TRT at 2:50p, groomed with soft surface in sun, crusty in shade. Not good enough for open-field crust skiing. Can walk on the crust surface in woods all around the house. It's interesting & nice to be a foot taller.
Tired day - Beth up at 0315 for 6a flt to FL & did not get back to real sleep. Finally, though, had her drive herself, leave car in long term pkng for the 4 days away.
Bad day --- fingers on both hands were numb by first point. Had decent gloves with 2 chemical hand warmers in each (put in about an hour before) but fingers were still too cold with way too far to go. Was annoyed/frustrated/distracted/not having a good time so I bagged it - couldn’t use poles effectively etc. Didn’t help that e-punch had come off gloved forefinger a few minutes before start (tho I’d considered that in past 30’) & had to remove gloves to fiddle to get it back in place. Wind chill etc on a morning such as it was is a good test of preparedness & I was an amateur. Practice makes perfect & ski racers see a lot of the kind of windy cold there was this am. It was fine in woods but there was no way the fingers were going to warm up. Recall a super cold UNO ski O at Bretton woods years ago w/ cold fingers (old cold damage/sensitivity) but stuck that one out. A “must go” am such as this was is not what I see much of - usually skiing is a choice as to where & when unless a race-type effort. Had good down mitts but no plan for the punch with them. Will make some accommodation. It’s possible to be comfortable, even in windchill cold.
4 PM
Classic skiing29:16 [2] 1.1 mi (26:37 / mi) +22m25:03 / mi
Visit to SM trails around 3p for dogs who were shortchanged past 2 days. Conditions were great Fri pm but now ice, crust, a few places of bare ground under trees. Nice enough 20F though.
West Point not a month away & I've done less running in the past 2-3 months than in years past. Not possible to play catchup but time to head in that direction.
Skate skiing1:06:03 4.19 mi (15:46 / mi) +184m13:52 / mi
At Trapp Family - drove up with Beth & dogs, left 0600. Around 40F & windy at 9a arrival. Got some temp appropriate yellow fluoro wax from Jim A. Saw Coach at one point where I elected to remove my skis - took maybe a minute to get them back on. Not a good idea to take off - groove in boots fills with packed snow, map holder doesn't allow easy access to "ground floor" & maybe balance issue chipping in too.
Saw Larry B for a few points, could not keep pace with him either. Then Sharon came by - at one point, the 3 of us were standing at a control - an easy 105 yrs of 'hanging out' with O. Really quite tired by finish, napped in car for about 50' then drove off to Burlington. Mediocre technique & no surprise. Needs work & more work, might have stayed for clinic but low on energy - spitting rain fm a gray sky not motivating either.
SPS, windy, 20F. Snow blowing across fields everywhere. From NHH at 2:30, really thought a nap was in order but went to find some lee at SPS & had a good time. Groomed hard pack (lots of rain last night) with most 2" dry snow on top. Also, some in woods off trail & a short spin on snow-covered artificial turf (turned up looking for spring most likely). No one in sight - everything untracked.