Training Log Archive: Ari-o

It snowed overnight!

Well, a real mix of snow sleet and rain, but it accumulated and did not wash away, which is good, because it means we got to ski a ski race.

Conditions were not terrible. But I decided I didn't care and put on Swix Universal, and it was fine testing.

It was fine during the race. Super draggy, but that is probably my not having klister skis. This poor race can't catch a break. They move the race to Sunday and Saturday would have had much better conditions. But they made it happen. Took out the start across the road, meaning a huge pileup 100m in, and the Yodel downhill at the end, which had a lot of dirt.

It was fine, I went pretty hard but had so much drag on the downhills and got tired on the ups, my kick was okay but not great. Several minutes behind people like John S who probably have the right skis and wax them. Beat Jess, barely.

Ski down with Jess and her co-coach, lots of chatting time. Good thing we weren't racing down this hill.

Need more snow. But Craftsbury sounds okay?

Not much get up and go to go to Jackson for it to rain before the race (I signed up when it was still supposed to snow!) but I figured I'd at least ski today.

And it was really nice! Kind of light drizzle but it was making the surface faster, so that was fine. All the way up to the top of Maple (400m climb, and going nice and easy I'm not far off the KOM, so that might have to happen) and then up North Hall as far as the grooming, and down the rest of Maple making sure not to slam into a tree.

Then down Keeney. Which might be the most fun downhill in New England. 2.5 solid km of downhill, fun swoopy turns but nothing you have to scrub much speed on. Saw a skier going

Out for a morning run, just the Longfellow Bridge. Don't think I'm hitting 40 this week :)

Weekend plans:

Saturday: Maybe the Otto Rhode ski? The question is whether I skin it or skate it. It's a 12% average grade which is basically an A climb, except a very long A climb. But anything that can be easily driven by most passenger cars should b pretty fast to skate, especially given that it should be pretty well groomed for the course.

Or maybe just go ski at Jxn.

Then Sunday is the Jackson race. It looks like some freezing rain/sleet/gross will come through the night before. Once again, I really need to get klister skis! Should be easy Swix Universal klistering again. Was hoping this would be a snowstorm, but this year is not about snow. At least the Birkie looks good so far.

Late trip out to Weston. No traffic. No poles. One podcast. Guns on.

Weird injury report:

Back of hand has some sort of tendinitis, maybe stemming from too much classic skiing on Saturday, or something? Sort of in between middle finger and wrist. Doesn't hurt a ton, but swollen and noticeable. Office has ibuprofen so a good dose (800 mg) seems to have helped, along with some icing. Will see how Worlds treat it tonight.

29 minutes to Weston at rush hour, since I know all the back road shortcuts moved the entire way there. Good lord IDK how new or new-to-Boston drivers would handle this, lots of Masshole driving out there today. On the way home someone turned the wrong way up River Street as I came over the bridge. Fun times.

Figured I didn't need to go too hard, skied three easy laps with Brandon.

So, Worlds.

I figured after the weekend, which was 111k with 3500m of climb, that I'd be pretty tired and may have a necessarily relaxed race. But then again, skate skiing is different enough from AT and classic that maybe I'd feel okay. Nice and cool, 15˚, and the guns going strong, so the snow which they were making was perfectly skiable. Horseshoe 1k course, and pretty nice snow.

Went out at the start and my skis were running well, and we quite quickly were in front in a four-person group. No chase pack nearby. Everyone's skis were about the same, and enough of a draft that attacking wasn't a great idea. Plus without Mount Weston there is nowhere to attack. It seemed pretty easy to me, actually, high L3 but not really L4 (and my HRM mostly sort of kind of worked, for once).

I tried to attack on the last lap but there was really no way to build a gap on the hills, and my legs were a little tired from the weekend, but we at least dropped one guy off so were down to three. Me, John, and Martin, but in the reverse order, going into the last hill. I was able to catch John in a sprint, but not Martin, on the uphill to the finish.

Fun to go fast on fast skis. I think my best finish at a scored Worlds race? One of these days I should win …

Then a bunch of loops at chatting speed. Nice and cold out, and the only jacked I'd brought was a puffy, and that was fine!

Also found my lost wind briefs in the car, with a pair of also-misplaced (but not noticed) spandex. I should probably check the car for more stuff when it is light out.

Slept so well at the OH. Helped with some wood stove management (get it hot, clamp it down) and the upstairs, where I was all alone, stayed around 50 all night. Slept great!

Headed up to Bretton Woods, where I hadn't skied in years. Nice snow and perfect scenery. Took a long warmup around, and found the race course. Too steep to double pole, and my long, soft skis were actually pretty decent for this course. Kick was on whatever was yesterday (or anything).

And the Geschmossel, which I have never done. It's … kind of flat. But a reasonably fun race. No one wanted to leave room during the self-seeding, so I just stood between people about where I should be (or behind them) and had to pass a bunch of them near the start. Pretty quickly caught up with Rob and got ahead of him, and with a small group that broke up, and got ahead of them, skiing most of the rest of the race without any company, but always seeing people behind me.

My skis weren't super fast, and on the way up the second lap I could sense/see people behind me. One caught me at the top of the little herringbone hill, but it wasn't Rob. I stayed with him the rest of the way down the course, and with long poles could probably have kept up with him with my long poles and doing some drafting, but I jumped out too soon and didn't get by, and then tucked back behind (he didn't want to draft) and then the finish line appeared around a short corner so I couldn't jump back out. Beat Rob at least with his help.

Then Alex won a super thick puffy jacket and Sam EB won a pair of alpine pole because I guess they are giving away what didn't sell but Alex was super happy.

A very slow cool down on mostly some skier tracks, which was nice.

Not a ton was open at BW (Jackson has North Hall open, well the top bit, so not the needs-a-ton-of-snow part, but I wasn't doing the extra driving) and figured I'd explore their trails. They're nice, mostly, but really not that tricky. Went out along the Ammy which was beautiful, a loop back up the B&M, which is the old rail line up to the Cog and kind of is cool that it shows that, and then came back down. Quite a nice ski. Pretty dead, yeah, but a good weekend.