Training Log Archive: FoxShadow

Headed out in the morning to check out the fresh snow. It was nice, but tough for crusher as she is still working the snow plow for the most part. The visibility was on and off and the wind was cold.

We called it quits early in favor of an xc outing in the protected glen instead.

Headed to the solitude Nordic center to get some K's in here at 9000 feet. Whoodogie does that ever get the heart racing! The rental equipment was nice, I felt I had not gotten that good of a glide in a while.

Another solid session of stocking up the wood stack here at the Quigloo, almost finished. I'm whipped, a busy day of winter work and play!

Skiing again today, windier and less sunny than the previous two days, word is that we're supposed to get 6-10 inches of new stuff in the next day.

Stocking up the firewood stores for the cabin. My aim felt well honed after the Ely session last week.

Another sunny day at brighton. I rented a snowboard, its good to switch it up and work some different muscles. My pace on a board is closer to Kelly's too, so that makes it easier for us to ski together. This place is gorgeous. I'm glad out of sight is out of mind, because being back makes me miss it more.

C • Time adjust 2

C • alpine skiing?????? 2

Sking out in Utah at Brighton at the Quigloo, my favorite place there is. Although there is no fresh snow, it's been sunny and fairly warm so it's been great for teaching Kelly how to ski. No lift lines and wide open groomers at our own pace. She's loving it, I can't get her off the mtn. at the end of the day.

Rode the trainer while watching biggest loser, good times.

I've been eating anything and everything in my path, this morning's weight is 194.2, and I feel thirsty, and I already used the bathroom. I need my weight to head in the other direction, so am hereby posting this to declare that I WILL be under 190 before the birkie, and am going to try for 185. Jerritt, I await your weigh-in by the end of the day.

Here's my HR data from Saturday. It confirmed most of what I thought, the downhill at the end was a bit over 400 feet (awesome!). The first climb was under 200 (about 175). the course was hilly, total climb over 1000ft. My HR was very high the whole time, only dipping into the 150's a few times on the downhills. Woodang!

C • see my log....you can join me in my quest..... 3

C • looking at the climb on the Wirth comp loop... 4

C • Haven't 2

8-1 win, shook hands in the 6th. Excellent!

Headed out to the woodshed with Jerritt. Keep the jokes to a minimum guys, we all know it's not the first time I've taken him out to the woodshed. Just let that be, he has two kids, and he's getting old.

He fired up the chain saw while I split. With Jasper, Molly and Kelly running the split wood to the stack room, we were a well oiled house heating machine. It was fun, even if it was still 15 below. That felt warm compared to what it was early morning when I checked, -34! That is silly dangerous stupid nasty cold, and I think the coldest I've ever been in.

We ripped through a good amount of wood, I wrecked his axe, and then called it quits because it was time to go visit the Wolf Center. That place is awesome. Great facility, great architecture, awesome animals (Jerritt let us in and we were able to see all of them, including one of them feeding on a deer carcass, awesome!) They are gorgeous animals. Jerritt has himself a great job, and they have themselves a great leader.

Thanks to Molly, Jerritt, Jasper and Rena for sharing their awesome house and hospitality this weekend. We appreciate the food, the ride to the race, the waxing tips, and the awesome company. Kelly and I had a blast!

C • North adventures 3

The Pepsi challenge was cut in half, to 24k, and that ended up being a good thing. At noon it was -6, which while skiing, was tolerable. It was not the cold that made me glad we had only one loop.

At the start I was excited. No expectations and only 24k ahead of me, so I didn't see any downside. I started out flying. I went out in about 6th place or so out of my wave of 30-40 skiers. My skis felt neither fast nor too slow. We headed straight to what felt like the top of giants ridge (realistically I'm not sure we made it over half way). The pressure from skiers behind me looking to pass kept my heart rate in the 180s according to the two times I checked.

By the time I reached the top, my glasses were fogged and my legs were wobbly. We were maybe 15-20 in, we must have climbed over 200 feet, I'll check the data later. I had completely blown up but I was so excited I figured I could keep it up. I told Jerritt that I figured I'd finish in 2:30 but I really wanted to be under 5min/k. At the 12k mark I was at 56 minutes, and feeling a bit recovered, skiing alone and at a pace I could sustain for a while. The hills were relentless. This trail is the hardest trail I've ever skied, and more hilly than the birkie trail.

My right foot began to develop a blister. I don't think my boot was tight enough. My left elbow began to flare up, I don't know what the deal is with me having tendonitis there, must be bad form, but I don't know.

I took warm Gatorade at the feed stop and felt a rush of energy. My clothes were soaked and I was dehydrated from the morning coffee and the effort.

I caught two women that I could see far in the distance for about twenty minutes, and slowly made my way past them. I could not get my HR much over 170, even over hills, because I just couldn't motivate my muscles to contract that hard. At 17k we began a climb that didn't stop until 21k. It just kept going up. I started to talk about it with other racers. Are we in Colorado? Utah? This climb was huge and my form was falling apart. Jerritt's 59 year old buddy passed me. I was feeling weak and demoralized.

Then, at 21k, we reached top top of the ski resort, and started going downhill. You guys may know my identity throughout much of my life was as an alpine racer. Going downhill fast is in my blood. This combined with the relief of being largely done climbing, combined with another feed stop where I guzzled some water, gave me a chill of energy. I was V1 up the steep little hills in hop step and passing people from waves ahead of me. I checked my watch--I was going to be under two hours if I hustled. I went as fast as I could, knowing I could'nt cause too much trouble if I was going to cross the finish line in 10 minutes. I passed jerritt's friend. I was having a lot of fun on what must have been about 3k of downhill (mostly) trail, probably over 400 vertical lost over this time, as we were nearly at the top of the ski hill, and the finish was at the bottom.

The trail flattened out for the last 300k and I had plenty of juice for a solid V2, pumping my way across my first XC race finish line.

I ended up about 67th of 82 (not counting the people that signed up for the 24k (ended up skiing the same race, but had not registered for the 48) in 1:56.

I had a nickel blister on my foot and was sooo happy to be finished. I felt great, but mostly because I had succeeded. Another lap would have been torture.

C • Good job. 3

Double header. Played two games subbing for Reed and Meghan's Golden Valley team, from here on out I may start to take it easy, my groin is sore from all that time sprinting on the ice!

Group skiing out at Baker on a nice warm day. The light was very flat but otherwise it was a very nice to be out. My left elbow was bothering me, it's acting up with some tendonitis, but resting it has not seemed to help so I'm not sure what else can be done. It does not seem to get much worse when I push it hard, just an annoyance. I'll take a bunch of Ibuprofen before the race next weekend and see what happens. The chimichanga at Pepitos afterward was totally worth the pain, that place is legit!

We went down 5-0 in the third, and I thought we were going to lose again, which would have been enough to send me spiraling into questioning my curling existence. Fortunately, we played lights out from there beating them down 9-1 in the next 5 ends to win 9-6. We're 9-3 and and back on track to finish the 16 week season strong. We need to win out from here to qualify for the championship flight at the club championship tournament.

C • curling night? 2

Riding the trainer while watching the gopher basketball game.

Event: MNOC - Afton State Park
 

Brilliant sunny day for the Afton Score-O today! Erin did a great job setting a fun course in my favorite park as far as the feeling you get when you're in it. The elevation provides views and depth that you can't get at any other of the MNOC maps. I'm a mountain guy at heart so this is the close as I get around here. I loved running along the ridge along the river on the East side of the North half of the map. I slid down the spur after punching 203, and I almost felt like I was back living in SLC skiing the Wasatch. Really fun and it was fun to see all the usual faces that I have not seen a lot of this winter.

C • gps tracks 3

Control Retrieval of the four northernmost CP's. I was tired, but the views made it worth it.

Started the game a man short, but Reed showed up after the first quarter and we turned it around for a 4-2 birthday win. Just what I wanted for turning 33.

Treadmill intervals while watching some Top Gear.

Richard Chin, biz, mike Carlson and I attempted a lap at Lebanon. Unfortunately the 2 inches of fresh stuff made it too difficult for good training so we bailed after about 45 minutes. I felt badly as it was my idea, but we had fun despite the difficulty.

Got some hilly skiing at leb after aborting the biking mission. It was very pretty back in there, the elevation makes for good views. It was fun to get a different perspective on terrain I thought I knew so well from the mountain bike trails. Snow was not groomed so it was slow going. I like that there are no trail fees though!

Got destroyed tonight. Don't want to talk about it.

Great game with good friends, a 3-2 win. I got lucky and put two in the back of the net despite being so sore I had trouble playing my best.

C • Broomball 2

Great S2B, the biggest and best yet! Pretty neat that we have trails throughout the city enough to make a 16 mile journey ending in the heart if the city. The trails looked as good as ever in deep snow cover and bright sun.

A cold took out Julia, Jerritt and MAJ are dancing with wolves, and they were missed, but there were 20 or more of us who rampaged. A fun group, and a great way to spend the day. Thanks!

Broomball muscles so sore. Can't get dressed. Can barely move.

First Broomball game of the year. Great game, tied 2-2. So sore, the S2B is going to be more challenging after the first game on ice this season!

Rode a lap out at Leb with Scotty, although the trail is a bit bumpy for a hardtail the trail is really grippy and wide enough to ride without falling off the track more than the requisite two or three times. Awesome!

Intervals on the trainer as well as some lifting while Kelly (and I, admittedly) watched the Biggest Loser. It's easy to work hard with those trainers yelling, even if they are yelling at someone else!

Another session on the trainer, nice and easy, while watching my favorite show, Top Gear. The UK version.

Also, how do thousands of birds die suddenly like that in Arkansas? Poison? Sudden winds? Global warming? George W. Bush?

C • Top Gear 3

My achillies is sore today after the hiking we did in the creek over the weekend. I think I'll need to take a week off of running and the like. No big deal, but I've gotten this before and remember it only gets worse if you don't mind it. I think it's the same thing Erin gets/has.

Hopped on the trainer after rebuilding the bottom bracket on my cross bike last week. It still needs a chain and cassette. Fortunately, Amazon is beginning to carry most everything I need for bikes these days at prices almost as good as starbike (which has more expensive shipping, as they are in Germany).

Headed out for a third time to find GJ's treasure, this time we parked our car right near it, but it still took us about an hour to locate it. We found it at 11AM, after oter people already had. First losers, doh! We have a lot of fun exploring the creek, a great asset to the city.

Hopped on the trainer during Bucky's loss to the Illini tonight - the Big Ten is stacked this year. It's going to be fun to watch how it plays out.

Headed out with the goal of running the entirety of the creek within Gear Junkie's "Clue # 2" map. We covered nearly all of it, over 11 miles in 2.5 hours. We found nothing that looked like the picture though. He's a sneaky fella. It was fun to see Mike Carlson out there searching for the booty as well! We stopped looking around 3PM, which unfortunately was when the Gear Junkie posted the thrid map and clue! Terrible timing.

Headed out a second time this time with headlamps. We tromped around the west side of the map, and it was a bit of a mess. I went through the ice twice (just on the edge in 6 inches of water) and did not find too much that looked promising. But it was still quite fun, we saw some awesome houses tucked in along the cozy creek.