Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

The Lake Louise to(ward) Banff Loppet (70 km course shortened to 50 km due to wolf activity in the area)

This race sounded interesting, a route that isn't normally trackset but is set for this race. I'm not the best xc skier and wasn't confident I would get the wax right for conditions ranging from a 9 am start up at Lake Louise with a downhill, to a 2 pm finish on the Bow Valley Parkway toward Banff with a significant climb near the end. I took my new waxless skis so that I would have one less thing to think about. I was just in it for the experience and the exercise, so I wasn't too concerned about how well they would glide. That said, I did spring the extra $10 to go for low fluoro wax on my pre-race wax job... the guy at TrailSports suggested that it might also last longer because it may repel dirt and water better.

It wasn't until the night before the race that I started getting more beta about "bring your rock skis", etc. because this is such an "adventurous" course (crossing roads... that I knew, I knew volunteers would shovel snow to give you a snow bridge to cross on; I was then informed to expect gravel, rocks, dirt, etc.... yikes... I don't own rock skis and wasn't looking to create a pair)

The race start was moved an hour later because of the shortened course. That was nice. The start was on the lake at Lake Louise (there were thoughts it might have to be relocated) which is about as photogenic as anyone could imagine.


I put myself near the back of the grid, I didn't really know how crazy the start would be, how fast the downhill might be (and I knew my skin skis wouldn't be the fastest; that said, the new wax job felt pretty decent going along the grid), and how tricky the course might be with turns, obstacles, other racers.

The downhill was nowhere near as fast as I had guessed and would have preferred. Given the loss in elevation from the lake to the village, I hoped I would be using some downhill skill and balance, but we were poling the whole time to keep any speed. Oh well... this made any catastrophes unlikely although someone did fall right in front of me after changing lanes and I had to dodge him.
Reached the first TA in 39 minutes which wasn't too bad. I didn't bother with a support crew because there would be water, sports drink, and Laggan's baking at every TA. I was overdressed though... on this coldest leg, I was already getting a little warm so my eyes searched for familiar faces in the crowd and I ditched my jacket, warmer toque, mitts and buff. This was time well spent. Then downed two cups of sport drink and stuffed two brownies in my mouth and headed out, sucking chocolate through my teeth and wondering what my dentist friend on AP would think when he reads this...
The next section presented occasional sections with gravel/rock bits and twigs in the snow. I dodged these as much as I could in order to minimize the damage but was a bit saddened about how my skis with only 40 km on them would look at the end of the day... I so don't like to wreck gear. Much of the course became just one set of tracks so passing was difficult but most racers were good at stepping aside so that you could pass in the track. I should have staged a little further up on the grid, but oh well. Scenery was nice but I was still watching the ground closely, hoping to avoid any bad ski damage. I continued to cruise along, doing my own thing. Lots of poling throughout the race, and I was pleased to see that my diagonal stride either kept up or caught other skiers in the part of the race I was in. Just held a steady pace, which left enough energy at the end that I could have done the 70 km if necessary, I think. At the end of leg 4, someone shouted to me that Nicki was about 3 minutes ahead. I hadn't kept track of where anyone was, I was often in my own little space, or with the same three or four racers that I swapped places with all day. The 3 minute gap sounded like a fun challenge. When I hit long sections of good snow, I would get some decent speed going and gain on the skier in front of me. When I hit sections of willows/alders or gravel, I would slow down as I would try not ski over the nastiest parts (some branches were also trimmed short, leaving a really aggressive end poking out at ground level) and would lose time. I reached the end of leg 5 and met up with Nicki. From there we had a big climb. I had the traction advantage with my skins, but she was able to go just as fast walking or running on the road with her skis in her hands. When we got to the top, I didn't have to put skis back on, and started the downhill. When it hit a spot that warranted a "steep downhill" sign, I wondered how bad it would be (there had already been some short steep downhills that didn't earn signs). I cautiously skied into this section that was only about 3-4 feet wide and soon realized that the opportunity to stop was now behind me. I bombed down, working some serious downhill alpine skills ;) while also going on one foot to often dodge various branches and twigs, and had to call out to the walker ahead who jumped out of the way in time. Carved a parallel turn at the bottom to line up with the road crossing, which fortunately had good enough snow coverage. The last bit to the finish had some serious bushwack through knee-high twigs. I finished 9 minutes ahead of a certain Aussie (they're not known for their downhilling ;) so I must have rocked the downhill :). I finished with a time of 4:35. I'm happy with that, it felt like a respectable time.

A super fun event, a real grassroots feel, and I was greeted at the TAs and finish by Pat Chan, Joanna Ford, Alan Lam (who always had a giant bag of chips for everyone to help themselves to along the way), Kevin Houda (jacket supporter) and more. Weather was beautiful and I was still warm from the ski so it felt like I could stand around in just my icebreaker tops all afternoon.

Then a fun grassroots banquet with food and free booze (tempting....) plus an amazing bunch of door prizes... Can you say "$1000 Lake Louise suite/breakfast packages"?! Got to see Slice and Miles called up to the podium.
Ask Slice about her door prize.... !

And as for those skis..... they worked quite well, the glide was pretty good and grip was never an issue (never is on those).... and they didn't get too badly damaged... phew.
For next year, I think I will go with rock skis because they will be faster :)

And yes, I brushed and flossed when I got home (just saying that so that the dentist can relax)

C • Loppet 5

C • Rest days... 4

16.2

16.1

No GPS, so distance is a guess. There was also some elevation.
Warm up
5 hard sprints up alongside Cougar Creek from near the bottom to the road at the top. About 3:30 up, then jog back down and recover.
Ran back down to collect my jacket and met up with a runner who was doing the sixth interval as per the original plan. Ran the last half of it with him.
Then to the Iron Goat pub for duck wings ("good" fat)

Abdominal muscles were tight and tired from all of the poling in last night's xc ski lesson, to the point that it limited my breathing during the hardest efforts on a couple of the reps.

A steady easy run at about 6.4-6.5 mph

Distance is a guess

Second night of xc ski lessons. Tonight's focus was on poling.

Started with double poling. I needed to practice slowing things down so that I get a fuller extension of the arms at the end of the poling. I was rushing to pole again, and was cutting the poling a little short rather than following all the way through.
Back and arms should be in a straight line at the end of the follow through.

Then step - double pole. I had always thought it looked like you step off the back foot and push back on this foot to drive yourself forward. That's how it looks and I was never told otherwise. Instead, step forward / slide the foot forward with the foot going forward as the poles come forward again, then plant the poles and push while both feet glide side-by-side. Again, slow it down enough that I fully follow through to the end of the arm/pole extension for the full push before resetting for the next poling. The crunch and the poling are still explosive, but the pausing near the end ensures the full follow through and also allows me to set up better for the next poling.
If I'm getting ski slap, that's because I haven't moved the foot forward for the next step. Without that foot under me to step forward onto, the back leg shoots out and slaps.
Otherwise, my timing was good.

Interestingly, when I would need to switch to diagonal stride, my side to side weight shift seemed better and more distinct after doing a bunch of step - double poling.

It was about +4C at the Nordic Centre tonight. The snow was still in decent shape but it was nice to have waxless skis so that I wasn't messing with really soft wax or klister.

C • I like your xc ski lesson l... 11

workout copied from Carbon's log:

>Warm-up drills
>20 mins of 2min E3, 2min E4 with the goal to hold an average of low E4, all with the computer consoled covered up. We were to go by feel.
>10 min easy
>18 x 20 second heavy resistant spin ups, 40 sec easy.
>Cool-down

I misjudged the blind E3 and E4 estimates and was about 15 watts too low.