Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Up to Windblown for a day of Ski-o. Went out to warm up on a section not really being used for the course. Already softening in sunny places, but plenty fast. And crust. Yay crust!

Did the long course first. It went okay, but not good. Partly due to navigation, partly due to a couple of other things (see control descriptions):

1. Off to 1 on big trails, had to check the map re: confusing trails near the start. Started 8 seconds late.
2. Took the north route choice to #2. When I got there the stupid punch card separated from its elastic. I had to get rid of the safety pin safely, and then tie the elastic around my map board strap. Good god can we just get e-punching for these Windblown events already? ~60 secs lost.
3. Eschewed the narrow trail and tok a more roundabout route choice for the start here. Then followed the 6–7 line which paralleled the 3–4 line (Jim did the same thing, apparently) and got to 6. Whoops. Wasn't a terrible route choice and climbing that narrow trail I realized I really didn't want to come down that narrow trail. Ever. Was frozen quite solid for going up, though. Lost some time here. ~30 secs
4. Errors here. I tried to get fancy on a narrow trail and crust, wound up going down the narrow trail and then back to the control. ~30 secs. I think this was also the one where I spent the better part of a minute unwinding the puncher from the branch it was tangled around. Good lord can we just get e-punching for these Windblown events? I'd gladly pay $5 for splits (/a donation to the Skio team or something).
5. Took the upper route to avoid the hill.
6. Took a decent route to avoid the narrow trail downhill of doom but it was sort of out of the way.
7. Nice route choice to 7. Along the mostly flat "logging road" and then whee down a hill. Not much navigation or turning on hills. Or skittering ponds.
8. Up the outside, then second left.
9. Actually went up here, but that meant that I hit the open slope and could schuss down to the next control.
10. Took the outside trail again; the climb up from 7 was pretty icy and fast.
11. Went east then circled back; less climbing.

I think I came second but given equipment and punching issues I would have been about tied had I, you know, been able to punch stuff. Also could have taken some shorter routes, since the narrow trails were pretty fast and not too narrow/deep. Verdict: it's time for e-punching, guys.

Decided instead of doing the medium (a lot of the same controls) to do the long course backwards: all the same controls. Thought about different/better route choices and went much straighter in places:

11. Same
10. Went up, then down.
9. Went down to the lake and across, up the crust to the trail. This wouldn't really have worked in the other direction because getting to the lake would have been scary.
8. Opposite direction as before; nothing to gain going up the open slope.
7. Shot down the open slope, then down the trail to the not-really-a-trail to the control. Again, the open slope catapult helps here.
6. Back across the NRAT trail and then up the narrow trail. I might should have skied the narrow trail earlier; not that bad climbing.
5. Took the low road, cut across to the control.
4. Shot around the corner to keep speed up, then didn't have to navigate to the control.
3. Certainly saved time here.Took the marked-as-double-track-but-actually-skating trail, then realized I needed to crust. Made a mistake of not taking a narrow trail, but pretty quickly got to the wide trail and took it to the other narrow trail to 3.
2. Skated the narrow trail—pretty fast—then down to the wide trail, not wanting to go down narrow.
1. Went south as the climbing seemed a little more benign.

Completed the course faster than the other direction. Of course, I was fake-e-punching the controls and saying beep. Faster than the punches. Fun to do it in reverse, lots to think about.

Having lost the long race, I decided to make up for it in the short. Went out from 1 and down and across, spiked it. Then up some crust and to the second control (seen it) and to the third from a different direction than the long. I planned to take the wide trail but the map doesn't show the configuration of the intersection at the bottom of the hill down from the house well, so I missed the turn and wound up on a trail necessitating a climb up the narrow trail with the steep hill again. I was pissed and skied it quite fast. Hit 3 and went down the narrow trail, then took a fast turn down the hill to 4. A quick ski to 5 on the lower option, then in to the finish. They didn't get my exact time (guys, if you have e-punching you don't have to have people watching for finishers outside a window) but once I'd walked in and found them we figured I'd lost a minute. But with my mistake I hadn't broken 10 minutes.

So, I decided to do a memory-o. I looked at the map again, then took off my map board (which also works as a table for eating brownies!) and ran the course again, no map. Spiked all the controls and had a good picture of the trails and map as I went. Finished in 9:20, which is certainly faster than 10 minutes. Although I was beeping and not punching the controls, but I made myself stop and orient myself with my right hand touching the center top of the control. Beep! Good, fun exercise. And fast!

And a cool down to take some turns down the Open Slope. Phone didn't record with the screen off; time to get a memory card for the GoPro!

Went up to Windblown for Ski-o. Which is tomorrow. So, great. Yay. Skiing!

Was pretty firm but the top was softening even early on. Which mean that it was sweet tele conditions on the Open Slope. Lots of climbing—only 9 miles but close to 2000 ft of gain. We went up and down some of the mountain trails which were manageable going down, not the case when they're frozen solid. As should be the case tomorrow, when I'm back there. For real, actual O.

RIDE BIKES! Ski in the morning, bike in the afternoon. It was warm enough, not too too wet, and … go. Went up to Winchester and found a hill. Biked the hill, found Arlington Street, followed it to Arlington. One hiccup coming down the bike path: a family of three walking three-abreast down the Minuteman. I said "on your left" twice and then yelled it—maybe they were hard of hearing—and then finally they shuffled out of formation and stopped blocking the path. Then the father gives me lip. "You're going too fast!" So I stop and yell back "I'm going 10 mph on a bike path. You're walking three abreast. Figure it out." Then I rode off.

New rear blinky is great, too. Yay, bikes!

Good brisk morning for NP hills. First 3x NP week in a while! Hills were fun, and the burpees at the top were not too, too stupid. Didn't always go full blast because there were a couple of icy sections and we were trying to stay on the sidewalks. But got some good hills in.

45 of them or so.

Was all ready to drive out to Weston to putter around for 45 minutes and then realized that I didn't want to do that. I wanted to bake brownies. So I did. Now I have cream cheese brownies for the weekend, which is so much better than puttering around Weston.

Back to stadiums. A bit of traffic since only about 1/3 of the stadium is ice-free, but then you do it four times, so it's good fun. My legs forget that this is hard work. Still thinking about a vertical mile. Fun to get to L3 and covered with sweat at 6:45 in the morning.

Warming up for Worlds.

And a couple of cool-down laps.

Fun race tonight! I had been on my trainer/rockish skis but threw on the new stiff skis for the race itself. It was mostly firm to start and got more sugary as the race went on, but the skis with edges were a good choice. I stayed with the pack as someone went way off the front, and it accordioned slower and faster every so often. It didn't feel that fast but we lapped through the start at 4:something, so it was pretty blazingly fast for 1.2 mile (not km, mile) loops. Finished in under 13 minutes. Fast.

I thought about a move from the back of the pack on the last hill but didn't quite feel it, and stayed on the back of the pack. Nothing shuffled and we all skated through the finish—which happened to be clogged with recreational skiers or something—in a pack that couldn't pass for fear or running people down.

Then we ate a lot of food. I won my age class (beer) and it's my last year as a 20-29. Luckily everyone else is 40+ (John moved up a year or two ago, I think) so as long as no one else fast shows up I have it locked up for next year, too. On the other hand, maybe I should shoot higher and go for the top spots (was 4th this year). Need strength for that. Which is on the docket for this dryland season.

Run to and from NP. Faster there, slower back. Good to be back at NP.

Really fun NP today. Circuits of burpees, wall jumps and "hoistees" with sprints in between. I got moving enough that I was going hard by the end. Excited about more of this (strength) this spring. Rollerboard is mostly melted out!