Weekly?

I know, the audacity. “It’s been awhile,” they said.

Now that you’re over that, just thought I’d post a little bloggy update.

First, I’ve been locked out of Facebook for the last couple of weeks, which means I can’t see angry people complain on Eagle County Classifieds, I don’t know what your aunt thinks of Trump AND, most importantly, I haven’t been able to take advantage of all of the spring ski sales.

Pro tip: if you’re looking for new planks, the Nordic swap n’ sell pages are the places to go. There’s always an NCAA or SuperTour athlete (or two) who is looking to make a couple hundred bucks selling their fleet. Many are choice picks with reasonable grinds. When Zak Ketterson switched from Fischer after his NMU days, I snagged his cold speedmax skate skis, a plus classic and a DP — all for $1,300! Though I’m on Atomic now, it’s safe to say I have the fastest ‘rock’ ski fleet around.

If you want cool stuff like Subaru Factory Team vests, you’ll probably have to go to Ebay….(Thank GOODNESS I’m not locked out of that!!!)

Anyway, perhaps God had good intentions for my Facebook lockout. One outcome from the ongoing saga is that I visited Craigslist for the first time in probably 2 years. I stumbled upon a listing for a free Quinton Q65 treadmill in Silverthorne.

If you’re unfamiliar with this thing, which admittedly looks less like a treadmill than the mechanical child of that old ventilator from your high school health textbook in the chapter on the polio vaccine and Aunt Ethel’s sewing machine, I will tell you this medical grade treadmill is the same model Matt Carpenter bought back in the day. Carpenter’s could sustain 20 mph at 25% grades. Even though the legendary 18-times Pikes Peak Marathon/Ascent champ had a reputation for his spartan-like discipline and frugalness (his wife once said she thought he could live on $5,000 a year) he did splurge on the specialty treadmill, which cost him almost $10,000 — in 1990.

When I saw the listing, I reached out to Carpenter.

Matt – 

Hope all is well!

I’ve been dreaming of Pikes all winter (my wife checks the baby monitor before bed and I check the Pikes Peak webcam!!! Just kidding, but not totally…..). 

Anyway, came across this gem on craigslist this morning and thought of you: 

If the link dead ends, it’s a Quinton Treadmill. Someone is getting rid of it for free!!

This one ‘only’ goes 15 mph and 25% grade…..probably good enough for me haha….

One more thing I thought of telling you the other day: has anyone thought of an ‘extreme’ Pikes Peak Tri? Here’s the plan: swim at location TBD, gravel bike the entire Rampart road and back (a perfect 112 miles!) and then hop off the bike and run the entire PPM course….want to pace me?

Let me know when you’re coming on my podcast!

Warm regards, 

Ryan

Matt informed me that the machine is “a beast!” but its running surface is really 65″, not 66″ as the ad mentioned, although you could get the extra sliver by measuring to the end of the pully.

“Bottom line, it’s so long you can actually slow down a little to drift to the back and do short little pickups to the front,” he stated.

He also remembered purchasing it for exactly $9,894.90 on 1/10/1990, which was a discount because the manufacturers had never sold one for personal use.

The email made me smile because every part of it screams Carpenter — from the specific details and forward-thinking spirit behind being the first to buy such a powerful tool to the little workout tip anecdote and the usage of the word ‘beast.’ Needless to say, I was inspired.

I got my running friend Devon to come help me load it into the truck (I messaged Matt: “I hope we can muster the muscle” to pick up the 450-pound load). We visited with the owner, who, like Carpenter, paid about 10 grand for it for his own personal use. He ran until his knees forced him to change to biking and Nordic skiing. He also said his brother placed third in the MN state ski meet many years ago; as the unofficial official Nordic ski ambassador, I commented on the John Bauer era.

Anyway – the beast is in the garage now, which means Carpenter and I share a few things in common: we’re obsessed with America’s mountain, own Quinton Treadmills and believe in big helpings of ice cream. Another way of looking at it: between the two of us, there’s $19,789.80 of Quinton Treadmill equity and 9 Vail Hill Climb titles.

On the project side of things, we’ve been working hard over here at Gripwax Nation. I’ve been so busy sending emails, recording interviews and posting podcasts there’s hardly been any time to perfect my stovetop stuffing.

After last week — where we ranted about being the 16th-best ski podcast according to FeedSpot, had MSU coach Adam St. Pierre preview the upcoming U.S. Ski and Snowboard congress AND worked through the 2024-2025 World Cup season with JC Schoonmaker — we return Friday with another round of weekend wins.

On May 2, I have a monster solo show with a gazillion topics (from Jantaloppet solutions to body image emails) to get your through that 2-hour drive to Lutsen. Saturday’s show brings Team Birkie High Performance Director Chad Salmela and new head coach Jake Stiele on to discuss some of the highlights from the past year plus exciting elements to the club’s vision moving forward. We wrap the second-straight weekend triple with breakout American star Kate Oldham. ….That is an 80-minute deep-diving conversation you won’t want to miss. … Oldham goes down in SederSkier history for becoming the first guest to refuse answering a question (which was actually a really cool moment…).

I appreciate those of you who have supported the Seder-Skier Podcast with your donations. Know that those funds genuinely motivate me to produce more content — most of which is in audio package, not a written story — and are being saved up for ski-related purchases. Someday, that might be gas money to Park City for a U.S. Ski Team fall training camp media blitz….for now, it’s more likely to be spent on glide wax or a coffee date with my wife at City on A Hill.

Which reminds me, I probably should schedule another one soon. We try to do them weekly.