Training Log Archive: biggins

Easy ski around the valley at TD with Dad. Felt pretty terrible today, I think the combination of jetlag, altitude, and sitting wedged on the plane have finally conspired to make me unhappy. Couldn't sleep past 4 this morning, and I've had a pounding headache all day. Stupid altitude, why can't the rest of the world be as high as home.

easy dp around home with mom and dad. sunny and warm and good to loosen up.

Quick skate around TD just before dark with Dad. Got some replacement poles, which work pretty good (much better than the old spare set, about equal to the recently broken pair). Trails were rock solid, smooth and glazed, so it was fast and very fun.

oh did we say your flight would actually show up today? sorry, we were kidding.

photos from the sweden ski-o races.

yay usa. made it to sfo. and they didn't lose my skis and no one stole my car. though I suppose I did just spend 15 hours on a plane and I am 31 hours late... if all goes well I might make it to smf before mom and dad.

yay bonus 23 hours in CDG...

So this morning I somehow suckered Alex into getting up at 4:30am and driving me 30 minutes each way to Arlanda, and I got there two hours before my flight left. I managed to occupy that time by spending 1.5 hours in line to check the skis, 15 minutes trying (and failing) to pay somebody for said checked skis, 20 minutes getting through security, and 5 minutes running to the gate, which was fortunately late. But then we left and sat on the runway for a while, so we showed up in Paris an hour late, which isn't good when your connection is an hour and ten minutes and in a completely different terminal. So I hauled ass out through customs, across the airport, back through customs, and back through security (all of which was expedited by a bit of boarding pass waving and some line cutting), and got to the gate only five minutes late. The plane was still there, but the gate was closed and they wouldn't let me on. And since all the snow Europe in the last couple days messed everybody else up, all the flights to NA were booked solid today, so the first flight out was the same one 24 hours later. But they gave me a free hotel and three meals, which was cool of them I suppose.

C • A good opportunity... 6

C • Brrr 2

Last organized training was a sprint race through one of the marsh mazes. It was supposed to be yesterday instead of the line-o, but the Norwegians wanted to do it hard so we swapped it to today. It was pretty cold this morning (-12 at the car), so we rewaxed, then headed out to the remote start. They regroomed it all yesterday, so the tracks were pretty solid, but a crust over lots of new fluff.

So the first control went ok, then while going up a little hill I poled right on top of my ski, which basically pushed it straight back and kicked my legs out from under me. Instant face plant. Fortunately I managed to get up before anyone else came by and saw that. I blew the route choice going to #2, I was trying to just go roughly straight through the maze until I came out to the big trail, but got roughly straight to the side. So I cut back in at the other side in the wrong spot and had some bonus bumps to go over to get to the control. Then all good until #6, which I got to and discovered I had no map anymore. I guess it came out while I was dodging through some of the pine branches that overhang the trail, so I backtracked for a minute until I found it lying on the middle of the trail about to be run over by Alex. Then it was all good through the last control, which was a dogleg, so going to the finish I saw Ali and was trying to stay ahead of her. But its not a proper ski-o adventure unless I destroy something expensive, so one of the poles went through the crust, caught on a branch, and broke the bottom two feet off. I single sticked the last couple hundred meters to the finish, which fortunately was fairly flat, though I did get passed by Ali on the one small bump.

Alex and Ali went back for another lap of the sprint race, so I no-poled the big trail around the perimeter of the sprint area, then found Alex and we no-poled back to the hut for lunch.

Got the backup poles, and headed out again for another shot at the sprint. The backup poles are a lot weaker than the real ones were, so I can't dp anywhere near as hard since they flex so much, so I was taking it easy. But very smooth on the navigation until 8 where I miscounted a turn and did a bonus loop in the wrong direction.

Did the first four controls again, but this time with the camera stuck onto the front of the map holder harness, to see if I could get some sexy first person ski-o video. It sortof worked, though a little nauseous because of the constant double pole up and down of the chest.

Training day! A bunch of Norwegians stuck around, and two swiss guys, and then the three of us. Another foot or so of snow overnight, and most of the trails had been hit once with a snowmobile, but there was still a lot of fluff everywhere.

Morning session was a corridor map, with most legs having very restricted route choice, so often there was only one connecting trail visible for parts of the leg, which made it a bit like a line-o. My goal for this one was to not stop moving ever, especially at controls and tight turns and junctions, so I'd practice reading the map while skiing, even I had to slow down a bunch. It worked ok for the most part, though sometimes I had to slow down quite a bit.

Afternoon session was a line-o, which snaked all through the trails around the map. We had been talking to the groomer guys at lunch, who are also good skiers, about skiing technique and training and whatnot. So for this one I was trying some of the poling and skating techniques they'd mentioned. Most took a lot of strength (or really a normal amount, the arms are just tired), so I did the line-o as intervals, going about 5 minutes on, 30-60 seconds off (but not reading the map, just resting). This was enough to let me go hard for the 5 minutes, plus I was mostly leap-frogging Alex so I got to throw some elbows on the way by each time.

C • CA weather 3

WRE Middle. Not the best. I was skiing like a muppet out there (yay boggle words). Probably too tired after all the races in the last three days. A lot of today was narrow stuff in some marshes, which was bumpy and full of little saplings (in the trail), and I didn't have the arm strength to get around a lot of the corners on the uneven stuff. It takes some poling and balance to keep the tips out of the fluff and around the saplings without loosing speed, and I wasn't doing that so well today, so I'd have to get the speed back up after every 90 degree corner. Also since there were some long flats, you were poling for very long stretches without any rest on the downhills.

Not gps yet, as the downloadity-bits for the fake-gps seem to be being cranky and I'm too tired and hungry to figure out whats wrong.

For some reason the heavy snow during the race that got even heavier after the race didn't really discourage the gigglies from wanting to go back out afterwards for some training. I was freezing and my hands were white, so I left wearing the pile jacket and shell over all the warmups, and even at that it took half an hour to get warm, and an hour to get too hot.

Anyway we played the follow the leader relocation game through some of the narrow mazes on the map. Not too bad, though there was a couple inches of fluff on all the trails from today, and even more on yesterday's trails. I didn't bring the map holder, so when it was my turn I'd look on one of the others and then just wander. Still good practice, until we all got extra tired and hungry and bailed.

C • I must have just missed you... 1

Maps!

Night Sprint Relay: leg1 leg2 leg3 leg4 (I was leg 1 and 3, CompassSport Nick was 2 and 4) (which I just realized were the same as 1 and 3, duh.)

Mass Start Middle: map1 map2 map3 map4

WRE Sprint: only one map for once!

WRE Middle: map1 map2

QuickRoutes when I get time.