Training Log Archive: Ari-o

It was a bit warmer today—around 20—and cloudy, but good skiing. We skied out the Ellis, quite a bit of DPing, and then came back to ski the Hall. Felt slow on the outbound, but better on the way back in. Jess Peeled off at the top of the Hall connector, and I skied to the top. The rain, yes, rain, started at the top, but it was very freezing rain; probably still in the low 20s. Coated my glasses in seconds, and poles got a lot of extra swing weight. It was pretty fast going down, and I skied back to the center as the rain/sleet/snow picked up.

So apparently the roads were bad but the temperature was rising, but not fast enough. The trails were fast and empty. Why not ski another few kilometers? Came back covered in ice, with quite a bit on my glasses (useless) and poles again. But the roads went to slush and water, and I made it home.

Up to NH Friday night after traffic, worked well! It was very cold and thank goodness someone else had the OH nice and warm, up in to the 40s. We slept in the back room where it was colder, in the water-bottle-froze temperature. Took us some time to rouse in the morning (0˚ bag in 20˚ bag was more than enough), and then we decided 3˚ was good classic weather, and headed to East Pasture.

It was groomed. But had about an inch of snow on top. We went counter-clockwise; I usually go clockwise but the hills are more stride-able. We skied slowly and warmed up (overdressed) and de-layered. A while to the top, and the only two other skiers we saw we knew. When we were in the sun it was hot, when not, it was cold. And going downhill, that was cold.

Then we skied the biathlon range, and talked to Wayne for a while. Warm in the sun, again.

Then we ate lunch, and then we skied the Hall Trail. It was still cold, but we were prepared. Jess helped me learn to stuff my down parka, which was good times. We skied up the Hall with only a couple layers on, then layered up at the top for the trip down. Skating, more recent grooming, a little warmer, a little faster. But we both felt tired, especially after my unintentional intensity module this past week.

After some hemming and hawing, we decided to ski to the Shovel Handle. Only 500 vertical feet up, and about 5k away. Totally worth it for beer and nachos. And awesome night skiing.

And then we skied down. With a little extra skiing. Buzzed skiing in the dark is awesome skiing.

Bike to NP. Watch was GPSed, so I started it. Chilly, a little snow on the roads, but not bad.

Great day on the hills in Brookline. I felt pretty ducky going out and ran behind Kristen and Shira down the hill, then past them on the way up. I'd trade downs and ups with Shira the rest of the way, but luckily the whole gambit ends on an uphill. Hooray! Some guy mumbled something about "injury deck" on the last uphill and then I had to race him and won, even though he hadn't actually done four hills. Took it somewhat easy on the downhills because the sidewalks were slippery but I wanted to stay on them (wore trail runners with decent tread for just that reason). Finished strong.

Only time I've done four hills faster was in August when we did the hardest wind sprints ever up the hill and I almost puked and had to drop off pace after three of them. Just changed that retroactively to L4 because it certainly was.

Plus, I was carrying the Positivity Award. They let me keep it for the weekend. It's going skiing. A lot.

Skiing around Weston and not snowmaking in the morning. Very slow, lots of ungroomed new snow made. Yay, new snow. Boo, no grooming (but understandable since they do have to make it). I forgot that Weston mornings are only really good once they stop making snow.

More ice skating on the lake in the Public Garden. Yay!

Stairs after Worlds are hard. Like, wicked hard. I decided to go hard every third section and keep the rest as recovery, which felt good. I got to go hard some, but kept my heart rate from staying too high too long.

Then for the #GroupPhoto I saw a guy with Toko pants on and talked about skiing (he skied for Midd) and about how he has to come to Weston so there can be more people for me to lose to, or whatever. And then we were chatting about skiing and they were chattering up front and someone said my name and I didn't really notice.

There's this thing at November Project called the Positivity Award. You win it by means of them giving it to you. I've gone for 2 years 7 months and however many days, and I've done things like buy coffee for the people who woke up at 4 am to staff kayak rentals for us (for free) or suggest maybe shoveling out everyone's house on Summit Ave after a blizzard and such, and I'm pretty sure that everyone else who's been around as long as I have has won it at least once. So I wasn't bitter, but a friend and I decided that I was winner and still champion of the Negativity Award (which is more becoming for me, anyway) and that I was happy with that. Also, if anyone found out that I'd never won the award their usual reaction was "really?"

Anyway, apparently I won it on Wednesday. They usually give some speech and I've stopped listening because it's usually "this person comes all the time, yada yada yada " and then they give it to some Johnny-come-lately who started coming in October. So I thought I heard my name and looked around and no one else was running down the stairs so I went down and gave people hugs and such. So, yeah, I guess it's nice to win the thing finally? Annnnnd that's why I get the Negativity Award.

(Okay, so it's kind of fun, and a lot of pictures have been taken and Tweeted.)

Late evening, after meeting, to Weston. Pretty good skiing, but some wicked soft manmade. Had to get off half the snowmaking area when the lines came out had to go around, but got my intervals in before that. 4X4 (logged separatewise).

Much slower than last night: slower skis, slower snow. Decent intervals, didn't feel that jumpy, but 24 hours after a race and an NP.

Warm up, warm down, teach lesson, etc.

Fun times at Weston. It was pretty hard except for one super soft snowmaking hill. Skittery and sketchy. I held on to the lead group for about a lap but forgot that it's always worth burning matches to stay in the draft and dropped off. Then I was in No Man's Land for more than a lap, which sucked. Then Alex caught me and I skied with her for a while, got some draft, and then went out and won that group. Goal for next week, don't get dropped off the lead pack.

Course is nice this year; not as many sketchy corners, although no steep hills. But it is Weston.

For elevation at Weston, I'm going with 10m/km, or 15m/mile.

Run to Nov Project, after carving NOV3MB3R PROJ3CT in to the lake in the Public Garden last night. Not enough sleep.

Run around, get tagged, do squats, then do burpies. Not that I did any arms this weekend. Felt sort of okay.