Now my good mood is back. The car started perfectly and the roads are good again. So good that I drove to Hindås to check out their ski trails. The 7km one was supposed to be easy and perfect for Vasaloppet training so I took that.

My skis were prepared in a sloppy way (as usual) with Purple glide and for kick it was a Blue Extra base with a few top layers of VR45 which seemed to be rather right for the day. I still had no real glide but I did on the two nice long downhills. =)

I can definitely say that I will be transferring some spåravgift to Hindås SK for this because the track was absolutely perfect up over the fields. Superb! I even passed 3 people! Of course I was passed by more than that but who cares. This felt great. So great that I stopped after 7km since it had gone well and why spoil a good thing?

Guess where I will be driving more often?

How do you become better at MTB långlopp? If your answer is 'By doing many MTB långlopp' then grattis, you win an expired energy gel I found in my backpack! On Sveriges minsta cykelblogg we can't offer any better contests than this...

Anyway, I thought I should apply this same strategy to skiing. How can I be better at marathon skiing? By trying a couple ski marathons before Öppet Spår. Some searching led me to Intersportloppet which one could call rather perfect Vasaloppet training since it IS the same as HalvVasan. Will I manage 45km of skiing on 22 jan? I have no clue. But it will certainly give me a taste of things to come on 28 feb...

It's a sweaty -1C here so the snow is going and the road salt actually works. My car should start now but I am going to have to head inland to try and ski tomorrow. Over the next few days the snow will be gone here which probably means I will finally get my new skis.

I am in the process of feeling stupid again since it looks like I already missed the Sandbycrossen deadline and I am one day late for my licens application. This is my own fault as usual. Blä. But I am racing in Lund even if I have to take Sport.

For some therapy I have started looking into my MTB and things which could be changed. I know you have all seen this beauty of a new Shimano XTR vevparti and the fact that it is 40/28 makes it seriously attractive. So here is my tech question...if I already have XT (the 770 series from 2 years ago), can I still use this stuff or would I need to change everything?

This is proof once again that all I really need to train is a small field near home. You already know about my little field from Sävecrossen where I trained in the wet grass. Guess what? It is perfect for skiing also.

The part at the far end is basically flat so I arrived to find a perfectly untouched field of snow. No sled marks. No footprints. Just one snowmobile trail and that is it. So I made myself a little track with about 75m straight sections then another in the opposite direction until I had a zigzag of 4 fairly nice tracks, one with a bit of a hill. The more I went over the faster the glide became and I could actually set up some kind of interval-based pass. At the golf course you never get going enough but Säveski was pure diagonalåkning!

I can actually feel it in my muscles which is encouraging. Good skis or bad...this has done miracles for my mood! Probably because my car was not involved.

Should I start taking out spåravgift?

I am in a bit of a 'bad day' phase right now where everything is going wrong. Today the car did not start so therefore I missed Göteborgs Superprestige. I probably could have rode from here and made it but you know that they have not cleared any bike paths so I would just have fallen over and over and over.

One highlight of the day was the CX race in Zolder which was a fantastic snow story. But I killed my good mood shortly after by trying to get my new HP MiniPC to do anything at all. I thought Windows 7 was supposed to be better than Vista? Nothing works on it. Connect to the internet? Far too difficult for a netbook.

I also made the mistake of going to Allum which was packed so much that I could not even walk. Yes, getting hit by shopping bags and elbows is just what I needed. Did I find some good bargains? No.

Nej...this trend has to change. Time for some positive news. Give it to me!

Here we have the Christmas meal I just made and it is not so far from the real thing at home. Well, actually it is. But I tried my best with what I could find here. I did manage actual Paxo stuffing and Bisto gravy which they sell at the English Shop. Brussel sprouts are also an unfortunate part of this holiday so now I ate my share for the year. Okay mom? =)

Let's see how the Christmas pudding turns out...

I decided to brave the -12C cold but my car was not very enthusiastic. It started eventually but did not sound very happy. Up to Partille golfbana again and today I felt like it would be perfect. I put blue glide wax on with an actual iron so today would be great. And my kick waxing also looked professional. So why did I hopelessly fail again???

Glide? Not a shit. Kick? Plenty since I had no glide. Tracks? These were pretty crap also. I stopped after only 1 lap. I really didn't need this experience and I am thinking of training something different until my new skis arrive. Too many of these passes will kill my confidence. So, Pölder, what happened? An email said the skis were sent but Posten says they are stuck in Jönköping?

To top it off, I could not even get out of the parking lot because of the ice. I would personally like to slap the environmentalists that decided odubbade vinterdäck are da shit. They are shit. Completely worthless! Maybe they would like to ride in the backseat of my car while I drive through Öjersjö's 500 traffic circles and feel how the backend goes out in every one.

Good...now I have cleared my system and can enjoy Christmas day.

I know that you are all sitting down now for some Kalle Anka but before that I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Normally I am in Canada but this year is different. I was not really sure about my job so I decided it would be a bad choice to be there this year. Considering the airline troubles, I lucked out. But now I have been extended at work for all of 2011 so Christmas this year will be in March.

So here it is Christmas with myself which is actually fine. Many could never dream of having to go through this but I am perfectly okay by myself. We get along. =) It's one of those things that you have to get used to when living in a foreign country.

In Canada we celebrate tomorrow (25th) and I know that MCK has a TC-pass at 09.00 but I am not really sure I want that. I will probably take a quick ski instead and then sit and do nothing before making a nice little Christmas meal.

As most of you know, SCF is now requiring that all licensed cyclists take the UCI True Champion or Cheat training which you can find here. That is a pretty good initiative so long as they actually start checking for doping. Without checks, why bother?

In MTB I have only ever seen checks at SM but never at any of the smaller races. Like I have said before, it would be naive to just assume that Swedes are so innocent and would never cheat. But some like to believe these things. I used to hear people say that no one uses hard drugs in this country. Sure, and SJ's trains always work in the winter.

Anyway, make sure you keep an eye open for Lady GaGa's appearance in the very last module... =)

I finally managed to get up to Partille golfbanan after only 2 traffic circle slides in the car. Believe me...that is a low number. I was expecting -11C since that is what SMHI forecasted. So I did a good job of putting the Blue Extra in the kick zone and for some lyx I put on couple layers of Swix VR40. Out of laziness I went with the Purple Liquid for glide. So I headed out to the car and found it quite warm for -11C. Could be because it was actually -2C. Stupid SMHI.

It was very nice in the tracks today because there were tracks and enough snow the whole 6.8km. And the glide was great since I actually put the right glide wax on. The last two times were without since I had no clue how my balance would be. The kick wax? Nja...not very good. My diagonalåkning feels more like running than actual kicking and that meant I was actually catching up to someone on the uphills and falling behind going down. So this was 50 minutes per lap times 2 which equals a nice way to spend half of my birthday.

This speed means my Öppet Spår time is down to 11 hours now. =)
How can I explain my slowness?

1. The course
You would never compare 6.8km on an MTB XC course with 6.8km of långlopp and I think this is the same situation here. Partille golfbanan is not flat or straight and every time you get any speed, there is a corner, uphill or some other obstacle which means you need to start again. There are only really 2 or 3 spots flat spots where you can get any sort of constant speed. So I think this 6.8km is not really what I should expect in Mora. But it is very good training.

2. The skis
My skis are crap. Seriously. When I bought them I weighed about 3kg less than I do now and those skis are one size shorter than the new ones I bought. So I expect that I am slowing myself down with the kick wax. My new skis seem to be stuck in the mail in Jönköping but when I get them I expect one of those 'WOW' feelings. The exact feeling I got when I had a real MTB or my Ridley. Half of my problems are probably the equipment. I hope. But bad skis means way more effort and training for my arms.

3. No fanny pack?
Those bags around your waist seem to be important. Every store has special prices on them now.

We were talking at work yesterday about ways to predict if there will be a white Christmas. That's when I realized my prediction worked best of all. After I bought my rullskidor, I said that it would be cold and snowy for the rest of the year. And that is exactly what happened here in Göteborg. No rain or sloppy mess and depressing darkness. All snow and ice! Your welcome Göteborg...I fixed you a white Christmas.

However, my new skis are on their way and once I get those I expect it will start raining immediately. So that is why right now, once there is some kind of light outside, I am heading to the golf course for a round of ski.

Just thought I would take Inlägg number 500 to complain again. I should know better than to expect to get away from work on time for some skiing. It just never happens. Perhaps tomorrow I could manage but the forecast says -16C which would mean a very short ski trip.

I guess I am just a bit eager to get some kind of training now. And Wednesday morning will be the day. Since I need to stop by work on both 24 and 31 dec, enough is enough. Besides, it is my birthday. And my new skis are on their way just in time for that...

Twas a splendid plan. Wake up early on Sunday and make an attempt at preparing my skis for a lovely morning of training. What I was not expecting was the pile of new snow outside.

The plan was to check out the golf course in Vårgårda which is supposed to have 7.2km of perfect trails. After yesterday's iscrossen, I know what it underneath the snow on my local golf course. Pain. So it looks like my best choice is to wait until tomorrow or at least later on today when the tracks are prepared and lovely.

Yes...working on a Sunday is fine too. It's nice and quiet. Then I can disappear Monday afternoon.

When I arrived, Björn had already been there for awhile trying to find a good training spot and he seemed to be saying kanske inte to today's Kanskecross. The parking lot was covered in a thin layer of snow but under that was solid ice everywhere. I tried to ride over to where Björn had made a trail and took my first rather nasty fall. Icy road vurpa? Check. Rather sore arm now? Check.

After trying to ride on the grass and having no luck, we decided to try somewhere else. Meanwhile I was enjoying the humour in having pedal trouble next to the P Dahl building. The snow covered road was a bit better but I braked a bit in a corner and took icy road vurpa #2...aj. We ended up using a sort of cleared road but Chris was a bit cross already and I took it easy. Sorry for holding you guys up. Vurpa #3 came when I was not even on the bike...just on a little hill.

Finally we ended up in a spot where we weren't supposed to train and make a rundbana with some nice hard sand and no ice. Finally I could actually train a bit and then I was happy I showed up afterall. Of course everyone knows that the more you ride in hard sand, the more soft it becomes. But sliding or falling in soft sand is not going to give me pain for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I hope Lasse makes this an official Göteborgs Superprestige race and that we get bonus points per vurpa.

Now it is only 2.5 hours until Kanskecross in a special new location in Mölndal and I am behind schedule already. I thought I could get a lot of things finished before since it doesn't start until 14.00 but, well, nada.

Slept in. Had a peaceful relaxing breakfast. Had a shower. Now it is 11.25. Hej då Mr. Morgon. It is probably best to just eat and start digging out the car because that will take some time. And that I have just enough time for right now.

Soon...Snö Chris gets to play.

Before everyone starts their Friday night chips & beer ritual, I thought I would have a small philosophical discussion. As you know, I work in research and a good way to make breakthroughs and new discoveries involves thinking outside of the box. I have always been that type of person anyway. Like in music, I will like a group when it is new and indie but when everyone else catches on, I lose interest and move onto something else. Thinking outside the box is good for moving things forward.

The last few years I have been constantly thinking outside the box and my studies are showing that the box is not really correct anymore. Which is good because boxes are so square. There is nothing cool about a box. So my work has found that reality is better represented by a circle. This is great. But the circle still needs some work so now I continue my research thinking outside the circle.

Here is the problem which I just noticed this week. The people reviewing my applications are very much fond of their box. There is nothing more square about these types. No matter what evidence is produced, they will always stand by their box. The box IS the truth. My application says a lot about a circle and that is a foreign concept which sounds a bit like the box but isn't the box. Nej, the circle must be crap then. They are probably thinking like this: Wait...now he is writing from outside the circle??? Is he mental? I am trying to see his logic here but obviously he does not understand. What a horrible application. AVSLAG!!!

It looks like I have no choice but to write my applications in a very box-like shape so people understand. And maybe towards the end of the application I can be hanging a bit off the edge of the box but I should definitely not be outside of the box. And once I get the grant money, then I can say 'surprise...it's a circle' and continue doing what I want. Yes...the master plan is set.

And what news might that be? A free carbon bike for each person that reads this? Nej nej. Not that news. The news I was thinking about was where I announce that I am once again healthy and read for some serious training. And I will now cautiously say just that. I'm back!

And now that I am back, outside is a shite mess of water and ice everywhere so riding or skiing is not going to work. But the weekend looks pretty good in terms of weather, assuming I can get my car open after today's melt and freeze cycles.

So Saturday is on and Chris Cross is ready again.

Yes, you know you have CX withdrawal when you see a bunch of pictures from the weekend and think you have missed an entire season. Or perhaps after a weekend of online CX races from Belgium, you think that some guy on a bus in Sävedalen looks like Sven Nys. Without his hat, he looks nothing like our hero Sven.

This cold has given me some CX withdrawal but if I don't get healthy and back on my bike soon, I will also start hearing voices from sheep...

This morning is one of those strange ones. Somehow my legs feel like they do after a hard pass of cycling but have I rode at all in the last few days? Nope. Maybe I just felt some kind of sympathy träningsvärk after reading Björn's race report from Kristianstad. Anyway, this should go away after some sitting on my ass in front of the computer at work.

Good news is that I am almost through my cold and that is just in time since the MCK CX team is already discussing extra races of Göteborgs Superprestige and I have nothing better to do over Christmas so far.

What a better way to celebrate Lucia with some pics from earlyLuciacrossen? Well, okay, just one pic of me. But here is a gallery full of the rest from Björn Eriksson. If this is my new race face, I think I am in trouble for next season...

I am still sick and very pissed off about it, especially after seeing all that snow in Kristianstad. This is exactly what we have been training for. Would someone like to share some details about SuperSpeczialKlass? There is not so much written on other blogs yet. Sounds like all the action and equipment failure was in the women's class. Angelica losing a vevarm at the finish line. Classic. Lisa breaking not one but two bakväxel in one weekend! Was the snow that deep? And then we have Åsa who won both days. Guess who was well prepared for the snow after our Göteborgs Superprestige training.

Wish I could have been there to slide around myself. But I guess I should just stop complaining, get healthy and keep training for Lund. While everyone else is eating their way through the holidays, I can train like mad...

After sleeping like half the day I felt ganska bra again except that I keep coughing. I still feel a bit seg but this is probably just a cold and not a flu. I couldn't exercise so I read a bit before realizing I had to get out and do something. So I went to try and buy some skis...bad idea!!!

Every store said that the best ski for what I want is the Fischer CRS but no one has them and they are not getting any more in. So some tried to sell me their top model but warned me that they are harder to control. Not good. Then others tried to sell me a cheaper one saying that they were not that much slower. That is like saying my 14kg crappy MTB is only a bit slower than my 12.5kg good MTB. Finally, another tried to sell me a set of Atomics but said that my boots would not really work so well on them.

All of this pissed me off so I ended up ordering a completely different ski online from Pölder sport. I should have just done that first.

Sounds like I missed a hell of a CX race today. Dammit! =(

As you know, at my job we always go to work anyway no matter how sick we are. But for the second time this week my alarm clock did not bother to work. Could this actually be? The alarm clock that I bought at Clas Ohlson for 99kr on my second day in Sweden way back in 1999 has given up? Seriously, 11 years is amazing. By my quick calculation, that means 2.5 öre/day. My next alarm clock will not likely have that kind of running cost.

Anyway, the sore throat phase is done but the sneezing and coughing are here. That 'hit by a train' feeling is lingering also. Lovely start to the weekend.

Guess it is just time to accept it. Right now I feel like I have been hit by a train. And that is a very rare feeling considering that trains never move in this country. I am not at all happy with this but what can I do? So instead of fun, I get to sleep and sit inside. Oh joy.

I absolutely hate being sick. I guess I should be glad that it does not happen very often.

This is so jävla typisk if you ask me. I have been healthy and great for the entire CX season but as soon as I spend one night out partying I get sick. Fan! I tried the sovmorgon approach today and still woke up with a groggy feeling and a sore throat. So hopefully I will know by tomorrow whether this is just a cold or if Mr. Flu has stopped by for an unwelcome stay.

Sorry...this blog is quite useless this week compared to last week with all that wonderful skiing and cycling. And we just got another 7cm of snow today so it must be perfect for skiing. Bloody hell stupid cold shite...

Today has been very productive at work. But I feel really quite bläää. This kind of sore throat and sedated feel is never a good sign. The garlic treatment commences in less than 2 hours. So, no dating for Chris Cross the next few days. If there would have been any dating anyway is a matter for an entirely different kind of blog.

Why not check out these last 2 laps from Igorre on the weekend instead of reading my sick story. This is some serious mud and lovely stairs. With the current weather forecast for Skåne, we could be seeing some of this stuff very soon...

There are some things which are completely incompatible with sports and last night's work Christmas party was one of those. It ended up in a nice little house in the centre which was all mysig and stuff, plus there was free wine, beer and cognac. Excellent. So today started in a bad way...

Did I already tell you that the Finnish word for hangover is krapula? Indeed! There ain't no better word to describe that feeling. So, no sports reports today. But on a positive side, things are looking more healthy with da cash so next weekend's CX races are on in a big way. Should I bring my sunscreen for that hot southern weather?

My last entry was a bit negative so here is something to balance things out. Lasse has posted the latest Göteborgs Superprestige standings after earlyLuciacrossen. Check out 10th place! =) I also think we should get one extra point for every degree it was below zero. That would mean an extra 9 points last week and 1 from yesterday. Or why not last year's special 'double points for rain' rule? Triple points for snow would put me up into Top 5...

As you know, on Mondays I am usually pretty down and tired from my weekend of training/racing. But today I felt just fine. Well, until I checked my bank account. December is the month where money tends to fly away quite quickly but all I have done for the last week is eat. I am not eating THAT much but apparently it was enough to be shocking to the balance. This was a pretty heavy bill month in general but the difference is all of those silly things I have to pay now. Like tonight when there is the work Christmas dinner. Last year we had to pay for our own drinks and I pissed away 250kr on a single glass of red wine which was not even good. That bothers me. Then you have banks that like to take their annual credit card fees around this time. Yes, Merry Christmas. A couple more of these surprises and I will be living on Euroshopper noodles by the end of the week...

My day started with this lovely picture. No wonder people were staring at me and my bike. But will 10cm of snow stop us today? No way!

Lasse and Jonas succeeded again in setting up a wonderful earlyLuciacrossen course. Today's snow was different because underneath was not grass so grip was more of a problem this time. On my test lap, I (and everyone else) went full speed into a short hill with deep snow only to discover that our front wheel stopped dead. This is Chris Cross Air informing you that the emergency exits are rakt fram directly over the handlebars... It's been awhile since I have done that and it felt good that I could land in a pile of snow.

Today's real pain was the SPD pedals and actually any type of pedals. The only one who escaped this pain was Ted and I suspect that Tomas was involved in some shady business here. Afterall, last week he brought a friend who sat på rulle behind me and passed at the finish. This was opposite today. Ted had a great start and I didn't since I could not get my shoe clipped. I took many chances and could catch up to Ted at the end of every straight but as soon as I had to get off and clip in again, he took off and left me pounding my foot on my pedal.

The longer we went the more I was sliding like hell. One classic was when I jumped back on the bike and slid right off again. I also managed to slide in the corner where Aase was warming the glögg (Tack Aase!). Boy did I feel like heading into the depå for a drink but I waited till the end. Others seemed to be spread out all over and Mattias was in first until Björn took over for the last lap. And no I didn't get in anyone's way this time.

This was a lot of fun but and very technical and my legs feel strong when I can actually use them. Today was not one of those days. Again, I haven't felt fast since our CX Cupen race and it would be nice to have that feeling again this season. Let's see if the deep south will be warm and sunny for us.

Looks like we have gotten ourselves a healthy pile of snow overnight and that is great news! Cross Lasse and Jonas have probably worked out a nice little track for earlyLuciacrossen and this extra snow will mean snöhalka which is way more fun than ishalka. And the temperature is 0C which is like summer so I am more than psyched to start loading the car to slide my way over to Mölnlycke. Oh, and soon it is time to do just that. Yippee!

Now I have pretty much guaranteed myself a last place at Luciacrossen tomorrow. Or maybe using my muscles today is good? Probably, if I had been cycling and not skiing. I went again to Partille golfbana and today there were lots of people but not enough to make it actually crowded. The track was maybe a bit better than the other day since we had a couple cm of snow. But it was still quite slow snow.

Had my first fall of the season today but it was a slow speed thing where I kind of tripped over myself. This will happen a lot. I still haven't put a proper dose of glide wax on since I was hoping for more training effect but even with that it didn't feel like I was way out of breath. Under those conditions I can go on forever. And after 2 laps (about 15km) it was more my muscles that had had enough, not my heart.

I saw our dear friend Sven, designer of CX Cupen's best staircase. He has been home with his family sick so I could not convince him to try a bit of CX tomorrow. But he had superb skate technique so I am sure I will see him around in the snow again. The other thing I was a bit surprised about is that women actually ski. This probably sounds silly but cycling is a gubbsport and there are hardly ever women around. But skiing is almost opposite. Maybe we just need more women-specific bikes in this country.

Based on the time it took to do 15km today, Öppet Spår will take a little under 12 hours. But in my own defence, there were quite a few parts today where you had to stop and walk around rocks and things. So hope is not lost yet...

All day that silly De cross gaat door song has been repeating in my head and I apologize if the same has happened to you. Our Göteborgs Superprestige song is going to be much better. We can get one of those Bagges to write us something catchy but still relevant. A little love song since we all love this sport so much.

But to keep our costs down we should bring in one of those Idol people that didn't make it so far. Wasn't there some smiley happy girl from Lerum that just missed the Friday finals? (Edit: Madeleine Finck-Björgen is her name) She can sing our song. And while we are starting the creative process, we need some cool CX clips from our battles. In other words, someone should bring a videocamera on Sunday.

Seriously, Sunday's early Luciacrossen is going to be great and I hope that everyone will stop by Mölnlycke. For the map, check the MCK forum page.

Seriously, if I keep mentioning skiing I will lose all of my loyal CX readers. Philip posted this link in a comment earlier so, fine, I will post it.

If you try really hard and ignore the beautiful woman singing, there is quite a bit of lovely winter CX riding and a nice vurpa that took out Sven Nys. But they had way less snow compared to what is waiting for us on Sunday in Mölnlycke.

If that Belgian Superprestige can have their own song, why can't we? Who would like to write our Göteborgs Superprestige song? And then we need a singer.

Last night I checked around Youtube a bit for some tekniktips on skiing. Maybe I am not so far off.

This is a clip from a lesson by Elin Ek that makes me feel more that I just need to become efficient at my method and not learn entirely from nothing. Diagonalåkning I can do to some extent but if I get going to fast I lose balance and fall over. Maybe I should film that and put it on Youtube. Stakning is what felt most natural to start with so that is fine. But I can't say I have done stakning med frånskjut on purpose before.

So things feel slightly more possible...

Looking back at what I wrote yesterday, I can't help but laugh. It sounded like I was an absolute natural at skiing. But that is a load of crap since my technique was horrible and I was hardly moving. And maybe at the time I felt like Petter Northug during my stakning parts but, nej, I think he would take me in a sprint. Perhaps the strangest thing is my träningsvärk in places that make no sense. Yes...I need to join a ski club right away.