Training Log Archive: biggins

Race 4, Tahoe XC
Pretty good race, two big mistakes, about 2 mins for the first one, maybe 1.5 for the second. Clean for the rest of it though, and I felt good on the skiing, so I made up time on the other legs. Won over Mikkel by a couple minutes.

Control pickup with Dad and Mikkel.

Easy day at Tahoe Donner. Went down into Euer valley, looped all the way up the flat valley bottom, then up a rolly trail a ways and back down to the bottom. Sunny and hot.

Race #3 at Northstart XC. Course was pretty good, the first half was a long slog out-and-back along the same trail, but at least it wasn't too hilly. Then the second half looped around a mild ratsnest of trails that was super fun, before a few downhill legs to the finish. Conditions were nice and fast, and the grooming was perfect. Won by 9 mins over Neil.

Control pickup in the afternoon. Awesome day - sunny, air temp was warm, snow temp was cold, so Dad and I took the far half of the controls and went out cruising. The snow was solid, even off trail, so we took any excuse to bushwhack downhill or contour between trails.

Rest day, went over to Spooner Lake. Got out there about noon, its on the warm side of Lake Tahoe, and there wasn't much snow to start with. So conditions down low were pretty crappy. We did a lap around the lake, which was only groomed about halfway, and double poled the rest along a snowshoe trail. Headed up a long climbing road up North Canyon, which had better snow cover and some hills to make things interesting. About 1400' climb up to a good viewpoint over Lake Tahoe, then screaming back down the fast icy / slow slushy canyon.

race at Tahoe Donner.
Cold in the morning (0 degrees) so the snow froze up nicely overnight, but it warmed up to the 20s by the time we started. Grooming was immaculate, trails were set up nice and hard.
Started ok, first two legs were along the base, then the third leg went straight up the giant hill. Forth was back down almost to the base, but has a bit of route choice between a few trails and where to cut across on your own. Heading out of four, I cut down offtrail through the woods, hit a few bumps and went down in a cloud of powder. Got up and tried to go, but it took a few strides before I figured out I had ripped most of the sole of my boot off. It had been a bit loose, and I epoxied it in the morning, but I guess it didn't help much. Anyway it wasn't skiable at all, so I gave up and took it off and skied back to the start on one ski and one boot.

Attempt #2. It was such a great day out, conditions were so awesome - temps above zero, but snow temps down in blue range, so I couldn't give up yet. I rented a pair of boots that were way too small, and a pair of skis to go along with them (the boots had those funny salomon bindings) and headed out on the course again for fun. Started the course over from the start and did the first five by memory, but I was pissed enough that I lost such a great run that I knocked off two minutes from my first run on the first four splits (even up the giant hill). Kept it going through the rest of the course and felt really great for the whole thing, finished 8 minutes ahead of the next guy (too bad it didn't count). Really fun course, it skipped the usual ends of the map where its no route choice and just brutal climb. So it was fast and nicely technical for the area.

Headed out early for control pickup with Dad and Charlie, but we had an hour before the courses closed, so we skied up to the top of Hawk's Peak (which is 1200' above the start). Quite a haul, but most of it was through very open forest or above treeline, so the views were awesome. Then headed out along the ridge to Drifter hut which was windy but equally awesome on conditions. Then back down through the main trail system to pick up a few controls and back to the base.

Went up to check out Northstar nordic Pretty neat trails, good grooming (much better than yesterday). Weren't trying too hard on the effort level, only really skied fast when we got cold. The ski area is up the mountain a bit, so you get to take the gondola up there, then ski one of the downhill trails on the way down.

Tahoe ski-o week jan 25-feb 1

Royal Gorge Score-O
Snowing like crazy, and they don't really groom here during the day, so there was a good 6" of snow on most of the trails. Wet snow froze up on the glasses after about an hour, so I took them off and had to close my eyes everytime I got going fast. Fortunately with the snow conditions that wasn't much of a problem.
2.5 hour time limit, 27 controls. Got them all with a few minutes to spare (and won), but it was pretty brutal. Did the first route the same as Dad, then figure-8ed around the lake instead continuing with the circle. I think it was a good route choice, although Dad skated through the roads of the village instead of going around on the ski trails (he did the leg backwards), which saved half a km and a pretty big climb, so that might have saved me a couple minutes.

easy and slow control pickup.