Training Log Archive: Bash

A final loop around the Canmore Nordic Centre before heading home. Scenery was great as always, but for some reason, my muscles felt like they were completely devoid of glycogen. I don't feel fatigued, so I'm not sure why. On a positive note, we had some long, fairly easy sections where I worked on practising my balance over each ski. I have work to do, but I can feel that the yoga balance work is helping.

Today's outing was short and sweet! 'Bent and I skied up the summer hiking trail to Boom Lake south of Castle Mountain. A lot of people had skied it in recent days, so the trail was hard-packed and slick. The scenery at the lake was stunning, and we celebrated by sharing a decadent Afghan biscuit from Rocky Mountain Bagels. Then we enjoyed the long, mostly-downhill ski - being careful not to go too fast around corners, since there were a few skiers coming up. Then off to Banff for an afternoon of snacking and shopping for books and outdoor gear. :-)

This was a perfect sunny day with deep blue skies and stunning mountain views. 'Bent and I drove up into the Spray Lakes valley south of Canmore. Crash loved skiing at Mt. Shark last month, and we've never spent much time there, so we decided to try the 15 km "green difficult" loop. We'd heard that most of the trails would be groomed and trackset, but we had heard wrong! There was 20 cm of fluffy new snow on top of the tracks where it was supposed to be trackset. And then came the large section of the 15 km loop that is "not maintained in winter". That was really slow going, and sometimes it was hard to tell where the trail was supposed to go. We were sometimes up to our knees in powder wearing XC skis that are not particularly wide, so it was definitely a strength workout today, not a speed workout. But wow, it was gorgeous! The weather stayed amazing for the whole day, and there were incredible views in every direction. Highly recommended!

No trip to the Rockies would be complete without a visit to my old stomping grounds, so today 'Bent and I went to Lake Louise, where I lived and worked for a few months between my undergrad and grad studies. Fuelled by a Rocky Mountain breakfast bagel, we headed out on the Fairview Loop, eventually making our way down to the Moraine Lake Road. These days, it is groomed for skating and classic, so it's possible to ski nice and hard there. The reason to ski this route is for the fantastic views, which compensate for spending a long time on a road. Unfortunately, as we climbed, the weather went from grey skies to completely socked in with blowing snow crystals stinging our faces. When we made it up to the viewpoint, there was the hint of mountains and valleys, but most of today's scenic rewards came from the snowy forest. We skied back to the junction with the Lake Louise Road, then skied up the Tramline back to the parking lot. We went just above 2000 meters of altitude today, but it didn't feel so bad on classic skis!

Walkman, 'Bent and I visited the Yoga Lounge in downtown Canmore for an intermediate level yoga class. We recognized some of the poses and sequences, but there was plenty of new stuff, so it was harder work than usual. This was my first experience of yoga with incense, candles and Indian vocabulary. It felt great to stretch out. We are both feeling yesterday's skate skiing.

Time to get the heart rate up, so we headed over to the Canmore Nordic Centre for some skate skiing. I was torn about whether to take a lesson, since I'm determined not to develop too many bad habits with this new sport. In the end, we decided that we wouldn't be skiing too much more this winter, so we might as well just enjoy our day.

We had gone about 100 meters when 'Bent slammed into a hockey stop in front of me - arrgghh! What the...??? Then I realized why he had stopped. Sean Ruppel of Chico Racing had skied past in the opposite direction, and he had also screeched to a halt upon seeing my Caledon Hills Cycling vest. He turned around to join us for a ski. After the first 10 minutes, I tried to get the boys to go on ahead at their higher speed, but it turns out that Sean is an awesome skate skier who is hanging out with national XC team members this week. He insisted that we all stay together, and he gave some excellent pointers to both of us. Nice! I think I've got my poling technique figured out again, but I'm going to be SORE tomorrow.

I picked up a Parks Canada pamphlet on how to avoid problems with cougars. This is for Meridian, of course, since he has repeatedly expressed concern regarding this subject.

After a lunch break, 'Bent and I headed out to do a longer skate ski. We promised each other that it would be "easy", but I still haven't reached that exalted state where it feels easy for very long. (Although I did remember urthbuoy's discovery about the flat ski.) I'd picked an ambitious loop with some difficult hills, but 'Bent (yes, even 'Bent!) thought it would be too much, so we decided on something the same length, but with a lower difficulty rating. As luck would have it, not all the trails were groomed, so we mistakenly turned at the wrong junction and ended up doing the difficult route anyway. Lots of steep up and down, and we could definitely feel the altitude. I guess when you're doing a sport that makes you go anaerobic pretty easily, it makes quite a difference when some of the oxygen is removed from the air. Anyway, it was fun - in spite of stopping to gasp occasionally - and we felt entitled to eat a huge dinner, including chocolate cake. :-)

Today we all drove down to Kananaskis Country to ski from the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitor Centre. Fantastic conditions with fresh snow and beautiful mountain views! The only problem was that my wax that was so perfect yesterday was a lot less perfect today. As we gained elevation (topping out around 1900 m), fresh snow was falling and the temperature dropped, and I got big bricks on the bottoms of my skis. It re-accumulated several times before I finally removed all the offending wax - sigh... After that, I was speedy enough that I had to ski in front of 'Bent, who was still sticking enough that he had to pole down the hills.

People out here are so lucky! We didn't have to pay any trail fees today, and the Canmore Nordic Centre is only $7.50 a day.

Wtih a total of 5.5 hrs of sleep over the past two nights combined, I was thinking that I'd just take a nap and read a book when we got to Canmore. Wrong! Our friends, Walkman and Cosmic, were waiting for us to go skiing with them at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Well, how could we say no? With my brain in a fog, I somehow managed to get dressed and collect my ski gear.

Much to my surprise, the combination of cold air, good friends and fantastic ski trails revived me. Oh yes, and a Rocky Mountain Bagel. (We went there for our first meal, in honour of Slice.) After I warmed up, I started to feel like there were wings on my skis, and I only had to move my body to keep up with them. That doesn't happen to me very often! I guess I was lucky enough to choose the right wax on a +1C day, plus the trail grooming at Canmore is excellent. Fun!!!