So I've been meaning to write this post for a while now since ski season ended back in April, but have been so busy that I am just getting to it now. Better late than never, right? Well winter just ended not too long ago (sad thought considering it ended only like two months ago and it's now July), and I am proud to say that I feel like I truly embraced winter this year making up for lost time running circles indoors the past five winters instead of enjoying the snow outside. I worked a number of part-time jobs over the winter and somehow all of them ended up being outside in the cold. Despite always being freezing cold (because I have no body fat), it really didn't seem to bother me, and I actually rather enjoyed it. Between teaching alpine ski lessons and coaching the seven-year-old boys' Junior Race team at Hyland, coaching Nordic skiing at Minnetonka Middle School East, promoting T-Mobile as part of their street team, and marketing Boundless at the University of Minnesota, I was outside nearly all day, every day this winter. When you're outside that much, your body seems to adapt, and you really don't even get the chills any more. When I wasn't working outside, I somehow still managed to find time to race with Ski Challenge and get in some free skiing and boarding which amounted to ninety days on skis (alpine & nordic combined) or my snowboard this winter...I'd say that makes up for lost time and lack of skiing the past five winters when I only got out a few times each season! A typical day for me would involve going right from coaching Nordic to teaching/coaching alpine or on Wednesdays from alpine ski racing right to coaching Nordic. I also got to learn how to ice climb, skate ski, and telemark ski this winter in addition to remastering my skills in the terrain park tackling some harder rails (compared to the really dinky ones...not the huge ones) on a snowboard after a four year hiatus. Thanks to the Flynns for some encouragement there!
While some people may think this sounds like a drag working multiple part-time jobs (that don't require a college degree) out in the cold all winter when I have a newly earned degree fresh in hand, I can truly say I loved what I was doing all winter. I hardly felt like I worked a day. While I can't do this forever, (because I eventually need to start making a little more money than I was) I am blessed to have had the opportunity to embrace winter and enjoy the great outdoors while doing something I love all winter while gaining valuable experience in coaching and marketing and promotions. I know a lot of people think I'm crazy for loving Minnesota winters in the snow and cold, but my philosophy is you can either fight it or embrace it, so I figure why not embrace it since you can't control the weather. While it was a little frustrating to have a winter that lasted until May encroaching on the spring sports season (which people complained about daily), I continued to embrace it and took advantage of the extra snow days and got in a few more days on my cross country skis (photo below taken on April 16th) to give my shins a rest from the pounding of running. The team I coached at Southwest Christian High School kept a good attitude through a frustrating spring weather and had fun shoveling snow off the track (photo below) and pounding through hill workouts into mid-season. We even managed to get in some sledding in one of our hill workouts! (see photos below.) It paid off in the spring with many PR's. If you are one of those people who hates winter with the snow and cold, I would encourage you this next winter to get out and try one of the many fun snow sports winter has to offer. You are really missing out by sitting on the coach complaining all winter when there are so many great winter outdoor activities out there that I just don't have time to do all of them. One of the most rewarding stories from ski instructing this winter came from the mom of one of my ski racers. She told me when she lived in northern China she hated winter, because she didn't do any winter sports. When she came here and signed her son up for skiing she decided to take some lessons herself so she could ski with him. She had a good time and ended up out on the hill all the time with her son this past winter and says she enjoys winters now that she does a winter sport. I hope this inspires someone to get out there and embrace winter by trying one of the many fun sports it has to offer. In case you are looking for some ideas where to start enjoying winter, I thought I'd share short updates here on what I was up to all winter! Here it goes:
While some people may think this sounds like a drag working multiple part-time jobs (that don't require a college degree) out in the cold all winter when I have a newly earned degree fresh in hand, I can truly say I loved what I was doing all winter. I hardly felt like I worked a day. While I can't do this forever, (because I eventually need to start making a little more money than I was) I am blessed to have had the opportunity to embrace winter and enjoy the great outdoors while doing something I love all winter while gaining valuable experience in coaching and marketing and promotions. I know a lot of people think I'm crazy for loving Minnesota winters in the snow and cold, but my philosophy is you can either fight it or embrace it, so I figure why not embrace it since you can't control the weather. While it was a little frustrating to have a winter that lasted until May encroaching on the spring sports season (which people complained about daily), I continued to embrace it and took advantage of the extra snow days and got in a few more days on my cross country skis (photo below taken on April 16th) to give my shins a rest from the pounding of running. The team I coached at Southwest Christian High School kept a good attitude through a frustrating spring weather and had fun shoveling snow off the track (photo below) and pounding through hill workouts into mid-season. We even managed to get in some sledding in one of our hill workouts! (see photos below.) It paid off in the spring with many PR's. If you are one of those people who hates winter with the snow and cold, I would encourage you this next winter to get out and try one of the many fun snow sports winter has to offer. You are really missing out by sitting on the coach complaining all winter when there are so many great winter outdoor activities out there that I just don't have time to do all of them. One of the most rewarding stories from ski instructing this winter came from the mom of one of my ski racers. She told me when she lived in northern China she hated winter, because she didn't do any winter sports. When she came here and signed her son up for skiing she decided to take some lessons herself so she could ski with him. She had a good time and ended up out on the hill all the time with her son this past winter and says she enjoys winters now that she does a winter sport. I hope this inspires someone to get out there and embrace winter by trying one of the many fun sports it has to offer. In case you are looking for some ideas where to start enjoying winter, I thought I'd share short updates here on what I was up to all winter! Here it goes:
This was my first winter working at Hyland teaching ski lessons and coaching, and I had a blast. The staff there was a really fun group of people, and I felt like a big family of instructors there. I can see why so many staff have been there so many years. It was very rewarding to see kids who could hardly stand at the beginning of a lesson progress to turning down the big hill having a blast after starting out terrified. Another highlight of the season came at the D Team Championships where one of our seven year old boys (happened to be the son of the previously mentioned mother from China) who had only placed once all season (7th) ended up winning the championship for his age group. The other coach said last year he could hardly stand on skis, let alone make it down the course! I also just discovered that our seven year old boys' team scored more points at the Sunday D Team championships than any other Hyland Sunday team. =) While the hills there are small, Hyland has its own unique charm and feels more like home than other ski areas. Since the hills are small and get old fast, I switched it up on occasion and gave telemarking a try and started to remaster the snowboard this year at the end of the season. I wished I had gotten out on my snowboard more earlier in the season, because I didn't start to feel comfortable on it again until the last couple weeks of the season when I was out there nearly every day on it playing around in the park. Telemarking was its own unique challenge. I was able to get down the hill and turn quite easily on them, but definitely have a long ways to go before I master tele turns. It's opposite from alpine skiing in the sense that you want to put more weight over your inside leg versus alpine where your outside leg is more dominant (although ideally you want equal leg pressure.) I have not been converted into a true tele-skier yet, but it was a fun challenge and a good workout, so I think I'll have to revisit it again next winter!
After taking five years off from ski racing to run indoor track for the Gophers, I was excited to have the opportunity to return to the sport this winter. I thought I had lost some of my racing skills, but turns out they came back quite quickly! One of the guys I teach lessons with at Hyland invited me to join his Ski Challenge Team at Buck Hill on Wednesday afternoons, so I took him up on the invitation and has a blast despite being the youngest member on the team by about ten years with most of my teammates being my parents' age. There was a bit of a learning curve at first trying to transition to giant slalom racing from racing mostly slalom in high school, but I picked it up fairly quickly and managed to record a couple of top ten finishes for the women and usually finished in the top fifteen. I still have a lot to learn though as I routinely got schooled by women twice my age! lol. I think slalom is still my favorite, but I did enjoy the new challenge of learning G.S., and the speed of the event is fun. I finally bought G.S. skis this winter and learned they really do work better for G.S. than slalom skis (what a concept...lol.) I hope to be able to race again next winter and this time hopefully get my dad to join in on the fun!
While I have been cross country skiing since age two, I have never actually raced before. That did not stop me, however, from applying for a job coaching a middle school Nordic team this winter at Minnetonka Middle School East. The school had so many kids sign up for the team that they had to hire another coach mid-season which was me! I wouldn't consider myself qualified to coach a competitive Nordic race team, but this turned out to be more of a developmental club with a few fun races, so it worked out just fine! It was great to see so many kids who normally wouldn't do a winter sport getting out there learning how to ski each day. I basically got hang out and ski with fun kids every day...not a bad gig (even if it was with our high school rival team, the Skippers. lol.) I even learned how to skate ski which I had been wanting to learn for a while. It was harder than it looked, but I picked it up pretty quickly and while I am not an expert at it by any means, it was a good workout and something I definitely want to try again next year (and hopefully get my own pair of skate skis!) While most people don't like middle school kids, they are actually one of my favorite age groups. They are so awkward and entertaining and old enough to talk to, but still young enough to still teach them and mold them a bit, and they still look up to you if they aren't too cool for you yet. There was never a dull moment with the middle schoolers at MME. Take for example, on a typical day walking through the halls after school I heard a kid walking down the hallway yelling, "MY NIPPLES ARE LACTATING!" While most places that would be weird, at a middle school it's the norm (yet still entertaining.) In all seriousness though, the kids and staff at MME were great and a lot of fun to work with!
Not surprisingly to those who know me, my winter fun did not just stop with skiing this winter. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn how to ice climb this winter from my friend Jeff. While I can't say I liked it as much as rock climbing, it was fun to try and a new learning curve to overcome. Unlike rock climbing where you want to be close to the wall, in ice climbing you actually want your butt to stick out. You then use it to rock yourself up to the next spot. Another unusual thing about ice climbing I learned was that you can get the "screaming burpies." This is when your hands get so cold that you throw up! I had never heard of this phenomenon before, but luckily did not have to witness or experience it! Butts and barf aside, the cool thing about ice climbing is that the same spot can be different each year depending on how the ice forms, and there are tons of good ice climbing spots right in the middle of the Twin Cities, so you can go out for just a few hours without the long drive. The photo to the left here is me ice climbing at Franklin Ave bridge near the U.
Well believe it or not, my winter did not only include winter sports. I also spent a lot of time outside working promotions. After Christmas, I spent a few weekends working for Ingster Marketing as part of the T-Mobile Street Team. While most people wouldn't consider walking around in the cold all day handing out free stuff to be a fun job, I actually quite enjoyed it. I basically got paid to drive around in a car all day chatting away with three other cool girls while giving people free stuff. I always thought everyone liked getting free stuff, but it was surprising how skeptical so many people were about taking free stuff with many refusing it. It's kind of sad that people have a hard time believing that you are actually giving them something for free. We quickly learned which demographics were all about the free stuff and which ones thought it was just extra extra junk they did not need: fur coats= no go, ghettos at the bus station=give me, give me! lol. We met some interesting people doing this including some gang members we took a photo with (didn't notice they were gang members until after we took the photo...oops), people in crazy WWE costumes, crazy drunken Vikings fans, and a dude trying to sell us "perfume" that he wanted us to smell which we refused (so he could drug us and rape us.) We also got hit on by lots of old men, particularly ones in the Vikings tailgating lots. Since we needed lots of photos, we made their day by asking them to take photos with us. Our days also included lots of Starbucks stops to keep us warm and sane. Shout out to our boss Todd for all the free coffee! Below are some photos from our street team.
Well besides T-Mobile promotions, I also took a leadership role in promotions this past winter as the market manager for Boundless, a company that has a free online alternative to college text books. I got to recruit, interview, and hire my own team of student campus reps. I then assigned them schedules to go flyer outside targeted classes and also came up with new marketing ideas. This sounds like a desk job, but I actually spent a lot of time out on the field flyering outside which was actually my favorite part of the job. The photo on the left is one my reps, Than, hanging flyers outside in -15 below windchill with me...that's just how cool we think Boundless is! This was a pretty fun job and great learning experience despite being stressful at times with the number of classes we had to cover. If you are looking to save money on textbooks or for a great study tool, I would highly recommend checking out www.boundless.com!