Training Log Archive: kensr

Back on home trails. 6" solid base with 2" powder from Saturday on top. Good skiing on LF6 at 15F. Lots of energy coming back down to sea level.

C • Welcome home 1

Travel home day.

The races used SI Air timing, which featured regular looking boxes and sticks, but only required getting within 30 cm of the control. However, on two occasions for me the stick did not pick up the signal and failed to flash or beep. Then you have to go back and try again. Not good when you're skiing past at speed.

Additionally, on the last day it did not pick up the finish signal. For that you just ski across the finish line and antenna plates cast the signal across the entire line. I registered a DSQ and had to convince the timer to go query the finish equipment to get my time. I mean, I was standing there at the finish download and the only way I could have gotten there was to ski across the finish line. He did this (without objection) and in fact it showed my finish, even though the chip did not.

So touchless timing is fun and a lot faster than stopping to put in the stick, but certainly short of perfect.

C • Touchless timing 3

Long over previous terrain. First 4 controls in network of semi-open woods then crossed thru tunnel into fields. Lost lots of time early on with bad routes and skiing down past a turn. First half 12 min back of winner, then second half pretty much the same pace as terrain opened up and kept within a minute total over last 6 controls. Won the finish split (yea!). Used some fluoro today and skis ran well. Need work on skinny trails, but today felt good skiing fast for the first time this year.

C • Yay! 2

Rest day. Some hills and then laps around the frozen lake in town. Then below town to edge of embargo field.

Rest day tour of St Moritz and Engadin valley. Hour drive over with Greg to see Marc and Sandra, up for vacation and skiing.
Snowing on the drive and several inches on the ground. Kept snowing lightly for most of the afternoon. New cover not groomed, so skating took some extra work , but not bad. Headed down the marathon trail but had to detour up the hillside before St Moritz because the normal route on the river isn't yet frozen over. Passed across the top of the local ski jump and then into town. Kept going back up and then down the marathon's famous (only) down pitch in the woods. Truly in the woods as the trail is wide and just splits amongst the trees like a glade run. Has to be terrific as 12,000 xc skiers hit this at full bore. Lots of crashes. The trees are wrapped in padding, but come on, it's still going to hurt.
Then coming back I decided to avoid the climb over the ski jump and went along the river instead. That trail narrowed to a path a foot wide, so it was double poling for a km stretch.
Overall a good workout and rest day.

On winding alpine road with lots of switchbacks in the fog, had 2 full US sized deer hop out in front of us coming back to Lenzerheide. Not expecting that in the Alps. Fortunately going slow due to darkness and road conditions, but did have to brake to miss.

Longer than yesterday with less snow on the trails. Some digs into the bottom of the skis. Warmer today with sun out, made the wax a little slow in places.
Serious error going to 3, was higher on the hillside than I thought. Took some serious rethinking to resolve the problem. That's a bad sign and indicative of 6 minutes lost on the leg.
Would have been okay result without the mistake, maybe 4th, but ended up 7th. Lots of mispunches and DQ's. I had to go back to one control because the touchless beeper didn't trigger.

Good snow, fair course. Terrain much easier to ski than model in woods. Maze at the start, but it was in open area.
Focused not on skiing fast, but on not getting lost. Actually, today's goals were 1) don't get hurt, 2) don't get lost and 3) don't break equipment. Good 3 for 3, unlike Adrian, who broke a ski.
Probably could be pushing harder, but okay for Day 1. Did lose time after coming thru tunnel under road (very narrow, shared with a stream and with a bend in the middle). Had to drop down the hillside to the control, but hesitated and looked around too soon. Then open section with controls on alternating sides of main trail and a fast finish.

C • WMOC 2

Event: Ski OL Europameisterschaft
 

Model at Valbella. First part in fields and then lots of slow navigating narrow trails in the woods trying to make sure I knew where I was. Tough negotiating short steep knolls and T-junctions after dropping into reentrants. Hard to read the map at 1:10 and 5 m contours. Greg's map was 1:5 with 2.5 m contours, makes much more sense. That's what he'll use for the sprint tomorrow, while we run the middle on the shrinky map size.
Look out Vermont, Pines will now be groomed 1 m wide. Need practice at this.

Into Switzerland today for World Masters. Skied town trails along the valley. Very scenic mountain terrain. Need some sleep; tiring trip over.