Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Quick warm-up before the Loppet. Dressed right with temperatures around 0. Took a pee, too, which is always a good idea, but should have waited a little more. Legs felt a little heavy from 50k of racing yesterday.

Wow. Quite the race today having run myself in to the ground last night. Slept really well last night—9 hours solid—and felt pretty good despite the cold. Went out the back of the "elite" wave, and passed a few people on the first couple of hills, which backed up. Lots more people today, and less room than during the classic race. Conditions were quite good—although a bit hard for my soft skis.

I was working on catching a group through the hills but didn't have much V1 going up any of the hills. I slowly chased this group through the first lakes section and caught them on the hills. Great snow in the hills—great snow everywhere, makes me wonder if I should bite the bullet and move back to Minnesota :)—and I felt a little pre-bonky but sort of held on.

I was making sure to grab feeds—I wasn't fully fueled after yesterday's shenanigans—and we headed out on to the lakes. My group was three and then we caught another (Hans was one of them) and we slowly reeled in some singletons. One was Scott Kyser, who we'd seen earlier, but I didn't realize this until someone yelled "KYSER" at him 10k later. He'd recognized me before, but I was operating on about 5% brain power, plus he'd grown a beard.

On Calhoun—and I was surprised how not bad Calhoun was, since it was broken up enough that it was only 3k from the bridge to the golf course, not like 2004 when it was all the way around—I took a long pull for my group as we approached another pack. I caught up and then another guy made a real attack and I jumped on. We went right around this pack (apparently Ali was in it, but I didn't notice) and be put down some speed as four of us went well in front.

I stayed with them all in to the golf course, but bonked pretty hard on the hill. It was soft in the golf course and my skis ran well, but I was really coming apart. Back on the lake there was no one behind me, and everyone else was 100m in front of me or more, so I focused on staying alive for the last 2k and finished 58th (or so). I talked to Munger, then ran right in to the tent and ATE ALL THE FOOD. Then I changed, and found a heat vent and dried my gloves and boots, which was superb.

Really happy with the races, and with my decision to come out to the Loppet. Otherwise I would have been at Craftsbury, where a kid died (which is really sad). But to do two races on superb snow, with 1000 of my best friends, in the city (I mean, I took the city bus to the race on Saturday, and would have today if a friend hadn't offered a ride) is really superb. The Loppet is fantastic in many, many ways. As a race, but also having spread skiing and outdoor fitness and recreation quite a bit in the Cities.

I wanted to go to Gear West to get a pair of hard track skis. But, I didn't have a car. So my friend was going to pick me up. I figured Uptown might be a junkshow, and I had dry boots and gloves from the HEAT VENT so I decided to ski back up the course up to Penn and 394. I was beat. I slowly toddered back across the lakes—it was warm, maybe 10˚!—and then walked across some railroad tracks to meet him. Then got a pair of Atomic hard track skis with bindings at Gear West for $300. Nice.

Flew to Mpls after work Friday. Skis waxed and ready to go. Took the bus over—very effective, right to the chalet—and then saw Ali. Yay! Team Giggles reunites (sans Alex, but I see Alex every so often). Thus begins the day of crazy. Strapped my skis to my backpack, and took a quick warm up. Kick was great, and tracks reasonably fast. A few people were worrying about their wax, and I laughed. New, cold, aggressive snow? Anything remotely blue.

Ran to the start as I heard them announcing half minutes, and then there were five minutes to go. Great.

Yay, race! Started out pretty far back since it wasn't seeded and I was late. So I had to pass people in the first few hills. What was really nice was that the course was groomed four tracks wide, just really nice. Solid tracks, good kick, nice all the way around.

Made up a lot of places burning matches and caught on to Ali's group around 5k. I dropped back a little and skied with Hans Most for a bit, taking a while to figure out who he was (former Mac skier I coached). We were in a group of two for a while in to the Bog. I had decent kick and put some time on him there and then got behind a group on the lakes.

Across Isles I chased a pack and finally caught up with a guy. Passed a couple of guys on to Calhoun and then led a group to catch a guy on his lonesome. I drafted him for a while and then he let me pull and I did—in to the wind—in to the golf course. Nice rolling hills, good for striding. (Ari: You'll need wax on those hills. Ali: or arms. Ari: Not after 15k of DPing.) I had good kick and put some time on these guys. Then on to the lake again I had enough oomph to pass a couple of guys in the DP like they were standing still. Wound up 37th, 24 minutes back of Liebsch. Fun race!

Ski-o around the lakes. While there wasn't any elevation, there was route choice. I made a couple of mistakes, especially 3-4, where I misread a trail and had to bushwhack across some deep snow. Stayed about a minute behind the leader and half that behind Ali, and added some time on the fourth guy who I hopscotched for the first couple of controls before putting him away. Did not have the oomph to catch Ali or the guy in the lead, though.

Came in third but Ali forgot to punch the finish, so I beat Ali! Ha. (Her excuse: "well in Ski-WOC events you don't have to punch the finish so I forgot." Okay, great, but did you confuse a luminary-filled Lake of the Isles for a World Cup venue?)

Long - Splits

Rest/travel day. Waxed up the skis last night nice and good. HF blue over whatever gray moly I had, nice and shiny bases! Kick was Rode blue over binder. Should be fine for kick, hopefully it won't be too draggy on the new snow (I waxed a little bit short). Kind of flying by the seat of my pants since I get in at 8:30 and race barely twelve hours later, so whatever is on them now will maybe be touched up with the little bit of wax and a cork I brought, but I'm not bringing a whole new wax box. For the ski-o, just bringing my good pair of skis, which hopefully will be fine (Peter has said they will be) but I won't be skiing across any roads. But they're fast on cold, soft snow and guess what the Twin Cities just got six inches of? Cold, soft snow.

IOW, I am jealous of the Cities' snow this year so far (although not jealous of those days when it's -8 and you want to train but it's really too damn cold) but mitigate that with the fact that there's always the potential out there to have a dry, brown dreary winter where it's -8 with no snow. But holy moly the conditions this weekend should be epic; we'll see if I want to ski after the race on Sunday afternoon. I think it's a possibility!

Last ski before Loppet weekend. Just a quick shake down this morning. Trails were ungroomed from last night and the ruts were all frozen, so it was a good balance work out with the no poles. Then put the poles on and did two laps of the track, one with hill pickups, one cool down.

Then I went to drive home. Usually, I figure that after 9 I can get to Cambridge in 20 minutes. Then I saw the stopped traffic on the ramp, checked out my phone, and reconsidered. Two MBTA buses had crashed downtown, and the Pike was backed up to Framingham. It would have been an hour-long crawl to Allston on the highway, but I made it back on Beacon Street in 30 minutes. WIN.

And now the requisite Weston grooming rant: when I was leaving the temperature was up to about 20 and they were going out to groom the trails. WHY?! The correct grooming would have been to, once the place shut down at 9 p.m., go out and groom then. You put in a nice base, and it sets up overnight when it's 10º. Then, in the morning, you have a nice, firm base that holds up through the day. If you groom in the morning, it's not cold enough to set the base up, and the first few skiers mash it to hell. Guys, it's not that hard! Don't groom in the morning if it's cold overnight. Gosh.

One lap of no poles, then four of double poling. Once the kiddos were all gone it was pretty nice. A few lessons to slalom, but not too bad. Listened to music for a while, and tried to attack a few of the hills. Double poling!

Lollygagged around the ski track and got a short warm-up in. Didn't feel great, but that sometimes means nothing.

Oh lawdy went hard today. Skis were fast on surprisingly soft and well-groomed snow. It was fast (assuming the distance, we were doing better than 4 minute miles). Kudos Weston (except for some corners which were icy). I jumped in to fifth and pretty quickly the pack thinned and it was four or five of us. Frank let a gap form and John took advantage; further back I couldn't do much about it. I jumped in front of Andy but couldn't catch John, but Andy and I gapped everyone else. It was a race for second and I drafted Andy and then beat him in the sprint. I think? We put down as tied. Best finish ever at Weston. Yay?

Tooled around for a few minutes after the race. Felt good after going properly hard. Last hard anything until Saturday's madness!

Craftsbury: 4x12.5k
Loppet: 42k point-to-point
Travel time: 3:00 for each.

Quick run over to NP. Trailing other NPers most of the way.

Core, with pushups, burpees, air squats and "hoisties" which are fun. With a partner, face them and cross arms, gripping hands. Then sit down and hoist each other up. Yelling "hoistie" each time is optional but encouraged.

Since I was at Porter, Porter Stairs! 8 flights before taking the train home. Hard. Fun.