Introduction

Hi my name is Claire. I am writing this blog as an assignment for my English class. This blog is going to be about my life including school, tv shows and cross-country skiing. If you are curious about what cross-country skiing is check out this website How to Cross-Country Ski

I got the idea for the name of this blog "Real Skiers Ski Uphill" from a bumper sticker on the back of a girl on my cross-country ski team's car. I always thought that it was funny and true for cross-country skiers (no offense to all you downhill skiers out there). Some of the posts on this blog are going to be about cross-country skiing, but before you start to think it will be boring just because you don't cross-country ski, I am going try to make it relatable to everyone. These posts will be about the funny and interesting events that happen during my cross-country ski team's training and during races. ***** I changed the name of this blog recently because I didn't want it to be just about cross-country skiing. I wanted it to be more general*****

I have been cross-country skiing for about three years now. Three years ago my parents forced me to start cross-country skiing. They would have to drag me out of the car to get me to go to practice. I hated it, but then one day I made a friend. She would make training so much more enjoyable and I would be excited to go, even though I wasn't really learning how to ski. Later in the year she moved I was sad, but it was ok because I actually started to like skiing now. Once she moved, I actually started to learn how to cross-country ski. I was learning how to ski more like a cross-country skier and less like a tourist.  The next year, I moved up to "Devo +" which was the ski team for 6th - 8th graders. I liked being on that team. The year after that (this year) I moved up to the comp team, which is the high school division for our cross-country ski team. The comp team is more of a challenge this year. I went from training 2-3 days a week for an hour a day to training for 6 days a week for 2 hours a day. The training is at a higher intensity level as well. When I was on Devo + and we would go on a run it would be a short 5k run at an easy pace. Now that I am on the comp team, if we go on a run it could be anywhere from a fast 5k to a slow 21k run.

Lastly, even though I was just rambling on about cross-country skiing, this blog won't be entirely about cross-country skiing. I'm not sure if I could write just about cross-country skiing everyday, even though I train almost everyday. So, don't be shocked if you see a random post about school or some TV show that I'm watching. Even though I ski for 2 hours a day 6 days a week, that is not all I do. School is very important to me and in my free time I am always watching TV. So again, even though some of the posts will be about cross-country skiing, don't be surprised if you see a blog post about something else.

A picture of my cross-country ski team before going to Canmore, Canada for a roller ski camp (Photo Courtesy of Ericha Oberg)