Training Log Archive: jima

Craftsbury Ski-O. Very nice course by Adrian Owens - a lot of good route choice options.

Slow out of the start - almost took off in the wrong direction.
Lost 2:30 on 2d control - shoould have gone around all the way to the far side, then just duck in, punch and out again. Instead took a snowshoe trail coming in from the north, looking for a cutover on my right, another quick right and it should be right there - only problem was I didn't see the cutover on my right. Ended up out by a wide groomed trail - turned around and back in, saw a set of boot prints, decided that could be a last minute trail setting, took it and saw the control.
Lost close to 10 minutes on 7-8. Only logical route was to take a snowshoe trail up over a knoll, across a flat area, trail should loop up to the right. Over the knoll, across the flat area and saw Melanie Sergiev on foot, poles in hand looking at the ground - had dropped her SI stick and was looking for it in the snow. Some words of encouragement, past her skis, trail heading up the hill, but a much more travelled trail continuing straight ahead. Hmmm - well, go with where everyone else went - worng choice. Traial conitnues for a few hundred more meters, had ot step over a thigh high log, then the trail ended by the edge of a marsh. Maybe I misssed the contorl near where Melanie was - this looks like a deadend trail past the control. Back up, went all the way back to the knoll when i figures I should just take the trail up the hill. Sure enough - there it was.

Not as cold as the thermometer said it was - a bit over dressed. Hands were sweating in the lobster mitts, but glad I had pulled a buff over my head, covering my ears and neck.

Red Long - Splits

Nice ski-O at Grafton Ponds by Aims.
He mentioned that both the Red and Blue had been shortened due to trail closure - decided to stay on Red. Manged to get out on the course without running over any BKL racers - seemed like they were everywhere. Mostly good route choices - other than the next to last control. Had decided to take a snowshoe trail diagonally down the hill from it to the last control, avoiding a couple contour climb via the other obvious route. Was so concerned about making sure I didn't ski past the small trail that I never punched the control.
Would have been first (of 2), but gave up the win to Ken Walker.

Weird weather. Was mid-30s when we left Brattleboro, then dropped to about 26 at Grafton. Warmed up, tested skis, etc and then the wind picked up and the temperature rose. Very gusty - made getting the map into the holder, both at the start and the map exchange very tough (and time consuming).
Felt a few raindrops while I was out.

After downloading and stopping kicking myself over the DQ, decided to do Green.
Wind was still strong and it was a mix of rain and big wet snow flakes. Skis had been OK, but snow was getting much wetter. Rubbed on some CH10 over the LF7, corked it in and brushed it out. Seemed to do the trick.
Changed to a pair of dry gloves and headed back to the start. Had been to most of the control already, some common routes, some done in reverse of the Red. Focused on staying relaxed, which worked pretty well.

A lot of fun.

Control pickup - skiing back down the hill with a heavy wood tripod under each arm.

Green Middle - Splits

Red Middle - Splits

Event: Vermont Ski-O Weekend
 

Testing wax and warmup

Meh.
Started my watch at -1:00, so I wouldn't have to mess with it at teh start, then hit the start stop button when the timer beeped, so no track...
Turned over the map and couldn't find 1. Had seen Aims, starting 2 min in front of me, head up the hill to the right and when I finally found 1, it was more to the left - what was I missing?? Got over that, but was not skiing smoothly. Ok to 1m 2m 3 in the field. No one had cut through over the stonewall from 3 to 4, so went down and came back up the wider trail. Blew down the narrow trail - was OK to 5, up the non-grromed section and then left to 6, was too tight up the hill, losing a lot of time.
Past 13 then didn't make the corner, so kept going straight on the narrow trail past 8 then almost wiped out Aims as he came up the snowshoe trail.
Punched 7, then my eye follwoed a line back up the hill and I took off - towards 13. Was almost up to the small central clearing, when I took another look at my map to confirm which way I needed to go - damn, flip around, left onto the dashed trail and up - lost about a minute.
Struggled up the dashed trail towards 9, saw Jan Merka catching up to me.
Couldn't relax and ski easily towards 10 - just a long slog.
Coming down from 12, knew I didn't want to go past 9, so was thinking stay left, and I did, back onto the dashed trail past 11, then narrow trail to 10 and back onto the wide trail. Downhill was a bit sketchy, so not carrying a lot of speed when I turned onto the narrow trail past 6 to 13.
Quick check to make sure I wasn't missing another loop, then 14, 15 and in.

Skiing around to wind down a bit.

2-person relay with Anna Voegele - ended up 5th. A fun event.
Mix of racing and moving around to stay loose as Anna was on the course in both distance and time.

Control pickup

Blue Sprint - Splits