Hai hôm trước đi bác sĩ khám định kỳ. Không biết lấy hẹn làm sao mà đúng vào mùng một Tết. Thôi kệ đi luôn. Quả lại tôi cũng không tin dị đoan gì cả. Tôi nghĩ dạo này chơi thể thao đều đặn nên sức khỏe sẽ tốt. Cân giảm được vài pounds. Blood pressure cũng trung bình.

Hôm qua nhận được kết quả thử máu. Cholesterol và glucose đều tăng. Bác sĩ khuyên tập thể dục thêm nữa để giảm cân nhưng không đề cập đến vấn đề ăn uống. Nhưng tôi nghĩ phải ăn uống cẩn thận hơn nhất là đồ ngọt. Bớt uống Gatorade và trà bubble. Bớt ăn đồ ngọt và đồ ăn nhiều dầu mỡ.

Còn được vớt vát là chất uric acid giảm xuống mà không cần phải uống thuốc. Tôi vẫn uống wine đều đặn. Thỉnh thoảng vẫn uống bia và rượu nặng. Không ăn thịt bò thường xuyên. Lâu lâu thèm thì ăn một tô phở bò.

Sức khỏe như thế coi như tạm ổn. Sẽ cố gắng thể thao nhiều hơn và kiềm chế cái miệng lại.

On Saturday, I took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to Liberty Resort. We arrived around 8:30 am, 30 minutes after the lifts began to operate, and the weather was beautiful. We hit a few runs before the crowd was pouring in. Xuân went on blue terrains as well as a black terrain. Đạo, Đán, and I hit two double black terrains. On one of them, I skidded into an icy area. My turn was a bit deep and I started skiing backward. My skis popped off and I slid all the way down. There was no way I could walk back up to retrieve my skis. Fortunately, another skier saw my skis on his way down and picked them up for me. Skiers and snowboarders often helped out when other skiers popped off their skis.

Around noon, the lifts started to pack. We left around one in the afternoon. Around 3:30 pm, I went over to a Scout leader’s house to grab a drink to celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We drank beer and Scotch and ate plenty of food. By 9:30 pm, I was already buzzing and thinking that the combination would give me a hangover and I couldn’t go skiing the next morning.

I woke up at 6:00 am on Sunday and felt fine. I was just a bit tired from drinking. I woke Đạo and Đán up to join me, but only Đạo wanted to go. Just the two of us hit Whitetail. We arrived around 9:30 am, 30 minutes after the opening time, and the parking lot was already filled up. In addition, there were buses arriving. We hit the blue and black slopes then hit the double black twice. We did six runs and went back home. The lines were simply too long and I wanted Đạo to rest before school on Monday.

Whitetail is definitely not a place to ski on the weekends. It is just too damn crowded, especially the lift for the green slopes. The lift for the black and double black slopes was faster, which made sense because not too many people could ski or snowboard on these terrains.

It was a great weekend. I am trying to ski as much as I can before the season is over. I am getting a ton of workout, I think.

I worked on my ice skating’s salchow jump for weeks, but I couldn’t get it down. My balance was off and I couldn’t land to check out. I got frustrated and put it on hold to focus on skiing.

Today I went back, after taking a week off the rink, to work on the salchow jump again. I fell twice; therefore, I tried hopping instead of jumping. I focused on my hands-and-feet coordinations and made sure my technicality was correct. Then it started to click. I was able to land and check out without tipping over or falling.

Now that I got the basic concept down, I need to practice to do the actual jump. I am not quite there yet, but I am making progress. I can’t wait to do some more.

Learning on my own seems to be much slower than with an instructor, but I am not in any rush. I just need to do it at my own pace.

Since the kids had no school yesterday, we headed back to Liberty Mountain Resort. Because it was Monday, the lift lines weren’t too crowded. We arrived around 10:30 am and split up. Đạo and Đán went on their own. They hit the blue and black slopes. My wife worked on her turns at the bunny slope. I took Xuân and Vương on the green slopes. Vương enjoyed riding the lift he referred to as the magic seat. With the harness, I helped control his speed and his turns.

After we had lunch, I took Xuân and Vương on the bigger, longer green slope. Xuân went straight down the slope. Vương did the same thing, but I had to slow him down because he didn’t know how to brake yet. We did it for three runs before he got tired and wanted his mommy. I was surprised that he lasted for almost four hours.

As Xuân and Vương went to the warming room to rest with my wife, I hit the black slopes with Đạo and Đán. They took me to the double black diamond slopes. When I looked down, the steepness of the slopes appeared intimidating. There was no way I could make my way down without flipping. Then Đạo and Đán went down with ease. They gave me the confidence to give it a shot. I combined short turns, hockey stops, and a bit of carvings to navigate my way down. To my surprise, I did not fall at all on both double black diamond slopes.

I tried out the blue mogul terrain. I had a bit of trouble getting around the big moguls a bit. I need more practice on how to ski on top of the moguls.

I loved skiing with these two kids. Đán is fearless and Đạo is cautious. I am in between them.

Took our little family to Whitetail today. I was expecting the resort to be packed, but I didn’t expect it to be super packed. The lines to the lifts were long. I could only manage to get Vương on the magic carpet once. He was tired and sleepy so I had to hand him over to my wife.

Đạo, Đán, Xuân and I went on a blue slope. Xuân was a bit intimidated and a ski patrol taught him side-slipping down the steep hills. As I was waiting for him to go down, I saw two snowboarders crashing into each other. One of them had to be transported down on a stretcher.

I took Xuân to the green slope, but the lift line took 40 minutes. He zoomed down the slope and went in with his mom. I joined Đạo on the blue slopes. We did two runs. They were fantastic. We’re planning on going back on Monday since the kids will still be off from school. The lines won’t be too crowded then.

Today only my oldest son, Đạo, and I went skiing at Liberty Resort. My wife thought it was too cold, but the weather turned out perfect. The sunshine made the temperature felt warmer. Since today is still a weekday, the resort was not too crowded. We were able to get on the lifts quickly.

We skied down all the green and blue slopes. They were fun. We skied down the black slope twice. I could control my speed much better with short turns. I attempted to try the double black, but it looked too steep. I backed out.

I am still trying to learn carvings. They were trickier than I thought, but I’ll get them. I just need more practice. We skied for about four hours and were exhausted. We headed home early before the sun went down. We had a great time together. I rarely got to spend time alone with one of my kids; therefore, I treasured every moment. Đạo is just a wonderful kid, especially when his siblings weren’t around. He acted much more mature.

I wish Đán, Xuân, and Vương joined us, but we’ll go again tomorrow. I bet Saturday will be extremely crowded though. We’ll see.

My cousin, Duy, who was a snowboarding instructor, insisted that I should give snowboarding another shot. Yesterday, we went back to Roundtop to take some snowboarding lessons from him.

Đán had already mastered his snowboarding skills and he could do the black slope at Roundtop. Đạo, Xuân, and I were still new. Duy taught us to keep our knees bent and our body constant in a strong position. We just needed to turn our shoulders from left to right to turn. Unfortunately, it was more difficult and it sounded. I kept falling. Đạo and I didn’t make it too far before switching back to skiing. Xuân stuck to snowboarding and did quite well. He liked taking one-on-one lessons with Duy; therefore, I left them on the bunny slope and went on the black slope with Đán.

I loved the thrill of skiing down the black slopes. My parallel turns and hockey stops allowed me to navigate around the steep slopes and moguls. My next goal is to learn carvings. The kids will have a four-day weekend this week. I can’t wait to get back to skiing, which is my focus for now. I might get back to snowboarding one day, but not this season.

Yesterday, we went back to the Liberty resort for the second time. The first time we skied at Liberty was two years ago and we didn’t have Epic passes. We bought packages that included lift tickets, rentals, and group lessons. Đạo and Đán didn’t want to take their lessons; therefore, I used them. I took three lessons on the same day. The instructors knew me. One of them took me on the green terrain and I was scared. Now it feels so easy.

Today I spent half a day skiing with Vương. Using a harness, I took him on the ski lift. The harness also allowed me to help him turn. He enjoyed the “magic seat” as well as skiing with me. It took us almost two hour to stand in line for the lift. It was super crowded.

After Vương didn’t want to ski anymore, I went alone on the blue terrain. The single line moved much faster. I went down three times and it was time to go home. I tried carving and fell on the green slope. I guess I was leaning too far to the side. I need more practice.

I spent three sessions learning the salchow jump and I still haven’t nailed it. Although the salchow has not clicked, something else has. I went back to the power pulls and I was able to move on one foot for each leg. I have been working on and off on the power pulls for almost a year and they only started to make sense last night. I was so happy about that. I will continued to pull more to gain more power. I will take my time on the backward pulls.

I might switch to the toe loop jump before returning to the salchow. The toe loop jump looks a bit easier, but I am not so sure. Learning on my own is harder than I thought, but I am working at my own pace rather than having to keep up with my classmates. That was stressful about taking group lesson. I don’t want to be the only incompetent skater.

I can’t wait to get back to skiing this weekend. I discovered the carving technique and had been watching several videos on it. Instead of paralleling on my flat skis, I will use my edges by bending my knees and leaning from side to side. Carving will give me more control on steeper slopes. I can’t wait to try it out.

Now that the kids are back to school and I am back to work, I am picking ice skating again. Instead of taking group lesson for Freestyle 3, I am learning on my own with Coach Julia’s YouTube channel.

I can complete one revolution for backward outside pivot. I just need an additional half revolution. Backward inside pivot is a bit tricky, but I also could do one revolution. I can do back arabesques on both feet. I just need more refinements. I am starting to learn the salchow jump. It’s a bit harder than I had imagined, but I am getting there. I haven’t explore the toe loop jump or the toe walley jump. I’ll work on those after the salchow.

The only moves I will be missing are change foot spin and dance step sequence for Freestyle 3. I can’t find any instruction for the dance step sequence on YouTube. I am going to skip the change foot spin altogether since I am not a spinner.

Today at lunch, I went to the Pentagon Row outside ice rink to practice. Unfortunately the ice was hard and clear due to the cold temperature. The surface was also bumpy; therefore, I only skated for 15 minutes and left. I didn’t want to take any risk to practice my salchow jump. I needed an indoor rink to practice. I’ll return to either Fairfax Ice Arena or MedStar Capitals Iceplex.