Training Archive: jimaIn the 31 days ending 2008-03-31:
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| S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | |||||||||||||||
Sunday Mar 30 | ||
| Snowshoe 2:30:00 [2] ** 6.5 km (23:05 / km) +165m 20:29 / km | |
| ahr:110 max:151 shoes: Axis 930 Snowshoes | ||
| Trek up the Dry River Trail with Jon. Impressive snow depth still, bringing the trail signs from above eye level to about knee height. We were the first ones up there since the last snow.
First part of the trail was easy to follow, but it got a bit trickier above the second crossing. The sections of trail that head up the valley walls to go around washouts were difficult to get up - fairly steep and at an angle, Hard to get a toe in. The 4-5" of powder on top of hardpack made it more challenging. Lost the trail a few times - the low vegetation that normally lines the trail was all covered with snow. Of course, on snowshoes we could go wherever, but there's a few key spots where following the trail was critical. Made it as far as the high spot looking up the valley where you can see the summit and the suspension bridge down below. Not a cloud in the sky - a perfect day. However, we weren't able to get past a very steep sidehill section, where a mis-step could end you up in the river 150' below after sliding and bouncing down the hill on the way. Had really wanted to get to the bridge, but that wasn't happening today. | ||
Saturday Mar 29 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 52:00 [3] 10 km (5:12 / km) +150m 4:50 / km | |
| ahr:150 max:166 shoes: Yellow Fischer Skating | ||
| Absolutely superb conditions. 3-4" of fresh snow on top of a still excellent base.
Went early, becasue I wanted to get to Nashua for the o'meet - double sprint... Would also have been very happy to spend all day skiing... | ||
| Orienteering race 35:38 [4] *** 5 km (7:08 / km) +50m 6:47 / km | |
| ahr:157 max:169 spiked:6/8c shoes: Inov-8 MudClaws | ||
| Sprint 2 (did this first)
First time running in a while. First session with my new mudclaws - seemed to do well on the hardpack snow. Not much glare ice (memories of last year) where spikes would have been useful. Some minor rubbing on the heels - might be residual from snowshoing with the Nike XCRs last weekend. A few bobbles - but limited O challenges. Not a lot of running speed. | ||
| Orienteering race 27:05 [4] *** 3.7 km (7:19 / km) +35m 6:59 / km | |
| ahr:158 max:166 spiked:6/6c shoes: Inov-8 MudClaws | ||
| Sprint 1 (did this second)
Was chilled a bit after the first sprint, so didn't rest too long before starting the second one. Still didn't have a lot of speed. A bit more post-holing through the snow pack, especially crossing the fields. | ||
Monday Mar 24 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 56:30 [3] 12.4 km (4:33 / km) +263m 4:07 / km | |
| ahr:152 max:168 shoes: White/Red/Black Fischer Skatin | ||
| Evening ski at Gunstock - time change is a wonderful thing. Finished at 7:00 pm and there was still plenty of light.
Hadn't warmed up as much over there as it did down in town, but it was reasonable conditions. Downhills still slick and fast, but I was taking it easy. Saw Igor and Andy out on snowshoes marking some of the new trails - need to get out there with a map board and start making the updates. Will add some options on getting from one side of the mountain to the other. | ||
Sunday Mar 23 | ||
| XC Ski (Skating) 53:00 [3] 11.13 km (4:46 / km) +245m 4:17 / km | |
| ahr:150 max:166 shoes: Yellow Fischer Skating | ||
| Hard and fast trails at Gunstock. Hadn't been groomed since early Saturday or earlier in the week. There was enough texture on the surface in most places so it was passable, only terrified in a few places (just below the S curve on 9-Maple, e.g.)
Pretty breezy, althiugh a few orders of magnitude less so than a few days ago. Still wish I had put my windscreen uinderwear on though - was starting to ice up... Starting to see more leaves, twigs and branches on the trails. Classic would have been tough as a lot of the tracks have been accumulating the stuff. First time with my new Polar heart rate monitor belt - it does register on the FRWD, so I can track heart rate over the course of a workout, versus climb, etc. Not impressed with the functionality of the watch though. It does show current heartrate, but you have to cycle through to see elapsed time. Also only tracks max and average HR, no ability to download HR vs time. No split capability either. | ||
Sunday Mar 16 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 1:01:00 [3] 10.6 km (5:45 / km) +250m 5:09 / km | |
| shoes: Yellow Fischer Skating | ||
| Very variable spring conditions, 3" of fresh wet powder on top of soft corn stuff. Very slow and sluggish.
Quite a few folks out on the trails today. They'd groomed the Cobble Mtn loop, but nothing else. Grooming didn't help much. Had to V1 down most of the downhill sections. | ||
| Snowshoe long 2:07:00 [2] 6.95 km (18:16 / km) +480m 13:35 / km | |
| shoes: TSL Racing Snowshoes | ||
| After skiing, headed over to the other side of the mountain. Headed up the back side of Gunstock on the Gunstock Mtn Trail (what an original name) from the bottom of the Carriage Road. Passed a woman coming down - in running shoes and carrying ski poles. Said she'd wished she had snowshoes coming down, as she'd postholed to over her knees numerous times. Said there'd been 2 guys on back country skiis who'd skiied dwon earlier - pretty daring as it was steep with lots of trees.
Made it to the top of Gunstock and decided to head over the top of Belknap and then down. Snow was a lot firmer up top, trees were ice and snow covered. Glad I wasn't up there in the conditions that resulted in the trees looking like that... Things softened up as I came down. Had been lots of snowmobile traffic on the Carriage Road, was pretty chewed up. Saw a lot of foot prints - looks like a lot of people walk up and down the road. | ||
Saturday Mar 15 | ||
| Run warm up/down 5:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Gray Nike XCR | ||
| Warm up for the snowshoe race in Biddeford. Snowing (big fat flakes) so I was glad I'd thought to put in my contacts. Slush on the parking lot and the road sides. | ||
| Snowshoe race 35:22 [4] 4.5 km (7:52 / km) | |
| shoes: TSL Racing Snowshoes | ||
| Acidotic Racing's 3d snow shoe race of the season at Rotary Park in Biddeford, ME.
4.5 km course. Snowing, but just around freezing, so conditions were soft. There was still decent snow cover, except in a few spots. The older snow was heavy and slushy in many places and it moved around, rather than packing down. Made for interesting footing. Wasn't in the lead group, but was in 3d position in the second pack (with a slower runner in the lead) for about the first 1/2 - 3/4 k, then did some passing. As it was mainly single track, it took a lot of effort to get out and around, but don't think I took any out as I did so. Got passed by a young woman shortly after that, so she must have escaped the group also. Stayed on her tail for the next K or so, then a pack of 3 started creeping up on me. Another woman got past me, then we hit a few hills. Kept looking back expecting the other 2 in the pack to catch me, but I seemed to be maintaining a lead. Some pretty serious hills towards the end - focused on maintaining a high tempo with short strides for as long as I could before slowing to a walk. Seemed to work, as I closed the gap to my front and kept in front of those behind me. Didn't catch up to and pass anyone else in front of me, but stayed ahead of the 2 folks on my tail - felt pretty proud of myself for that. Splits 2 km - 13:22 3 km - 8:33 / 21:56 4 km - 8:48 / 30:44 last 1/2 km - 4:38 Recognized many folks from the previous 2 races. Had a chat with a guy who has a place over in Gilford - triathlon seemed to be his main focus. Was telling some war stories about the Mt Washington Road race. Was wearing my US Ski-O warmup jacket - a few folks asked about Ski-O and O. One woman asked "do you know Bob Lux?" Turned out she's Bob's lunchtime running partner Diane. | ||
| C • running partner 2 | ||
Tuesday Mar 11 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 25 [2] 6 km (4 / km) +120m 4 / km | |
| Hard glazed surface. Back still a bit problematic, so wasn't enjoying this a lot.
Had swapped out old bindings of a pair of skis I've had forever and put on a pair of SNS profil skate bindings. Think I messed up the alignment a bit - right heel was catching on the center ridge with each landing on that side. Need to see what I can do with some epoxy and more careful drilling. It was fast. Per the GPS, hit over 30 kmph on the last hill coming in, hit 25 k on a couple others. Not as enjoyable when it's hardslick ice bisquits underfoot, thinking if I crash and burn, this is going to hurt... | ||
| Snowshoe 11:00 [2] 1.2 km (9:10 / km) +35m 8:00 / km | |
| shoes: TSL Racing Snowshoes | ||
| Skiing wasn't working ofr my back, I had my snowshoes in the car and a few minutes before I needed to head back for a meeting.
Well, snowshoeing is not a lot easier on a bad back, especially if you try to run, downhill, on hard pack. Was another guy out there skiing, said he'd never seen anyone running on snowshoes before. Just gave him a smile and a shrug, made it around the corner and dropped down to a walk. Short loop, picking branches off the trail, so if they groom again, there won't be wood chunks everywhere. | ||
Sunday Mar 9 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 58:00 [3] 12.75 km (4:33 / km) +265m 4:07 / km | |
| shoes: White/Red/Black Fischer Skatin | ||
| After a couple of days of pretty hard rain and some high wind, the conditions were pretty darn good. They'd groomed most of the network and all the stuff they'd hit was skiable. The stuff they groomed first had still been wet and hardened up pretty solid, but it wasn't quite life threatening. The parts they'd groomed later were a bit less set up and in very good shape. Stopped several times to clear branches, etc off the trails.
Had wrenched my back earlier in the day, but really wanted to ski, so ignored the twinges and went out anyways. Felt stiff and off balance a few times, but no crash and burns. Hit 25 kmph at least 3 times - good fast conditions... | ||
Friday Mar 7 | ||
| XC Ski (skating) 45:00 [3] 10.2 km (4:25 / km) +200m 4:01 / km | |
| shoes: Peltonen Skate Skiis | ||
| Late afternoon ski before the rain started. They'd groomed part sof the network, but it was all in great shape. Had warmed up enough that the crust from the rain/ice event earlier in the week was all skiable. Brought a head lamp, but only had to use it for hte last 10 minutes or so.
Had the place to myself. Still a few signs out from last weekend's BKL festival. Was kinda suprised by some of the trails they sent to kids out on the mini-marathon. Conditions had been very good (soft snow which wasn't too fast), so the downhills wouldn't have been too gnarly. If it had been hard and icy, there woud have been quite a few crash and burns for the mini-skier set. | ||
Sunday Mar 2 | ||
| Snowshoe 1:23:00 [2] 4.2 km (19:46 / km) +100m 17:40 / km | |
| shoes: Yeti classic snowshoes | ||
| At Ahern with Jon. After yesterday's attempt with the new racing snowshoes, decided it was time to go back to basics - the yeti sized classic snowshoes I got as a kid. About 48" long, 10" wide, beautiful rawhide lacing, part of which I had to replace way back.
Snow still very deep, these definitely have more flotation. Was still a lot of work, particularly in the very deep stuff, like out on the powerlines. Minor issue on already packed trails is that these are wider than most modern snowshoes, so I was stamping down from the top on one side or the other. A bit breezy, which was very noticeable along the power lines, not so much in the woods. | ||
| Note | |
| BKL (Bill Koch League) Festival at Gunstock. About 400 kids racing, from 8th grade on down. Volunteered both Saturday and Sunday with parking starting at 6:30 until about 9:00.
Today went and picked up Jon and Ryan about 10:00 and came back over. Ryan seemed to enjoy himself - not sure if he will retain any memories in later years - not sure I remember much from when I was 2. Jon helped me shepherd him around and keep him from darting out onto the race course. Ryan seemed most interested in taking off out into the woods along the trails not being used for the race. He didn't seem to focus in on the racers going by. Ran into Adrian Owens, who was there watching his son race. He seems very excited about trying for the Ski-O team - I think he'd be an excellent addition. | ||
Saturday Mar 1 | ||
| Snowshoe (running) 15:00 [3] 1 km (15:00 / km) | |
| shoes: TSL Racing Snowshoes | ||
| Trying out my new running snowshoes the boys got me for my birthday. They were great on the packed snowmobile trails, which unfortunately also had quite a new snowmobilers on them, with the 10" of nice new powder we got overnight and through the morning.
Didn't work quite so well out in the deep stuff.... | ||
| C • snowshoes.. 2 | ||
| Snowshoe 45:00 [2] 2 km (22:30 / km) +85m 18:33 / km | |
| shoes: TSL Racing Snowshoes | ||
| The rest of the time I was out. Spent a lot of time on the small bike trail throughout Ahern. Unfrotunately, I was the first person out on them and the 7x25" footprint of these snowshoes isn't designed for 10" or 20" of powder. Some of the trails hadn't been hit since before the last storm earlier last week. Was better than being out in just running shoes, but not much.
Was wearing thinner socks than normal, and got one heck of a blister on my right heel. Not sure how much was attributable to the snowshoebindings and how much to the shoes (NikeXCR trail shoes). | ||