What's next?

My last post concentrated mostly on skiing so it's natural to continue with this "interesting" topic. For past couple of weeks they have been able groom the tracks with big snow cats and conditions have been great! Seriously it's almost unbelievable to be able to ski on wide firm tracks in bright sunshine with 3 feet of snow everywhere during late November. I have to admit that some days when it's been windy and/or snowing the tracks are softer, snow piles to make the trails a bit bumpy and it's much colder. On the last Saturday of November our team had a first practice race. Even though I was trying to start easy the altitude hit me already at the first hill. I can't even describe how much worse it feels to workout at high-intensity at 3300 meters compared like 1800 meters (the highest altitude I've been doing high-intensity before this). It didn't help that the conditions were like those that I described above. Last Sunday (on the 25th anniversary of Grand Mesa Nordic Council) there was a community race which included 5k classic race at 11am and 5k freestyle race 1.5 hours later. Now the conditions were pretty much perfect and my classic race was decent, considering that I hadn't trained that much during past two months. For me at least it was impossible to recover at that altitude and the freestyle race was pretty much just skiing to the finish line.

Can't really ask for better conditions

Start line of 5k classic race. You can recognize me on the right side of the picture from the Haka outfit. (Photographer Lori Stone)

After those races I was thinking that it would be interesting to see how the injury and the whole exchange period have affected my body composition. The exercise lab on campus has a BodPod machine (all you studying exercise sciences know what I'm talking about). Basically it measures your body volume and based on that and your weight calculates fat and fat-free masses. I had done the measurement a few weeks after the beginning of the semester and then my body weight was 72kg and fat percentage 6.2. After that I hadn't even been on a scale once. I was expecting that I would have lost some muscle mass and gained some fat mass due to lower training volume and no upper body strength training during my injury period. Well it was quite a lot worse than that: bodyweight 76kg and fat percentage 13.4. I've never been even close to this heavy or fatty.

At this point I was still smiling

How is it even possible to make that kind of change in three months?

Mostly likely this change is not only caused by less training, but also nutrition has a part to play. The dining hall here (and as far as I've understood in most universities) is a buffet style (eat whatever and as much as you like). This is (evidently) dangerous in long term. Being in United States there is always pizzas, burgers and sodas available. Fortunately you can also choose healthier meal options and there is a quite diverse salad table, which is pretty much the same every day, though. Apparently the healthier meals seem to be quite energy dense too, because I've never had a burger in the dining hall and pizza only a few times. Some of the weight gain has to also be attributed to higher beer consumption. There are just too nice local breweries here.

A few weeks ago I saw somebody with a pair of Järvinen skis on the parking lot next to the ski trails and after a short conversation it turned out that she was originally from Finland. It was surprisingly difficult to switch language in the middle of a conversation by the way. Anyway, she invited me to have a Thanksgiving meal with her family, which was nice experience since we obviously don't have this holiday in Europe. This also reflects the hospitality that people here demonstrate. Just to give an overview how big holiday Thanksgiving is here, the Thanksgiving break lasted the whole week while Fall break was only one day.

Thanksgiving dinner

Last week my parents visited me for a few days while traveling in United States. In Grand Junction I took them to hike on Mt. Garfield and ski on Grand Mesa and we also visited Arches National Park again. Finally we traveled to Salt Lake City where we paid a visit to some of the locations of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. I also had some time to walk around the city the next day.

Finally some bad news for those who have expected me to come back to Finland soon (if there is any). I'm going to stay a couple of months longer to do my internship by working as the assistant coach of the ski team and as an assistant in the exercise lab on campus. But that's going to begin in January. For now I'm concentrating on the winter break when I'm doing a road trip to California with a friend of mine and visit some famous national parks on the way. Stay tuned for the report from that trip.

To return to my poor ski performance and horrible body composition I've decided that I have to start acting like an athlete again.

Winter is here (sort of)

Winter is here

I ended my last post for a hope of winter and snow. As it turned out three days after my last post we went skiing for the first time. The first few times it was more like backcountry skiing since there was no grooming yet. Despite this it was really nice to get on snow and skis especially because the weather was great on most of the days. Once they started grooming the trails the skiing has been awesome. Seriously it looks like Lapland during late spring. So far the grooming has been done using snowmobiles and those tire rollers so the tracks have been somewhat soft, but this week they should have gotten out the big snow cats. We should see that later today!

Enjoying the first snow of the season

Still skiing in deep snow, but in this landscape it doesn't really matter

It does look like Lapland during late spring, doesn't it

Now you might be wondering 'Wait a second, didn't you recently broke your collarbone. How are you skiing?' Obviously using only one arm. Actually skiing is one the easiest exercise modes with broken arm (except for "double" poling, which is quite though, especially in deep soft snow). Running involves too much impact, holding the bicycle handlebar with both hands is impossible and obviously all upper-body workouts at the gym are out of the question (yes, I could do the exercises with one arm but that would just emphasize the side difference caused by the immobilization of the other arm). So for past five weeks my training has involved mainly skiing, roller skiing, hiking and core strength. Now I can already move my arm quite nicely but not put much weight or resistance on it. But road biking is possible and I can go through daily stuff (like putting on clothes) pretty much normally. And yesterday I went for a short easy run and it didn't feel bad or painful at all.

Skiing with a sling (some four weeks ago)

What do you mean sort of?

The place where we are skiing is on top of the Grand Mesa (a nearby "mountain") at 3200 meters (or 10 500 feet, or 2 miles), an hour drive away from campus. After latest snowstorm (or blizzard) there should be close to a meter (or three feet) of snow. Despite this we haven't gotten any snow in Grand Junction yet. And on most of the days the weather actually feels like nice late fall days in Finland with clear sky, sunshine and day temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (or 50 Fahrenheit). And what I've heard from the locals there won't be permanent snow in Grand Junction during the whole winter and on some days the temperature might hit over 15 degrees Celsius (or 60 Fahrenheit) even during December or January.

Something besides skiing

Okay, I can't write the whole post about skiing.

Even though it's not such a big deal in Europe you probably know that Halloween is at the end of October and that in America it's a massive holiday. Even though the actual Halloween day was on Saturday October 31st they started decorating the buildings at the beginning of the week and the celebration (read partying) with costumes went on from Thursday till Sunday (at least for some). Of course I wanted to participate so I was carving a pumpkin (continuing our tradition in Jyväskylä) and for the first time put together a costume for Halloween.

It's quite traditional but I think it turned out to be quite nice

I'm really proud of the harvester/scythe (=viikate) (note the Exel ski pole)

A couple of weeks ago we had a day trip to see this beautiful high-altitude bond called Hanging Lake. The hike to the lake was pretty nice and there was a cool waterfall too. On the way back we stopped to enjoy some natural hot springs, which are built simply by separating a small portion from the river at the point where hot spring water is flowing to the river. This way the cold river water and hot spring water mix to make enjoyably warm pool. The sulfur in the hot spring water causes not so pleasant smell, though, but fortunately the human smell sense is quickly adaptable.

Hanging Lake, quite pretty ain't it

Relaxing in a hot spring pool

Last weekend we had a city holiday in Denver. This trip included a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday and some of us (not me, the tickets were like 140 bucks) went to watch Denver Broncos football (not soccer) game on Sunday. The city and the national park were nice, but I have to admit that this trip was too expensive and included way too much sitting in the car for what we got out of it (especially since Broncos were totally destroyed in the game). But not every trip can be a huge success.

Frozen lake reminds me of home (the mountains not so much though)

Some skyscrapers in downtown Denver

First proper restaurant meal in America so far: Mussels and toast. Nice!

Denver City Council in beautiful tricolore lighting

I still have to mention one thing about skiing. Now that the race season in skiing has begun I have realized that it's going to be too difficult to watch the races live. Damn time difference!

Something Besides Sports

Campus

In the first post I mentioned a few things about the campus area and promised to describe it in more detail later. The main thing that catches your attention is how well everything is maintained. Circled by the clean smooth paths are flawless lawns and plantings. Although there are no bans about going on the lawns, people mostly stay on the paths, unless they are throwing a football or Frisbee etc. The smooth paths also make it possible for students to move around with their long-boards (which there are a lot), skateboards and bikes. The second thing worth mentioning about the campus area is that there is pretty much everything you might need (seriously, you wouldn't necessarily have to go outside the campus). Besides apartments and dining hall there are a large gym, an Olympic size swimming pool, 9 tennis courts, a climbing wall, several beach volley fields, a soccer/lacrosse field, a full size athletics track, football and baseball stadiums, a library, a book store, a pharmacy, a multi storey parking hall, a pizzeria, a hair salon, a bike store, an ice cream/frozen yogurt place, Starbucks, a small kiosk and even a bar. Really nice surroundings indeed!

The lawn never grows over the paths

Studying

As many of you have heard before studying in university here is more like high school in Europe. You are expected to attend all classes, there are homework and due dates for everything. In addition everyone seems to aim for all As (highest grades). At the beginning it felt like I would have to spend most of my time studying, until I realized that the assignments and exams have considerably easier requirements. Mainly assignments can be much shorter and we don't need to use that many references, and exams are usually multiple-choice (some are even online and/or open book). Sure there are differences between classes. The thing that seems to be most different in the field of kinesiology/exercise science here is that same program is expected to suit everyone's needs and that it's all about science. In Europe we tend to take more individual approach and consider training to be part science and part art.

Substance policy

The substance policies in Colorado and on campus seem to be somewhat controversial. First of all you are not allowed to bring alcoholic beverages in the dorms but as I already mentioned there is a bar in the middle of campus. Secondly grocery stores are not allowed to sell beverages with over 3.2 % alcohol content (proper beer you have to buy from a liquor store), but as some of you might know the recreational use of marijuana (or weed) is legal in the state of Colorado (there are no dispensaries in Grand Junction, though). Thirdly the DUI (driving under the influence) limit for blood alcohol content (BAC) in Colorado is .08. Finally you have to be 21 or over to legally drink alcohol but you are allowed to serve it if you are over 18. And don't get me wrong; I'm not criticizing, merely stating the differences that might seems strange for us living on the other side of Atlantic.

People

People in America are in general more open than back home, which isn't probably that big of a surprise. At least here in Colorado people are more friendly and polite too. Everyone asks how are you/how's it going/what's up? (sometimes it is just an alternative to hi/hello! and the person might not expect you to actually tell him/her how you are, though), usually people hold the door for you (especially if they see your hands are full) and they often volunteer to help you if needed (when I got a flat mountain biking and was walking the bike through a gas station, this nice older lady offered to ride me and my bike back to campus). It's also not uncommon for a stranger to complement your clothes, bike or other stuff (my Fischer shirt has gotten a lot of attention) and it's much more natural to go and talk to random people. The one situation in which people are more reserved is classroom setting. Seriously there is way less discussion and questions during classes than back home. I think this goes along with university here being more high school in Europe.

Sightseeing

For fall break (one Friday off) some of us international students decided to do a road trip to visit some close by national parks and just hang out. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove straight to a campsite near Moab, Utah. Most of the next day we spend hiking in the Arches National Park in Moab and saw some amazing natural formations. Again we drove to a camping site and managed to put up our tents just before it got dark. On Saturday it was time to visit some ancient cave dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park. After one more night at a campsite (here there was showers at our disposal, though, which was nice) we had quite a long drive back to Grand Junction but the day wasn't just sitting in the car. We had brunch and some strolling in a nice small town called Durango, the road back included a couple of mountain passes with awesome views and we also had a quick stop in Black Canyon National Park. Besides the spectacular national parks the nights at campsites were great too, involving good outdoor meals with some beverages, warming fire, nice music and starry sky.

Some red rocks

Not a bad place to do some hiking

At the Delicate Arch

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde

Maybe I can include a photo of myself every once in a while

Mountain pass on the way back

Sports

Even though the title of my post says "something besides sports" I can't totally disregard the topic. First of all I finally got to hike Mt. Garfield. It was a great day. I and a friend of mine rode our bikes to the beginning of the trail, hiked up, had some snack, took a few pictures, hiked back and stopped for a wine tasting at one of the local wineries before heading back.

What a nice place (on the background Grand Junction)

Secondly, as most of you probably know, I had quite a big crash on a mountain bike some ten days ago and ended fracturing the tip of my clavicle (collar bone). According to the orthopedic it's going to take 6-8 weeks to heal and I'm having new x-rays taken at the beginning of December to check if it's okay then. So for the next weeks I have to be somewhat creative figuring out activities that I can actually do. Some things, like rock climbing and mountain biking, are out of the question and obviously I can't race (skiing) for a while. Let's see if I'm still mentally sane by the time this injury has healed...

Here is the rock I hope I could have avoided

But I didn't

As a result this happened

Something to do while healing

At least winter is coming and hopefully we can go skiing on top of Grand Mesa this week

Acquiring new experiences

Often when I meet new people here they are asking why I decided to do a student exchange or what I'm trying get out of the exchange. Especially since I don't necessarily need any of the classes that I'm taking here for my degree. My answer is simply that I'm doing this for the experience. (The even more common question is how did I choose CMU from all the possible universities in US. The answer to this question I believe I've covered in previous posts: the outdoors and the ski team.)

So during the past weeks I've been trying to participate in all the new stuff that I've come across and this way acquire new experiences (most likely I'll continue to do this for my entire stay here).

Even before I traveled here I knew that I'm going to buy a bike. Pretty soon I got fixated on the idea of buying an old road bike so I can use it for training in addition to commuting. I was looking for bikes from Craigslist and even though there were quite a few options it ended up being much more difficult process than I could have imagined. Either the bikes were in other towns, I couldn't reach the sellers, we couldn't agree on the price or I was too late and the bike was already sold. Couple of weeks ago I finally managed to buy the sort of bike I was looking for. (I know this is not actually a new experience but the bike has helped (and will help) me to do new things).

A week ago took my bike up the nearby mountain (Colorado National Monument). The bike is Giant Cadex CFR-1 from somewhere between 1992 and 1994, and it has carbon frame (alu joints and fork) and Shimano 600 Ultegra components (in case some of cyclists are interested) and everything works like a charm.

In my last post I was telling that I had been practicing (and learned how to do) the Eskimo roll with a kayak in the pool. So one Tuesday I decided to put this new skill to a test and went with the OP to Montrose Water Sports Park. Basically it was some 500-meter long section of a river that included some nice rapids. Excluding the first time I went upside down in the river I was able to do the Eskimo roll and keep going.

Fighting the rapids

Upside down in the river

The following day after the kayaking (if my memory serves) there was this bag jump event on campus and as soon as I heard about it I had participate. After almost one hour wait the scissor crane took us in ten meters and then there was only one way down on the huge air bag.

Mid air!

CMU has this clever "taxi" system called MavRides operating every Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 9pm and 3am. The idea is that students can call a ride to and from bars or parties so they wouldn't drink and drive. By volunteering to do MavRides students can raise money for their team or club. I decided to help the ski team and have done the MavRides two times now (they didn't let me drive, though, because I don't have an American driving license so I was the navigator). Those were laborious yet interesting experiences.

Last Saturday we decided to ride to Palisade (small town about 25km East from Grand Junction) to do some wine tasting in local wineries. There were quite a few of those, they were really cozy, had excellent wines and the best part was that in each place you could have 3 to 5 samples for free. After couple of places we figured it's best to call a friend to pick us up. But we forgot to remind her to take the bike rack with her so only one of us was able to fit into the car with the bike. So it ended up being quite a long trip for my friend and me. But it was a great day!

These have been some of the examples from the past weeks. We also went outside city lights to watch the lunar eclipse, helped to prepare the ski trails ready for the winter on National Public Lands Day, watched our football team's game, got to try crack climbing (super fun btw!) and hiked another 14er.

Half-time show of the football game

Crack climbing location (arrow points the cracks that we were climbing)

Air is thin but the view gives you energy

Another great day!

Colorado outdoors

City of Grand Junction

Grand Junction is located in the western part of Colorado and has a population of around 60 000, so it's not exactly a metropolis. The city is approximately 1 400m above sea level, which was noticeable during the first weeks. Based on some running sessions around the town there is the elegant campus, cozy downtown and a American style mall area (which are both located about 3 kilometers from the campus), but the rest of the city seems to be just rows of detached houses (I haven't seen any blocks of flat yet), fast food restaurants and car dealers (and btw, the city design prefers commuting by car to walking or cycling). But I didn't come here because of the town area, but because of the outdoors.

Environment and weather

In addition to Grand Mesa, the spectacular flat-topped mountain that I mentioned in my first post, just 10 miles northeast lies Book Cliffs rock and Mount Garfield (which I haven't yet had a chance to visit) and only 5 miles south-west there is Colorado National Monument (national park) with amazing canyons. These are just the three closest by natural sights. Within few hours drive there are several national parks, numerous 14ers (over 14 000 feet (4 270m) high mountains) and for example the Great Salt Lake (and Salt Lake City). I'm hoping to experience as much of this fantastic outdoors as I can.

This is the closest I've gotten to Mt. Garfield, yet

The nature around here is very diverse. Within like 50-mile radius there are deserts, forests, rivers, mountains, meadows and almost everything in between. Regarding the weather it's been pretty warm so far. During the first couple of weeks the temperature hit 40 degree Celsius on several days. Now it's cooled down a bit, but shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops is still the appropriate outfit. Due to the inland location and the altitude the day-night variation in temperature is much greater here than back home, though (as you can see from the forecast below). In addition on the mountains (especially at 4 000 meters) you really need a jacket, gloves etc.

Can't really complain about the weather

OP

OP here stands for Outdoor Programs and it's a really cool place inside campus. The guys there are every weekend organizing different kind of outdoor activity trips (rock climbing, rafting, kayaking, hiking, camping etc.). During the week they are having shorter afternoon outdoor trips and also offering opportunities to learn necessary skills required for some of the trips. For example this Monday I attended this kayaking lesson at the indoor pool and learned how to do the Eskimo roll (I try have video evidence next time). At the OP you can also rent equipment for all the outdoor activities if you wish to do them on your own.

A week ago I participated in two OP trips: Rock Climbing (Saturday) and Rafting (Sunday). Both trips started around 8am and we were back on campus around 6pm. I let pictures tell the story here.

In the middle of a climb

Scenery at the top of a climb

Another angle

Managed to get myself in some pictures too

Rocks ahead!

Made it!

Loaned the GoPro to a friend of mine to get myself into some pictures too (closest to the camera)

Training

As I mentioned in my first post I've been training with the CMU Nordic Ski Team. Our training program usually consists of six scheduled training sessions a week. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we have one-hour strength workout at the Varsity Weight Room (impressive place btw, there is for example 24 free-weight racks). So far these workouts have been mainly circuit type, but from next week onwards we are supposed concentrate more on power. On Tuesdays we are doing interval roller-skiing session on treadmill (we are using spikes similar to some Nordic walking poles in Finland so let's see how long the belt of the treadmill is going to last with at least 10 guys hammering it on weekly basis). On Thursdays we usually have an outdoor roller-skiing session and Saturdays often include some longer hike or roller skiing. Sundays are programmed as rest days. Obviously you can do some extra workouts as well. (you can follow the ski team activities at Colorado Mesa University Nordic Ski Team facebook page)

3.5 % and 14mph if my memory serves

Most memorable training session so far has been the hike on top of Mount Sneffels couple of weeks ago. We left from campus at 3am (yes in the middle of the night), began the hike around 5.45, reach the summit after 10am and finished the hike around 3pm. The hike included close to 1500m ascent, amazing scenery, some shivering (it was pretty cold up there) and mountain sickness (for an hour during descending I was like a zombie), dive into crystal clear mountain lake and quite satisfying feeling once we saw our cars again.

Perhaps the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen

First summit log signed

Relaxing at the summit

To be honest for the past week or so I've been feeling slightly overreached so I've been trying slow down a bit which is difficult when there are so many interesting activities going on all the time. Let's see shall I rise again or dig even deeper metaphoric grave...