Training Log Archive: Ørret

It was hard to pack this morning and clear our of the house in Silvaplana. We headed out towards St. Moritz but quickly ran into a water stop for a 75 K ski race mainly for organizers of the Engadine Ski Marathon. We watched the fastest skiiers go through and then Mark's sister not too far behind. I was pretty impressed at the quick footwork shown by many skiiers that allowed them to grab cups of liquid while not running into the volunteers holding them (most of the time anyway). We ran into Sam here and gossiped for a bit before heading off for about half an hour and then returned.

Oh dear, so I had a lovely ski today near Pontresina. Most of the crew went by bus to Monteratsch and skiied up to the glacier. I got out a little earlier at Pontresina and attempted to ski home. In hindsight I wish I had gone with the hiking crew to see the glacier but that's okay. So I got off on the wrong path after a bit and ended up on a side valley. Once I realized this I decided I was too far from home to continue with the plan of skiing home to Silvaplana and decided ski for a bit and take the bus home. One benefit to the trail that I took was that it was generally uphill so on the way back I had a fun little coast. My trail ended about 50m from a bus stop and I had about 10 franklets to spare (aside from a big bill) in change so it was obviously meant to be.

Ice skating again on the curling rink with Cristina. We had a great time and remarked on the beauty of the open-air rink set below beautiful mountains. I returned to my blue rental skates which I quite recommend (sort of like a combination of hockey and figure skates). Cristina practiced her crossovers and I tested what I could do without a bottom toepick. We saw a bunch of people try on different speed skates and two were on long-distance speed skates which I had never seen in person. Had I realized that they rented those I totally would have tried them but that leaves something else to try. In other news Jesse seems to have realized that we were storing my speed skates in her room and she has booted them into the living room. It might be prudent to review how to sharpen them before we move to Oslo.

C • Speed skate booting 5

Skiied towards St. Moritz again today. Was this the day Cristina figured out that I was not bringing my feet in together enough? Could be. About this time I realized that this is really supposed to feel like ice skating and it's a whole lot easier on the muscles to bring my feet closer together before starting to push off and glide.

In related events this afternoon Cristina, Suzanne, Sam, Ross and I went extreme sledding. We took a cable car (?) ride up 4K and then learned how to steer our sleds for the first 2 K. For the first half of the ride down I seriously thought it was the worst thing ever. I just wanted to get down quickly which was sort of bad because it made me want to go faster before I learned to steer:) Once I learned to lean on the opposite sled rail to steer in a certain direction (and learned that the snowbanks were generally high enough to prevent me from falling off the mountain) it was a lot more enjoyable. I still can't believe how crazy dangerous this sledding is.

Today I took the bus with the gang up to the start of the Engadine ski-marathon and was planning on skiing back to Silvaplana which would be around 10 or 11 K. I bought a ski pass finally and started on my way, the rest of the party quickly skiing away. I felt very tired and had to stop often but I was slowly making progress. I had almost reached the end of the first lake when Cristina returned in my direction to rescue me from the wind. It turned out that the wind was very strong and the return trip took less than half the time. At one point a big gust of wind blew me for a minute or two along the path. I was feeling 200% better about skate-skiing at this point!

I went for a quick skate this afternoon but it was cold and windy so I cut it short. This time I was on the curling rink and wore straight up hockey rental skates which hurt my ankles.

Cross country skiing again. This time I started my journey over Lake Silvaplana with Carson who gave me a few things to work on. I tried to emphasize gliding longer and skiing without poles. I had to stop a lot but I felt a lot more comfortable today skate-skiing.

Ice skating in Silvaplana with Suzanne. It was lovely!

First day of cross-country skiing in Silvaplana towards St. Moritz. This was my second time skate-skiing and it showed.