2021 Season Skiing Analysis

I've been busy preparing for the upcoming hobodom. Most of the gears, major ones anyway, are purchased and being installed. The biggest, by volume and price, was the mobile fridge and it seems to work fine. It's one of those ubiquitous Chinese-made ones. I've heard stories about Chinese compressors failing within a year, so I opted for a version with LG compressor. Funny thing is, LG has been taking flak for failing compressors for years, on their home refrigerator. So I don't know yet if the extra $40 I paid will pay off.

The next biggest expenditure netted a 2000W inverter.  I'm planning to go all electric and no propane, so I needed the biggest inverter the car could handle. It is the most difficult one too as I have to tap the battery and then drill holes in the frunk of my car to route the cables through. The process has turned into an ordeal; I've spent good 3 days and I'm not done yet -- I'm now waiting for the additional parts to arrive before I can finish it all up. I'll write more about it in upcoming days. 

So, I finally got a chance to finish up analyzing the skiing of the past season. Here it is, read and weep:

I have made a prediction before the season that the novelty effect won't be as strong as the last season. That was based on the experience with biking: I was able to do 12 miles a few times when I first started biking; in the subsequent years, I couldn't without triggering extended PEM. I reasoned that's because the biking was not new anymore and I figured that the same thing would happen for skiing. And the results pretty much bear that out. 

Last year, it was easy to see that I was doing quite well for the first a few weeks and then the struggle gradually worsened. Not so this year. Though it appears that I was doing slightly better at the beginning, there is not much discernable pattern. I didn't do as well at the beginning because of the absence of strong boost from Novelty Effect. Then I reduced skiing in the second half and that contributed to the further flattening of the post-skiing struggle curve over the season.

Still, there are two notable, if not pronounced, patterns. One is the super-performance after #4. This is when I cut the skiing from 3 sessions to 2 per day. (Each session is 8 runs, followed by either 30 minute break or 1 hour lunch).  #5 might have had a good performance too if it weren't for the ordeal of tire blowout and the resulting 12 hour day. So, it appears that cutting down on the amount of skiing vastly lessened the post-skiing struggle.

The other is the terrible performance after #3 and #8. #3 is at the end of 3-session skiing in the first half of the season. And #8 is at the end of 2-session skiing. Which seems to indicate that the struggle increased as the season progressed even after the drastic improvement from cutting back. Whatever the remaining novelty effect there was, in other words, was fading as the season progressed.

It is still possible that I'm seeing patterns where there is none and the Novelty Effect is just my imagination. You never know for sure unless you run it through a randomized-controlled trial. But it's been happening over and over again for over a decade, that I'm thoroughly convinced by now that it is real. The fact that I can predict over and over again how my body would respond based on the novelty should be a proof enough.

Covid Vaccine, First Dose

Just as I was getting back on my feet, it was time for the vaccination. They opened it up for the 50 and over crowd and I had to get in line if I were to get on the hobo train by May as I've been planning.

First there was nothing available except for a slot on the 18th at my regular hospital. Then several more opened up the next night and I ended up reserving 2 more slots at different locations. Not sure if I got lucky or if the appointments were getting plentiful, but I wasn't about to complain. I took the first one the next morning and cancelled the rest.

The shot was slow to take effect; I was fine through the afternoon, and then got knocked out in the evening. I went bed early, slept 8 hours and then half-recovered by morning. I continue to struggle with fatigue and weakness for the rest of the second day though and had to take a nap for 2 hours in the afternoon. The day after that, I was back on my feet, once again.

So, it wasn't all that bad -- it was only one day in the penalty box. I dreaded about getting knocked out for weeks with post-vaccine struggle, but I got off easy this time. It's the second shot is supposed to be the killer though. I'll just have to enjoy the mild after-effect for now and get busy with preparing for the upcoming hobo-hood. It's a lot of work. I'll have to buy all the hobo equipment, install them, and then test them out in either Alabama Hills or Shasta Trinity, for a few days at least. And I'll have to do that before the second shot of the vaccine in 3 weeks. Oh, and I need to enroll in CCW class too. I'll be boondocking in the backcountry and I would feel better with a firearm on my side, for both four-legged predators and bipedal pests. Now that anti-Asian violence is rampant, CCW will serve another good cause too. 

Skiing #8 and End of Season

 I'm getting tired of struggling for 3-4 days out of a week. I think I'll call it a season and hang up skis. There are enough snow in the mountains though, and I may get tempted to go up again in April. That is a distinctive possibility given my track record.

Skiing #8 went without a hitch. The easy day was colder than I expected though; The forecast called for 50F, but wind kept it chilly. I did the standard 2x8 run mostly on the blue slope and I was done by 2 PM. If this easy skiing didn't avoid PEM, it would truly have to be the end of the season.

And it didn't. The post-skiing struggle lasted for the whole week. This time however, there was no getting tired-but-wired. I slept 7 hours and then take 2 hours nap in the afternoon for 2 days in a row. Maybe the Novelty effect has dried up and nothing is holding up the floor. I'll write about a possible explanation for this phenomenon in a separate post. The final assessment of the season is also coming in a separate post.

On a separate note, my form has improved substantially. I never had a season pass in my 40  years of skiing career until the last year and the season pass made a big difference.  From the Bay Area, it takes 4 hours to get to the mountains and I could ski only on weekends back then, so there wasn't much point getting season tickets. I'll have to again pat myself on the back for moving Sacto. Oh, and skiing alone must've helped too: without the social distraction, you have nothing to do but focus on your skiing.