Word: snows
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...Denial then came into play. Heavily. In a sort of inverted post-traumatic stress disorder, I slowly began focusing in on all the cool things that had happened. The few moments of balance and control I had felt on the skis (out of hours of pounding and snow-eating) and the excitement of working out on the actual Olympic course at Lake Placid (even though I was as far from Olympic glory as I was from being an astronaut) were much more vivid in my memory than the nasty, discouraging, humiliating, painful part of the trip, and by the time...
...managed to work out on real snow a few more times (and it was not nearly as bad), but the coming of spring complicated things. Even in Lake Placid, the snow lasts only three or four months a year. Leaving eight months of hot, snowless weather when the nearest skiable snow is at the Arctic Circle. I contemplated various "dry land" training methods - Rollerblades and running drills and special excercises - but I realized these were for people who already knew what the hell they were doing. I was bad at it, let's be honest, and I wasn't going...
...public workouts. However, after I got over the initial revulsion at attracting so much attention to myself I began to realize that it really wasn't so bad. There was the occasional person of limited imagination who would state the obvious ("Hey buddy, there's no snow out here"), but the overwhelming reaction was surprise, curiosity or outright encouragement. This grew on me after a while, and I finally comprehended the fact that standing out from the crowd can actually be a good thing (which, to be honest, had never occurred to me in my entire life). After...
...between shots). I love the two-strap harness that holds it securely on my back but allows me to take it off and prepare to fire in just a few seconds. I love the little metal flaps that snap in place over the sights to keep them clear of snow during the skiing intervals. I love the surprising heft of the thing; you pick it up and get the distinct sense that to ski very far with it on your back and then hold it steady enough to hit a four-inch circle at 50 meters is an activity most...
...right distance. It is a strange sensation to have something imagined for a long time take shape in reality. All the time spent out in the backyard aiming at a target only a few feet away, and all the time "skiing" on pavement without a trace of snow in sight, is now being translated into the real thing...