Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Very fast ski on the commute. Guess all that skiing up big climbs at altitude helped- I just flew up the hills.

Had to do some bushwhacking through dark green to scout a bypass of the construction on my ski trail. Imagine the nerve of them tearing up my trail over their property!

Workout #2. Haven't used the machine in quite a while, and the weights are back down accordingly on any exercises that are non-ski related.

Nice ski with Bulletdog. Went from -5 in the AM to +1 in the PM, so I used a shot of spray grip wax. Tomorrow it's waxless skis for sure.

On the way home it seems that they've bulldozed part of my ski trail, right up to a fence. Some re-routing and nav will be needed ASAP.

Note- lower calf/ ankles a bit sore from all the off-camber frozen lumps I ran in yesterday.

I did the Thomass Palgrave that I missed due to illness. I had studiously avoided seeing the map.
I did the full elite course with Bulletdog, and tried to stay off the old tracks where I could see them. I made a point of taking some unique routes to controls to add to the nav training aspect. Most of the flags were down, but I was confident that I had the right spots, especially as I could see old tracks there.
I made one silly route choice, but no real errors.

I was disappointed that even with my local knowledge I would have finished out of the time limit as an elite. Guess there's lots of room for improvement. Good thing I'm old and can drop controls. I suppose it would be easier seeing other runners and running in tracks.

C • Not to mention... 2

Easy jog to and from the start. Also a good chance to pick off burs.

Skate Ski at Canmore. I've felt sluggish all week, but today was the first in a while I felt good skating uphill.
Back home tonight.

Climb up to Boom lake and back down.
Very nice tree skiing, and fast condtions.

Classic at Mt. Shark.

Gorgeous bluebird day, 20cm of fresh powder and spectacular views!
Hard work breaking trail for most of the day, from ankle deep to mid-shin for a long way, and over the knee in bits.

Breakfast at the Rocky Mountain Bagel shop- mmm, Greek breakfast bagel and organic coffee!

Then off to Lake Louise and a ski up towards Moraine Lake, or at least to the avalanche slope. A long steady climb and nice descent.

Ashtanga yoga class. We saw these classes, and foolishly thought we'd try the fairly advanced class. Oy. Well, at least I provided entertainment to the class. Lots of candles, incense and heat. Also mostly very fit and flexible young women, not inflexible 45YO guys.

Off to Mountain Flatbread Co for a great dinner.

I found some new icebugs in a 2nd hand sports store! $99 for brand new red icebugs. They had a pair of sz. 9 black and red ones too, if anyone wants me to bring them back for you.
The black-and-red are slightly lower end than the red ones I think.

2 Different laps at Canmore Nordic. On the first lap we ran into Chico's Bro Sean R, who skied with us and gave us some tips. On the second lap we accidentally took the extra-tough loop which was basically a roller coaster, lots of offset and double poling but not much inbetween. Climbing's so much easier on classic!

Kananaskis trails. Gorgeous fresh snow, fantastic trails, but sticky condtions with lots of icing up.
We had to put the hammer down to meet W & C, and thanks to a nav error (mine) we did a 1.5km big climb in the wrong direction.

Between the altitude and cold the breathing's still a little hard, but a great ski overall.

Canmore nordic centre. Nice ski after a 4:30AM alarm to make our flight to Calgary. I would probably have skipped the ski and moaned about my post-flight headache, but our friends W&C got us out, and I'm glad we did. Bash was flying!

Starting to feel better.

Thomas Palgrave- I worked registration. Almost killed me not to run off with the starters, but running hard right now might have almost killed me too. Feeling a lot better than yesterday, thanks to vitamin Z (Zithromycin)

Feeling worse today.
Very light K/O workout, balance and mostly stretching.

Note- Found a pic of Gold Camp overview at http://www.lixar.com/csm/csm_photos/index.php
Check out pic #105 and pics 4 and 5 are at Gold camp too.

An easy ski with 2dogs. Best snow of the year, and I'm well enough for some easy touring.

I wonder if sprint-nose-blowing counts as training?
Maybe it's intervals. If so, I did about 100 repeats. De-glove, de-mask, honk schnoz, wash hands, hand sanitize, re-glove, re-mask, then repeat about 2 minutes later X 8 hours.

Workout #1. Been a while, so it wasn't the strongest workout.

Aww, great snow out there and I'm sick as a dog. Got winded hauling a load of firewood on a sled. No skiing today:(

This explains why I was tired on the second day of the CSM. I didn't think I pushed that hard on day 1.

C • Actually... 1

Slowish recovery ski to work.
People are complaining about how cold -22C is. Pah!
Should be a nice snowstorm this evening.

C • Snowstorm 1

Bleagh. My cold's back with a vengance.
I hitched a ride home today.

Note- Ski Marathon pics are up at
http://www.elmtreedental.com/AR_CSM07.html

Power Yoga DVD
I felt a little feeble on the plank sections- elbows a little stiff after all the skiing, but the hamstrings were good for a change.

C • Congrats! 1

A brisk -27C when the alarms started to go off a 4AM. Packed and ready to go early, so I was able to dry almost everything by the fire before leaving at 6. I felt strong for the first section, and wanted to move well to warm up. Hands went from too cold to sweat-soaked, to cold at the first CP. Slower conditions and poorer snow in the dicey bits.
In the second section I bonked at the 100km mark, so I ate some peanut butter cups (Not frozen at -24) and geared down from then on, keeping it down to 9kph. I waited for JB for 45 minutes at the second CP- rest, soup and drinks which revived me - and 30 minutes at the 3rd, but didn't see him. Still made the cut-off with over an hour to spare, and finished by 3PM after an easier paced ski.

It was a shorter year, but the lack of long ski training showed for most folks, and the slower conditions and walking sections made for a tough enough marathon. The full distance would have been no problem though.

I think there's room to trim a kg or two from my pack. Didn't need my spare toque, mega-mitts, thermarest, ultralight second sleeping bag, cooking pot, extra meal packet, third oatmeal, hand warmers or spare tights and long johns. If it had been -35C I'd have used more.

All in all, more comfy than I expected, and cut-offs absolutely no problem, but it was tiring.

Thanks for all the cheering from AP, guys!

C • Good On Ya' 7

Canadian Ski Marathon- going for Gold

Day 1. Level 4 for much, but easy at the end.
Started in the dark with about 240 other Gold skiers, at about -19C. My wax was awesome, and I was able to run up the hills past long columns of skiers, even with my 25lb pack. I needed to average about 7kph including stops, but was skiing at about 11kph when the trails were good, so the cut-off wasn't an issue.
Sections were great skiing, but others were mandatory skis-off hikes, and stretches of dirty snow beside roads and bare dirt bits ate my wax at around 45km. I made the last CP's 2:30 PM cut-off by noon, so I had a nice long break there, and had 5 cups of chunky soup, 4 gatorades and 2 packs of chocolate peanuts. Olympian Pierre Harvey and friends were there an hour earlier!
I took the last section much easier, cooling down so I'd not arrive at camp cooked.

I got to Gold camp just after 2pm, about 40/240 skiers, and immediately changed my top layers to tomorrow's ski clothes and my down jacket and fleece pants. There were about 30 bonfires all ready to go, and we set up circles of hay bales around them, with planks to dry our boots on in front. It was remarkably warm and comfy. A troop of boy scouts had boiling water available. No wind, -16C.
When my friend JB arrived we set up shop at another fire, and broke up our second bales to make probably the most comfy camping bed I've ever had, about 15cm thick. Most folks didn't bring a Thermarest.
I didn't need all my dinner, but did enjoy my Crash brownie. Slept in my down jacket, with a 2L bladder full of boiling water, and was too hot so I went for a walk to cool off when I woke at 1AM. The scouts stoked our fires overnight. Amazing scene, 2 rows of bonfires and a gazillion bivvy bags.

C • would be cool to see the line ... 4

No skiing today- I've got to ditch the last of the chest cold. I was out in the garage doing the green kister binder base by headlamp, and now I'm looking at my pile of gear with the forecast in mind, as it's only supposed to be a measly -16C low. We'll have more time in camp though to stand around and shiver. Off to the CSM tomorrow.

C • Break a leg 15

K/O came over to show us some Link exercises- squats with upper body at the same time. I'll have to start using them once we get some dumbells.

Easy 2-dog commute. Tapering this week after all. Another great -13 and breezy day.

Still have the cold, but the legs feel fine. Gorgeous -15C clear day.

Ski out to the car with large pack. Normally 6-7km are no biggie, but it was -24 and a strong headwind, so it was a bit brisk.

The dogs had to come out too, and wore boots and coats. No laughing please, these aren't northern sled dogs.

2 different trails in the PM. Still -22 or so, so just Bulletdog and me.

Note- GI upset, perhaps some variant of the cold?.

-25 this morning. Good practice for the Ski Marathon. Skied the dreaded Bear trail with Bash and Bulletdog. Actually not too bad at all, and did the extra Heron trail at the end.

Skied the Old Mill trail with Bash and Bulletdog in the AM, then across the lake to visit some Old Growth pines in the PM with both dogs.

Cold's getting better.

Quick loop of the Heron trail before dinner.

Off up North to Kukagami, hopefully to get in some good kms in gorgeous terrain and some serious carb loading before the CSM.

C • Oh no 2

Ski in to Kukagami with Bash and the dogs, with full pack. We drove through tons of snow, but it missed the lodge and snow is low enough that we had to ski the lake instead of the trail.

Still working on the cold.