Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Toodling around before sprints.

Andy said "find three people who are different speeds to ski together so we don't all crowd each other out." Makes sense. I found a couple other guys and we decided to ski around some and not go out early.

The first wave, of course, was John, Andy and Frank. #MasterBlaster!

Skied around a few times. It was hard to do this and for it to be "fun"

And then the sprint. I came in in 2:01 by their clock, 1:58 by what the clock said and Strava. Without anyone to draft.

A little more "skiing" and then eff it, go eat food.

Run over to NP in Boston

NP stuff, including 5 minutes of burpies at the end.

More NP stuff

Run home.

I was supposed to be skiing the Birkie.

Instead, I ran in 60˚ temperatures in the sun in Boston. My sister needed to run 16, so I ran along with her. 8:45s felt pretty good since I haven't run and it's hot. A couple miles with Mark Vatour and a few other waves at friends. Small town. Still not Hayward.

Best part was when we were a half mile from my house and her water bottle was empty and mine still half full. I said we'd do a USAF C130-style refuel. She opened her bottle and without breaking stride in Central Square I squeezed half of mine in to hers without spilling a drop.

Cristina would be proud!

C • Refuel 2

Birkie basically kaput, and tickets refunded, so instead of hanging out in Hayward with the leaders of the Mpls, Mke and Chi tribes, I get to run in Boston with the leaders of Boston. It was in the 50s. There was a little snow to lie in and do one set of burpies in to stay cool. In February. FML.

And burpies each time around. These are supposed to be good for me.

Run to Whole Foods. No Birkie. 60˚. t-shirt. This is not fun.

A bit of a late start since someone left his watch at home and only realized crossing the river. Must watch for Strava! Minimal traffic: under 20 minutes. So only five minutes to warm up. But once again I got there after DCR had decided it was time to go home.

Worlds! Apparently I had been the cause of consternation last week and Andy warned me to take it easy (sure thing, although I don't know why other than I'm still a young punk who doesn't wax his skis) so my goal became to beat Andy.

I stayed with the lead pack for the first lap or so, but lost contact (warming up is probably a thing) and fell in to no man's land for the rest of the race. HRM battery died, so I don't know exactly how hard I was pushing.

Usually this is the shake out race for the Birkie. This year …

Skiing around, chatting.

Time to think about trail running season with the Birkie about to be canned and it being 80 in Boston or whatever.

March/April: base base base! Maybe some races, probably road given the season.

May 6/7: Billygoat/7 Sisters weekend
May 13: 50 miler at Harriman
May 20: Signed up for Sugarloaf Marathon. Might pace my sister. Might go for BQ. See how legs feel after 50m.
June 10: 50k at Wachusett with November Project
July 29: 50 miler in Duluth

This sounds like fun, right?

Out to ski, not much groomed since it barely touched freezing overnight (had to explain to my parents that, no, Weston-style "groom no matter what" is dumb; trails will probably be great tomorrow after it's 5 overnight) but I skied the not-groomed Hall Trail and it was pretty nice. A little sketchy down some big hills, but perfect coverage.

Now the Birkie looks less and less likely.

Super warm, and tapering for the Birkie, so an excuse not to trudge around on wet powder. Did some work, did some waxing (nicer setup at Jackson than my porch) and finally went out for a ski late in the afternoon as things sort of froze up a little bit maybe.

Still slow, soft and dumb.

So it snowed a lot up in Jackson.

Like, I skied off the bridge, which is usually a bit of a drop on to the fields, and went up. Probably 18" of snow packed on the trails, 3' up top.

Conditions a bit variable between sunny, transformed areas (slow!), powdery (moderate) and transformed-and-frozen areas (fast!). 35˚ and sunny, though, hard to complain. And everything was super snowy: all the sometimes thin areas were thick. Some soft pole plants but otherwise fine. 3' in a week will do that.

Should be skiing up here for a while.

Warm up, cool down, and in-betweens.

8x2. Left my notebook in Auburndale last night, so an excuse to go ski! Parts which were frozen were super nice, parts which were tilled at a slightly different time were slow.

Early trip with my dad to check out North Shore Nordic trails. 40 minutes from my house (check!) and where there was grooming was quite nice. A number of trails were just snowmobile groomed, almost ski-o quality, but I had classic skis on (we were having him try out my old classic skis for the Birkie, because they'll be faster than his old fish scales). Nice to tool around, proper goupy red wax conditions. Would love to head here some time after a full groom (they only have a sled so don't really groom when it's above freezing).

I got Wazed on my way to Weston. My usually trusty Kinnaird-Flagg cut through had a sea of lemmings following it, which of course led to a traffic jam on to Mem Drive and saved no one any time. Good going, Waze! Ugh.

Lots of traffic, but I made it with 10 minutes to spare (class until 5:30; next time I might just take the T, but I didn't have my shit together enough to take it to class).

Warmed up for a few minutes before the bell.

World Champs! First real Worlds this year, first one called due to rain, last week I had to present at a meeting and was sick. But this week! Worlds!

On my hard skis, which were fine. No wax. Pretty fast. This was the 10k version out on the flats (actually, more like 11.5k) and the first loop was quite slow, and the pack was together. The top four got a bit of separation at the start of the second lap and used Mount Weston FOLJMS to pull away. Skied that lap, generally on the back of the pack, keeping contact and not going too, too hard.

One more guy caught up to us on the third lap and after Mount FOLJMS and I decided to do the decent thing and take a lead. Nice not having to worry about stepping on poles, but coming back in the wind was certainly making things harder. On the last trip out the flats, in a dark section, I had a pole misplant and a bit of a stumble, and kept my balance until the guy behind me skied in to me. We tangled and by the time we got up, the front three were gone. He got up from the Twister game first, and I was second, and needed a minute to compose myself. No one really at fault, but a bummer not to get a sprint in.

30 minutes for 7 miles. Weston, in good snow, is very much fun.

And then skiing around and around Weston once again. I could have kept going but started getting hungry and tired. Hope we keep the snow …

When I got to the Ski Track, I went to pay for a pass. There was no one there. I went back twice, still no one there. Apparently they had already gone home. Must be rough to get a state job.

My total paid to ski at the Ski Track this season stands at $6.

Left Vermont a bit later than I'd wanted to drive to Green's Woodlands. Green's is amazing. 40k of private trails, groomed and opened to the public. Pretty great trails, too, banked downhill turns and all: well built. All free. They don't exactly tell people where it is but have built a pretty good-sized parking lot, so the locals all know. I've wanted to ski here for a long time.

Started out skiing and it was pretty firm. Did a couple loops, hit most of the trails, as the snow picked up.

The drive home was interesting, but five hours and one broken windshield wiper later I arrived. Lots of snow up there!

I should add … there was a raffle at the race. But Mike's phone had died and he needed a charger to create a random number generator for the raffle. So I lent him my cord.

And I won the pair of skis. Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

Drove up to Vermont last night, stayed at friends cabin (house, really nice house) in Randolph. Left this morning to go ski at Sleepy Hollow for a 5k/5k ski/run race. Put on by Salomon (makes sense given their product line). Apparently a thing in Europe.

I started in the second row, up a hill. Pretty small and subdued, certainly not worlds. Snow conditions were good enough, but kind of lumpy. And I hadn't exactly waxed my skis or anything silly like that. Kept contact with the top three down the hill, then lost them going up, but well ahead of anyone behind.

Going pretty hard and my skis felt slow. Had to pass someone still on their first lap the second time down a pretty sketchy turn hill, but did so successfully. In to the transition to the run. More like 6k than 5.

And on to the running. Pretty good change from ski to run and I was off to run in snow. Which is always hard until you come downhill, when it's still hard (because you can push) but at least you're going downhill.

As I was transitioning, I saw someone run by in what sounded like ski boots. Figured she'd gone straight from one to the other and was running in ski boots. I slowly caught up with her, passed one guy, and was passed by two, but didn't know if they were doing relay or not (also, didn't really grasp that this was a thing). But the girl I was catching up with was just wearing microspikes, and was part of a relay. I caught up with her by the top of the hill, ran fast down (controlled fall!) and almost caught the guy in front of me. I needed about 100 more yards to close. Oh, well. No injuries.

(Turns out the girls were the Davison sisters, so, basically, I beat an Olympian in a ski race and her sister—a good cyclist herself!—in a running race spotting her 30 seconds and a fresh start.)

Demoed out some Salomon carbon skis (light and fast, and apparently the camber doesn't differ much so I can just order the right size online, woo!) with Drew (who I knew would be there) and Vanessa (hut friend who lives in BTV and happened to show up). Small world! (Also, the Davisons know Lincoln and another friend from the huts was there.)

Snow was fine but not perfect, was out on rock skis in the afternoon. They could use another foot …

Went to sleep sick-ish last night, but no NyQuil. Woke up for November Project alarm. Went right back to sleep. Feel a lot better today. Correlation?

Snow run! Snowing moderately when I left but a heavier band moved in. Across the Longfellow, down Comm Ave, under Mass Ave (no traffic) with some THUNDERSNOW while I was running. Really dumping up Summit, and it got pretty cold for the last mile home. But, snow! Windblown should be properly dumped on, as should pretty much anywhere else in NH and Maine. And maybe more the next couple of weeks. Too bad it's Birkie taper time (but at least it waited until I got home!).

Ran out the door. Almost fell on my ass. Microspikes! Ran to NP gingerly, and the stadium was not being run. We ran suicide sprints for a while (I was faster than anyone with spikes and being able to stop) and then things got silly and I went and ran the stadium. Super icy. Super doable with microspikes. 19 sections, a good number for getting back in to things.

Ran home with Harry. Harvard sidewalks were treated and fine. Crossed Western at SFR and hit a state sidewalk over a bridge and promptly ate shit. Fun little heart rate spike there, though! Quite a bit of walking after that!

Yay having a cold, traveling, all the classes, and a three hour meeting at which I was presenting during Worlds.

Glad I brought my classic skis. Up to Eldora (40 minutes from Boulder) with Elizabeth for a slow, easy classic ski. My kick was okay and the glide on some very excellent old-school narrow classic trails was great. Beautiful day. Tired, and 9500' is high.

Then out for some really good skating. Trails here are hilly and fun. Still quite high; a few struggles getting up some hills.

So, Alley Loop. This race is amazing. It's also at 9000 feet and guess who was at basically sea level 14 hours before? This guy. But I wanted a race, and the snow is amazing (so much!), so how could I say no. Also, I'd made plans, bought plane tickets, and cajoled friends in to it. Drive up was in periods of sun and periods of whiteout, about 2" of new snow. (Friend has studded tires.) Minimal warm up because sleep.

I started in the third row and moved up in the double pole. Wide climb out of town. I was feeling pretty good on this climb and in the top ten and looked at my watch: HR was up to about 157. Hey, I sustained 157 and bumped it up to 162 for a half last week. But it turns out that 157 at sea level is not the same as 157 at 9000 feet. At all. About two minutes later my legs were flooded with lactic acid and I could barely balance a V2. Also, my skis were the right flex, but wax and a rill would have been very helpful. But I didn't exactly come to win, I came to ski.

I got passed by about 30 people in the next 7k like I was standing still as I tried to get my HR down and get the lactic acid flushed. Flat sections were mostly fine, but any time I needed to make a push up even a little hill, I couldn't without spiking my heart rate and flooding the muscles again. Oh, well, that's what happens; otherwise I did fine with the altitude.

Coming in on the first lap through the roads and alleys (so fun!) I was feeling better and content to ski at 140-150 (L2 is the new L3 up here!) and this worked better. I started picking people off as I was feeling better and they were in struggles. Lots of double poling, too, since the track was glazed and fast and the skate lane often soft, slow new snow. I caught up with two guys on the third lap's last flats, stayed with them on the final climb, and then took one on the ensuing downhill in to town (lots of fun, that hill) and the other in the sprint. So that felt good.

The race would be even more fun to be acclimated, but I don't exactly live out here right now. The beer at the end didn't exactly help.

Elizabeth had gone for a ski and then was watching the race and said it looked like lots of fun and she was definitely planning to ski it next year. Off we went for a slow ski around the homologated trails to check them out. Two inches of powder on top of the grooming, great skiing, but slow. I was in struggles, but kept it at L1 and played around with tele on the downhills. Great views, too. We both decided that was enough, and got very good thai food.

Verdict: trip so far definitely worth it.

Travel day. Because I am insane, here was my travel day:

0515 (CST): Wake up, stuff sleeping bag, get pack ready, run to train.
0541: Red Line to Lake
0559: Arrive November Project
0700: Breakfast post-NP
0800: 56 bus to office (not running because 30 pound pack), shower
0900: Meeting, last day of work/internship in Chicago
1520: 56 bus to Blue Line to ORD
1735: Depart ORD
1915 (MST): Arrive DEN. Rather than renting a car I’d convinced my friend (and first hut master!) Elizabeth to come to Crested Butte. Turns out, she had a friend who needed a ride, too, so we were doing good carpooling (that plan had been made at 4 p.m.). Bags took a while.
2000: Depart DEN
2104: Arrive at Subway. Closed.
2118: Arrive at second Subway, opened until 10. Eat a sub.
2315: Decide we should probably get gas before going over Monarch Pass. Four miles past gas station.
0:25: Arrive at Comfort Inn. Ski bum manning desk didn’t seem to mind three of us for a two-person reservation.

Anyway, November Project was mostly running (pretty cold out) and I kept it pretty low level.

Watch didn't charge and died on the way to NP, so all estimated.

CIrcuits, including suicide sprints, which we raced.

Six minutes of ab stuff.

Slow run home.

Ran from the Bean to the Totem Pole, just because. Chilly, but good company.

Run home after dinner.