Jumping Journal: February 25, 2008

More gorgeous weather...could it be...the calm before the storm.

 

I don't remember a wintertime weekend quite like this weekend ever before.  Both Saturday and Sunday were crystal clear sunny skies.  Getting one day of sunshine is hard getting two days back to back is even harder, getting them to fall on the weekend...impossible.  At least that's what I used to think.  The temperatures weren't bad either.  Lows in the morning were starting out around zero but the daytime highs were getting into the middle to upper 30s.

 

Okay, it's got to change...but not today.  The morning started off chilly once again at 5 degrees Farenheit.  It started out crystal clear once again.  By 11AM or so some high clouds were moving in but nothing that really ever covered the sun.  The high for the day was 43 and after I got home from jumping this evening it was still clear out at 8PM.  Three days in a row, something has to give.

 

Since high school alpine racing season is over and Winter Break is over as well there isn't anymore lift work to help out with at Storrs Hill so I didn't get an early start for the hill today.  I never left home until after 4PM.  Cannonball and Esky were in the lodge talking to each when I arrived.  Soon after Nick showed up and we headed on over and cut a new, much straighter track on the K50 inrun.  While we were finishing it up Bill arrived and help us finish it off.

 

Both Bill and I suited up and headed on up for an evening of good jumping.  Bill hadn't jumped the K50 in about two and a half weeks.  He jumped the K25 last Thursday and that was the first time he had jumped since Salisbury on February 9th.

 

The first jump was a bit of a surprise, more ways than one.  I didn't realize how slow the inrun was.  It was QUITE slow.  I set myself in the inrun the way I had been on Saturday at Andover and it seemed like one of the smoothest rides down the inrun ever.  I jumped at the takeoff, extremely close to right on time, closest I've been in ages.  The biggest of the surprises came when I landed.  I landed at around 30 meters.  I quickly knew it had to be lack of speed on the inrun.

 

Bill came down for his first jump and it was very short as well.  It confirmed the slow inrun.

 

The second jump was about the same as the first one.  On the way back up from the second jump Cannonball tells me to stop being such a whimp and to jump like I mean it at the takeoff, not quite his exact words but they do have the same meaning.

 

The third and fourth jumps both seem like my timing is getting worse.  The distance is getting better but it still seems like I'm jumping late.  Cannonball and Nick both say I'm preceiving like that since I'm jumping quicker and harder.  I was getting down around 33-34 meters on most of the jumps the rest of the evening.

 

The fifth and sixth jumps did feel like I was putting more effort into them, not quite as much as I have earlier in the season.  The sixth jump did catch me jumping late according to the coaches.

 

Jump seven was the last jump of the short evening.  It was once again a nice solid jump that did have rather strange feeling to it in the air.  I'm not sure what I did/didn't do but something was different.  I'm not sure if I did something I wanted to do or vice versa.

 

Right now the weather forecast is saying that by early tomorrow afternoon it is supposed to have clouded over and the snow is supposed to begin.  Yes...the calm before the storm.  Currenty, they are calling for 6+ inches of snow to fall, possibly mixing with sleet and freezing tomorrow evening.  This storm front was on the west coast of the United States 24-36 hours ago, yet it is supposed to hang around here for quite a while, at least until noon on Wednesday.

 

Jumping tomorrow evening may not happen.  Time shall tell.

 

Crash