matter about my results.

Does this sound familiar to training, triathlons or races? I start to think about this in a broader term. What about in life? If we all base our satisfaction on results....well...no one walks without first falling..no one bikes without scrapping their knees....no one swim first without choking some water...hmmm...we won't be learning any of those things b/c if we first try, for sure we would fail. I just thought it is funny how some people think like that.

It is way pass my bedtime(2 am) :). Oh last night's friend has an open house party. There was a girl that just got a roadie (Specialized Ali) and thinking of doing triathlon. And there was a guy that had done triathlon for 5 years. Yeah, there was a lot of tri talk. :). Will is going all crazy saying "oh is this girl single..." and what not...ha too funny.

Lastly, on the way to Blue Mountain today, I drove up a hill that is 800 m in length and is quiet steep (not sure about the grade). It turned out that hill was part of last year's Canadian Triathlon Championship course. I can't wait until spring/summer when I can go and climb this hill. I want to climb it until my legs fall off (probably should get a spare set off ebay).