Taking off tomorrow for the big West Yellowstone ski festival. Not looking forward to the drive, but the skiing should be great. They have enough snow for groomed trails already with more on the way. I've been out crust skiing nearly every day since the snow fell, but goofing around for an hour at a time is a far cry from 5-6 hours of training every day for a week, so we'll see how the fitness is when the P-tex hits the snow.
I'm traveling out with 3 other former or current U of M skiers so the ride should be entertaining, and I'll have people to ski with throughout the week, not that that is a problem with the teeming masses of skiers that descend on the sleepy town for this week every year. I'm also hoping to get to spend a day or two with my sister who lives a few hours south in Logan, UT and is planning to come up and ski too.
Tonight I'm heading up to Midwest Mountaineering for their big winter expo and to help several people pick out skis. Should be a good time, plenty of exhibits of interest to me, and I always love ski shopping, even if it isn't me getting the skis. I'll have pictures and training info from West Yellowstone next time I post.
Craig Cardinal's training/racing/adventure blog.
2010/11/19
2010/11/15
Oh Well
So I already broke the first rule of any internet content source, set a schedule for posting updates and stick to it. A lot has been happening, so in theory that should generate blog posts, so this might turn in to a bit of a long one so I can catch up. I'll hop back to my training log so I can remember what has gone on over the last week and a half since I posted last. I can usually remember days pretty well once I remember what I did for excercise or why I didn't manage to excercise that day.
11/5/10
Made it to frisbee for a few minutes, had a pretty good time. 8 people there, all skiers except James. Game broke up early due to running out of daylight and people leaving early. Gave Annie a ride home and had a bit of a chance to chat. Worth the trip through the cities just for the frisbee and conversation. Then it was home to the folks.
11/6/10
Trail work at DD Kennedy trails. There are going to be 4k of lighted trails at the park, and my dad and I went to help put up poles. We stood the poles up, leveled them, and filled in around them so they would stay up. By the end of the project (we got all the poles up) I had gained quite a bit of knowlege and skill from when we started and was almost directing things. We ran from post to post and so made very good time, the weather was great, a good day to be outside in the woods for sure.
11/7/10
Another great day to be outside. Got in a super gravel ride with Jim, Mike, and Ben Witt of Milltown Cycles. Great weather, fun roads, and I even remembered to put pedals on my bike this time, unlike the last big gravel ride in Henderson where I ended up buying platform pedals at a hardware store and riding in my sandals. As a last burst of West Yellowstone training I also put in a rollerski that afternoon. I was gased by the end of it for sure, but it went pretty well besides a bit of a shoulder trouble.
11/9/10
Hill repeats at ? mark. I did them with no breaks, about a 4.5 minute cycle for 8 reps. All was pretty good until the 6th when my shoulder started to hurt. The 7th I tried to favor my other side and it went fine, but on the 8th it was bad, so I did no pole skate. That hurt, but a good hurt. Then the easy ski back home the shoulder seemed ok.
11/13/10
Here's a day for the books! Friday night snowed a good 2", so when I woke up I dug out the Peltonon Astra combi skis I had laying around and went exploring. The snow was wet and slow, but coverage was good so I got a half hour of skiing around in. Super weather, snowing the whole time but quite warm, especially in the sweat shirt I was wearing. I remember when that was standard training gear for me, and when it got cold I would wear 2 sweat shirts. Then since it was nice out I threw in some laundry and went out to build a snowman. He is a hefty fellow, and is still standing strong this morning, so he might be around for a while. Then I got some baking done to help keep the house warm, it hovered around 53 most of the day, but was down to a balmy 51F when I left this morning. I'm hoping to make it until December before turning the heat on, we'll see if that happens or not. Then I got another ski in that afternoon, still slow and choppy going, but too much fun to pass up. One of the most productive days I've had in a long time. It's something how much can be done in a full day when I'm actually home. One last accomplishment, I am now ranked in the bronze league in Starcraft II after losing 4 of my 5 1v1 placement matches. I have had a couple great League of Legends games recently however. I play much better when I'm not 10 levels below all the other players in the game it turns out.
11/14/10
No skiing today. Covenant brunch at church, then church, then Dim Sum at a great chinese place in the cities with Dean N, and Rick and Denise Hucke. At brunch I was introduced to Tim Mahr, band director at St. Olaf and my neighbor a couple houses down it turns out. Good to be getting to know a couple of the neighbors a bit; turns out my block is very musical. Maybe I better learn to use that piano in my basement.
11/15/10
Finally caught up to today. Great skiing over lunch at St Olaf. The soccer fields are really well covered, and firm enough to make good crust skiing. Put in a good 50 min of skiing and the muscles seemed to do pretty well. The cardio system took a beating, but that's the goal for this part of the season. Made one last change to my fantasy world cup team, might still make one more change and put Marthe K. back on. I've stuck with her for 3 years and I know she's gonna bust out a good year one of these times. I have Johag as my outlaw skier, can't hardly go wrong with that choice I feel. On the work side of things they ran all weekend shutting down only once per day on the plater, and had very little maintainance to do even then. The machine is running like a champion right now and everyone is in a pretty good mood about it.
There, that catches up most stuff. The snow is a good reminder that I need to keep the nose to the grindstone for a bit longer on dryland training, then let the fun begin in earnest. Less than a week until West Yellowstone, and with CXC, Supertour racers, and Nat Hertz there I'll have a chance to see in person a lot of the skiers I follow vicariously through the internet. No groomed trails there yet, but there is a winter storm warning there today and tomorrow, so hopefully by the weekend everything will firm up.
11/5/10
Made it to frisbee for a few minutes, had a pretty good time. 8 people there, all skiers except James. Game broke up early due to running out of daylight and people leaving early. Gave Annie a ride home and had a bit of a chance to chat. Worth the trip through the cities just for the frisbee and conversation. Then it was home to the folks.
11/6/10
Trail work at DD Kennedy trails. There are going to be 4k of lighted trails at the park, and my dad and I went to help put up poles. We stood the poles up, leveled them, and filled in around them so they would stay up. By the end of the project (we got all the poles up) I had gained quite a bit of knowlege and skill from when we started and was almost directing things. We ran from post to post and so made very good time, the weather was great, a good day to be outside in the woods for sure.
11/7/10
Another great day to be outside. Got in a super gravel ride with Jim, Mike, and Ben Witt of Milltown Cycles. Great weather, fun roads, and I even remembered to put pedals on my bike this time, unlike the last big gravel ride in Henderson where I ended up buying platform pedals at a hardware store and riding in my sandals. As a last burst of West Yellowstone training I also put in a rollerski that afternoon. I was gased by the end of it for sure, but it went pretty well besides a bit of a shoulder trouble.
11/9/10
Hill repeats at ? mark. I did them with no breaks, about a 4.5 minute cycle for 8 reps. All was pretty good until the 6th when my shoulder started to hurt. The 7th I tried to favor my other side and it went fine, but on the 8th it was bad, so I did no pole skate. That hurt, but a good hurt. Then the easy ski back home the shoulder seemed ok.
11/13/10
Here's a day for the books! Friday night snowed a good 2", so when I woke up I dug out the Peltonon Astra combi skis I had laying around and went exploring. The snow was wet and slow, but coverage was good so I got a half hour of skiing around in. Super weather, snowing the whole time but quite warm, especially in the sweat shirt I was wearing. I remember when that was standard training gear for me, and when it got cold I would wear 2 sweat shirts. Then since it was nice out I threw in some laundry and went out to build a snowman. He is a hefty fellow, and is still standing strong this morning, so he might be around for a while. Then I got some baking done to help keep the house warm, it hovered around 53 most of the day, but was down to a balmy 51F when I left this morning. I'm hoping to make it until December before turning the heat on, we'll see if that happens or not. Then I got another ski in that afternoon, still slow and choppy going, but too much fun to pass up. One of the most productive days I've had in a long time. It's something how much can be done in a full day when I'm actually home. One last accomplishment, I am now ranked in the bronze league in Starcraft II after losing 4 of my 5 1v1 placement matches. I have had a couple great League of Legends games recently however. I play much better when I'm not 10 levels below all the other players in the game it turns out.
11/14/10
No skiing today. Covenant brunch at church, then church, then Dim Sum at a great chinese place in the cities with Dean N, and Rick and Denise Hucke. At brunch I was introduced to Tim Mahr, band director at St. Olaf and my neighbor a couple houses down it turns out. Good to be getting to know a couple of the neighbors a bit; turns out my block is very musical. Maybe I better learn to use that piano in my basement.
11/15/10
Finally caught up to today. Great skiing over lunch at St Olaf. The soccer fields are really well covered, and firm enough to make good crust skiing. Put in a good 50 min of skiing and the muscles seemed to do pretty well. The cardio system took a beating, but that's the goal for this part of the season. Made one last change to my fantasy world cup team, might still make one more change and put Marthe K. back on. I've stuck with her for 3 years and I know she's gonna bust out a good year one of these times. I have Johag as my outlaw skier, can't hardly go wrong with that choice I feel. On the work side of things they ran all weekend shutting down only once per day on the plater, and had very little maintainance to do even then. The machine is running like a champion right now and everyone is in a pretty good mood about it.
There, that catches up most stuff. The snow is a good reminder that I need to keep the nose to the grindstone for a bit longer on dryland training, then let the fun begin in earnest. Less than a week until West Yellowstone, and with CXC, Supertour racers, and Nat Hertz there I'll have a chance to see in person a lot of the skiers I follow vicariously through the internet. No groomed trails there yet, but there is a winter storm warning there today and tomorrow, so hopefully by the weekend everything will firm up.
2010/11/03
The yardwork training conundrum
This has been a pretty busy week, and while I don't feel like training has really taken the back seat it has, but I had a couple gems for workouts when I did get some training in. Monday we did the Dennison ride and I put on a big burst over the top of Dog hill. When I saw that I had broken up the pack I put my head down and hammered most of the 2 miles from the crest of the hill to the sprint line, effectively turning it in to a time trial. I like these short duration high effort bursts, they let you push way past your comfort zone knowing the end is quickly approaching. Then it was off to the Orchestra that evening. It was a fun night, the music was good, and I haven't been to Applebees for appetizers in a long time. All in all a great time hanging out with Annie, Kesh, and Mike. Then yesterday we did a pole run, 1 hr where I pushed the pace as hard as Jim could handle and hit every hill I could find in the lower arb. I really worked on transitions as the terrain changed, hopefully I can carry this into my classic skiing this winter. Then a couple hours of raking leaves until it was too dark to see. I also got a new modem and voted, so a pretty full day yesterday. Today the ride was pretty low key, and I have church photo this afternoon then dining out, so I don't know if I'll get another workout in today. Have to hit intervals or double pole tomorrow I think or the rollerskiing will start to slip again.
2010/11/01
Quality's not a race
No age group award for me on Saturday. The group I was with all ran together for the 5k, and came in at a blazing 29:57, which I'm pretty sure makes this the slowest race I have ever done, topped maybe only by the canoe sections of the Tri-loppet. It was also super fun. We spent most of the race throwing banana peels at each other, getting taken out by Kesh the blue shell, putting on mushroom powered bursts of speed (except without actual mushrooms, cuz they are gross) in general behaving like the Mario Kart characters we were representing. The Luigi beard and overalls made me look more like a hillbilly than a plumber I think, good thing I had the big L on my head to set people straight.
After the easy day Saturday I decided to go tire myself out a bit. I put in a solid 34 mile rollerski Sunday over my favorite course in the Northfield area. The weather was perfect and I had just enough food and Heed to make the distance. The muscles felt pretty good throughout, but the joints started to feel the distance by the end. All in all I think I'm close to ready for West Yellowstone, just need to work on the double pole a bit more, and hope the snow arrives in time.
After the easy day Saturday I decided to go tire myself out a bit. I put in a solid 34 mile rollerski Sunday over my favorite course in the Northfield area. The weather was perfect and I had just enough food and Heed to make the distance. The muscles felt pretty good throughout, but the joints started to feel the distance by the end. All in all I think I'm close to ready for West Yellowstone, just need to work on the double pole a bit more, and hope the snow arrives in time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)