Training Log Archive: coach ld

Tons. Of. Snow! All stuck onto the trees - so beautiful. It snowed a fine sandy snow all day. Awesome.
3 Classic lessons.

It was a bit deep, slow and hard to see but the skating was actually really nice. Like skiing on a cloud, in a cloud.:) Amazing snow drift formations from a strange southeast wind but despite the gusts the snow did not blow off the trees and the weight of it did bring down more branches.

Such a gorgeous winter day. They don't get better than this. Clear, bright blue sky, no wind and spectacular snowscapes:). Goose and I drove by silvery trees shimmering in the sunshine on the tops of the hills all the way up Airport Rd. and it just got more stunning as we climbed the escarpment to Highlands with the Bay big and blue off in the distance. Breathtakingly beautiful. The ice from last weekend still hasn't melted off which is hard on the trees especially when squalls of sticky snow came yesterday. The snow stuck and isn't falling off which makes for exquisite formations of pouffy clumps, and delicate filigrees that you just couldn't sculpt or paint - Nature's art. Absolutely magical.
Never seen anything quite like the way it was today. And the ski conditions were great. We had a lovely classic tour on what seemed like unfamiliar trails because the trees looked so different all bowed over making tunnels. Truly a winter wonderland.

Bright day with some purpley-grey scudding clouds which made fro some gorgeous light this afternoon, and absolutely breathtaking scenes with all the ice on the trees up on the escarpment. The trees were coated and so sparkly silver when the sun shone through them. Magic. Wish I had a camera to do it all justice. It was exquisite. And there was a very musical tinkling in the background whenever a wind gust caused small twigs to drop. I wasn't out in heavy wind and stayed mostly on open trails. Skied around the lake not on it, even though there were ice fishers out on it. It was relatively flat and easy skating - perfect since I was a bit tired and had a sore hip flexor from yesterday's long ski.

It was beautiful up on the escarpment with the trees all coated with silvery ice, but not great for the trails because it meant there were a lot of branches and sticks. Mrs. Huet and I skied a couple of loops on skins and stopped often to pick up sticks. A crew had been up on Sunday but as the ice melts more branches pop off and fall, plus some branches are heavily weighted and are so bowed over they will break eventually if the ice doesn't melt off. Bit sad. But the snow is beautiful.

We switched over to skate skis and went up and did some more loops. The back red and Hawberry aren't cleared of trees and so are ungroomed and not open. It meant repeating the same loops but it was more fun to do that with a ski buddy than alone and we did a legs only section and some balance work, as well as continuing to pick up sticks.

Kind of a damp dreary morning but there seemed to be a bit of an undercrust with some softer snow on top. I didn't want to drive far so I tried Albion Hills and it was just lovely. Not because they groomed - it's rarely lovely if they groom because they're terrible. It was because they hadn't and there was a nice hard ice base with a good snow layer on top. I skied the wide trails up in the northeast section. The parking lot was closed off and there were very few signs of use. It hadn't been rolled. There was only one set of bike tire tracks, and a few footprints. I had an excellent ski, did about 2 loops of the system and it was easy skiing.

Traded in my classic skis for skate and did the northeast loop again, then crossed over and just cruised wherever I wanted on the west side. Unfortunately a park worker had driven on many of the trails with a Gator and kind of ruined my crust but in some places it was a blank slate and sweet skating:)

We were able to just crust cruise all over the school fields - it was awesome. WE did some intervals on the track actually without poles since it's a brand new rubberized track. It was very even! Fun.

Well the snow came back. It's white at least and there's a coat of ice on the grass that's poking through. I was able to skate all over the park and soccer fields. Some places there's still flooding/ponding, covered with a dusting of snow, other places there's grass poking through a bit of crust but totally skiable because of the ice coating. It was good skiing - just wish I had a bigger area. I felt a bit hamster-ish going round and round the soccer fields.

balances, stretches

The Humber was well over its banks by the time we dropped Susie off at her house about 11pm. Water was almost up to the driveway - which meant a couple of inches in the basement. Nice to come home to after a trip
overseas:(
Goose. his brother and I spent several hours there today bailing out the basement, shop vac'ing, got a pump going with hoses up out the window, hauling pails up stairs and outside, then we set up dehumidifiers, fans etc.
The concrete was still wet when we left but there was no more moving water - on the basement. The river was another story it was roaring along still but lower when we left than this morning. I've never seen it that high at Susie's.