Training Log Archive: biggins

back to VT then Boston last night, then got killed at Boggle by Alex and Ross, then fell asleep on the floor for half the night before I made it onto the couch. Chinese with Alex on monday, a little wandering around downtown Boston, then an incredibly uncomfortable 7 hours of twitchy sore plane time back to Sacramento, two hour drive back up to Truckee, and finally nap time by 3am.

So the 24h was good, didn't really seem as hard as last year, possibly because: I knew what to expect, or trail conditions were worse so we couldn't really ski fast (178km vs 206 last year), or it wasn't at 7000 feet, or I've perfected the ratio of Awesome Juice, or I had two other awesomely stupid people to keep it interesting. I'm a little stiff and sore, but nothing too bad, the only things that really hurt are some good bruises from a few nighttime falls on the ice. I remember feeling much colder at night last year, especially between laps, I think that was because it was snowing off and on and a bit windy so I was wet the whole time. I suppose changing clothes could fix that if I ever get more than one set of polypro. Also I need a real headlamp, or at least new batteries. Much fun though.

lap 4: finally got cold and started to ice up, so things got fast and crazy. Dad came out for the first lap, then self preservation kicked in and he bailed to go take a nap, while Alex and I did two more. Stole Dad's super headlamp for the second two laps, which was much better than my collection of dead batteries (the real set for the big light, the spares, and even the spare headlamp). started in on the Awesome Juice on this lap, and it turns out its still awesome. splits: 76:00, 56:00, 57:00.

C • headlamp 3

lap 5: one more crazy icy death lap in the dark, then we picked up dad and did a mildly crazy icy death lap in the light, then a bonus 5k to kill some time before we were supposed to meet Ali. splits: 51:00, 63:00, 21:00.

lap 6: Dad did two short laps, while Ali, Alex, and I went up over the top of the hill to the road junction and back. pretty slushy and crappy at the top, but not too slow yet on the way back down. then found Ed, and pancakes, which were awesome.

Event: Yosemite Nordic 24
 

24 hour epic xc ski stupidity, year #2. Somehow I used my cunning wiles to sucker a few more people into it this year, on the assumption that we do it back east instead of in yosemite. sounds fine to me, I mean "back east" has snow too right? ha. so we did laps on the Danby-Mt Tabor road in VT, an occasionally-groomed snowmobile road that was in ok condition at the bottom end, turned to snowmobile slush at the top of the hill, and then petered out to dirt down the back side. Dad and Alex were in for the whole 24, with Ed and Ali making the occasion cameo lap.

lap 1: up the road, over the top, and as far down the other side as we could get before it turned to dirt. warm and slushy, t-shirt weather.

lap 2: up the road, over the top, and then we cut back left along another road for a bit. Alex started on classic, but forgot her wax, so went back to the car to get it but instead picked up the skate skis and Ed. Still warm and slushy and slow even on the way back down.

lap 3: dark now, so we started turning around at the duck pond, 6km out, to avoid the huge dodgy hill that wouldn't be too fun once it iced up. so two laps of that (72:00, 66:00) and then a shorter one (40:00) so we could get back in time to meet rockstar Ed with a batch of chicken soup.

flying to boston all day

much better conditions in the morning than the other two days this week. iced out and super fast. a little dodgy on the downhills for the first half hour, but after that things softened up just right.

took the car into the shop today, and since the shop is 50 miles away, I had all day to kill waiting around for them to finish. mostly doing things I don't get to do in Truckee. so I walked around Reno for a while, hit a few bookstores, saw Avatar (which is totally sweet), hit REI for a few dozen free dividend GUs, and hit best buy for a not-so-free T2I (which is totally super sweet).

thought I'd be sneaky and get out wicked early (11am is early for the gainfully unemployed) to beat the heat, but even that wasn't enough. fast in the shade, but the rest already had enough sun to slow it down. though I don't supposed I can complain too much since it is tshirt weather.