Training Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending 2007-12-02:
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Sunday Dec 2 | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 1:40:00 [3] | |
| Ski around Black Prince and other lower Sovereign Lake trails in between cheering for the Haywood Noram Classic Sprint Qualification round and the heats leading to the finals. Unfortunately, VO2Max didn't qualify for the finals, but since his optimum race distance is closer to 50K than 1.1K, he took it well. It was exciting to watch the race, since we could see most of the course from where we stood, and the racers were going at top intensity for about 2.5 minutes. Although it was a Classic race, some skiers used skate skis and just double-poled the whole thing. It was cool to see them come way up on their toes when they double-poled. We worked on that during our own ski, just for fun.
The predicted storm arrived with blowing snow and slippery roads. I wasn't keen on our upcoming skid down the mountain to Vernon in our rental car, especially given all those corners without guard rails. Because freezing rain was in the forecast overnight, we thought about leaving before dark, rather than our planned 5 a.m. departure. Then I logged onto the Air Canada website and discovered a travel advisory warning of delays and cancellations for anyone travelling to central Canada. For a small change fee, they moved us 12 hours later - yahoo! So we have one more day of skiing, but we have to take the red-eye home. Seems like a good deal to me. | ||
Saturday Dec 1 | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 55:00 [3] | |
| Morning ski around the lower Silver Star trails, then climbed back up via the Night Loop. Cold! 'Bent's MCL hurt a little right from the start. Not good. | ||
| Note | |
| Went to Sovereign Lake to cheer on VO2Max in the Haywood Noram 15K race. It was a chilly day to stand still for a couple of hours, but it was fun to see how it all works, and they were a little short of cheering spectators, so we were happy to do our part.
VO2Max looked powerful out there, and his technique was awesome. It's so cool to see how far he has come in such a short time. He didn't collapse and lie on his back in the snow for a minute at the finish line though, which seemed to be the most popular cool-down technique, so I'd better let him know about that. I must say that XC skiing at the national level wouldn't work out for me, even if I had the talent. It takes *far* too much confidence to wear full-body white spandex in public! This was pre-Olympic training for us too, i.e. we were trying out clothing combinations for warmth and testing our new cowbells bought specially in Innsbruck (host of two Winter Olympic Games) last summer. Both of us had cold toes after awhile, but otherwise we were properly dressed. Almageddon says that experienced spectators take little squares of foam padding to stand on. Maybe for $75, the Olympics will even provide bleachers. The cowbells sounded great, but the strap broke on one of them even before we saw VO2Max pass through the stadium the first time. Good thing we tested that! Last but not least, our cameras were both finicky in cold weather. Gotta figure out what to do about that. | ||
| C • white spandex 2 | ||
| XC Skiing (Skate) 50:00 | |
| Spent a fun afternoon with Urthbuoy. Lunch at the Bugaboo Bakery followed by a scenic ski on the lower Silver Star trails. It's early season for all of us, and we worked on our gliding. 'Bent and I also worked on our front dives - oops, things often screw up when we concentrate on technique! Luckily, 'Bent's knee brace broke the fall as he smashed to the ground. We followed up with a fireside chat with wine back at our place. Thanks for dropping by, Urthbuoy. | ||
Friday Nov 30 | ||
| XC Skiing (Skate) 45:00 [5] | |
| Went to Sovereign Lake today - such an awesome nordic ski centre. Even though they've hosted World Cup races, you still get the feeling that it's a small-time local club staffed with and frequented by people who have a pure love of XC skiing.
This morning we tried our first skate ski of the season - and talk about starting it off with a bang! The place was crawling with racers in matching softshell jackets and muscle-rippled tights, covered with sponsor logos. Many of them had large bags of skis, and they were testing their skis and waxes - sometimes with a different ski on each foot, sometimes waiting in line to go down a short hill and test the glide. When they finally set off skating on their chosen skis, they absolutely powered up the hills, and they often flew by in groups of two or three. Meanwhile, I was still trying to remember my skating technique, and it was a bit of a challenge to start off the year with a long uphill climb at altitude. Oh well, it felt better as we went on, but I still can't skate-ski in hilly terrain without going anaerobic. It was cool to run into VO2Max and his coach. At first, he was testing his skis, and then later he skied a short loop with us. 'Bent raced him up a steep hill and paid for it when his knee started to twinge 20 minutes later, thus bringing our ski to an end. I'm looking forward to more skating practice on the more-reasonably-sized hills in Ontario! | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 2:00:00 [3] | |
| After lunch, we went back to our classic skis and climbed up Aberdeen to the summit. Today was the first day that Silver Star opened limited runs to downhill skiers, so we checked out the action before descending Lars Taylor to the Sovereign Lake trail network. Snow conditions are fantastic at the top. Some of the lower trails had a lot of small spruce trees growing in the middle. I guess when your average annual snowfall is 23', you don't worry about a small forest growing on your trails.
Nice home-cooked Italian dinner tonight prepared by Almageddon with assistance from Tarno and clean-up by KenHaw. | ||
| C • Raced him? 1 | ||
Thursday Nov 29 | ||
| Note | |
| 'Bent's birthday dinner last night with VO2Max and me became even more of a party when Revy and Courtney happened to show up at the same restaurant, fresh from their trip to South America. Fun evening! | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 1:35:00 [3] | |
| 'Bent and I skied loops on the lower Silver Star XC ski trails on a spectacular winter morning. Conditions were fair to good. Views were amazing - we were mostly above the clouds this morning. We came back via the Knoll, an area of very expensive ski-in/out vacation homes. I was gawking so much at one point that I slipped and fell hard on my hip. Wrenched my neck too. Serves me right. Ouch. | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 1:45:00 [3] | |
| We'd intended to go to Sovereign Lake this afternoon, but changed our plans when the ski lift suddenly fired up outside our window, carrying nordic skiers to the top of the mountain where the snow is in excellent shape. How often do we get a chance to ride a lift and XC ski all over a downhill ski area that has no downhill skiers or snowboarders? Awesome.
We beefed up our layers for the long, cold lift ride, which also meant getting out our daypacks to carry our jackets down. By the time we got to the lift, it was turned off, and they told us that all the nordic skiers we'd seen riding it earlier were Silver Star staff. Oops. So we skied most of the way up to the summit from the Silver Star side, taking a winding route. It gets dark early by the standards of us easterners, so we decided to head for home without making it right to the top. The resort is not open for downhill skiing yet, and I think we're seeing some desperation as multiple truckloads of man-made snow are dumped by the Village, and large ski grooming machines make repeated small loops, apparently taking aim at passing nordic skiers. Just before we reached the safety of the lodge, I was laughing at a monster grooming machine that seemed to be targeting 'Bent, who was taking effective evasive maneuvers. Suddenly, it changed direction toward me, just a couple of meters away. I took one step backward and felt my sleeve rustle as a ski patroller (of all people) shot by at top speed, ignoring the huge "SLOW DOWN" sign. All is well, but if I'd taken another half-step backward, it would have been a serious medical emergency at the speed she was going - one or both knees would have been twisted for sure. Immediately afterward, I was in semi-shock at what had almost happened to me, but now I wish that I'd gone down to join her and the other ski patrollers for a little chat about mountain safety. People like her are part of the reason that I gave up downhill skiing. A nice hot tub soak took away the remaining stress, then we had dinner at a pub with a few of the speediest Masters men - Tarno, Almageddon and KenHaw. | ||
Wednesday Nov 28 | ||
| Note | |
| Made it as far as Vancouver so far. Until the final 15 minutes of our free Aeroplan flight in Executive Class, our journey had been pretty sweet. But then I learned that the main differences in Executive Class are: (a) I got to watch "Hairspray" while 'Bent watched "Transformers", and (b) When they forget to put your luggage on the plane even though you checked in 90 minutes early, you get a nice little telegram delivered right to your seat. At the moment, we don't know which bag of mine is missing - or maybe both of them are. Most likely, they've forgotten our skis. And for some inexplicable reason, they took a pass on the next 5 flights travelling to Vancouver from Toronto after ours, so the bag(s) haven't even left Toronto yet. The earliest our bag could make it to Silver Star would be after midnight tonight. Things aren't looking good for 'Bent's birthday ski. :-( | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 40:00 [3] | |
| Yup, it was just our 4 pairs of XC skis that Air Canada forgot to bring, and they'll probably appear around mid-day tomorrow. But they gave us a voucher for free ski rental for today, so 'Bent's birthday ski was saved. Or so we thought. We got to Silver Star and discovered that the rental shop closes at 2 p.m. in the off-season. So we went across the street and paid $70 for rentals. Waxless classic skis were the only choice.
It was only about 20 minutes till sunset, so we headed off right away without (gasp!) taking a second look at the map. Hmm... these waxless skis are pretty quick compared to the ones I have at home. Of course, I'm going down a good-sized hill. Hey, wait a minute - we've made a wrong turn onto a downhill ski run. AieeeEEE!!!! That almost set back 'Bent's knee rehab a few months - oops. After a nice warm-up consisting of herringboning back to where we'd started, we found the Meadow Loop and went for a great ski in heavy snow flurries. It was dark by the end of our short ski, but at least we got out! Heading out now for a birthday dinner with 'Bent and VO2Max. | ||
| C • You have boots? 8 | ||
Tuesday Nov 27 | ||
| Snowshoeing 1:00:00 [2] | |
| It was wintry with borderline snow conditions, so Leanimal and I decided to use our midweek Gurlz Adventure time for a snowshoe-bushwhack around Albion Hills. Big snowflakes began falling, so we had lots of atmosphere, even though the snowshoes were not strictly necessary. It was definitely more fun than running through the snow would have been! We looked for steep hills to walk straight up and down so we could use our arms (with poles) and different leg muscles. Gotta love all those metal teeth on the MSR snowshoes! After running a few errands in town, I drove home in a full-on, 5 meter-visibility blizzard which ended almost as soon as I pulled into the garage.
Now it's time to finish packing, clean up for the house sitter, and get ready to enjoy the 15 cm of new snow that just fell at Silver Star. Yeehaw! | ||
| C • snowshoeing 3 | ||
Monday Nov 26 | ||
| Snowshoeing 30:00 [1] | |
| Short tour in Palgrave West with a very happy ThunderDog. I was testing the new titanium Atlas Race Snowshoes that 'Bent got me recently. They are light as a feather, but have enough flotation for most southern Ontario conditions. They do fling up the dreaded rooster tail, creating the sort of skunk-bum-stripe that Leanimal has modelled on past snowshoe treks. I would still use my workhorse MSR Denali Ascents for serious off-trail exploration because they have more teeth for sidehills, and they seem indestructible - but the Atlas snowshoes are pretty good in both those departments too. I can't wait to try running in them! | ||
| C • training 2 | ||