Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: US Ski-O Championships
 

Warming up for Ski-O. So perfect conditions, sad we couldn't ski all the trails! I went back and forth a bit looking at controls in the model area which was basically not groomed, and then went and skied a short loop before my start.

Ski-O! I did pretty okay in the race today; 4th overall and 3rd US. I had a few bobbles but no big mistakes (or mispunches) and it's probably the most technical of the courses, so maybe I can throw down some skiing tomorrow. Really fun course to ski. I did not Strava it because that would not be okay, so here is what I think I did (subject to revision and seeing the map).

I did okay to 1 and 2, although I maybe should have stayed up on the hill for 1 and should have cut through fresh snow to 2. Took the big trail to 3, then across to 4 and 5. Good at looking at the map and saying the controls out loud so I didn't mispunch. Lost time in to 6 as I skidded in to the snow but decided there was way too much to go wading through the woods with skis off, and apparently lost time from 7 to 8 when it took me a while to figure out that I needed to duck through the woods.

I lost time to Adrian et al the rest of the way in, especially it seems on the more navigatey legs, so hopefully tomorrow I can ski a bit more but still navigate cleanly. Ski-o is fun!

Decided to ski more. Went down and did the non-embargoed loops again. Pretty perfect skiing. Fast and smooth and shiny and pretty. Hills, too; got hot.

Sprint Course 4 - Splits

All the way around the stadium. Not all the stairs, but still. Looking to get back to full stadia after ski season.

Shorter than anticipated; went to help my dad make brisket, so ran to Coolidge to eat pizza first. Turns out that this is a short run to Coolidge Corner—two miles flat. Okay then. Seems longer when you're driving.

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!