Training Log Archive: Ari-o

As long as I don't get sick, this should be the best December I've logged, a combination of snow and not being sick/injured.

2013: 33h
Run 16h, 104mi, 3400m
Ski/rollerski 15h, 126mi, 3200m
Highlights: healthy, good snow mid-month and post-xmas

2014: 27h
Run 14h, 89 mi, 4900m
Ski 13h, 110 mi, 3500m
Highlights: Good snow weekends, healthy except for end of month.

2015: 23h
Run 3.5h, 27 mi, 50m
Rollerski 15h, 152mi, 2600m
Bicycle 3.5h, 54 mi, 300m
Highlights: None, really. Injured ankle, no snow. Lots of rollerskiing to somehow get 23h logged.

2016: 28h (so far!)
Run 13.5h, 84 mi, 4500m
Ski/rollerski 14.5h, 117 mi, 2900m
Highlights: PR on hills (coming off PR on stairs in Nov), trail marathon, lots of NP, Worlds at Weston. Basically have matched previous highs in ski and run hours, with more vert, and 12-15h upcoming at MSA. Hopefully a good December will translate in to a good January and February (Birkie).

At my parents house using their bougie laundry to wash my down sleeping bag and jacket (which haven't been washed in … let's go with "a while"). During a dry cycle I took off to the Blue Hills for a quick run since I'm half way there. Ran the yellow trail and felt excellent. A couple of icy bits, otherwise smooth sailing around. HR started fast but might have been a reader thing, or it could have been running up a hill. One woman said "aren't you cold?" seeing me in shorts. Uh, no. 5 out of 47 on Strava for the loop.

Good proper OD! Goals were pretty simple: ski a lot, create a new Strava segment up the new Kellogg Trail, and go for the KOM for the Strava segment up the new Keeney Trail. This was successful on all counts. (I'd planned to start earlier, but we cracked a growler of Hill Farmstead a the OH and it was an 8% beer and of course we had to finish it so it was a later morning than planned.)

It was pretty frozen and fast—right around 30˚—out the Ellis, up over the hill, and all the way out to Rocky Branch. The new Kellogg Trail, named in memory of OH (Lakes Hutmaster), CSU member, USBA and USST team member and 1968 Olympian Charlie Kellogg and I wanted the Strava segment up the hill to be named something other than "Forest Service Road Climb" or some such. So when I got there, I pushed as best I could, but it is a beast of a hill. Strava says an average 15% grade. Okay, then.

The up the North Hall, which was pretty fast, then screaming back down to Rocky Branch, and down the Kellogg (holy parallel turn, batman) and down along the Ellis to the new Keeney Trail. Goal: go fast, hope to set the CR/KOM (whatever it is for skiing). I won't hold it, but at least I'll have it. So I pushed up, and it started snowing, but didn't get slow until near the top. Lovely train and climb. Took the KOM by 3 minutes as it turns out (and more than twice as fast as Lincoln and Jess slogging through the blizzard last week; the trail has been groomed for maybe 10 days and already 9 people have skied it on Strava).

Then with the new snow things started getting slow. Or maybe the 30k of skiing. I went all the way up the new connector over to the Hall Trail (quite nice) and the last half mile or so which was real rock skiing. They would only have to fix about 2k more of trail up there (which might not be that easy since it's swampy) to have the full loop skiable with a foot of snow (well, two short sections along the river, too, one of which can be navigated around). Then you could run the White Mountain Classic as:

Around field, over covered bridge, under Route 16, one road crossing, out Ellis, up Wifferdill, up Hall Connector, up Hall, down Keeney, out Ellis north, up Kellogg, up Hall over Popple and Maple, down Hall to finish at the top of Green Hill Road. I think that would be about 30k. (Want a 50k? Make people do the Keeney-Ellis-Hall loop twice.)

Anyway, my rock skis were super slow in hairies conditions, Colin Reuter's dad passed me on fish scales on the steep hill and made fun of me (runs in the family, although I only figured this out because Strava) so I smoked him on the next uphill and then I was pretty bonky and went in to town. 3 hours, 40k. Not bad. Bring on the Queebs!

Schedule coming together for the next few weeks:

Today/Tomorrow: overnight to Jxn.
Sunday: Rest day/pack day
Monday-Friday: Mont-Sainte-Anne! Queeb City! I will be nice to Queebs in their home environment, I promise.
First week of New Year: mostly local, since I have to be back for work. And World Championships.
First weekend of New Year: Packing for Chicago. Still need to buy a ticket. Probably skiing locally.

Jan 9 - Feb 3: Four weeks in Chicago. Big test of "can you do any skiing in Chicago?" Need to find out if a) there are people who can pick me up from a train station a couple evenings a week or b) if it's worth going up to the places in Southern Wis (borrowed car?) once a week. As for racing:

First weekend: MLK! Options include Duluth, Ironwood, Ely or Colorado.
Second weekend: Closer to home: Madison (if snow), Duluth, Mpls.
Third weekend: Noquemanon! I've always want to ski this but never did (8 hours from Mpls) but only 6+ from Chicago. I'm looking to get a ride from Ill or Wis.
Final weekend: <$500 airfare from ORD-SUN-BOS, meaning Boulder Mountain Tour, since George is in Sun Valley this winter. This would be quite awesome.

Then it's two weeks to Birkie. Jesus, coming fast. At least I will have ~250 km of skiing under my belt during November-December this year: ~250 km more than last year.

Late for hills since I found (long, well, not that long story) a battery for my HRM and was installing it this morning for QUEBEC.

Saw George on the ride up, yelled at him, then gave him a hug as he came back up and I was running down. He said "where do I go?" so I showed him the stairs (dude could give Pietari a run for his money on the downhill segment).

Didn't go super hard but got some L3 on the hills …

After running hills in the morning, what do you do? Drive north, of course, to go ski. Slow to get out but it was okay because I hit Jackson right around freeze-up. Areas shaded stayed powder but areas in the sun slushed up. I decided to classic ski, naturally, in those conditions, which was fine, just had to herringbone the slush.

Once it froze it got fast. Kick was decent most of the way around the race course. Coming back down Yodel I was flying pretty well but caught an edge after the jumps and had a skid stop at about 25 mph. No harm done, threw my poles in the air to make sure not to break them.

Friend Ali came to ski and she was on borrowed skis and too-short poles, skiing for the first time this year, so I made it fun by doing fartlek on the hills out the Ellis and back.

Running around with Melissa, Sam and dog. Four separate pieces to the run. Pretty nice afternoon, and remembering that Melissa runs fast. No 9 minute miles.

Plus found out their venue fell through so no wedding during NP Summit weekend in June. Dialing up to FULL CULT MODE.

Stadiums! Didn't feel great going over but better once I attacked the stairs. Got through the crowd pretty well and then began running most of the stairs and then transitioning in to a slow hike. 17:50 at the turn for the 50, mostly pacing Emily E as we made our way back. Added in the 18 stairs for the full 50 and finished in 37:15.

Off to fetch my hat I realized that I could finish 57 which I'd never done. So I started climbing again and made it to 57. I still need to do a VK (71).

Worlds!

Started out with John, bigger crew this week than last. I'd grabbed my hard skis which may or may not have had storage wax on them, but either way, it was quite slow: mostly new, soft, manmade snow. I mostly kept up with John for the first three laps, leading some of the way. Didn't feel really great, like I needed to hit the head after the race. On the final lap Alex used fluoro power to pass me on every downhill. I'd thrash back on the climb and she'd shoot by me on the downhill. I thought I could catch her if I stayed with her up the hill and draft, but I didn't quite make it. Oh well. Then I went to the bathroom!

Warming up before Worlds (lots of traffic) and then cooling down after. Some no poles.

Finally mostly finished for the term = a bit of time to run around the river.