Training Log Archive: acjospe

After our chicken soup break at 11:30pm, we were back at it by 1am. Ken did the first night lap and determined that he was not having fun on either the uphills or the downhills, so he went back to the van to nap. I was too proud to admit how much it sucked (at least until 5am, when I declared "This sucks. There is no way I am coming to California to do it next year" - we'll see how that holds out), so I skied the next two laps with Greg, only whimpering occasionally. The trail had frozen up solid at this point, and all the ruts and grooves and funky icy bits were pretty treacherous. The uphills were hard to skate on because your skis would catch a rut and totally change direction, but the downhills were f***ing terrifying. Also, I'd switched to dry boots, now that slush wasn't splashing into them, but these boots have a stiffer cuff, so any time my ski caught a rut, the twist would skip the ankle and go straight to my knee, which was making them feel pretty tender.

We took a break from 4-5 (amazing how time in the van seems to go by SO QUICKLY when you don't want to leave...), and headed out again at 5. After a quick lap (still frozen solid, but at least now we could see the outline of the trail beyond our headlamps as the sky lightened), we picked up Ken, and did another lap in the now-light-but-still-frozen conditions. Then another 20min out and back to kill time until Ali showed up.

Ali joined us for the last lap - we continued up the hill, while Ken turned around at the night lap part, and it was just starting to soften up. Conditions were better than Saturday morning, but still pretty slow, and my ankles and knees were pretty achy from a night of staggering over icy ruts. Luckily, Ali broke her ski, so that slowed her down a bit closer to 24hr speed.

Then, Ed showed up with pancakes and maple syrup, and life was good again because I didn't have to ski anymore. Whee!

The Danby 24: Danby-Mt Tabor road goes from Landgrove to Danby, 40km there and back, and Ken, Greg and I skied on it for 24 hours. They thought this was a great idea, I was a little dubious, but succumbed to peer pressure by the time Greg bought a plane ticket a week ago. The Danby road is snowmobiled in the winter, so although they occasionally groom it, it is mostly just packed by snow machines. In early winter thats fine, it packs pretty hard and the skiing is nice, but by late March its pretty soft and rutted. At least it was snow, but the conditions were pretty horrendous, and I think we would have traveled about twice as far if we'd been on groomed tracks.

The first lap - started at 10:45 so things were already soft and slushy, and it got worse the higher up the hill we went. Lap 1 route. It was a darn slow 30k, and not for lack of trying.

Started out lap 2 classic skiing, but I didn't have enough klister, so I was slipping, and the idea of slipping for 30k made my hip flexors wince, so I went back to the car allegedly to get more wax, but saw Ed in the parking lot and he had skate stuff on, so put on my [sopping wet] skate boots.

Ed joined us for lap 2. Still wicked soft and slow, I'd changed to the skis that were waxed with HF, so they were fast for a while until the structure filled with too much dirt. Then they were slow. The downhills were really sucky, because you had to ski down them, instead of the whole "one push and a long glide" that they should have been. Still 60+ degrees and teeshirt weather.

We finished lap 2 around 7pm, and started lap 3 around 8, first night lap. We shortened the night lap to the lower sections because they'd gotten less sun, so got less chopped up, and the footing was better (and they were flatter). Conditions were still relatively soft, but much faster on the downhills finally. Two of those and an 8k out-and-back, and then Ed met us with chicken soup (swoon).

Racing home to get the car to get Greg from the airport, about an hour later than planned.

My butt hurts.

From the Cambridge Brewing Company home, not entirely sober. We'd been celebrating Manni's new American citizenship, and now he probably knows more about this country than I do.

To work, then to the Fells, then to Woburn.

Rock Circuit trail. I had two maps (Boojum rock and the Fells trail map) and I still managed to lose the trail multiple times. I swear, there are multiple white-blazed trails out there.

Apparently wednesday nights are $1 women's nights at the Boston Rock Gym, so Erin and I tried it out. I haven't been on a wall of any sort since college, my hands hurt now. And I still suck at it.

This is worth watching. The Birkie-cam!

C • great flick 2

Wake up, legs!

Only messup was the part where the map was wrong - it would appear that the neighbors deleted the road connecting to the other road. Pushing the pace a bit, felt easy cardiovascularly but my lower legs weren't entirely happy with this pavement stuff.

I tried to run up the stairs to work and I couldn't make it the whole way before I had to walk. Time for a day off.