Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Lincoln and Jess were running a bit later than expected, so I met them, and while they attended to nature's business, I went back and forth a bit.

Uhm … wow. The trails had been groomed overnight and the new snow was better mixed with the old snow and had a chance to cool down and get fast and it was … fast and fun. The only disappointment of the day was that we didn't get an earlier start, so it would have been a push to ski 100k, which we talked about quite a bit. The most daunting thing was the 4.5h drive for me at the end of the day.

Temps in the 20s, perfect bluebird day with not a cloud in the sky. Good suggestion from Lincoln to put on sunblock, which I have in my car. Expired sunblock still works! South along Jordan Ponds, then around the Amphitheater Loop a few times because it was so fast and so fun. Then over the mountain, down Seven Bridges (which only has six bridges) around and over the mountain again. Past 43k, past 50k, past 100k in 24h (barely). Perfect, perfect, perfect. The sun only slowed down the trails for about an hour; then they got fast without getting icy. Again, had I known they would be faster earlier I would have pushed for 100k in a day.

Then we found a lake and it was perfect lake skiing. Dust on crust. We spelled out Birkie. Then we got to the cars and I wanted to do 0.5 miles more to hit 40. But Lincoln wanted to do 2 more to hit 40 (Jess and I had a skied a bit more during the course of the day). But then I wanted to ski every trail. We got back to the car and Jess kept saying "but I only have to ski 5 more miles to hit 50" but I knew if I skied those five miles I'd be at 51, and a Double Birkie is 54, and then it's a hop, skip and a jump to 62. We decided to get pizza, but we really want to do the 100k day. Maybe soon at Jackson if conditions hold.

The drive home was fueled by a coffee-chocolate we got before pizza and the pizza itself. Felt pretty great. While not my biggest day every, almost definitely my two biggest ski days, just shy of 120k (I don't have records of before and after my 100k day in 2008 aside from the day itself, but I am pretty sure I didn't ski the day before or after).

Acadia! Have wanted to do this for a while. A long drive, but the route across Route 3 (10 minutes longer, 15 miles shorter, 55 instead of 75 = less gas) is beautiful. Got skiing around 2:30, and decided why not go for Birkie #1. The trails are gorgeous. Easy skiing—cruising—but the views are incredible. Just a ho-hum ski through a National Park. Conditions were fine, a bit of new snow over an icy base, one thin/burn out spot, and it certainly got faster as it cooled down as the afternoon went on.

Made some loops, found a kiosk with maps, oriented myself better, and wound up back at the start at 27 miles on the nose, or 43k, which is the length of the Birkie this year.

Then I ate a whole pizza. Tomorrow is a new day to ski the Birkie!

Lovely ski in the snow with Melanie. Perfect snow, too: not melting on contact, not too cold, certainly not fast but with a hard base beneath so nice skating. Saw Ann Celi and then a person who had on a late 1990s Midwest Junior National Jacket! We chatted. Confirmed that it was 1997ish, and apparently Matt Weir selected the colors (or at least, was amongst the boys who did).

Off to Birkie(s) tomorrow!

I was going to jogaroo to get a covid test but it was a drive up day in Cambridge, so I just jogarooed around the neighborhood. Kind of a fun loop over to Northpoint, up the stairs, over Rutherford.

Mel suggested a lunch trail run at the Fells, and it was great. Icy, yes, but that's what microspikes are for. Love running straight down an icy slope.

I do wonder what it would take to get the DCR to buy a sled and a drag and roll the South Reservoir roads with enough snow …

After yesterday's fun I'm now on pace for 133km of vert this year, over 300km of skiing this month and more than 2h/day so far and not injured (yet). Not having races to taper for is … fun? I'd never do this if the Birkie was a week away. Also it's been an interesting ski season. On Xmas Eve, I was at my highest combined ski/rollerski mileage by that point ever (season starts May 1, of course). It had also been the highest for a while before mid-Nov.

And then a combination of no MSA and all the snow melting, by 1/16, it was the lowest in the past six years. But then because of snow and not tapering for races or skiing races, plus no traffic, I've skied more than 600km in the past 31 days. I'm at 889 miles for the year, so I should be over 1000 by month's end, and at my highest total ever by then (~1050 mi), too, unless the weather changes drastically.

Plans for the rest of the month …

The Birkie may be moving. Instead of Greens—or quite possibly in addition to Greens—Lincoln and Jess report excellent conditions on the Acadia Carriage Roads. And if there was ever a year to do that, this would be it. Skiing the Birkie in a National Park! So that would be Sunday, probably. And probably some skiing Saturday too. So maybe both. Then next week I have morning meetings 8 to 11 all week, so might do a half day after some of those for more skiing. And maybe also, if Weston is reasonably fast, a Weston Birkie including World Championships. Then the weekend after, maybe head up to Greens and Jackson and do it all over again.

Then at some point I'll start running, I guess. No marathon this spring. But goals for the year include things like running a 5 ITRA point 100m (or race with that many points) to get a UTMB entry, Boston, not doing the Chicago-Boston two-day challenge, and doing a lot of trail running this summer.

Out to World's via Russo's. Russo's is very quiet in the evenings these days, at least on Tuesdays. The snow at Weston had Westonized. It was poorly groomed and somewhat rutted, but fast and skiable and icy and not really wet. Portions of the golf course elsewhere appeared wet.

Three laps today, with 8 trips up and down the treeline-driving range-river, one climb of Mount Weston, and not too much get-up-and-go after yesterday's adventure.

One cool down lap. I found that they probably could have stretched the lap out a bit more had they really wanted to.

Wow. This was one of the better ski days … in a long time. Green's is an easy drive (it's 5 minutes longer, but 10 miles shorter, to exit in Penacook and take Route 4, and way less stressful compared with blasting up 93) and the conditions were perfect. A bit of a grooming ridge on the connector, but the skate lane was packed, fast powder.

Up the connector and then whee down and I decided I was going to ski every trail. So I did the inner loop, then the outer loop, moving right along to do some loops around the SW sector of trails to ski every one. A few were double-tracked; I was able to DP most of it and they dropped the tracks on the steeper hills. Snowing lightly by now, but not slowing down too much.

Then two trips over Mudgett's to ski the connector trail, down and around Trout Pond, over 50k and bonking pretty good, but I discovered I had a bar and peanut M&Ms in my pocket. Put on dry gloves at the top of the connector and then skied the race loops in Dorchester, going over 60k for the day and having a blast. Definitely going to think about a 100k day over here if conditions hold up.

Roads not bad on the way home either.