Training Log Archive: revy

Saturday morning Headlamp Heroes twoonie nordic race. Cool that Matt organized a longer event and conditions were about as good as you could expect for early April with a good freeze and fresh grooming. Only a few spots were starting to soften up by the second lap. Felt pretty good despite my lack of intensity this winter. The course had some very long and hard hills so tried to pace myself (especially on the first lap). Tried to power over the top of every hill. Was about 15-30s in front of Eric for most of the race until I pulled away in the last quarter. Finished several minutes behind Matt. Started cramping in my right quad just as I started Evelyn's the last time and had to turn the pace down a little for the homestretch. Was surprised as I've never had a similar cramp though in retrospect it was likely a bit of a charley horse from a couple crashes early on when I landed on my phone which was in a tight pocket.

Turned out to be an expensive race though as I broke a ski during one of those falls (didn't realize I had broken it until the end). First crash was me poling in front of my ski and the second time was hitting some uneven grooming unexpectedly. Hard snow + high speeds + skinny skis = easy to break a ski. I'm surprised that I haven't broken one earlier. Anyway I didn't notice it while racing as it was close to the tip and with the hard conditions there wasn't much tip deflection while skiing.

C • Bummer! 2

A little bit of exploration with Stuart. Sledded beyond the normal Gorge spots to km 21. I think we were actually in the edges of the K3 tenure as the road looked like a cat road. A couple excellent runs - snow was best above 1700m and in the trees (less wind). Other spots skied fine though. GPS seems to be having a lot of glitches lately. The satellite photo is not up to date as there are two new cut blocks below the old one. I think the best longer run would be to trend left after the upper section into the longer cut block but the better upper line is the right one. Looks like a lot to explore here with some alpine bowls up the valley (though would run into cat skiers mid winter). There is a cabin that must be legal as it is right on a road and appears to have been there for a few years at least (on the old satellite photos).

Out a bit earlier today and initially a little hard but I prefer that to too soft. Took the dog out for only a couple km and then pretty steady skiing on my own (except for a couple stops talking to Keith and Jane).

Classic skiing with Courtney. Had a bit of a scare when Logan collapsed. He was a bit behind us and appeared to be vomitting and then stumbled and fell over. Seemed a bit out of it at first but recovered and trotted back to the car (2 km away). Not sure if he went vasovagal (fainted) from throwing up after choking on something or if some cardiac cause made him throw up and faint. We know he has some structural heart disease (echo two years ago) so we will see what the next couple days bring. Wasn't super motivated for the remainder of the ski.

C • Oh no! 4

So nice to be exercising again in the land of cool temperatures:) Conditions were a little slow with a few cm of fresh wet snow. Higher trails were solid underneath while dog loop appeared to be softening. Did not ski the dog loop as the dog refused to come. He is a bit of a snow snob and avoids slushy snow...