Training Log Archive: O Steve!

Never has a piddly run meant so much.....it's been so long since I tried to run continuous since I was told to quit after my last surgery went wrong.....ran one winter loop (bike trail) and ran the whole thing without stopping...and my braced knee tolerated it...my legs felt terrible but I enjoyed being able to run. And the pace wasn't horrible..........this is all on borrowed time but I hope to be able to do some more events before I can no longer run at all....let's label this a success....

Family night ski....counted much less than the actual time.....just recorded time I pushed it

...time to transition to bike and run training......but hope to still ski to mix it up.....

Ice skating at Centennial Lake.....skated much longer but only counted the moments I was pacing some laps...legs are pretty trashed from the ski race....

Kortie 29K Classic....

After a poor year of ski result for me I was just hoping to crack the top half of the field and feel good at the finish....The COL loppet and Gatineau Loppet, as well as one day of the Canadian Ski Marathon were very rough for me and demonstrated a real decline in my abilities.

Happy to report that I started in the back of wave one (to avoid being pulled out a to fast a pace).seemed to move up during the event and finished in the top 39% of the field and top 38% of my age group while managing to ski with good technique at a pace that left me spent at the end but a situation I dictated instead of the course dictating to me.....was happy to reach my goals for this event after significant apprehension...

my hope for the future is to stay at this ability level for a few years, but I reached my max potential for skiing in the mid to late 90's and the aging process is real if you been at it as long as I have...I have more places and more events I want to travel to and ski....Onward!

C • Glad you had a good event! 1

trying radical resting to see if I can help myself go a little better for the 29K korteloppet on Friday...dont plan on anything till after...

Skating the Rideau canal again after 28 years. I did some skating in some Winter Triathlons here back in 1990-91. Awesome experience on the worlds longest skating rink. Kari and I had fun as we skated to Dows Lake and back before the ice went to shit in 40F weather....we were so lucky with our timing...

Gatineau Loppet 27K....very hard/tough ski for me as I was totally spent 8K out from the finish...luckily the major downhills got me home . I felt like the course handled me instead of me handling the course. The climb to 18K did me in and I was just barely holding on for the last third after feeling it pretty good one third in...very mediocre result but on the plus side I held it together and skied to the finish relying on technique despite my shaky legs. Only one fall that could have been more since my legs were full of lactic acid half way through the course so I am happy I managed the tricky downhills well despite my weary legs/quads.

Not sure if aging or my recent sickness and/or knee issues have made this my new norm but I is 10% slower than I have ever been.....hopefully the kortie will go better but I will have to reassess what is realistically possible due to recent ski results. Looking to just break in to the top half and not feel totally cashed/done 8K-10 from the finish.....

Ski on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City with Kari where they held the world cup last year......very cool to ski with the locals after work in the trails hugging a cliff down to the St Lawrence River.

Decided to ski shorter distance than planned after a rough day on Saturday so Kari and I skied together the entire way....what difference a day makes!. My energy level was much improved as I hope my Bronchitis is on the way out (fingers crossed)

A fantastic fun ski as Kari and whipped through a trail that had a little bit of everything....mild twisty turny down hills....skied a swamp....wooded park trails...on the shoulder of roads....on a golf course trail....onto a River...and into a ball field finish as we skied point to point.....its was rain/sleeting the last 40 minutes but the snow was fluffy and just became a bit quicker with the sleet topping .

Despite some horrendous logistic problems that had on on a shuttle but for almost 3 hours to take us to our start that should not have taken more than 40 minutes we had a great fun ski....totally the reverse of yesterday.......There is not enough time to discuss all the screw ups they made with logistics and buses but if anyone wants to ski it I could certainly give the benefit of what we learned.....

This is a unique event (its a tour and not a race) in its 52nd year that I have always anted to ski. I regret I did not ski it when I might have been able to do the full distance but was very happy to experiencing this uniquely Canadian event......old school event all the way that we had a blast skiing today....

C • Sounds awesome! 2

!st Day of Canadian ski marathon......great unique event that is not a race but a tour with over 1500 participants skiing different lengths and sections (served by a multitude of shuttle buses) .....I skied a section and then joined Kari for the last one........Bronchitis caught up with me and I struggled with exhaustion.......one note: the course had big uphills and windy sketchy downhillls that a former president of the CSM (that I met on the shuttle bus)told me "its not a race course its a wilderness track".....no kidding, even the section marked "intermediate" had sketchy downhills in a narrow twisting track.....

planning to ski a shorter course tomorrow than I originally planned due to my flagging reseves due to Bronchitis so Kari and I will ski together the entire way tomorrow....

2 x 15:00 @12:30 pace w/ 5 min walk break recovery in between.

felt hard at first then eased a bit....running is just never going to be the same....

warm up/cool down...and break

feeling better and hopeful I will be near 100% for the Canadian Ski Marathon this weekend....with Kari at Hyland on all the natural snow trails....skied with good technique.

problems with direction arrows at the loppet skate event that caused some participants to short the course is likely a symptom of what I was talking about yesterday in my post.......and the drop in numbers of ski racers that no one discusses is concerning...not good trends for the Loppet ski races but hey..they got all there other stuff..... the luminary loppet (or forget the skis and just walk around luminary loppet) dwarfs the ski races in numbers and revenue so despite my concerns I dont see anything changing.....

Wirth south....I skated because I didn.t trust the classic grooming.....running on 80% likely due to bronchitis......and skiing on rock skis with no wax on slowinh snow.....an hour was all I wanted...pretty tired after 60 minutes.......I wish I felt better but it is what it is and I am skiing on vacation regardless.....

I would never post this in a public forum but it seems that the nordic ski races that started the Loppet Foundation have become less and less of the focus. The numbers that entered the races weren't all that impressive.....not bad but with the big races on two separate weekends I would have expected more........alas, all their other events and programs have increasingly garnered more attention.

C • Insights 2

back home....skied the lakes easy. No grooming after the loppet ( I guess they are tired) so it was not as much fun to stride...needed to test my replacement skis to make sure they will stay on this time.....cut it short and truth be told by knee hurt and my upper respiratory infection had me lacking energy...........got a z pack antibiotics today to try and turn it around for the Canadian trip coming up...

I am off work from 2/1 through 2/20.....quite a stretch of non working as we spend time in Charlotte NC for my brothers life celebration...then back to the twin cities for some skiing a before heading to Ottawa Canada for a couple bucket list items with Kari: The Canadian Ski Marathon....and worldloppet Gatineau Loppet event...sort of a pre retirement trial as my accounts inch me closer to my magic retirement number due to a strong US economy!........

trying to stay in the running game....

no knee brace on treadmill in Charlotte...(same last few days)

8 x 3:30 @ ladder up and dwon starting at 12:30 ending at 11:06 and back down w. 1:30 walk recovery

pain at tolerable even level.....the best I can hope for the rest of my running career.

HR hgher than I would like......whatever.

run surges in warm up

warm up/cool down and walk recovery of run segments

3x10 min@12:30 pace w/5:00 walk recovery

Warm up and walk breaks of run segment