Training Log Archive: X8A7

Snowed overnight and snowed during the ski. Skied at the ranch again, used the intelligrips to make things easy. Felt remarkably good. Elbow hurt, so lots of straight arm poling. Groin sore, but not enough to ruin technique. And was tired, but not enough to let the pace be unreasonable. So I think I'm really fit, but am I fast? Yesterday suggested not all that fast. The fresh falling snow and the skis only let me do about 30km in the three hours.

Warmup, time distance estimate, some of it was running circles.

Stagecoach Classic "30km" race. By my watch clocked as 26.9 km. Interesting race, not the best conditions. It was colder than forecast, but without man on ground reports from BNS (who were all at the masters world cup) I had to guess that maybe it would be colder than forecast (as it almost always is), but I've also been fooled the other way too (one Governor's cup I had start green and it was 35F near slush). I worried about thin snow, so I went with the blue Atomic "B" skis, which was a good call. The snow was way more transformed than I thought and realized my toko green binder was not going to cut it (needed Chola), but that couldn't get fixed. Glide was matrix red with Cera F FC200, which seemed good and better than many others. Kick was mix of the old Swix purple fluoro, which kicked great, but was a bit draggy, and Ski Go HF Blue, which kicked not as good but had good glide. In the end, kick was better than others and lasted longer too. Field looked weak, not nearly the people of previous years, many at Masters World Cup? Course was marginal at best. Start had rocks and grass and bare batches, which was consistent all the way to the end. Grooming was OK, but pretty sketchy on the final decent to the finish. They set tracks in hairy section that should have not been set, including around hair pin turns, in the last km, no one checked if cars took out the course when it went along the road, plus one spot I think I saw a curb or log sticking up in the middle of the track. In general, course marking was poor, one guy took a wrong turn, another asked me if we were going the right way, a couple turns I used my experience of the course to tell me which way to go as markings were nearly absent. As for the race, bad start, poled on my boot about 40m in, so wiped out and lost good position. So for the next 5km+ I played catch up. Coming around by the resort the first time I was with a loose group of a few, on the DP prior to crossing the road, one guy had a huge DP and pulled away, dropped one guy, and one guy rode me all the way. On the big long climb after the road crossing, the guy that got away could not stride up the hill worth a darn and I took back the 20 sec lost to him in no time. The guy on my tail passed just before the road crossing and I tried to pass back, but it didn't work so I got on his tail, follow 2/3rds up that climb and intended to take the lead so he could follow, but just dropped him. By then I saw this green shirt guy, who I thought was way too far ahead on the flats to catch, now not too far up. Then was the down with the right angle right turn at the bottom of the straight, around that turn green shirt was floundering up the next climb. I caught him by the top of the switch back to come back down to the resort again, I took the downs easy given how hard they are and he opened a small gap. I closed this by the start of ranch walk and followed for a bit. I could feel the pace was weak and was worried about those I dropped on the climb catching (it looked like they were), so passed and he didn't drop too quickly until the big hill after ranch walk. After that, I was all alone the rest of the race, never could see anyone up trail (and I could see a km or more in a couple spots) nor behind. So just concentrated on putting a solid, but safe effort (on the downs especially). Kick was getting thin and some hills (exiting the ranch, the biggest one in the woods) were uneven and loose enough that I just floundered so had to resort to a slow trudge just to get through them. On the biggest hill in the woods, a ski patrol person was coming down the hill towards me pretty much bombing it (on a narrow single track), he managed to avoid me and yard sailed right behind me. Not the first time that ski patrol was one of the biggest hazards in this race. The last down to the finish and the flat to the finish was no fun at all (see notes above). Overall the effort was good, with better conditions, I could have gone harder I think, but body and food held together pretty well (didn't need food, just a couple drinks and didn't feel hungry until the top of the last decent. 1st in 40-50 age group, 10th overall. Results: http://halsports.net/event/stagecoach-classic/

After awards, more skiing at the ranch. Stuck to the flats. Elbow hurt (just start to hurt at end of race) so had to pole with straight arm. Felt decent, surprisingly.

Run to Gunter and back. My first pair of speed crosses, now relegated to "every day" shoes, are deemed dead, time to relegate the second pair to "every day" shoes.

Dresden team sprint.

Dresden sprint. Wanted to train yesterday, but was busy and felt a bit tired and sore.

Was feeling tired so decided to do an easy distance ski sticking to the easiest trails (upper, out to Moose and the flat part of Van's, and back mostly). It was cool too, temps in the upper teens. Trail were very hard packed. Ran into Swampfox with about 45min left in the ski. Talked mostly about orienteering and the ski trail network, such odd topics for us to discuss.