Training Log Archive: bl

Token exercise at BHS, tried the skate oval. Snow flurries the other day had smoothed the surface from the last visit but the glide was not very good, stop & go. Very few new tracks since I was there a few days ago. The wind was whipping on a desolate Turee shortly before sunset. It was 5F at 5p on the way home. About as cold as winter gets in this part of NH.

Morning was NHH time & the middle of the day was taken with an iPhone workshop at the Apple store in Manchester. Nothing like being introduced to so many facets by expertise. Learned quite a few essential or useful things.

Cold day, gravitated toward gym after work.

Then the treadmill. Got a bit into it, and got the speed up to 8.5 briefly to see how hard it was - and it was on the hard side. Too much of that would likely lead to hamstring casualty but good fitness training if not.

From Town Pond on waxless skis. Pretty good SM-packed trail for the most part. Quite a few wet spots where SMs broke thru the covering ice. Finally took the skis off crossing Arnold. By then, I'd crossed more than enough hardtop w/o removing them and what remained wasn't worth it. It was a wintry day with occasional snow showers.

BHS early afternoon - snow on soft side. Had hoped for better but SM tracks, however groomed over, made for too many up and downs or linear streaks occasionally deep - and hard to ski across diagonally. A shame that abusive snowmobile types tore up the surface - with figure 8s and circles - what snow there was on the fields before new cover. About as bad as (dog) walkers on classical tracks with the occasional poop! Authoritative signs and chains across possible entry points would seem 'necessary' for the nordic team to have what they should have.

Kimball Pond solace

Went to BHS to see what was on way home from work - it was in process of being groomed. Removed my skis from their bag but they were the waxless classics fm Bear Brook a few days ago, duh. So did some of that, went out on the white expanse of Turee. Spoke with the groomer, Clete B, whom I knew from CH GI years ago. No school on primary day.

Went back to BHS just before dark, T under 20F. Had longer, better skis. Glide was not as good as expected on the squeaky snow with universal glide wax. Snow was not packed as well as expected either.

From north Concord - windy & cold at the start & I did not have optimal hat or gloves. The wind-accentuated cold caught me by surprise. Whimped out for the most part - had 4 in mind but called it quits at 2. Somedays are like that. Went to Gibson's to read. Best thing that happened today was seeing the 12 turkeys who came by to sample what the birds had spilled from the feeders.

Went to the cinema for Superbowl Sunday, maybe for the 12th year. Have a list somewhere - started with Titanic. Last night's choice,The Finest Hour, wasn’t our first but the story was interesting, a USCG rescue off Cape Cod in a 1952 February gale. There was too much Disney-Hollywood (3D too) but the fact that it was based on a true story made it both remarkable and memorable. Then today, one reads of a mammoth cruise ship off C. Hatteras in a February gale in modern times - and also wonders what's with all that state-of the-art weather watching and predicting capability.

Went to Kimball Pond for a hike with Beth & Mocha - not sure how far M would be able to go and we were pleasantly surprised - she was always ahead of us. We were stopped at the beaver dam-trail crossing. Surprisingly, it was too flooded (with snow as well) to try, esp given Mocha’s aspiration issue. So we walked back - first time that has happened in my maybe 10 visits. Walked on the pond the last third, plenty of tracks to provide reassurance.

Visited BHS mid-morning but no grooming there.