There are many different ways to think about the ending of an old year and the beginning of a new one. At some point we stop, take a deep breath, settle the events of the past year in our mind and move on to sketching a rough outline of plans for the upcoming year. For some it's based on nature-- blooming crocuses and new energy for life and all those introspective musings. Some use the calendar year-- throwing a big party one night to indulge in all sorts of vices and resolving the next day not to do so again. Birthdays mark the cumulation of another year of gleaning wisdom while the close of each fiscal year hopes to see us also expanding our financial wisdom. For most of my life thus far, the years were divided into school years with the start of a new year falling on August 30th, or thereabouts.

Now, however, there's a little noted day in late April or early May that signals the demarcation between past and future. I want you to be cognizant that for some of us, April 28th marks the first day of our year. For us skiers this Monday is the first day that gets written down on the 08-09 training log. The 07-08 log has been polished off and filled out to completion and now stands as a historic document instead of the daily news. All of the training and racing from last year gets added to the satchel of lifetime base training and now is nothing more than a platform from which to jump into the upcoming season.

It's time to stop bemoaning that bungled pursuit exchange, that race missed due to sickness, or that beautiful day when you absolutely, positively, and regrettably could not find the time to go outside and enjoy it. It's also time to stand up from where you may have been resting on your laurels and acknowledge that it's time to get back to work since no one next winter is going to step aside and let you beat them merely because you made the top ten, attained your goal on that one course or finally and painfully qualified for the elite wave at the Birkie. Nope, starting today it's time to learn from your mistakes, and your successes, and apply that to the next workout and the next year of training and racing.

The first day of my new year started off with a mélange of training activities. There were rock hard ruts in the trails at Hilltop this morning so we reconvened with running shoes and did about 45 minutes worth of uphill running, bounding & ski walking just below threshold. Along with a warm up and cool down, that amount of running to kick off the season is sure to make me sore this week! Then in the afternoon when the trails had softened up to a sopping wet, klister-demanding slush we classic skied and did five one-minute double pole speeds and then some more fast paced distance skiing. It feels good to start off the 08-09 season with some focused training... Happy New Year!

AND... if you read all the way through one of my more verbose posts you get a reward: April 29th, along with being the second day of the training year, is FREE CONE DAY at Ben & Jerry's. Nice.