Training Log Archive: AliC

Event: City of Lakes Freestyle Loppet Marathon
 

City of Lakes Loppet 32k

And happy to have won it! =) It wasn't the most epic battle for the women's title, but it was one of the best pack-skiing experiences I've had, ending with a battle against the guys that I'd skied with for nearly the entire race.

They let the women start on the second line after a line of the top 20 ranked men. That worked alright actually, although the guy right in front of me did take a fall about 50m in, so I had to do some dainty side-stepping of that. Checking out who was around after the start, I saw one woman ahead of me, but I couldn't really tell if there were more ahead or not. I passed that one and kept looking ahead, but saw no feminine type forms on the horizon. Still, I wasn't totally sure, we were all quite bundled on up for the 5F!

The course is broken into maybe 4 major sections with very different flavor. At the beginning it's the "Back 9" of a golf course, and rolly-hilly. No killer climbs, but you're brining out the V1 for sure. Then there is the "Front 9" which is nearly flat and kind of a nice break. My pack of 11 had totally settled into a rhythm by this point, so I was just a happy drafting camper off the back of the pack, the speed was pretty much perfect for me.

You cross a road and head into a park where you wind all around and go up and down. Uphill pack. Again no really monstrous prolonged hills, but it is hilly. I felt like maybe I wasn't as strong on the hills as the rest of the pack, something to work on. Because it's so turn-y, it really helps to be a good technical skier, losing 1 second on each curve would cost you a ton in this race!!

After that hilly section, you head out on the Lakes and it's almost entirely flat from their to the finish. Our pack stayed together for the first bit, but then started to break apart on the edge of Cedar. I was comfy enough to take the break with the leaders, making a pack of 6 of us heading into Lake of the Isles. I was the last in the pack of 6, getting all the draft I could. Heading under the bridges out of Lake of the Isles the top 3 made their break. Hard to follow from 6th, but I passed #5 just leaving the little lake on to Lake Street, and then just went into a strong V2. That let me pass #4 on the final stretch on Lake, but I wasn't closing much on the first 3. Sprinted it in, to the announcer and much cheering, woo!

Cool to have won $1000 for sure, it totally, totally helps. Fully reimburses my entry and gas money out there and back and leftovers can go to help the general get-Ali-to-ski-o fund =)

C • Get-Ali-to-all-Ski-Os fund 1

Event: City of Lakes Loppet Ski Orienteering
 

City of Lakes Loppet Ski-O!

Arrived in Minneapolis with about an hour to spare, and found BP and Jim inside a shopping mall. (Relevant, actually, that was where registration for all the weekend's events was.) Loaded up on a bus (whoa, point-to-point ski-o!) and off the the races! My Garmin exploded on the bus, so unfortunately no track.

There were three mass starts- Long Women, Short, Long Men, so I was off right at the beginning. The race was great fun, the lakes meant you could shortcut, as long as you picked the right features to head towards. There were also little intricate sections, particularly my first of the two butterfly loops around Cedar Lake. I did a cut from the lake up to a narrow trail, which worked perfectly well, other adventures included stepping over a pretty big downed log and skiing down a wooden staircase. Think that's my first staircase descent on skis =)

As Pete said at the on-bus debriefing, the first part of the race was kind of a nice solitary woods ski and then it was going to be like skiing through the county fair. Kinda true, but having those distractions of ice skaters, snow sculptures, and ski-jorers meant you had to stay more focused than you might otherwise through those not-too-many route choice final sections.

In the final sprint, I had a panic attack. I had my map folded, so I punched the last control and then unfolded it, but then wait-a-second, there are three other controls I've never gone to - what's going on? Do I need to go back? Why are they numbered 2-3-4. Hm, I think I've been there already... uh, let's go finish, I think it's ok.... (turns out, it was a map inset for the tricky first loop!) So not the speediest of finish splits. Ah well.

I was interviewed at the finish, a little explaining about ski-o, a little about being on the US ski-o team and a little about the day's race there! Not that there were tons of crowds at that moment, but very cool to have ski-o announced like that!!!

So many thanks to MNOC for a great ski-o! It is very cool to have it part of the City of Lakes Loppet weekend. Ski-o friends who also like marathons should totally consider coming to this next year instead of/in addition to the Birkie, kill two birds with one stone and it is right in Minneapolis, no long drives to the Wisconsin outback!!

Luminary Loppet

This is such a cool thing. Minneapolis has lakes right in the midst of the city and it's really quite cold there in the winter so the lakes freeze super-solid. Solid enough that you can put fire all over it in awesome ice sculptures and then invite 1000s of people to come and make their way around the lake on skis, on snowshoes, or just on foot and watch the super-pretty glimmering light and ice.

Pete, Molly, Biz and I skied around leisurely, talking with folks here and there and making sure to see all the sculptures (Icehenge, Icecroplis, Ice-pyramid-thingy....) Some luminary loppet photos

Wax party times at Pete's house!

I waxed up the pair of skis that Stephi just gave back to me with the CV0 grind (a Caldwell Sport blue grind). Before the new snow, I was pretty sure I was going to use the purple grind skis (L2-0S), but then yeah, it snowed a lot and got pretty cold.

For wax, I loosely followed the Boulder Nordic Sport recs, since I have SkiGo HFs. So that was an underlayer of Swix cold LF moly (or graphite? unsure) and then a layer of SkiGo HF Blue and then just a top coat of SkiGo C105 Fluid, just corked in. I just found something online that said if you rotocork the SkiGo Fluoros, they last up to 100k. Interesting.

Long - A - Splits

Foot still kinda hurting, defs not time for running shoes yet. Soo, 10 min abs, 2 min back, 4 min hammies to start of the morning.

Then, road trip!! (Well, really starting at 3.30pm.) In search of the City of Lakes Loppet + Ski-O! Made it to Wisconsin Dells for the overnight, totally within striking distance of the Twin Cities by ski-o time tomorrow =)

C • BAM. 8

Day off, quads are still shot from Tues intervals and a strange pain on the top of my foot really hurts when I put running shoes on. Hmph. Feels kind of like a bursitis that I had before (ok, well in a different place) and that just takes time with no pressure coming into contact with it... blah. At least it's not bad in ski boots, because this weekend will features some time in ski boots - City of Lakes Ski-o + Luminary Loppet + Loppet (35k)!! Woo!

Also - US World Games team = myself, Sam, Ross + Eric, psyched to head to Colombia in early Aug!!!

C • That sounds like almighty fun 3

C • Foot pain 2

Quads seriously sore from yesterday's efforts, so a good day to double pole! Kept it quite easy, also map reading, but right tricep let me know it was still aggrieved about 25 min in. Hmph. Well that settles no specific strength for this week, and I guess I'll taper down next week's distance double pole too, if it doesn't do well with the skiing over the weekend.

Also, some strange foot pain on the middle-top of my foot, from intervals in the Salomon shoes yesterday I guess? Didn't hurt much in ski boots at least, but will have to see how it is tomorrow in running shoes...

C • How are the practice sessio... 6

And core, 10 min abs, 2 min back. Did some of the exercises on my exercise ball, to mix it up.

Trot, trot warm up!

And ankle plyos + skate jumps. Meant to work Cristina jumps into this week, but I wasn't going to remember them all, gotta bring notes =)

And finally, and honest-to-goodness hard workout! 5 x 4 min intervals around the Ottawa Park loop. Some unhappy stomach issues, but other than that, good intervals. Reminded me of some OUCCC Uni Parks sessions, except missing say 40 other runners. Miss that crowd!

C • Me too! 1

Whoop! Finally tried out a Zumba class and it was great fun, even if I totally don't have the groove of the various moves yet. =) It's Latin dancing goes to aerobics, so kinda salsa-bachata-merengue inspired moves, but also some that just aren't. A decent workout, and probably if I tried to put a little more spring into things, it would be even better. Although I'm not sure inov8s are the best dance shoes, they just seem too sticky!

The class was just at the UT rec center, so totally free (woo!) although a bit crowded with 30 or so. 1 guy, the rest gals.

C • Zumba guy 6

Some erging afterwards, since I was there and the good ergs were free. Skittering around 2.10 pace, 27 average stroke rate or so?

And a little jog back to the dept.

Hammies, 15, 12, 12