GPS died. Watch recorded some heart rate information. Not too hard---lots of driving around.
Was in the park from 7:30am to about 5:30pm. Long day. I've got a lingering cold and I'm a little worse today (Monday).
The problem with putting on an event on Super Bowl Sunday is that you go home, put on the game, and then fall asleep under a blanket until frantic yelling by the announcers wakes you up because of some crazy mistake touchdown. I've been catching up on the commercials online. It sure sucks to miss all those commercials. (And I say that non-ironically.)
XC Skiing (Classic) 1:13:03 4.19 km (17:27 / km) +92m15:43 / km ahr:153 max:169
My second time ever XC skiing. Again at Happy Jack.
A much nicer day than the 25th.
I was getting my stuff ready when I looked over and recognized Swampfox. Talked for a few minutes, then hurried out onto the trails. I was smoother and less awkward than the first time, but still not good. SF caught up to me and we talked for few minutes more about technique and Attackpoint and the devotion I notice XC Skiers seem to have for their sport. But I didn't want to take up his time (and my skis were due back at the rental by six, so I was a little worried about that---it was supposed to snow overnight, and if I had to wait for the rental place to open, it would have cost me (1) an additional day of ski rental, (2) an additional day of car rental, and (3) it would have made me much later for my flight than I would care to be. I would have made it, but I would have been freaking out for the entire morning.
I had fishscale skis. If it had been a lot colder, SF said this would have actually been the best choice. But it was warmer, and I'm pretty sure they had no glide. I could manage sort of a running gait, but not a kick-glide-kick-glide smooth rhythm. (From watching youtube videos, I believe was wasn't pushing down hard enough on my kick ski---the lack of glide may have been just not enough kick.)
Again, it was a total blast. I did a bit steeper hill descent towards the parking lot three or four times (it was a small loop, and I was eating up time to avoid being too early back at the rental). My first time down was *scary*. I'm pretty good at snowplowing on downhill skis, but these things just require more commitment. I made the loop turn at the bottom, but I'm sure it was ugly. Then I did it twice more, each time faster and with more control braking. The last time I went straight back to the parking lot, and double poled as hard as I could---for like 15 seconds.
The weirdest thing was that I expected to be sore today after doing this for over an hour the day before---but I wasn't sore. And I wasn't sore Friday morning (after the second day) either. So at first glance, XC Skiing seems to agree with me. (But it's probably just my woefully inadequate excess aerobic capacity making it impossible for me to get a real workout at altitude.)
At the Tahoe Ski-O Alex wrote about having mad clipping-in skills. The first day, I just clipped right in, first try, thank you very much. But the second day, it took me literally three minutes to get both boots clipped in---about 90 seconds each.