Training Log Archive: Bash

Skate skiing lesson at Silver Star with Barbie. From reading things she's written, I'd expected that she would be an awesome teacher, and she definitely is! We were out for 2 1/2 hours (I'm only counting half), and she had Bent and me doing drills of all kinds. We'll have to write a bunch of stuff down so we don't forget too much by next season. I have a long way to go, but now I have a better idea of what good skate skiing should feel like. Thank you, Barbie!

Skiing to and from the area where we had our lesson.

Skate skiing at Silver Star, practising what we learned this morning.

Actually, this was a 1-hour class called "Yogilates" (mixture of yoga and pilates), but it didn't seem worth creating a new category on AP for one training session! It felt great to stretch out and do some strength exercises.

We decided to start our western skiing experience at Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre, where Beckie Scott won her first World Cup race in December. In the morning, we used our fastest classic skis and did most of the black diamond trails around the edge of the ski area. This included a 4+ km climb to the top of Silver Star Mountain, where we had to be nimble to avoid being hit by snowboarders unfamiliar with their equipment. But the view of the mountains and snow-smothered trees was fantastic, and we were lucky to have a sunny day with a deep blue sky. The long continuous stretches of downhill were loads of fun, but we had to be careful to avoid frostbite. Perfect conditions in a beautiful place - couldn't ask for more.

Well, not entirely true. Canada could have done a bit better against Switzerland...

I'd been a bit surprised to see so few skate skiers today - and nobody had been skating on the long trails that climb the mountain and descend the other side. Well, this afternoon I learned why. I guess that all of my skate skiing (in my limited 1-year experience) has been in relatively warm temperatures, but today was colder. Even with fresh wax, it was hard, hard work to get glide on the uphills - and of course, these "hills" are actually mountains. If it weren't for the downhill sections, I'd have to call this a level 5 - wow! I declared a halt after an hour because I want to have some energy for tomorrow morning's eagerly-anticipated skate ski lesson with Barbie.

It would be more accurate to call the past couple of days "non-training" instead of "rest" days, because resting is the one thing I definitely haven't done - unless you count the nap I took in the departure lounge with my head on my carry-on baggage after Air Canada announced at flight time that they were "still looking for the pilots". I do appreciate being kept informed, but there are some things I'd rather not know, you know?

Bent and I landed in Kelowna, B.C. for a cross-country ski vacation, and were surprised to find absolutely no snow on the ground. We drove to Vernon, and it was still springlike. Oh dear. The first snow appeared about 20 km from Silver Star, then fortunately it kept getting deeper as we climbed until now we are surrounded by snow drifts much taller than we are, and the base is 202 cm. Phew! Looking forward to getting out and stretching our legs tomorrow.

While watching skating

Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Fast post-breakfast ski to say farewell to the Kukagami trails for another year.

Broke trail for Bent on the ski-out from Kukagami Lodge. (He was feeling under the weather.) ThunderDog and BulletDog kept up a good pace and made dog angels in the deep snow alongside the trail.