Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Out around the 11 on classic skis. Wax kicking well. Cold, but not brutal. Not sure how I'm feeling to race, but there's a race, so …

Forgot to start the watch, but I skied the 11 twice again, and I can divide by two (and the watch reminded me I hadn't started, and I know how long that takes).

Time trial! Put the skis out with a nice transition zone this year, and then I jumped in. About 15th back, but I had good kick on the hill. I had to yell "if you can't kick the track hop out" and kicked up the whole hill, in about fifth place at the top. I stuck with the pack, almost, across the rollers, then shot down the hill. Came in to the stadium with Jimmy, and left ahead of him, having pointed my skis out: easier to turn around without skis on.

Didn't have much oomph up the hill and Jimmy and a Ford Sayre kid but stuck with them on the downhill. Jimmy let me pass on the last rollers and I knew he'd draft me so I pushed the pace as best I could and held him off at the sprint, although he says he wasn't up for sprinting. 8th overall, 1m ahead of Rob, Andy and Alex, so not bad!

Strava isn't finding the hills along the river. I'd care, but I'm over 100km, so I'm not going to Garmin to compare. Very nice ski down the river, now officially open. One ice dam do navigate the ice from, otherwise fine. So, so beautiful.

Out to ski with Kathy and Alex. They were skating at a different pace, so I went ahead. I looped up to the 11/12 intersection and came down and saw them, so I figured I'd go down, go back, find them again, and then ski out with them.

So I did, but I didn't see them. Now I thought that maybe they went across the river (closed, but they're not always rule-followers; they skied yesterday on the trail by the river when it was "closed") so I figured I'd have to sprint to make it back. 4:38 mile including the big climb, a bit of L3, some big double poles and I got to the car just in time to find them not back yet.

So, moar skiing! Slow this time. Found them trailed them down the hill, switching skis to get more wax off on the last down.

It got done freezing raining, and the trails were groomed as we skied. Not everything; the river trails are listed as flooded (i.e. "not perfect") but we skied the 21 and up LSH and then wheee down. Only some Jessing occurred.

Pretty short workout with the younger boys. Focused on striding. Pushed some klister into my kick wax which mostly held for the ski, so at least I could kick some. On the way down, gone.

Out for a long ski with the older boys. Started with ~10 and me, Frank and Andy. Frank led, Andy and I commented on technique. We tried to focus on keeping stride up the hill (which for the most part the kids were doing well, although some needed some encouragement) and staying in L1 (no issue for me, although some of the boys were pushing at times). Lovely, light snow, and we skied pretty much everything that was open. A few kids were lagging after 90 minutes and peeled off after 2 hours, and we went up the 21, which was the first time I wasn't able to stride a hill all day. Then the 11, 12, and then Frank and me around the 31 for the full 3h as the snow changed to freezing rain for the last few minutes.

Long ski with the boys. Slow, slow skating. Conditions great on what was groomed; unfortunately not everything is groomed. But that was fine. Kind of cold on the way back; around 0 at the start.

30x30 with the big group of girls. My skis were amazing. Perfect kick, great glide; good times doing the intervals, and then a screaming downhill back.

636m to go!

Based on previous year first day data at MSA, I will either hit it tomorrow or Tuesday.

Should hit 400h by the 30th.

Off to Stadium stairs. Perfect day for a PR attempt, weather-wise, at least. Ran three sections fast but it was very apparent that my legs were pretty trashed from yesterday. I usually don't run the stairs the day after a hill workout with more than 1000m of climb (you know, because it's usually Tuesday). I could barely get my HR to L3, not the usual threshold I can sort of hold on the stadium.

12 minutes in my watch buzzed and said "recovery: fair." That doesn't happen too often.

Finished in 26 minutes. Not really that winded (but sweaty; it was 20˚) but legs pretty jello. Then up to MSA.

Orford on the way to MSA. Not bad skiing at all. Some dirt under the snow, but new snow falling, nice skating and the classic track looked good, too. Skied most of the skate trails, out the evens, back on the odds, then 5 and 5A. Such a nice chalet, and a $6 sandwich (US) wasn't too bad.

Still some snow in New England. Was thinking of heading towards Waterville for Tripoli but then I realized: Wachusett allows uphill skiing before they're open. And today they open at 4. And it's an hour closer than Waterville: Mountain skiing, minutes away.

So off to WaWa.

Someone was skating around the base but the trails were being groomed, so I put on the AT setup and started my laps. 20 minutes up, 5 down, with transitions about 35 minutes per lap. The uphill was a good workout, and the downhill conditions were great, fresh corduroy and good cover. Got in to a tiff when a groomer yelled at me ordering me off a trail, but he has their policy wrong. You're only allowed to ascend certain trails, but you can descend any trails open that day.

In any case, made it four laps, had a great run down the fresh cord, and hit the car just as the first Jerrys were showing up to grab a beer before the lifts turned.

(Oh, yeah, and vert. On Jan 1, I needed 274m of vert per day to get to 100 km. I never got below that number, and it crept up to 400m in August and then again in early November. It's bounced between 320 and 395 since then, but today took a plunge to 269, and with NP and Orford tomorrow, will probably be halved. 100km looks very likely.)

7 days to go …

13:15 to get to 400 hours (1:53/day, so that'll happen barring injury or sickness)
2765m to get to 100km (395/day, so that should happen, especially given Wawa tomorrow and stadium on Wednesday, which should have me down near 1500—or less—to go on Thursday.

Over to Brookline to run all the paths on the hills, which are all quite cool. Excellent sunset. Then a long wait at Star because they had two check out people on Christmas Eve. Once the line got super long five more came out of the woodwork but why weren't they working in the first place. Ugh, Stars.

OTOH, HRM works with a new battery!