Training Log Archive: AliC

Saw Ken as soon as I arrived, then scraped skis and headed out for some warm up loops.

Woo ski-o! Started Garmin a bit late, but tried to add a bit of time on to compensate. Anyways, adventuresome, since only really the snow-made 3k loop had enough snow to ski normally. But I like adventure, makes you more agile on your skis.

And, ski-o is different! Different feel for how you move on the map, and junctions are *so* critical. They're even harder when mostly not groomed, or even with snow though... I got kinda lost to 1, and on the wrong trail to 2, also confused on way to 4, not a very strong start! Took of my skis to 7, because I planned a route with a snowshoe trail that was totally unskiable.

Adrian destroyed my time (5 min), but hey, he set the course and has a home court advantage =). But still, clearly this could have been done faster! Happy to have the first ski-o under my belt for the season. Thanks Adrian for the course and Ken for bringing up SI boxes!!

C • cool! 7

Only a short break between ski-o and Craftsbury classic, changed top layers, ate a cookie and some dried apricots and had some tea (hm, thermos seems broken?).

Then on with the klister, blech. Tried first just some straight-up Swix Krystal Red, tested it out, not quite enough, added some Aqua right under the foot. Still a smidge slippy, but didn't want to make the trade for added grip with reduced glide. Wasn't actually on klister skis as it was. HF 10 for glide.

Race! Fun to do a mass start. Was 3 x 3k laps or so, I started a bit slow as usual, because I just have slow reaction time/bad initial sprint. So then was passing guys for the first lap, but then was essentially alone for the next 2 laps, never saw any other women, one finished just within a minute behind. (All the fast gals are at nationals, so not really much of a test...)

Felt good both on the double pole and the hills. Definitely think I'm stronger double poling than last year, which is nice. Do like classic skiing!

Warmdown, then awards. Award: home-baked yummy bread, helped much on the long, dark, rainy drive home!

At Ole's. Had a brilliant plan to arrive early and ski before the snow turned to klister-requiring, but were already to late at 9am. Boo. (Tried both VR60 and then 80, fail.) But, Peter offered his fishscales, so totally took him up on it. They were flexed too soft for me, but whatever, still a workout.

Started drizzling about 45 min in. C'mon winter, this is not respectable behavior!

Brief brake, ate 3 slices of Mom's homemade bread, changed baselayer tops, but some CH10 on the classic skis and headed back out. Rain had at least stopped, but slow suction-y snow.

Skating around and around, kept to the better loops of the airport and Rock n'Rolling. I passed this one group families it must have been 4 times. They were enjoying themselves, one of the dads had ascended a manure pile on his xc skis and was obviously proud of himself... righty =). Also totally scared one dude who had headphones in when I passed him.

C • I assume he was also surpri... 2

Woo! It's winter up here! Out the door in 12F and snowing, beautiful!

A long ski at Ole's, warm up with Stephi, but she woke up with a high morning HR, so in the post-mono wake is taking an easy day. Then out to the Pasture loops (the 4s) and did 3 x 5 min there, then 1 x 3 min on the hill on the way back, and then another set of 3 x 5 min on Rock n' Rolling. Rock n' Rolling was the best skiing out there, super fun. Very happy to be on my skis for real!

Big bowl of chilli (new cook there) for lunch, then waxed skis for a bit. The purple-grind pair that I used at Craftsbury maybe needs some cleaning. CH10 is being repelled from areas of the ski, like they have flurous embedded. Probably because flurous went on with barely any other wax underneath... whoops.

Anyways, slapped on some special purple (VR 45, I think?) and back out for my first classic ski in ages. Arms felt a bit tired, but very nice to stride. We'll see how the hip flexors fare...

Nice mellow noonie run with a good crowd - Alejandro, Sergio, Paul B., and Rob H. We all went up via Robert Frost to Atkins, then once around on the trails, then Alejandro and Rob decided to road it back, while the rest of us took Robert Frost again- trails are better than roads!

Wore compression tights for the first time. Felt fine, suppose they are supposed to make your muscles happy?

Breathing was fine during and even after- woo! Very happy about this!

3 x 23 pushups
hammies
core

And up to VT where there is apparently a bit of snow!

C • snow in VT 2

Woke up wheeze-coughing again at 5.50 am, not that pleased! But slept a bit more after using my inhaler, then headed out for a morning distance double pole. Did 20 stroke sprints a bunch of times throughout.

Read Howpas, which was British Middle Distance champs a few years ago, one of the WOC spectator maps from 2010 and ski-o map from Tahoe XC last winter. One guy running was really amused by my skiing, gave me a very enthusiastic "Happy New Year!".

When my wheezing started up again in the afternoon, decided it was time to go to the doctor. Or nurse practitioner, as it were, which is totally fine. She proclaimed my lungs were indeed squeaky and agreed that using the albuterol inhaler nearly constantly isn't really the right way to deal with this. Peak flow was 440 in whatever units they measure, predicted to be 500 for my height/weight/gender, but unsure what the error bars are. Nurse practitioner seemed to think it was in fact low.

Anyways, she suggested drug or other, after scaring me that it's going to take my airway weeks to heal from this. (Really??) But then I had to hand her the list of all the things that are banned from WADA. Right. So she went out and found a doctor and arrived that I should take Advair, which isn't banned. Woo! Very psyched to (hopefully) not wake up wheeze-coughing tonight!!

C • Asthma and TUE 4

Errand of picking up new inhaler, went off and did drills while they filled the prescription. Colder this eve!! Added 3 sets of 20 jumps to drills, as doing those with Stephi hurt so much, go plyos!

Hm, rough night of needing inhaler and woke up with a headache, so didn't head out for an early double pole. I think a day without breathing cold air and being out of the dog house should let my respiratory system heal...

Also, QuickRouted and noticed the end of the course on the 1:10 version is different than the 1:15 version yesterday. Whoopsie. Should have done 1:15 version, looks more interesting, and would have gotten me back to the right parking lot. And probably would have been a bit farther back from Boris/Sergei... ah well =)

A little strength action before dinner chez Gagarin
3 x 22 pushups
3 x 15, 15, 15 hammies
10 min abs
2 min back
2 min SJJs

And a fun plan for spring: Western Mass 5 days. Squished in time just a bit, perhaps into Memorial Day weekend, we'll see =)

Christmas Harriman training, part 2, Long on Surebridge

9.3k, 9 controls, so long legs. Was great fun, cruising around, seeing some of the more rugged areas of Harriman (deep ravines). Enjoyed route choicing, will need to compare with the other guys, see if my choices were ok. It's a great course to work on long legs, if you intend to do it, don't read next bit, it'll spoil it partly, at least, if you have a good memory.

1 - I went right, having checked out and seen that it looked good. But as I started booking it down the road noted that the left road had less green on the way in, maybe the faster way.
2 - Initially bent a bit too far right, but was just trying to move fast and get out of the green.
3 - Checked out routes, decided straight, took my Clif Shot on the uphill slog.
4 - First cool ravine, out into flat, ran on road/trail around the bend for no reason, should have just gone straight. Or maybe there were prickly plants, hm, forget.
5 - Fun leg to make up a route, maybe possible to make one with the trail to the right? But I liked the straight up the stream, up the slope before the green got thick, stay high until ravine got manageable, then in.
6 - Left of marsh, ended up left of stream too, had to get wet at somepoint, blah. Bit tired climbing the hill...
7 - Right reentrant route, not so full of energy, but beautiful beautiful Harriman. The woods were so runable. Or would have been if not so hilly. =) Issue on edge of circle, throught the cliff on north edge was the control feature for a bit. Hmph.
8 - Went for left trail route, was pretty fast, I thought.
9 - Mmm, pretty much a trail run, cut at the beginning. Knew I wasn't going to be the ~80 min Boris + Sergei had run, but wasn't far off... Slight hesitation, first turned off trail at little rocky hilly instead of bigger one, then no streamer.

2 puffs of inhaler before, was fine while out there, getting into the warm car (parked facing sun), triggered coughing fit afterwards, a few more puffs got things under control. One more asthma attack since then, hopefully will calm back down now that I'm out of the allergen-hosting house, wish body wasn't so finicky!

Very happy to have gone out and trained, but I have got to find a better route to Amherst. Maybe just heading Taconic-90-91 is better on days I expect traffic on 84...

QuickRoute

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C • Map? 7