Training Log Archive: biggins

Rim Nordic. Skiing the way it was meant to be done - in a T-shirt. Got a late start (both the car headlights are now out, so I couldn't leave too early) but got there at 8:30. It was already a pleasant 45 degrees. Trails were icy and fast, and in the woods it was crusty corn snow. Did all the trails they had, and also took a random detour off trail up along a ridge for a km or two until it got too steep, just skating around between the trees, then got some quality backcountry turns in on the way down. The off-trail was actually better than the on-trail this early, since it was rock solid but still had a little give to it so you could edge.

C • Sounds like a great day. C... 1

loop two. the trails had softened up and things were smooth and crazy fast. everybody raves about special blue days or some crap like that, but the real stuff is HF10 days - where the worst thing you have to worry about is sunburn. no offtrail this time, too soft out there.

loop three. I had stopped for some yogurt and nutella (delicious by the way) so it was about noon by now. still good conditions, but they were on their way down for the day. some of the sunny spots were starting to drag a bit, and were getting pretty soft. I found a new trail that I hadn't seen the first two loops (for a bonus 2km) and it turned out to be one of the nicer ones. I'm pretty sure there were people standing in front of it all four times I went by it in the morning. The bad thing about this place is that since all the trails are fire roads, everything is out and back, and also uphill. If they kept grooming further there'd be great trails along the tops of the ridges, but nobody would ski that far. Still a nice place though. exit temperature in the sun: 72 degrees

with a few sprints at the end.

also both my car headlights weren't working this morning, as opposed to the one that was out last week.

felt really tired today. back hurts a little from the driving.

so the drive home. got down to Sacramento to drop off Dad at the airport by 7:30, and started down to LA. Looked like an easy drive, I even had both headlights working, should have gotten home around 1 or 2. It started raining about 11:00, then started monsooning about midnight. Got to Bakersfield and it turned to snow (thats at 400ft elevation in the desert. it doesn't do that.). They had roadblocks up at the start of the climb over the mountains - I5 was closed. 58 was closed. All of the roads that went over the mountains were closed. Theres only one other way to get to LA - out around the mountains to the west along the coast - but that was closed due to flooding. So I took a nap. Got up at 5, it had stopped snowing but all the passes were still closed tight and they couldn't say when they'd be open, but were guessing by lunchtime. The coast road was open again, so I drank the better part of a gallon of Mt Dew and took off in that direction. I started 70 miles from home, and got to do this - quite a pretty drive, though it was 280 miles, and the first 100 was two lane road with more trucks than a Tonka factory (ha. see thats what a gallon of Dew does). Traffic wasn't actually too bad, even when I hit the valley during the middle of rush hour. Got home at 10am. Rode to work and in a meeting by 10:15. Nap time.

C • Tough drive! I got home ... 1

Day 4 at Auburn Ski Club. A foot of new snow overnight and an entire trail that was ungroomed turned what could have been a pretty fun course into a long slog. Three loops, each of which had a control down and back a few hundred meters of the ungroomed stuff. The rest of the trails were pretty soft, but at least skiable.

control pickup with Mikkel