Training Log Archive: W

I'm actually pleasantly surprised, considering the bad conditions yesterday, they seem to have done some good grooming and many places were not as bad as I thought they would be. Granted, it was dark, so I might not have seen all the horrible things I was skiing over, but it was a little softer and better to ski. Felt strong doing one-skate (which is my bread and butter, if I could do nothing but one-skate, I would), so it felt good.

Tomorrow I start a university class in "Apparatus gymnastics". Because its free, and apparatus gymnastics is crazy fun. Maybe I can try doing handstands on parallel bars again

(note to self: last time you tried that, it hurt, don't do it, you can't even do a normal handstand)

(double note to self: try it anyway)

C • Don't Do it 6

The knee was a little bothersome (but not so bad), so I switched to skating today to see if it was any better. Classic also would have been a terrible idea because it snow/rained all through watching the Crashed Ice race last night, so in addition to us getting soaked, it turned the ski trails rock hard and icy. Quite fast gliding, but near impossible to even push off while trying to climb. I like to one skate the hills but that was a no go. I think double-poling would have been the best choice.

Can't even try my good skis, because some parts of the trails are in rough shape. Too bad. Knee is a bit improving, and so is my ski fitness (a little). This weekend is Neljan Vuoren Hiihto, but its been shortened to a 36/18k, so even in bad ski shape, it shouldn't be a problem. Might even be better for me, if I can get the wax better than last year.

It would be hard to be much worse than that.

Another fantastic ski in new-ish snow! In retrospect I should have taken my good skis, I think I could have done it, but there's also some melting happening, since it was warm over night, which is definitely a concern. There's just not that much snow, its quite wet snow, and so its going to deteriorate really, really fast.

Goodbye winter. It was nice having you around. Almost 48 hours this year.

Yay! Fresh snow! Headed out for a great classic ski on the brandly-new groomed trails. My wax was a little stick because the snow was still a little soft, but the conditions were almost perfect and the weather was fantastic. I learned at the end of my ski that I had accidentally hit the stop button on my watch (something my Polar never did), so I guess I've learned my lesson to make sure I lock the buttons before skiing. That is not something I like doing.

Say I'm at the beginning of a ski race, I don't have time to hit start, and THEN hold the back button for 3 seconds while I lock the buttons. Stupid.

The snowstorm has arrived with a vengeance. Big, wet flakes coming down from every direction. Couldn't see a thing. Great night to run! I decided, in light of me knee, to shorten my tempo run a little, but I was glad I did it. I got back absolutely soaking wet, but there was plenty of really nice looking snow now on the ground. It was a winter wonderland!

And in two days, it'll be +4, so goodbye winter wonderland, hello icy hellscape! Better enjoy this while it briefly lasts.

A little warm-up jog before heading over to do weights. My knee has gotten ever that much more bothersome, that I'm really, really relieved that its about to snow a whole bunch. I'm not sure if it will help, but I'm going to try to stop running and just ski in the hopes that will help. Also just trying not to keep my knee bent for too long, as that seems to be a problem. Upside, though, my blisters have pretty much healed! 1 physical problem down, 9 to go!

Just a bit of lifting at the Keltinmäki non-gym. I basically was not sore at all after this session, so my muscles have finally gotten familiar to lifting weights again ,which means its a perfect time to completely stop going to the gym for several months! GREAT IDEA!

Started to get a sneaking suspicion I'm getting a cold, so I spend much of the day slamming back the tea and thinking healthy thoughts. Well, mostly healthy thoughts.

But then it was KortSu cup time, which is the unviersity orienteering club that sometimes does stuff. I rarely know what's happening in these races so I just show up and get handed a map and run until I get to the finish. This was some sort of 4 stage race where the fourth one was a chase start. Kind of wish I hadn't sandbagged the first stage, then!

Anyway, while at one point it had been wildly too cold to go running, its now warmed up to around 0 degrees with a little bit of rain which has switched everything to a sheet of ice. Good gravy I've never wanted a nice normal -10 more than right now. Is that too much to ask for? Really now!

C • Snowmaking! 2