Training Log Archive: W

Neljän Vuoren hiihto, shortened to 36k, thank goodness. My ski shape is not good at all, having only spent this week trying to get back into ski shape. I think all this skiing has sorted out my knee, but I won't know until I get back to running.

Its crazy, at these races, you have to get there early and claim a spot in the start grid. I rolled in with an hour to go and already the first six rows had been taken. So, at the start, I was in like row 9, and it took maybe three strides for the person in front of me to crash.

My glide was super good today, and my kick was pretty good for the first 15k or so, and then it deteriorated incredibly fast. One minute it was there, the next minute I coulnd't climb darn near anything. That mean on the second lap I started skiing backwards, and rapidly got caught by many people. I could hang on to them whenever there was some gliding, but anything else I was generally useless. Couldn't climb, coudn't use my arms.

Clearly, I should have used some klister instead of K-base. Or put on more layers of K18. Or just not started doing gymnastics class last week. My shoulders were ruined even before the start.

C • Row 9 3

Proved to be quite a busy day, but definitely had to get in another ski once the weather got a little cold to test out some wax. First I tried Vauhti K21 and VR40, then put some K18 and Ski Go HF blue over top. K18 was an improvement in kick without much impact on glide, so that's probably going to be the ticket. The Vauhti wax advisor suggested Super Blue base + a few dobs of blue klister. I didn't really want to go out and buy some klister (or deal with klister) so I just used K-base, which is basically a mix of the two. I'm going to regret that decision, I wager.

(I can say this now because I know actually DID regret it!)

First go with testing a little wax for this weekend's race. Its kind of a moot point because the conditions are going to be totally different - today was -2 and Saturday will be -10, and then Sunday will be new snow and +2. Criminy.

A little bit of new snow has meant the conditions have gone back to pretty darn good! Good enough to feel brave enough to get out my good skis and give them a shot. I approve! I didn't cross over to Ladun Maija because I bet they're not quite so good, but stayed on the Soidenlampi side and did a few loops. Skiing is so much more fun on good skis! Yay!

I'm actually pleasantly surprised, considering the bad conditions yesterday, they seem to have done some good grooming and many places were not as bad as I thought they would be. Granted, it was dark, so I might not have seen all the horrible things I was skiing over, but it was a little softer and better to ski. Felt strong doing one-skate (which is my bread and butter, if I could do nothing but one-skate, I would), so it felt good.

Tomorrow I start a university class in "Apparatus gymnastics". Because its free, and apparatus gymnastics is crazy fun. Maybe I can try doing handstands on parallel bars again

(note to self: last time you tried that, it hurt, don't do it, you can't even do a normal handstand)

(double note to self: try it anyway)

C • Don't Do it 6

The knee was a little bothersome (but not so bad), so I switched to skating today to see if it was any better. Classic also would have been a terrible idea because it snow/rained all through watching the Crashed Ice race last night, so in addition to us getting soaked, it turned the ski trails rock hard and icy. Quite fast gliding, but near impossible to even push off while trying to climb. I like to one skate the hills but that was a no go. I think double-poling would have been the best choice.

Can't even try my good skis, because some parts of the trails are in rough shape. Too bad. Knee is a bit improving, and so is my ski fitness (a little). This weekend is Neljan Vuoren Hiihto, but its been shortened to a 36/18k, so even in bad ski shape, it shouldn't be a problem. Might even be better for me, if I can get the wax better than last year.

It would be hard to be much worse than that.