Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Snowing, great trail conditions. Colder, too, at -20C, so some amount of order has been restored to the world, with Laramie at last colder than Florida again.

I came down the hill--where things weren't so bad--and found the valley was engaged in a full blown blizzard. Excellent!

Winds were up and doing fine today! Trails were nice.

Windy, pleasant temps, good grooming, good snow even if getting somewhat pine needled again, and a pretty good number of other skiers out. Full sunshine!

Some fine running at dusk back on the snowy trails in The Flats.

The lights were turned on at the top of the hospital, indicating an incoming helicopter, and presumably some sort of med-evac. If it was an incoming patient, then at least they have a good hospital waiting for them.

I had been planning to go longer than this on some firmer surfaces in town, but by the time I got home it was sunset time, and the real question became if I would go out at all. The wind was blowing like a banshee and we've been spoiled lately with little to no wind. Plus, I was still cold the tail end of skiing. But I thought I would be happier if I went out and did at least something than if I did nothing, so I pulled on some warmer clothes and headed out into the last light of the day.

By the time I was done skiing and was ready to run, some winds had come up for the first time in a while. Running in the drifting snow was a whole other adventure.

Turned in cans today, and for sure that will be the last for the year, so total aluminum recycled for 2010 will be 161 lbs.

utan pannlampa

med pannlampa

Trails were soft with all the new snow, but very nice even so. And, yet another afternoon with no wind. It could almost be taken as proof that the gods occasionally feel benevolent.

I heard on the news that places in the Sierras had gotten 9'+ of new snow, which made me wonder: how in the world would you groom XC trails with 9' of new snow? Maybe you use a blowtorch.

The roads, upon inspection, looked to be treacherous even if open. And there was a decent chance the groomers would have never made it up today, and/or that the parking lot would not have been plowed out, so I abandoned the idea of skiing at about the point I was driving past Walmart, where a Salvation Army bagpiper was piping away (yes, I could hear him even in my truck.)

Therefore I stuck to running today, in the evening as the snow was at last dying away. There was no wind, the temps were in the 20s, and the running on the packed snow in the streets through the neighborhoods was perfect!

In the end, it looks like we got 15-17" of snow, which is a lot for the valley. Who knows how much ended up on the Range or over in the Snowies.

Really great new snow.

Based on the fact it's snowing, it looks like any sighting of the Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse is going to be problematic locally.

Great trail conditions, with the tiniest bit of snow drifting down occasionally. Not at all cold, with temps not much under freezing, and only a light breeze.

Didn't get out until late afternoon despite my intent to get out earlier, but even so the skiing was quite nice. It helped that the air was absolutely dead calm--unusual anytime here, but really unusual for it to be so in the late afternoon in winter!

Ran snow trails.

Clear, chill, and sunny through and through, all day long.

Mostly on crusty snow. Saw almost no antelope.

Snow rumored for the day.

Only a dusting of snow in the valley, but up top was a snowy surprise--about 4-5" of velveteen new snow was waiting for exciting cowboy-on-skis action. Yeehaw! It didn't look like the groomers had made it out pre-snow, but who knows, maybe they were up in the early morning and the snow came in the late morning. No matter, it was perfect as it was. All the old pine needles were buried, and now the new crop can commence falling.

I looked for the moon, but there must have been clouds in the way. Getting somewhat colder by dusk and more Decemberish at last.

The first 17 minute run was too much fun, so I did it again!!!

Pretty mild day, so some glazing on the most exposed and heavily used areas. Most of the trails have a liberal application of pine needles on them, and will remain that way, I should imagine, until the next storm.

While I was skiing, I returned to a subject I've been thinking about off and on for a while now, which is next year's Laramie Daze. I'm going to shake up the format, and I'm fairly sure that it will start with training map pickup and a practice interval started course on Wednesday afternoon, 31 Aug, and then each of the next 5 days will have a morning race which will be mass started. One day will be set aside for the One Cowboy Relay, and Daze will end with the traditional Rocky Mountain Goat on Labor Day. As for the other days, I expect they will probably be something middle distance-ish. It'll be much easier to organize like this, and I think it will be more fun, too, and definitely better racing, for those who come to race.

Skied past nightfall; really looking forward to tomorrow, when sunset will be a whole minute later!

At last some snowshoers had gotten out and begun packing some trails that a runner could benefit from. At one trail junction, I gathered beetle kill pine cones and arranged them to spell out a gigantic "thank you!", though I'm not sure anyone will understand since I translated it into Swedish.

It was not wicked cold or really even cold at all, but the wind? Whoa! Definitely windy. It started snowing hard from the moment I laid my skis down on the snow, and continued for about an hour. By the time I was done, it was dark and the winds had shaken down all kinds of material off of the beetle trees. I-80 was an icy disaster, and was in fact closed by the time I got on it and joined up with all the other traffic still on the road. Only saw one wreck though.

Caught a little bit of the noon sun, which was nice.

Windy, but felt mild all the same.

Was surprised when I was checking the weather data given here for Laramie (under "more details") that the sunset time given was off by a full hour! Something must be screwed up.

Totally bizarre. The uphills were easy but the downhills were very tough. Maybe I missed the wax. Or maybe it was the big I-80 corridor winds that went rhino after 4 pm? Hard to say for sure.

Trails were in great shape.

Stuck out at twilight. The very thin moon didn't provide much light, but then you don't need much light when there's snow on the ground. As long as the skies are clear, then there's enough light to see be. Amazingly, it was *dead* calm. That's super rare in winter in these parts.

About 2" of new snow, and it was fairly sticky, like rice. No problem walking straight up the steepest hills--in fact the steeper the better.

Trails, snow.

Quite foggy up top, especially towards the end as nightfall approached. Snow was soft and warm. Surprisingly, the parking lot was almost completely full even as late as it was in the afternoon when I got up top.

This was my final pre-Superstars workout. Now I will begin resting and undergoing a carbo-loading program carefully designed to maximize the glycogen storage that will be needed to become a Superstar.

Warmer today and skis were working much better today, even with last season's wax, probably because all the new and windblown snow has aged. Arms will work better with time. ; )

C • Warmer? 3