Training Log Archive: jima

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

Evening run at RV Farms. Warm during the day, but starting to cool down. At lunch, car thermometer said 55F, and I believe it. Snow pack shrinking fast. A lot of bare spots, glad I had on spiked shoes for traction.

A bit surprised I didn't turn an ankle - started thinking about that partway through the run. Uneven ground and inconsistent density - good training if you get through it unscathed.