Training Log Archive: jima

Rapidly warming conditions, although the trails were in great shape considering. Did the Cobble Mtn loop clockwise, then my verison of the race trails where you hit almost all of them - take 2 across the top halfway, down 4 looping around back to 2, u turn onto 6 back to the stadium, hard right onto T, then R, up the Chute a little bit, then S back to the stadium. About 6.2 km. Just the Cobble loop is about 3.6 km (with none of the side loops).

Did a few passes back and forth in the stadium with no poles - technique seems to be OK.

Reversed Cobble, then took 9 up and over to the meadow, up 7 and back along 8. It was warming up considerably - could feel the suction under my skiis. Continued the reverse on Cobble and in.

Thermometer at the XC center said 40...

Think I missed the wax - not a lot of kick. It was warming up, some of the tracks were glazed a bit, others were still dry powder. Got a lot of workout on my arms.

Must have been having a good time though.

Hit most of the upper Cobble Mtn trails - they were in pretty good shape, although the center of the trail was a lot softer than the edges where the snocat tracks had packed it down.

After classic skiing for an horu and 45 minutes, took a short break, changed my boots and slapped on my back country skis.

Headed up Alpine Ridge from the ski jumps, and went up, and up, and up...

Groomer had been through on all of the trail up to the towers. Continued on along the ridge that had only seen snowshoe traffic and a few skiers. Just past the cutoff for the snowshoe only trail, it really narrowed down - branches almost touching and many covered with snow sagging down to about face level. Saw more folks than I expected to up there.

Came down a wide groomed trail from the radio tower - no face plants, but a couple of preemptive backwards falls.

Evening ski at Gunstock with an intermittent headlamp. Must have been a HS race there this afternoon - some of the race trails were double tracked and showing signs of some heavy use on the uphills and the sharper corners. Brought back memories of my racing days - what I would have given for a trail in that good a shape - very different from a single set of tracks set by a couple of guys on snowshoes and the rest of the team behind banging in the tracks on skis in the morning so we could race on it in the afternoon.

Headlamp was decidedly unfriendly - would cut out just before asharp corner on a downhill each time it seemed. Had fresh recharged batteries in it - maybe it was too cold - upper teens doesn't seem that bad.

Long classic ski in a snowstorm. Probably got 4-5" between when I started when I finally headed in. Could tell where they groomed earlier in the day, but it was hard to follow the tracks at some places. The new fallen snow was very slow - a few times when I circled back and was skiing on tracks I broken 10-15 minutes previously, it was a lot faster.

Using an old pair of Fischer skate skis - had markings on them from the '88 Ski-WOC (Finland?) They're still in pretty good shape.

Seemed to have the trails pretty much to myself - only saw a few folks and they were mostly in the area right near the XC center.

Hard violet extra kcik wax was perfect - good grip and the glide was OK.

Had a great time... Wish I didn;t have to go back to work tomorrow and could spend more time out on the trails.

About 8-10" of new fluffy white - super stuff. Most of the trails were groomed, to some degree. There were some squirrelly spots with extrabumps courtesy fo the groomer - should come out tonight when they go over it again, before tomorrow's promised 6-8" of additional stuff.

First time with flourinated wax - had been using my waxes from back in the dark ages, which are now referrerd to as hydrocarbon. Seemed to make quite a bit of difference - skis felt very quick.