Training Log Archive: W

A pleasant spring time run around the river valley. Firstly, the bridge from hawrelak to laurier is disgusting. Seriously. Dog owners should be embarrassed.

Anyway, nice day, nice jog, ran into Marcelo along the way and chit chatted briefly.

It was well known this was going to be a long work day, so all I could muster beforehand was a cycle. Foot was very store after a day of standing around, even if I was standing around in hokas.

Long weekend means its time to whip out the weekend warrior in me and try to put in some good hours and double down every day. I aimed to get going out for some last good ski action out at SWC before it got too too slushy. Did 3 x 15 minute intervals, where the first one was pretty fast, and the last one the snow was decisively in melty stage and was significantly slower, like, dropping from 5.34k to 4.98k. Ouch, 350 metres slower? Definitely blaming the conditions... *cough*

Met up with Nev for a yog scoping out some potential areas. The construction around Kinsmen is going to be super annoying, and it only just occurred to me yesterday that the sign says "jogging route detour, January 2013-October 2015". Ugh, that's going to be super, super annoying. Its funny because while that's going on, it officially means there is no possible way to travel the length of the river valley without crossing a single road at street level. Tragic.

Did a morning ride before the office and the shop.

After the office, headed over to Goldbar for some slow death skiing. The lake, although still rife with snow, was melty and really, really, painfully slow. Like, off-set on the downhill slow. One of those days when you'll be in the shade and going at a good clip down a hill, only to hit a sunny patch and almost fall straight on your face because your skis come to a dead stop. Makes me look hilariously bad at skiing.

Lots of people around obliterating the ski track, so this was likely the last time I'd use my good skis at Goldbar.

C • yuck 2

After that much foot-based activitiy (is there such a thing as non-foot based?), there was no doubt it was only going to be a trainer day for me, which it was! I need to get some new cycling shorts because the ones with the good chamois are seriously falling apart. I think I'll get some Craft.

The last indoor soccer game of the year was followed up by possibly my slowest run of the year. My legs were absolutely roasted. Add the soft-ish snow and I was not exactly at the top of my game. Or anywhere near it.

A complex and infuriating situation meant that I didn't get to do the ski I wanted, so instead I went down to Goldbar in mid-afternoon on a weekend and discovered people skiing the wrong way on the trails, walkers attempting to use the individual classic track as their own personal foot slots, and of course, off-leash dogs.

Porcupine in a tree was an adorable distraction, though.

Morning cycle that turned out to be slightly more around.... noon. Oh well.

Morning ski before work, it was surprisingly cold!

You'll also never guess what I saw.

My foot has started to get a tad sore while doing classic as well - not a good sign.

I'm going to lump one 45 minute ride and one 1 hour ride into a single workout because ARGH.

Really, I could go running, though. My foot has improved, but I often feel that going out for one run would set me back to where I was before I stopped running two weeks ago. I can tell because every now and then it starts to burn while I'm standing for maybe a minute before settling down. So its clearly not 100%, but this is yet another winter where I'm really not getting in the training I'd like. And I think my results from last summer show that that really didn't end up providing results I wanted.

aka, ARGH.

C • Of 4

3 x 15 minutes with 1 minute off at a ludicrously slow pace because it was so, so slow. Even slower than Monday. I was also particularly irritable because I came upon three different people with their off-leash dogs, each time simply stating on my way bay "this is not an off-leash area". Presumably all of them were indignant that I told them what is already a fact. The third person even decided to try and flag me down on the way, but there was no way in hell I was stopping mid-interval to chit-chat. Especially when I feel reasonably confident he's going to inform me that "this trail isn't only for skiers", or some such garbage as they always say. That is entirely irrelevant. Saving for the fact that it might be nice if people didn't walk all over the middle of the trail, its not like I can stop them from doing that. Or even having their dogs on the trails. Just not off-leash. *urge to kill.... rising....* It seems to constantly turn my otherwise pleasant ski into total frustration. Every time.

C • Dog owners are illogical 4

Cycled on the trainer. Boo-urns.

Despite there being lots of snow, its all quite dry, and kinda cold, so its slow as all hell. Its also quite soft. So a very slow slog. Fortunately that's really all it was meant to be, a nice easy slow toodle.

Went back out to SWC. More snow made for some really, really nice classic. Whipped out some Ex-Elit green, which always draws a crowd because no one has ever heard of it before. It worked quite well though. Still cold, until the sun came out. Also, this is approximately the 122 day where the conditions have been good enough to use my best skis. Another week, at least. And I had to go and spend a month of it on a tropical island. What was I thinking?

C • SWC 9

Its time for the classic spring race, Beat the Blues Boogie! Always nice to do, usually about +3, firm for the first little bit, then melty as the race goes on and a little slow by the end, but altogether a really nice day to be out.

WRONG.

20 cm of new snow in the last two days, -17 at the start, still snowing. So much for a spring day. Instead we were in for a lengthy 30k slog of soft snow and super slow conditions.

Actually, it wasn't so bad. There was a fairly solid base underneath. The worst laps were probably 2 and 3, as people had skied over it but not really packed it. It was particularly tough when we were skiing east into a headwind, but a traditionally difficult section was much, much easier with the wind.

As expected, it was Lucas and I for basically the entire race skiing together. Since I knew he could probably take me in a 15k race, I took over the lead on laps 2 & 3 and then 5 & 6 in an effort to make him less tempted to make the pass and go for it. I was able to keep control of the pace (which was generally pedestrian, but quite consistent), until the last hill with about 2k to go. He attempted to put down the hammer and put on a gap but I was miraculously able to hold on with a really big effort until he scaled it back and we were together again.

In retrospect, I should have maybe tried to go right then and there, but instead I decided to recover a little and wait for an opening. There wasn't one. I tried to pass once but he was all over that, which left it to a sprint at the line.

Ordinarily, that would be fine because I'm quite certain I could outsprint anyone there without any trouble. The problem is that the trail and finish lane is about wide enough for 1 and 1/4 skiers. So, although I was able to pull out from behind hm and move close to beside him, when we got to the world's narrowest/shortest finish lane (aka about 10 meters), there was really no way to skate past him and I certainly can't double pole past a guy who is skating. If I were clever I could have maybe tried to generate enough momentum from behind to shoot past him at the line, but I didn't really think of that. Doh.

Attacklogging has been very tiresome lately, because its mostly been miserable workouts. Boo-urns.

C • double-poling 7

Some skiing at Victoria before it got all cold.

Hopped on my trainer before playing soccer, which was a terrible idea.

Actually went for a run, not remarkably painful foot, but certainly not pleasant.

3 x 15 minutes with 3/ minutes off. Wanted to do 4 but things just didn't get going fast enough and I had to head to the shop.

Ski at Goldbar before the shop. Bored, lonely, irritable, and bored. All of the above.

There is really no route in Edmonton anymore that I don't countdown every individual turn until I can go home. Its really, really good trail running, its just so, so boring.

Got stuck at the office for much longer than I hoped, so then hustled to Goldbar to try to get at least a small amount of a workout in. The goal was 10 x 3 minutes (shortened from 15 x 3), but only managed to get to 8 x 3 until I realized I was going to be late, so abbreviated the warm up to about 2 minutes, and took off. I suppose I got the meat of the workout in.

Another brisker style run around some usual areas. The PF in my left foot is putting everything out of whack, as my calf tightened up and my hips got sore all on that side. Not good.

Cycled on the delapitated trainer. Managed to keep the grinding to a minimum, which was slightly more pleasant?

Last run with Paul before he heads off to Morocco. That is all.

Brisk run around the river valley before the shop. I don't know if it was just today, but I am honestly feeling a bit more comfortable with my higher pace running. Hopefully it will reflect nicely when I get off snow and onto the road and my F-ING FOOT STOPS BEING F-ING SORE. FOX CREEK.

Seriously.

Managed a double down on my trainer after the shop as well. My trainer is literally disintegrating, the plastic keeps cracking for some reason and the spinny thing gets out alignment and starts grinding every now and then. I have to prop it up partly with a box. Oh well, its got lots of miles on it, I suppose.

Awesome ski out at SWC. It was again pretty slow, especially as the day worn on, but it was warm and mostly sunny so I was out just in tights and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Did 6 x 10 minutes w/ 3 minutes off. Lots of one-skate, which made me rotator cuffs pretty sore. I've noticed that a lot lately, I wonder if its the extra 2.5cm on my poles? I'd also be interested to experience the snow speed if I had showed up early before starting to melt. Could've been rocket!