Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Halfway through the month …

246km skied
7718m of vert

That rate may well go up the second half of the month.

Laps of Greylock. Not as soft up top, and Mel didn't really enjoy coming down that, so then we did three laps further down. I think part of the speed difference between me and the other skinners is that I see skinning as "classic skiing with heavy equipment" so I'm using my arms (even with short poles) and shifting my weight forward and getting what glide I can. And everyone else sees skinning as "walking with skis on" which is, well, walking with skis on. On steep bits the pace is closer, since there's not much glide to be had.

Anyway, I'm not too tired before tomorrow's fun.

Just grabbing the Strava time for a more reasonable time since we stopped a lot.

C • Skinning 4

Mel wanted to warm up skating so I went out to stride. VR45 was kicking well on the pretty warm but untransformed powder.

Then some skating together, and some teaching. Glide on a flat ski is still a challenge, as is body position and double poling. We worked on the double poling some, and any time she tried leaning forwards on her poles her heels would kick out and I couldn't figure out how to fix it.

Then skating together, and then it was late enough I went off and skated around some of the classic trails which were pretty washed out and were getting a regroom overnight so I didn't really mind. Also way less busy!

There are no tapers because there are no races.

Weekend: Sat at Notchview. Sun skinning Thunderbolt. Mon long (maybe very long) day up north at Waterville or Green's. Just hours and hours of skiing. My knee had niggles today from walking a lot but felt fine biking, so I guess I shouldn't walk as much.

Yogaroo.

About 5 minutes in, I started felt something coming out of my nose. Not just running from the cold—bloody nose!

Spent the next bit cauterizing it, trying to stop it from bleeding, and that was marginally successful. And enough that I wasn't going to be covered with blood the rest of the run.

Longfellow loop is about the same as a Cambridgeport Longfellow loop.

Not too icy, not too cold. I think coming off Longfellow and going up Charles and down to North Station would work, too.

No time to ski today (I guess I could have gone and poached Weston, but, Weston = meh-ston.

Can't stop won't stop didn't have any meetings took a half day at Dublin. Perfect striding. Mostly easy, but lots of hills means it was never too easy. Perimeter groomed out. Strided the whole of the Chamonix climb which felt great and hurt a lot. Got pretty bonky. Ordered a sandwich.

How often is there blue wax skiing at Great Brook and no traffic?

Not often.

Worlds said "today is 10k" so we started and hmm actually it was 12k. Newly fallen snow with new manmade mixed in (if I looked at the forecast and saw a high of 37 in the next two weeks I'd put the guns away, but I am not Weston). Plus maybe I was tired?

Felt pretty soft the whole time. Passed Frank (and a few others), but got passed by Chris, John, Martin and someone else. I was probably the only one who had morninged at Great Brook, of course. Snow.

Felt pretty awful after the race. Cold, despite being well-dressed (maybe overdressed and got wet?). Hard to keep a buff dry and breathable for 40 minutes. Short cool down.

Warming up in the snow, and a short cool down.

Evening trip out to Great Brook because it was cold powder and I wanted to classic ski. 27 in Boston, 18 at the start, 10 at the finish. I figured they wouldn't be grooming because it was going to snow tomorrow and that would just cover the grooming and I was not right.

Different ski areas have very different policies about whether they allow skiing during off-hours grooming. They range from several places in the Midwest which are volunteer groomed where you to stop and say hello to the groomer and probably chat for 15 minutes about the weather, to MSA, where if they catch you skiing they'll probably throw you in Canadian ski jail for 10 years (which is probably like Alex's ski jail in Finland, which sounds kind of great except for the covid, but anyway). I figured this would be somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, but also figured that it would be infinity times easier not to find out.

So when I heard/saw groomers coming, I turned off my light. When I realized there were four sleds, I ducked into the woods. I probably could have snuck off to the trail they had just come up but just let them do their loops around the field and hill I was on, and then went back out and kept skiing (since I was striding, I wasn't worried about rutting the skate lane, plus, it's a pretty solid base they have; and the old tracks were pretty glazed; they must be getting a ton of traffic even on weekdays and are probably having their best year in a long time).

I looped around there a few times as the groomers had crossed the road and were finishing their run, and had a lovely, mellow ski back around. I think I'll mostly stick to mornings for off-hour skiing there, and maybe shoot Stu and Cat an email to see what their actual policies are for evenings.

Then on the way home I passed a hardy soul riding a bicycle down 225. Good on them!