Training Log Archive: 'Bent

Birkebeiner race.
Bash and I had been looking forward to this one, but the weather has been warm and slushy here all week. Luckily race day was perfect, -5 to -10c, clear skies, moderate wind.
We were nervous about waxing with complex recommendations all week, but the official wax recommendation was simpler today. We forked out to get the pros to do HF glide wax, base binder and some kick wax, and I followed the recommendation for more kick wax.
It was a 2hr drive to the start, and a bit chaotic to find the bag drop, washroom and wax testing track amongst 13000 skiers milling around, all before finding our start waves. I was in wave 11/26 and by the time I got there I was in the back of the pack, which was fine with me. There must have been 20 tracks groomed in.

The course looks like 2 camel humps. My plan was to take it easy on the first big climbs, and all went well. Good grip, and it was a pleasure to be surrounded by skiers who can ski instead of walking uphills and blocking the tracks. I could stride up almost everything, and found myself moving up a bit in my wave.

Once at the top, it was double-pole all the flats, and I found it hard work. I understood better once we got to a long fast downhill, and folks were scooting past me left and right- my skis were grippy but not the best gliders.



I felt strong on the climbs, and would catch the back of wave 10 on the uphills, only to move back on the flats a bit and be caught by the front of 12 on the downhills. On one downhill I ran over one of the many discarded gel packs and that ski lost all glide for a bit, which almost crashed me.

I took my time to get drinks at all the aid stations, even though my mandatory 3.5kg pack had 2 thermoses of water and some food.

The skiing up top was fantastic- razor crisp tracks, usually 8 lanes, never less than 4. There were even special lanes for the M70 F65+ skiers, who get a head start. I saw quite a few of them cooking along pretty well.

I felt really strong on the second climbing section, and passed tons of skiers.



The last 15k was a net downhill, and we'd been warned it was steep luge runs followed by long semi-flats. The steep bits were a bit dicey, with ice in the middle and some pretty sharp turns at high speed. Once again, my skis were slow, and hotshots would rocket by at unnerving speed, probably on juiced skis. On the long flats and gradual downhills it was all double poling again, and the whole pack seemed to be passing me, including most of the folks I passed on the climbs. I'm normally a pretty strong double poler, but the skis were a bit pokey. Oh well... maybe more experienced racers knew to wax more for glide near the end.

As we approached the stadium I remembered to look for my Canadian flag. I stepped aside the sprinting skiers, de-gloved and fumbled in pockets without finding it. I was surprised to see that it was just 4:02 on the clock- I wasn't really watching it but knew I was below 14kph up top, and was expecting about half an hour longer.
The winner was under 2:20! My age group winner was 2:40!!

I felt fine other than my sore heel, as I hadn't been killing myself out there, just had a fantastic day's ski.
Post-race food and drink wasn't great for a lactose-intolerant vegetarian- chocolate milk and pork soup. Oh well, found an apple and a bag of chips but only 1 glass of water or other drink. Luckily I had my ballast thermoses. It was hugely crowded, but organized, and we shuttled back to the Olympic stadium.

Pretty amazing event. They even had a ski check, like a coat check for 26000 skis, and a huge bag pickup. I met Cristina and Bash, who both had good skis too.

If you ski, I'd highly recommend it as a fantastic ski race experience.

C • NICE! 26

Ski around Sjøsjønen, including a bit of the Birken course backwards.
Many more skiers than yesterday, including a few really fast ones in racing suits. One woman went by like a rocket, faster than the guys.
Once off the Birken route it was pretty quiet, back to the tourists mostly. Very scenic, and different from the areas we've seen.

Time to rest now. I've been doing a lot of poling to save my heel.

Different area today- we drove to Skei, then took the lift up above tree line.
Amazing terrain up there- wide open bowls, bluebird sky, spring conditions. Crust-cruising would be unlimited. We used the waxless skis again as we weren't sure what we'd find.

Spent a lot of time taking photos and video. Once out of the amazing mountain and bowl terrain the way around the mountain was on access road for a fair bit, but the descent into Skei was spectacular. Should be some good footage for a video.

Probably more than we should be doing- my heel's not happy but I am.
We barely scratched the surface of the groomed trails in the area.

Ski around Nordseter and area.
Bash and I tried various waxes before waving the white flag and klistering up the skis. It worked well on old snow at 0c, with lots of grip and decent glide after a little while.
We did a big loop around the area- mostly wide open lake and hill terrain, with long gradual climbs and descents that went well.

We made it to a nice hotel that serves waffles for lunch, then a long roundabout way home. The last 10k were completely different terrain, with steep climbs and descents, including the Lunkefjell summit.

Not bad for a taper week!

C • Waffles for lunch 2

C • klister 2

Ski around Nordseter with Bash. Hundreds of km of perfect groomed trail. Crowns worked well on old snow with a bit of ice.

Weight room in the hotel. Strength & foot/kneehab