close to open

well the close of 2011 has been pretty darn mundane for me. got out on the skis a few times. commuted to work a bunch and still ended up feeling like ive gained some weight. i really should get a scale. the new job's fun, feels good to be back in a shop. looking foward to 2012. have the unnamed almanzo ride coming up and cirrem. stay posted and party hard.

the off season

well there is snow on the ground, a time of the year some would call the "off season". for me im finally at a point in my life were i can focus on training. albeit the temperatures are lower and there is no reason to go out for killer hard work outs but staying active day in, day out will hopefully pay off come spring. as far as riding is concerned i will be commuting into work. round trip its about 18-20 miles a day depending on routes i take. days i dont ride in i will be running, snowshoeing, downhill skiing and any other from of out side involvement as possible. between those activities i should be able to put in the ball park of 100-140 miles a week of fitness. while its not a lot, i sure should have my base training covered by spring.

Doberman 150 plug boot vs. Speedmachine 12's

so years ago i raced in a lang comp 130 plug boot. the performance was awesome, but it never quite fit well. freshman year of college rolls around and i opt for a new boot. picked up some nordica speedmachine 12's. the boot was awesome. roomy toebox, and a whole lot less ramp allowing me to ski tall. the boot served its purpose but after five seasons its packed out. shells in  great shape still but i now have a lot of fore aft slop in the boot, that i simply cant buckle out. kinda makes me wonder if i got sized into a shell a tad too large.

speed machiene 12's. 27.5 shell size, 130 flex

ramp up five seasons and im skiing with gary  at wild last weekend. he's in the new lang boot that is less ramped than the generation of lang i was in. and it even has a slightly roomier toe box. but guess what. so does his older Doberman plug boot. 

doberman 150 wc plug. 26.5 shell size, 150 flex

 Lacing up the doberman was an interesting process. the boot has a lace up liner that need to be put on first instead of just stepping into the boot like you traditionally would. i did a shell fit with the liner out, it was going to be close. This was not only a full shell size smaller than what i had been riding, but it was also about 8mm narrower in the toe box.  Surprisingly once i got my foot in. i had room, not much but there was room. and the fore aft slop issues i was having were gone. Now that i was in the boot with out my foot beds i was having some alignment issues. foot beds in and the alignment issues were cleared up but now there was absolutely no room for my toes. dam. skied the boot all afternoon with the foot beds out and man does it perform. for being a 150 flex it was surprisingly supple and progressive in its range of motion. lateral edge changes were incredibly precise. but because of the lack of foot bed alignment issues made it difficult to keep the ski flat on its base. im going to have do do some playing with my foot bed. i think im gonna cut down a trim to fit to a 3/4 length food bed and go from there. i also need to get a power strap on the boot. stay tuned for further insight. 

you can visually see how this boot is narrower through not only the toe box, but also all they way back to the ankles