Training Log Archive: ernst

Midday ski, as usual Clyde's trails then over to Spruce Hole. Touching up tracks, and made a new track to EdenDale. In the woods: surface was soft (38F) yet compact made for nice glide anywhere, especially off track.
Waxless skis.

Continue scraping and shoveling porch at 38F. Much easier after yesterday's prep work. Then Nancy and I tried the new Minneswota roof rake. Worked fine even with accumulated compacted blocks at the bottome of the roof. Only bad part was that due to our porch, I could not stand back far enough, so all the snow blocks were crashing on top of me.
I used a helmet and ski goggles, but next time I will add a 100% cover (rain coat with hood, rain pants). Solar panels are now free again - keep that green energy flowing.

C • rake 5

Rather: Hacking the ice off the porch, so that the sun worshippers can sip their Espresso without having to trudge through the ice, which had built up very badly in the nightly freezing mists we have been having. Rather frustrating endeavor: Had to destroy the albedo at straight lines, which then enabled me (a few minutes later) to chip away at the ice with a sharp garden shovel. Throwing the loose stuff over the railing was another story.
Not sure it is useful exercise; except it cultivates strength for further ice hacking. Not my favorite sport!

My now daily routine using my waxless worn-out Atomics. Tracks are frozen fast, just a hint of softness, 37F breezy. It is starting to feel like at a race. Fun to push hard on the double pole and kicking it on the inclines. After about 25 min went over to Spruce Hole. There the pedestrians have taken over except on my tracks through logging rides. But still room to ski just off-track which is easy (on classic skis) in these conditions. Feels like spring skiing.

Then, after a quick lunch, catching up with Donna and Nancy and J on the Clyde's trails. Had to loop around in the maze a bit in order to find them. Had to stop and listen to overcome the crunching noise of my skis, but could not hear them, so just skied on a random route, and did not take long to find them.

Trying to encounter the right softness of the iced-over trails at 38 F. But by and large trails have already softened up. First try with Atomic rec. classic skis that worked so well the last few days. No kick. Then tried my Rossi Xium (my racing pair) which seemed to have a grey-silver klister on them. That did not work either. So bagged it after 15 min's and decided to try skate skiing.

On the fields and trails of Troy/Adam. That was better but snow conditions were variable from fair to annoying. The changing softness caused some stress trying to avoid catching the tips. Slightly more enjoyable on the trails with more uniform snow firmness. So decided to loop around in the woods and back through the field. My back felt strained. A half hour was enough. Skis: Atomic RS 9.

Needed to loosen up after the rough skate so resorted to the waxless Atomics to do a loop on Clyde's trails. Surprisingly this was very enjoyable. What a difference a little bit of kick makes!

Morning ski on Clyde's trails (W side of PFR). Misting over night with rising temps has covered the trees and the trails with ice. But still skiable, thanks to the solid tracks I had laid. A bit noisy, and half an hour was enough before breakfast.

Looping around and touching up the tracks. Went S-ward, but M&L (neighbors) had walked their dogs on my tracks, so abandoned this side, took a left to road, then on to the Spruce Hole area. Some pedestrians here but they respected my tracks, i.e. left them alone. I always track on one side of a trails to leave enough room for the walkers. Some get it , some don't. Then cross road and trought Mistretta's yard to get to the W side (Clyde's trails). Tracks were sweet! Fast, which enabled almost race-like skiing. I'll give it a 3 intensity. Good way to earn a generous breakfast.

with Jena. Going on the W trail and making a track parallel to the walkers' mess. Jena enjoyed the smells left by the neighbor's dogs.

Note: Distances estimated.
On to the Clyde's trails. Lots of double poling now, they are firming up nicely. Best so far. I keep looping, but interrupt my race training by making a parallel track on the N loop, where another neighbor walked his/her dog in my track. Laid a parallel track with 3 run-throughs on their loop. Hopefully they can read my "message" and not ruin my new track. Also added the three connectors which I have not had a chance to track. Then finished with some hard double poling. Skis started to slog and I felt some stickiness. Did it warm up? Indeed temps climbed from 26 to 28 and are expected to limb to above freezing overnight and there might be a little misting. Bummer!

Joining the Yowsa! club. Thanks to pleasantly wrong weatherman's forecast we harvested 5+ inches of super-dense snow - with some sleet and perhaps freezing rain mixed in just enough to make the best snow base ; all this at constant 20 F instead of the forecast 35. Let the fun begin.
Mike the plow man arrived a 9 am. Did not have any incentives to move the cars due to the wimpy forecast. So I had to do the supplementary shoveling, and then also the loop-the-poop for the pets and to the wood shed. A second shift at around noon for the mailbox, and touching up the previous. Total time about 1 hour.

C • Whimpy forecast 1

Then: classic-ski trail blazing. Easy job: Nor-Easter type snow blowing from the sky. Nothing sticks to trees. Instant perfect snow base. Kind of like skiing through the snow-canons. No sinking in. Tracked virtually all of the W side trails each with at least two runs, then also two loops on the E side trails and logging rides around Spruce Hole. Total bliss!
Jena came with me for the first half hour which I did on Atomic No-wax skis. Then tried the waxable Atomic Rec skis which had traces of klister from last year (Life is too short to waste your time with waxing!). Both pairs worked about equally well: easy kick and glide ; a few stretches of double poling on the slight down-hills - no serious hills around here. Both were also stable enough to create nice tracks. Used my newly acquired second hand Fisher skate boots.

A couple more rounds on W trails. The first slowish with Jena (to earn her dinner) , then by myself with headlamp. Tracks now much faster. Still 21 F. Was able to double pole about 40% now. Skis: Atomic Recr. with traces of last year's klister.

Early morning jog with Jena. 26F - wintry. I can almost run at pace with the old dog when it is cold like this: in order to get warm she sacrifices time spent sniffing. First 13 minutes, then second 24 minutes by myself. Love the cold; let's me recover almost instantly from hill sprints, so good incentive to do lots of it.

Then evening round. First 24 minutes with Jena (she needs to earn her dinner) then alone, and three more hillsprints. Repeated the route from the morning backwards: Spruce Hole to Colasante Trail to field, up the watermain towards Emeritus and back. Just about made it a couple min's before 5 pm without headlamp.