Saturday morning was a long run, 21 miles including my run over to meet the Poraths and their friend Brooke. It actually went pretty well, although the last couple miles when I was carrying a jar of maple syrup did get a little long. Still, with a long workout out of the way before noon and someone else cooking me waffles the day was off to a great start. I loaded up the boat and headed to the cities to meet Krystal for some rollerski adventures, paddling, and nightlife. We also stopped at the co-op a couple times for green juice (or peanut butter banana smoothie in my case) and salmon for supper, a meal I've been craving for a while. We headed to the Finn so I could pick up some rollerski ferrules and Krystal could try out rollersking after reading about it in a book. KJ was working and was gracious enough to lend us some boots and poles to go along with the rollerskis. Krystal made some decent progress for a beginner to skating as we tooled around the parking lot. Then we headed to the chain of lakes for some leisurely paddling, singing, and general discussion of life the world and everything. Then it was back home to make some supper before biking downtown and hitting up the club (Crave) to meet up with Elizabeth and friends.
I haven't been to a club in years, so it was like coming into it with a fresh perspective. The dancing wasn't half bad, far better than the music, and it was fun to hang out under the open air, even if it is in the middle of the city and everything smelled overpoweringly of cologne. Afterwards it did take my hearing took a while to come back completely, since Elizabeth and friends like to be right by the speakers.
The next morning we went out for coffee, and by that I mean I biked along and hung out while Krystal drank coffee, then went to Brits to see if we could catch some of the Olympic marathon. Unfortunately all that was on was wrestling and team rhythmic gymnastics.
Monday I went to the Twins game with Jeff, Gar, and David. As Jeff and I were biking over to meet Gar someone started yelling our name, and low and behold it was Annie Bunio out to eat at Brits before heading to the game. We sat down to have a drink with her and her dad. So I ended up hanging out at Brits 2 days in a row when I have only been there maybe 2 times in my life before last weekend. It was fun to catch up to Bunio a bit, any chance to see her before she heads back to Africa is good. The game was fun, the Twins got a big win over Detroit, and I got back to my car to find a banana with my name on it hanging out the window.
Tuesday morning was a workout with Nate, Nicole, and Brian. A total of 50 minutes of tempo work with pretty short recovery. We didn't quite hit our target paces, but all in all not a bad way to start a morning. I seem to have more energy after these morning workouts, but I have to be careful to keep up on my sleep on other nights.
Friday I joined Nicole for 2x 4 miles MP (6:00) 1 mile tempo (5:40) that we nailed. Not only that but it really just felt fantastic to be running, almost joyful even. The legs, abs, and lungs hurt like they are supposed to on a hard run, not painful, just that growing fatigue that lets you know your body is having to work at this. Despite that we just seemed to sail down the road. I don't check my watch during workouts, I listen to my body and what I can make of of Nicole's effort level and just go with how things feel. I have enough practice running at a variety of speeds that this frequently works. We absolutely crushed this workout. The pain point, where it turns from hard and fun to a struggle to hold things together never really came. We finished our last tempo mile under 5:40, and then it felt really good to just walk for a little bit. I wish every workout could go this way, but sadly that can't be the case.
Another action packed weekend followed, beginning with some swimming and a pizza party to welcome Emily back to the cities for the few days she'll be around before leaving on a camping trip with some girl scouts. There was lots of tasty food and glow in the dark frisbee. Then we went to Jeffy's and slept out on his mosquito free porch, although not a lot of sleeping was done on my part.
Saturday we did yoga, made waffles, and watched Dr. Horrible before biking down to Afton to ride more bikes in a day a bit fraught with trouble, both people and their machines. David broke a spoke before we even took off, then when we got to Afton Gar made a sharp turn that I didn't see and I T-boned directly into his front wheel. Luckily a bit of spoke work was able to compensate for both of these problems and keep us on our way. There is a Cat. 4 climb in Afton that we hit pretty early in the ride, and that turned out to be nearly the end of Christina. It certainly didn't help that while most of us were on road bikes she was on a hybrid with a loose front tire that was causing some significant brake rub. Poor route planning on my part, to put the big hills at the beginning. This fractured the group a bit, with David and Krystal riding on ahead and me jumping up to join them after getting Christina's tire secured. We hit a couple extra hills then met Gar and Jeff who said Christina was hurting pretty bad and they were heading back to the cars. The three of us remaining decided to see a bit more of the route and also provided a chance for David and Krystal to try out some fixed gear fun times. Neither fell or had trouble unclipping, so a great success overall. Then we headed over to a nearby church for pulled pork, corn on the cob, and other goodness, along with singing by Fixie Paul and his troupe. If it was a bit awkward being introduced to a new and loud singing style while being the only ones there wandering around in spandex the size of our group at least helped mitigate the awkwardness a bit. Then some of us biked back to Jeffy's, and David got a flat a few miles from his house, shortly after re-entering South St. Paul actually, a frequent source of trouble for David's bike.
I drove Krystal home and slept on the floor at her place, then we made a trip to the co-op to find supplies for fruit pizza. After a good breakfast I was on my way back to Jeffy's just in time for... Breakfast! This time it was a good sized omlette at a nearby burger joint. Then we did a bit of shopping and I was on my way home to crash and catch up on some sleeping.
Monday there was a going away party for Bunio at Elena's new house, including taco's and ice cream cake. Jeffy and I ducked out for a bit of rollerskiing and then ate some pretty good food. It was fun to catch up to some camp folks and hang out with Annie and Jallie a bit.
Tuesday morning was supposed to be a bit of an early morning, but it turned out to be a lot of an early morning. I got a phone call at about 4:15 that there was machine trouble, so I went in to work and got the machine going just in time to run over to the middle school for 7x mile repeats. No breakfast or preparation time makes for a rough workout, and I just wasn't feeling the pace. We were not too slow, maybe 5-8 seconds off on most of the repeats, but it just didn't feel fluid. Not the best last hard workout before racing this weekend, but I know it was just one data point, and the Ngede challenge on Saturday will be a chance to prove out my fitness. I feel like I haven't been on the bike as much this year, so we'll see how well I hold my own, but I'm as ready as I'm going to get I guess.
Next post will come after Ngede challenge, and maybe after the weddings the next weekend, and maybe much later the way things have been going lately...
Craig Cardinal's training/racing/adventure blog.
2012/08/22
2012/05/25
Almost an Ultra Good Race
Things have continued to remain pretty hectic since the Germany trip, thus the lack of blog posting lately. When I got back it was a bit of work catching up on a weeks worth of normal work and continuing problems with the copper plater in addition to keeping up on the issues we discovered while in Germany and preparing the facilities for the beginning of the machine installation. In addition things are getting busier here so my boss was looking for ways to get even more capacity out of the copper plating machine. If that weren't busy enough, the next week the machine arrived and for most of the week consumed pretty much all of my normal working hours, which meant working extra hours to get my normal work in. It was a very exciting time though. It's not every day you get a $750k toy to put together and play with. Work was busy enough however that my training really fell off pretty hard. Luckily it was close enough to my next race that I considered the time off just to be a "taper", but probably more of one than is good for a person.
The upcoming 50k on the Superior hiking trail loomed on the horizon, strangely sapping any energy I had for exercising, even though I knew I would need every mile of training I could get. I got in a couple good paddling sessions where I realized I still can't steer a boat, a nice bike ride to the cities and back the next day to hang out with my Mom and Grandma for mother's day, and part of a really killer workout with Nicole the Thursday before my race. I would have loved to run the whole workout, but made myself bike part of it, even though it put me in a category of people who I respect about the least of anyone, guys who bike with girls who are running. It was a terribly windy day, and I'm really impressed how close Nicole came to hitting her target times despite the rough conditions. These last couple workouts left me with a fair amount of confidence going into the race, at least as much as I could have without having done any training runs over 23 miles and racing on a course I had never seen any of before.
I was fortunate enough to find a host family to put me up the night before the race. My coworker and fellow EMVC rider John Stiles has in-laws in Silver Bay, which is less than an hour away from Lutsen where the race started, so I had a bed to sleep in and a bit of ice cream and cookies as a last carbo load snack before turning in for the night. The race start wasn't until 7:00, so I got to sleep in until 5:30, not too bad a deal.
The race morning was nice and cool, but a bit muggy. I had my small water bottle which had served me well on all my training runs, and felt like the cool weather wouldn't necessitate more extreme water carrying measures. I started with a shirt on even, although realized within a few minutes that this was not a good decision. I went out with the front group of 10 or so, and stuck with a group of 4 including Evan Pengelly as 3 went off the front. My reach goal was top 5, so sitting in 7th wasn't too bad. I hung with this group trading off spots up and down hills until the first food stop. There I dropped my shirt off with Evan's dad and quickly refilled my small bottle before charging on. I was feeling great at this point, so I pushed the pace just a little, and got a gap on the other guys I was running with leaving me running alone in 4th place. I gained good time on the descents and lost just a little on the climbs, which I figured would mean I was saving energy on the hard parts without using too much more on the easy. Running on my own felt good; it's what I'm used to in training, plus with the rocky and rooty nature of the trail it is nice to have a clear line of sight ahead.
I stayed in 4th all the way to the turn around atop Carleton peak, where I found out the guys ahead of me had a pretty good lead already (10 min for the leader, wow!) and the group chasing me was not too far behind and had grown to 6 people. I kept my same tactics, although I did start running some hills that I probably would have walked had I not had a target on my back. I went through the 3rd food stop still alone, although I could hear people behind me by this point. I was probably 10 miles from the finish when I knew I would need to start walking hills or things would end poorly for me. It was less than a mile later the first runner went by me. I took a good roll but luckily landed in some soft leaves instead of on rocks or a tree. and was back up and running, if a bit dizzy, in a second or two.
I was still sitting in 5th at the final food stop, but the 6th place runner arrived there with me, and I knew things were going to be rough from here on in. There were still 3 major climbs to go in the last 8 miles, and my body was getting kind of upset with me. I had not taken on enough water early, and as the temps soared into the mid 70's I was quickly learning the error of my ways. I took a heed and 3 waters at the last food stop and filled my little bottle for the last leg to the finish, already knowing it would not be enough water to last. I resigned myself to walking anything that looked like an incline at all, and on some of the steeper climbing sections my heart rate had to have been over 170 just trying to keep moving at a slow walk. There were a lot of people going by me, and I must have looked bad because several stopped to offer me some water. I didn't know how many were 25km racers and how many were 50km, and I didn't really care. It was just a march to the finish line. I did still run down all the hills, and the hamstrings got a bit close to cramping a couple times, but a short walk cleared them back up. Whenever I could run, even at what felt like a painfully slow pace to me, I would quickly overtake those around me, which gave me some motivation to keep it up. I finally broke out of the woods just as Jan Guenther passed me (doing the 25km luckily) and I did my best to follow her and run in to the finish. I crossed the line in 4:32:23, nearly an hour faster than my first ultra. I wasn't sure where I finished place wise, but based on previous years times I figured I still had a shot at top 10. I drank about 64 oz of water and pink lemonade and started to feel a bit better. I checked results and I had finished 8th, and beat the winning woman by about 10 minutes; so I achieved one of my goals at least.
All in all a decent race, or more accurately 3/4 of a great race followed by a few miles of stumbling through the woods in a dehydrated haze. Evan didn't end up finishing, he was in worse shape than me at the last food stop apparently, and decided to drop there. Kevin Johnson came in about 5:30:00, good for a top 30 finish, and Jallie came in at 7:18:00, about 20th for women I think. Not too bad for her first ultra I'd say. I am kind of looking forward to another one, but maybe not until fall. There will be enough other races and such going on over the next month for me to hop back into something too soon, plus I still have a misbehaving copper plater and a new machine at work to get up and running.
2012/05/22
Germany in the Mix
Since it's been a month since the trip now it is really old news, but as I mentioned in my previous post I recently went on a trip to Germany. We purchased some process equipment from a company there in March of 2010, so I have known for a while that a trip would be coming eventually, but the timing has been in flux for some time. The original plan was for this equipment to be ready in September of 2011, but delay after delay has beset the project, so finally in April we were able to go check the machines before they were packaged for delivery. The line I was in charge of is a DESNE line (Develop, Etch, Strip, Nova Etch). This process takes a copper panel with a printed image photoexposed on it and turns it into an actual circuit. The line was in pretty good shape, but there was a lot to go over, so most of the trip was working, although I did have a little bit of time to sight see.
The city I stayed in was Freiburg, which is in in the black forest far in the Southwest of Germany. It was a college town, so there were lots of people, lots of shops, restaurants, and plenty to see. There is a tower on a peak nearby that provides a great view of the city, so I wandered my way up there one evening, and again the next morning when the light was a little better and I knew my way there. I had plenty of great food including some Spargel, white asparagus that is very tender and tasty, Spatzle, Saurbraten, Weinerschnitzel, and of course some German beer.
My last day there I also had almost enough time to get a long run in. There is a mountain peak nearby in an area called the Schauinsland that I wanted to try to run to the top of. The peak is at 1280 meters, up from about 200 meters that Freiburg sits at. It was a great run, with pretty good trail markings for the most part. Just as I hit the snow line (it was amazing to see snow, and even more so to run from town where temps were in the 70's to the peak where the temp was maybe 40) the trail disappeared for a bit and I had to climb directly up the slope for a while to get to where I could see a trail up above. I made it to the peak and had some great views of nearby mountain peaks in France and Switzerland. I could also see that the sun was dropping fast and some ominous looking clouds were rolling in, so I decided to hightail it back towards Freiburg. I have been trying to improve my downhill running this year to be better prepared for some hilly trail races I have signed up for, and I got to put that practice to good use charging down the first steep section of snow covered road. When I got back to the trail I did have to stop a couple more times for good photo ops, but steadily worked my way down. Soon it was too dark to read the trail signs well, or to see obstacles on the trail, so I decided to stick to the logging roads after that. This made for a faster pace and a more stable and visible path, but it also descended much more slowly and hugged the mountain side which meant more distance. It did eventually lead down to a paved road, by which time the sun had completely set and the rain was just starting to fall. The paved road had streetlights, so at least I had a line of glowing beacons to follow the last few miles back to the hotel, where I arrived soaking wet and hungry. A quick shower and Sauna worked wonders to leech the cold rain out of the body and by the time I wandered back out to look for supper the rain had let up. Being a college town there were still many restaurants open after 10:00 pm, rare in Germany where almost everything seems to close at 5:00. The legs were drained the next morning, but luckily not too sore for the long flight back to the US.
The Germany trip was over, but the weekend fun was not. About 12 hours after arriving home I was toeing the starting line for my first running race of the season, Trail Mix, a 50km relay event. The team I was on, the Nordic Ninjas had won the previous 6 years, and Travis Hinck and I have been on the team every year. Matt Liebsch has been on the team for 4 years now, and this year we added Jeff Lanners to replace Dave Anderson who hasn't so much been doing the running thing lately. My body was still pretty tired from the mountain run, and didn't really know what time it was supposed to be even, so I didn't have my best race. Matt won, and I held on for 4th place and was the first second runner in if that makes sense. It was pretty clear at this point that it would be a close race between the Nordic Ninjas and the Gear West Running Team, a bunch of River Falls alumni who my brother ran with in college. Their first runner is was Kyle Donovan, who passed me with about 2 miles to go in the race. He also beat me at the Afton 50k last summer. Their second runner Jason Phillipe finished only a few seconds behind me Their 3rd runner Jim Felling was not far behind, and beat our 3rd runner Jeff. Their 4th Brandon beat Travis by enough to secure them the win, ending the longest winning streak in the history of this event. It was a fun day though, and great to get the first race of the season under the belt. The next up would be a much more daunting task, the Superior 50km along the superior hiking trail in Lutsen.
The city I stayed in was Freiburg, which is in in the black forest far in the Southwest of Germany. It was a college town, so there were lots of people, lots of shops, restaurants, and plenty to see. There is a tower on a peak nearby that provides a great view of the city, so I wandered my way up there one evening, and again the next morning when the light was a little better and I knew my way there. I had plenty of great food including some Spargel, white asparagus that is very tender and tasty, Spatzle, Saurbraten, Weinerschnitzel, and of course some German beer.
My last day there I also had almost enough time to get a long run in. There is a mountain peak nearby in an area called the Schauinsland that I wanted to try to run to the top of. The peak is at 1280 meters, up from about 200 meters that Freiburg sits at. It was a great run, with pretty good trail markings for the most part. Just as I hit the snow line (it was amazing to see snow, and even more so to run from town where temps were in the 70's to the peak where the temp was maybe 40) the trail disappeared for a bit and I had to climb directly up the slope for a while to get to where I could see a trail up above. I made it to the peak and had some great views of nearby mountain peaks in France and Switzerland. I could also see that the sun was dropping fast and some ominous looking clouds were rolling in, so I decided to hightail it back towards Freiburg. I have been trying to improve my downhill running this year to be better prepared for some hilly trail races I have signed up for, and I got to put that practice to good use charging down the first steep section of snow covered road. When I got back to the trail I did have to stop a couple more times for good photo ops, but steadily worked my way down. Soon it was too dark to read the trail signs well, or to see obstacles on the trail, so I decided to stick to the logging roads after that. This made for a faster pace and a more stable and visible path, but it also descended much more slowly and hugged the mountain side which meant more distance. It did eventually lead down to a paved road, by which time the sun had completely set and the rain was just starting to fall. The paved road had streetlights, so at least I had a line of glowing beacons to follow the last few miles back to the hotel, where I arrived soaking wet and hungry. A quick shower and Sauna worked wonders to leech the cold rain out of the body and by the time I wandered back out to look for supper the rain had let up. Being a college town there were still many restaurants open after 10:00 pm, rare in Germany where almost everything seems to close at 5:00. The legs were drained the next morning, but luckily not too sore for the long flight back to the US.
The Germany trip was over, but the weekend fun was not. About 12 hours after arriving home I was toeing the starting line for my first running race of the season, Trail Mix, a 50km relay event. The team I was on, the Nordic Ninjas had won the previous 6 years, and Travis Hinck and I have been on the team every year. Matt Liebsch has been on the team for 4 years now, and this year we added Jeff Lanners to replace Dave Anderson who hasn't so much been doing the running thing lately. My body was still pretty tired from the mountain run, and didn't really know what time it was supposed to be even, so I didn't have my best race. Matt won, and I held on for 4th place and was the first second runner in if that makes sense. It was pretty clear at this point that it would be a close race between the Nordic Ninjas and the Gear West Running Team, a bunch of River Falls alumni who my brother ran with in college. Their first runner is was Kyle Donovan, who passed me with about 2 miles to go in the race. He also beat me at the Afton 50k last summer. Their second runner Jason Phillipe finished only a few seconds behind me Their 3rd runner Jim Felling was not far behind, and beat our 3rd runner Jeff. Their 4th Brandon beat Travis by enough to secure them the win, ending the longest winning streak in the history of this event. It was a fun day though, and great to get the first race of the season under the belt. The next up would be a much more daunting task, the Superior 50km along the superior hiking trail in Lutsen.
End of an Era
It has been a couple weeks since a post again, but this time I have a good excuse. I was in Germany last week and am just getting through the backlog of work that piled up while I was gone. I will talk about that trip a bit, but am working on organizing my pictures into an album I'll post that will be far better than just walking through the trip in text form. Since adding pictures to this blog has not been a successful venture for me so far (due to being lazy, or not having pictures) maybe I'll have better luck making albums and just linking to them. But before the Germany trip was Easter.
We just finished up a health challenge at work to see who could log the most hours of exercise. I figured I'd fare well since I train somewhat regularly, but didn't account for the fact that a full round of golf can take 6 hours or something (I don't know if that is accurate, I don't golf) or doing 8 hours of yardwork on a Saturday will all count. Most of my exercise is strenuous enough that I don't usually go for 8 hours at a time. Easter weekend was almost an exception. We had Good Friday off, not because it is a holiday but because they were upgrading the power system at work and needed to power the whole factory down. This provided a good opportunity for a Nature Center ride. Deciding driving was dumb I biked down and did the ride, then biked home. After a quick lunch I biked to River Falls to meet my brother and head home for Easter weekend. A good 90 mile day, and a good headwind for the trip home and to RF. Luckily for the trip back the wind was only kind of a headwind, but it was still 30mph wind speeds so I took it slow and steady. Spending Easter with my family was great fun, my Aunt even hid Easter eggs for us still, even though all of us "kids" are now in our mid to late 20's. Instead of candy the eggs have $5 or $10 bills in them, so there is pretty strong motivation to find them. Many of the hiding places have become well known, but there are always a couple surprises out there, and it is still fun to find someone else's egg before them and walk around for a while with the smug confidence imparted by this secret knowledge.
We just finished up a health challenge at work to see who could log the most hours of exercise. I figured I'd fare well since I train somewhat regularly, but didn't account for the fact that a full round of golf can take 6 hours or something (I don't know if that is accurate, I don't golf) or doing 8 hours of yardwork on a Saturday will all count. Most of my exercise is strenuous enough that I don't usually go for 8 hours at a time. Easter weekend was almost an exception. We had Good Friday off, not because it is a holiday but because they were upgrading the power system at work and needed to power the whole factory down. This provided a good opportunity for a Nature Center ride. Deciding driving was dumb I biked down and did the ride, then biked home. After a quick lunch I biked to River Falls to meet my brother and head home for Easter weekend. A good 90 mile day, and a good headwind for the trip home and to RF. Luckily for the trip back the wind was only kind of a headwind, but it was still 30mph wind speeds so I took it slow and steady. Spending Easter with my family was great fun, my Aunt even hid Easter eggs for us still, even though all of us "kids" are now in our mid to late 20's. Instead of candy the eggs have $5 or $10 bills in them, so there is pretty strong motivation to find them. Many of the hiding places have become well known, but there are always a couple surprises out there, and it is still fun to find someone else's egg before them and walk around for a while with the smug confidence imparted by this secret knowledge.
2012/04/03
A Month Off
This blog has been pretty quiet for the last month as I wound down from the non-existent ski season and started to prepare for spring and summer sports and races, and to get my house and yard in a bit better shape than they were in last year. I got a bunch of leaves raked, but my negligence last year means the bare spots on my lawn continue to increase. The nice moss keeps expanding, but sadly so does the creeping charlie. I'm trying to be a bit more proactive about lawn care this year, but am not quite ready to bust out the mower just yet. I've been keeping up with the P90X program a bit better the last couple weeks, and did 10 chin-ups as part of a workout set this weekend. Once I hit 10 pull-ups I will be pretty happy.
I finally got my boat out last weekend. Emily and I got about an hour of paddling in on the Mississippi. She is getting to be quite adept at steering and even knows cool racing tactics and how to read the river and such. The boat feels really good, it cuts through the water well, tracks pretty decent, and is a dream to portage, even with the portage pads precariously attached. It travels well too, not sliding around on top of the car. The plan is to get out for a canoe on the lakes with Jallie this afternoon, some good windy weather practice.
Training this spring has been pretty exciting so far. I put in over 40 hours in March, my biggest month since 2010, and 118 miles of running, which might be my biggest month since highschool. I have been doing a couple of long runs with Nicole Porath, and it is super fun to have someone of a similar pace to run with. Both of the runs have had 2x3 mile uptempo in them, with a target of 6:00 min/mile pace which is nice to break up a long run a bit. The last couple miles of both runs have been a bit tough, but overall the legs feel pretty strong and recover well. It is more a muscle tightness than anything it feels like. I've been trying a couple short runs with the Vibram 5 fingers as well and while they create some different sore spots than I'm used to, but as long as I keep it easy and build up slow they should be a great training tool to help keep the lower legs strong and the technique from getting sloppy.
Things are going to take off for the season soon. This weekend is Easter, the weekend after I leave for Germany (supposedly, I'll believe it when I get on the plane) and the weekend after that is Trail Mix. My relay team, the Nordic Ninjas has a 6 year winning streak going so hopefully this will be lucky number 7. Also, with Matt in great shape, me running well, and a new ringer on our team by the name of Erik Teig, we should have a shot at the course record if it turns out to be a nice day.
Hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more consistent posting schedule going forward with more to talk about now that spring has sprung.
2012/02/28
Racing Season
I'm falling behind on the posting schedule, and haven't at all gotten around to putting pictures along with these posts, my bad I guess. I intend for that to start happening at some point, but it turns out I'm not very good about taking pictures, so that will have to be something for me to work on. Since the Bearskin post ski racing season has come and quite possibly gone. I raced City of Lakes Loppet, Minnesota Finlandia, and the American Birkebeiner this year, and still have the option to do the Pepsi Challenge if I want a bit more racing action.
City of Lakes: With the lack of snow this year this race became earned the nickname "City of Lakes Loopet" from my friend. It was not ideal racing conditions, but the race directors made the right decisions to have the best race possible I think. By the time the elite racers went off at 12:30 the course was either mashed potatoes or rough ice, and my choice of stiff skis may have been the wrong one for the day. I got to wear a super awesome leaders bib, and definitely did not live up to the honor finishing 40th. I skied most of the race with a couple one armed Russians, which was fun. There was an IPC race at Wirth earlier in the week and the Russian team decided to stay and race the loppet that weekend. It was great to ski with international athletes, and to see how fast they can go despite the disadvantage they are at. I'm gonna have my work cut out for me to try for another Hoigaards challenge win if Matt or Brian decide to race, but it wouldn't be fun if it was easy.
Mora: Was cancelled this year due to lack of snow on the course and lack of ice on knife lake. I wasn't looking forward to that race much anyway. The last time I was out of shape and tried to ski 45k on that lake was the worst race of my life. Instead I got out and got a fun 75k gravel ride in with some Northfield folks. I took a good spill into the ditch and bruised my hip pretty good, but it seemed fine to ride and run with, so I was not worried about it for the Finlandia next weekend.
Finlandia: With a tough city of lakes race under the belt and no skiing in the two weeks intervening I was very indecisive about what race I was going to sign up for. Last year it looked like the long race (36k this year) would be my best chance of getting an ax, but my brother was signed up for that race, and I didn't want to take the chance of depriving him of an age group award. Plus the pursuit race is just too much fun to pass up, and there were very few entrants, so I figured I had a shot in that race as well. I didn't even glide wax my classic skis ahead of time, probably a mistake, but one that wouldn't matter in the end. The Buessler family were wonderful hosts, cooking and providing us with nice beds to sleep on. Race morning I was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces, Travis and Amy, Blake and Rachel, Allie, Devon, John Munger, Owen Baird and Phil Rogers, who beat me out for the ax last year. Then I noticed Bjorn towing a couple pairs of skis and knew I was in trouble. With him in the pursuit race my chances of a win were pretty negligible, but I figured my chances of a fast classic leg to ski my way to 2nd might be good. Turns out that glide waxing helps skis go faster, and training helps a bunch too, neither of which I had going for me this race. I was gapped by Bjorn and Phil in the classic leg and settled in with Travis who was skiing the classic race. When I got to the exchange Phil was out of sight already. I got on the skates and took off, and they were rockets! It felt so good to go fast that I really cranked up the effort. I caught Travis and Owen pretty quickly and sailed by. Then after about 5k I started to see flashes of another skier ahead. I kept the pedal down even though it was starting to hurt and had Phil solidly in my sights by 9k. I pulled him in and put on a good surge to try to shake him, but after a couple hills he was still hanging on. This is the point last year where I settled in and ended up losing the race, this year I was determined to leave nothing out there, so I kept pushing and eventually got a gap. I ran scared from there all the way to the end. Bjorn was long finished by the time I came across, but I added to my Bemidji woolen mills coat collection and felt a bit more confident going into the next weeks race. Cary suffered through the long race in an admirable fashion. Not bad considering he hadn't been on skis since November. He did earn his age group award but didn't pick it up because we weren't sure what the age categories were. Emily won the classic race, so we did have one ax come home in our car this year. Sunday I went down to visit my friend Amy in Rochester and see her new baby girl Ruth. She is a good sized kid with a full head of hair, but not in a too exciting phase of her life at the moment.
Birkebeiner: Another week of no skiing got me ready to head up to Hayward where the trail reports sounded really good. I actually tested skis for the first time, but am afraid I made the wrong decision. I decided to go with my brother's new Atomic skis, which are a bit stiff for me and cut into the snow a bit on the flats. They climbed quite well though and handled great on the descents too. I got in a nice ski on some of the world cup trails Friday and felt much better than the year before when I was still sick. This year I had a bit of a sore throat, but the lungs and head felt clear so I wasn't worried about it at all. I picked up some HF Start green which did great during the race. I stay in a cabin with the Johnson family and friends and it is always a fun time. The race morning was a pleasant 10F and snow conditions looked quite good. I started a few rows back, still uncertain about my fitness over this kind of a race. The gun went off, the flags went up, and a skier a couple rows ahead of me went down. I didn't have time to dodge, so he ended up on my skis and spun me around. I got back underway quickly, but had to weave my way through a lot of skiers to get back to where I wanted to be. I worked my way up steadily until about 8km, then the climbing really started to take it's toll and I knew I had to dial it back a touch or I would be in a bad way later in the race. I traded leads with a couple other skiers and started to build up a pack. We caught up to Evan Slocum and another skier soon after, and the group of 8 of us or so worked together for quite a while. I tried to make a gap at the 22km hill since I was climbing well, but couldn't get away and they pulled me back in at about 25km. Then I settled into the back of the pack to take a gel and recover a bit. We went by the classic lead pack, with Murray Carter, a Finlandia regular, in first followed by Norwegian superstar Vegard Ulvang, and surprisingly Travis in 3rd! He wondered as I went by what he was doing there, but looked in good form. He blew up a few km later I guess but still ended up 19th. My parents were volunteering at the Gravel Pit this year, so I looked for them as we went through, and saw my mom cheering, but she had no water for me so I skied on. Caitlin Gregg and Holly Brooks caught us before the next station, so I tagged on with them and finally dropped most of the guys I was skiing with. Then I tried to take a feed at Mosquito brook and lost contact, a terrible tactical move on my part. They slowly extended the gap and I didn't pass anyone else until catching a few stragglers on the lake. The lake really hurt, but I could see others were worse off than me, and I wanted to get done so I kept pushing. Amy and Johanna were cheering on the street into town, it was a great boost to finish strong. I ended up in 103, a few spots back from last year, but still good enough to maintain my elite wave for next year, when I might actually try to train again. It was a great day for cheering, but by the time I was recovered enough to go back out most of the people I know had already come in (everyone is getting fast these days). I did see Emily come in, and Rachel Elbing, who I saw at the expo Friday where she said she wasn't racing, guess someone changed her mind. Tom Bisel also finished his first Birkie and he looked like he would be feeling the effort for a few days. I just beat out Nate Porath to be the first Northfielder to finish. There are so many people I know at the Birkie that I just love hanging out and seeing people from all over and talking about skiing and life in general. Byron had a good race and missed the Elite wave by 10 min or so, Dave just beat out Allie in the classic race, Jeff held his wave 1 spot, and Cary tried to use someones number, but failed his bluff check at registration so he couldn't race. That night I was pretty exhausted, but had bounced back pretty well by the next morning and was ready to do a bit more skiing before heading back home.
Another great Birkie, I can't wait for next year. It is a bit sad that I am really now just catching Birkie fever and the season is over. This is a good place to be getting ready for next year though, as opposed to last year when I was pretty much burned out on skiing and life by the time the season ended. Now on to running season, canoe season, and all the fun that warm weather brings with it. Just to kick off the end of ski season a big storm is currently dumping on Northfield as I write this.
City of Lakes: With the lack of snow this year this race became earned the nickname "City of Lakes Loopet" from my friend. It was not ideal racing conditions, but the race directors made the right decisions to have the best race possible I think. By the time the elite racers went off at 12:30 the course was either mashed potatoes or rough ice, and my choice of stiff skis may have been the wrong one for the day. I got to wear a super awesome leaders bib, and definitely did not live up to the honor finishing 40th. I skied most of the race with a couple one armed Russians, which was fun. There was an IPC race at Wirth earlier in the week and the Russian team decided to stay and race the loppet that weekend. It was great to ski with international athletes, and to see how fast they can go despite the disadvantage they are at. I'm gonna have my work cut out for me to try for another Hoigaards challenge win if Matt or Brian decide to race, but it wouldn't be fun if it was easy.
Mora: Was cancelled this year due to lack of snow on the course and lack of ice on knife lake. I wasn't looking forward to that race much anyway. The last time I was out of shape and tried to ski 45k on that lake was the worst race of my life. Instead I got out and got a fun 75k gravel ride in with some Northfield folks. I took a good spill into the ditch and bruised my hip pretty good, but it seemed fine to ride and run with, so I was not worried about it for the Finlandia next weekend.
Finlandia: With a tough city of lakes race under the belt and no skiing in the two weeks intervening I was very indecisive about what race I was going to sign up for. Last year it looked like the long race (36k this year) would be my best chance of getting an ax, but my brother was signed up for that race, and I didn't want to take the chance of depriving him of an age group award. Plus the pursuit race is just too much fun to pass up, and there were very few entrants, so I figured I had a shot in that race as well. I didn't even glide wax my classic skis ahead of time, probably a mistake, but one that wouldn't matter in the end. The Buessler family were wonderful hosts, cooking and providing us with nice beds to sleep on. Race morning I was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces, Travis and Amy, Blake and Rachel, Allie, Devon, John Munger, Owen Baird and Phil Rogers, who beat me out for the ax last year. Then I noticed Bjorn towing a couple pairs of skis and knew I was in trouble. With him in the pursuit race my chances of a win were pretty negligible, but I figured my chances of a fast classic leg to ski my way to 2nd might be good. Turns out that glide waxing helps skis go faster, and training helps a bunch too, neither of which I had going for me this race. I was gapped by Bjorn and Phil in the classic leg and settled in with Travis who was skiing the classic race. When I got to the exchange Phil was out of sight already. I got on the skates and took off, and they were rockets! It felt so good to go fast that I really cranked up the effort. I caught Travis and Owen pretty quickly and sailed by. Then after about 5k I started to see flashes of another skier ahead. I kept the pedal down even though it was starting to hurt and had Phil solidly in my sights by 9k. I pulled him in and put on a good surge to try to shake him, but after a couple hills he was still hanging on. This is the point last year where I settled in and ended up losing the race, this year I was determined to leave nothing out there, so I kept pushing and eventually got a gap. I ran scared from there all the way to the end. Bjorn was long finished by the time I came across, but I added to my Bemidji woolen mills coat collection and felt a bit more confident going into the next weeks race. Cary suffered through the long race in an admirable fashion. Not bad considering he hadn't been on skis since November. He did earn his age group award but didn't pick it up because we weren't sure what the age categories were. Emily won the classic race, so we did have one ax come home in our car this year. Sunday I went down to visit my friend Amy in Rochester and see her new baby girl Ruth. She is a good sized kid with a full head of hair, but not in a too exciting phase of her life at the moment.
Birkebeiner: Another week of no skiing got me ready to head up to Hayward where the trail reports sounded really good. I actually tested skis for the first time, but am afraid I made the wrong decision. I decided to go with my brother's new Atomic skis, which are a bit stiff for me and cut into the snow a bit on the flats. They climbed quite well though and handled great on the descents too. I got in a nice ski on some of the world cup trails Friday and felt much better than the year before when I was still sick. This year I had a bit of a sore throat, but the lungs and head felt clear so I wasn't worried about it at all. I picked up some HF Start green which did great during the race. I stay in a cabin with the Johnson family and friends and it is always a fun time. The race morning was a pleasant 10F and snow conditions looked quite good. I started a few rows back, still uncertain about my fitness over this kind of a race. The gun went off, the flags went up, and a skier a couple rows ahead of me went down. I didn't have time to dodge, so he ended up on my skis and spun me around. I got back underway quickly, but had to weave my way through a lot of skiers to get back to where I wanted to be. I worked my way up steadily until about 8km, then the climbing really started to take it's toll and I knew I had to dial it back a touch or I would be in a bad way later in the race. I traded leads with a couple other skiers and started to build up a pack. We caught up to Evan Slocum and another skier soon after, and the group of 8 of us or so worked together for quite a while. I tried to make a gap at the 22km hill since I was climbing well, but couldn't get away and they pulled me back in at about 25km. Then I settled into the back of the pack to take a gel and recover a bit. We went by the classic lead pack, with Murray Carter, a Finlandia regular, in first followed by Norwegian superstar Vegard Ulvang, and surprisingly Travis in 3rd! He wondered as I went by what he was doing there, but looked in good form. He blew up a few km later I guess but still ended up 19th. My parents were volunteering at the Gravel Pit this year, so I looked for them as we went through, and saw my mom cheering, but she had no water for me so I skied on. Caitlin Gregg and Holly Brooks caught us before the next station, so I tagged on with them and finally dropped most of the guys I was skiing with. Then I tried to take a feed at Mosquito brook and lost contact, a terrible tactical move on my part. They slowly extended the gap and I didn't pass anyone else until catching a few stragglers on the lake. The lake really hurt, but I could see others were worse off than me, and I wanted to get done so I kept pushing. Amy and Johanna were cheering on the street into town, it was a great boost to finish strong. I ended up in 103, a few spots back from last year, but still good enough to maintain my elite wave for next year, when I might actually try to train again. It was a great day for cheering, but by the time I was recovered enough to go back out most of the people I know had already come in (everyone is getting fast these days). I did see Emily come in, and Rachel Elbing, who I saw at the expo Friday where she said she wasn't racing, guess someone changed her mind. Tom Bisel also finished his first Birkie and he looked like he would be feeling the effort for a few days. I just beat out Nate Porath to be the first Northfielder to finish. There are so many people I know at the Birkie that I just love hanging out and seeing people from all over and talking about skiing and life in general. Byron had a good race and missed the Elite wave by 10 min or so, Dave just beat out Allie in the classic race, Jeff held his wave 1 spot, and Cary tried to use someones number, but failed his bluff check at registration so he couldn't race. That night I was pretty exhausted, but had bounced back pretty well by the next morning and was ready to do a bit more skiing before heading back home.
Another great Birkie, I can't wait for next year. It is a bit sad that I am really now just catching Birkie fever and the season is over. This is a good place to be getting ready for next year though, as opposed to last year when I was pretty much burned out on skiing and life by the time the season ended. Now on to running season, canoe season, and all the fun that warm weather brings with it. Just to kick off the end of ski season a big storm is currently dumping on Northfield as I write this.
2012/02/22
With the strength of two Bearskins
So my friend Jallie just asked me to write up a summary of my week at Bearskin lodge, and as I turned to my handy repository of summarized happenings I realized I had not put up a post about my sweet week at skiing paradise. So I'll write it up here and send it along Jallie's way for whatever nefarious ends she intends for this information.
One of the greatest parts about entering competitions is that once in a while you can win stuff (maybe more often if you are good at what you are competing at, or good at cherrypicking weak fields). This year I won a trip to Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail. At first this was actually a bit stressful since taking a week off work, with a possible trip to Germany in the works, and fitting another trip into a busy ski racing season did not look that feasible. Then the Germany trip got pushed back, most of the ski season got cancelled, and the calendar opened up to go stay at this wonderful resort. When I booked my stay there was still some slim possibility of ski racing looming on the horizon, so I planned to arrive on Sunday night after racing the Vinterfest on Saturday. When the Vinterfest got cancelled Saturday instead turned into soup and egg bake preparation day so that more time on the trip could be spent skiing, reading, and playing games and less on preparing meals.
It was an odd feeling packing my skis in the car when there was no evidence of snow around me anywhere, but I had good trail reports to bolster my confidence that I would be skiing soon. I got up to Bearskin and decided to get the lay of the land before checking in. It was a breath of fresh air after a brown winter to see snow drifts and deep classic tracks. I skated around to Golden Eagle lodge and back then went to check in to my cabin.
The cabin was beautiful, with a large dining room table for eating and poring over trail maps to plan the next day's excursion. The staff did a great job getting the cabin prepared, the path to the cabin was freshly shoveled, and there was a good pile of wood stacked up for lighting the fireplace. The fireplace and multiple heating units made temperature control and clothing drying a piece of cake. The kitchen was well furnished, the beds were comfy, and there was a recliner that was great for lounging around and reading. There was a nice porch that would be great for looking over the lake in the summer, but was mostly used for ski storage on this trip. The ski trail went right by the back of the cabin, so I could just look out the window to see how the grooming and snow conditions were. There was a thermometer in the window for checking temp, a small but important detail for skiing when there is no TV or internet to get a weather report. After getting unpacked and settled in it was nice to just relax and read with no distractions for the rest of the evening.
The next morning I pulled out the classic skis and headed over to the bear cub world cup trails. Most of the central gunflint trails around Bearskin are fairly flat or rolling hills, and while there are a few bigger hills up near Golden Eagle they still are not all that technical. The bear cup trail is the exception. There are very few flats on this trail, which suits me well since double pole is my least favorite classic stride. The snow cover was very good, and the tracks were full depth and well layed out. There is a very fun descent called "Death's Door" coming down off the loop that I had to snowplow on a bit even. Then I headed over to some of the easier classic trails that connect to the Banadad trail that goes through the BWCA. The Banadad trail is very neat, sometimes the pine trees overhang the trail so much that you can't see the sky, and they are so dense it's like a wall of trees around you, a little bit claustrophobic almost. I also came across a nice little Yurt out there that would be very fun to stay at I think.
I had made a variety of soups for lunch before coming up so that I could have the most time possible to ski while I was here, but the comfy cabin made it hard to leave at times. After lunch and a bit of relaxing I headed back over to Golden Eagle to skate some of the big hills on the North end of the trail system. There is one hill that is so steep it's almost impossible to V1 up even, the single stick skate came in handy, and one of the hills on the red pine trail has a 1km section that is all uphill, and it gets increasingly steeper as you go up. Since all of these trails were designed for classic skiing only, so skating can feel a bit cramped at times if you are trying to avoid skiing over the classic track, except summer home road, which is a road in the summer as the name implies, so it makes a nice wide ski trail. It had been quite a while since I've gotten in 2 skis in a day, so it was really nice to get back, eat supper, and just relax the rest of the evening with no distractions at all.
The next day I got a nice classic ski in in the morning before my friends Dave and Emily showed up that afternoon. That night it snowed about 5", so the skiing the next morning was a slow trudge through fresh snow. It was an amazing ski with nothing but a few animal tracks breaking up the smooth white blanket covering everything. In some places the snow even covered the trees so well that you had to search to see any colors at all besides the white snow and grey sky. On our way back the sun poked through the clouds and the entire landscape glittered.
By the time we went back out for a skate ski after lunch almost the entire trail system had already been groomed. A very impressive feat considering the small grooming crew available. We put in a long ski and the sun was down completely by the time we got back to the cabin. Good thing the last couple km of trails are lighted.
By Wednesday the trail had firmed up a bit and classic tracks were set over most of the trail system. My plan was to try skiing 100km. Dave classic skied 45km with me in the morning and skated 15km in the afternoon before leaving. This left me with about 40km to ski after he left. I did the Bear cub and all the trails at Golden Eagle for about 33km, then stopped back at the cabin to throw some lasagna in the oven and grab a headlamp before heading out on Summer home road to get my final 7km in. Skiing the wide open trails at night was very relaxing, even with over 90km under my belt, but sadly there were no stars out. The cloudy skies are probably the only thing that kept it from being a perfect trip, the trails were great, and the terrain and scenery along the gunflint trail are simply amazing. I was sad to leave the cabin at the end of the week, trading in this world of snow and silence for phones, traffic, and brown grass did not seem like a good exchange.
One of the greatest parts about entering competitions is that once in a while you can win stuff (maybe more often if you are good at what you are competing at, or good at cherrypicking weak fields). This year I won a trip to Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail. At first this was actually a bit stressful since taking a week off work, with a possible trip to Germany in the works, and fitting another trip into a busy ski racing season did not look that feasible. Then the Germany trip got pushed back, most of the ski season got cancelled, and the calendar opened up to go stay at this wonderful resort. When I booked my stay there was still some slim possibility of ski racing looming on the horizon, so I planned to arrive on Sunday night after racing the Vinterfest on Saturday. When the Vinterfest got cancelled Saturday instead turned into soup and egg bake preparation day so that more time on the trip could be spent skiing, reading, and playing games and less on preparing meals.
It was an odd feeling packing my skis in the car when there was no evidence of snow around me anywhere, but I had good trail reports to bolster my confidence that I would be skiing soon. I got up to Bearskin and decided to get the lay of the land before checking in. It was a breath of fresh air after a brown winter to see snow drifts and deep classic tracks. I skated around to Golden Eagle lodge and back then went to check in to my cabin.
The cabin was beautiful, with a large dining room table for eating and poring over trail maps to plan the next day's excursion. The staff did a great job getting the cabin prepared, the path to the cabin was freshly shoveled, and there was a good pile of wood stacked up for lighting the fireplace. The fireplace and multiple heating units made temperature control and clothing drying a piece of cake. The kitchen was well furnished, the beds were comfy, and there was a recliner that was great for lounging around and reading. There was a nice porch that would be great for looking over the lake in the summer, but was mostly used for ski storage on this trip. The ski trail went right by the back of the cabin, so I could just look out the window to see how the grooming and snow conditions were. There was a thermometer in the window for checking temp, a small but important detail for skiing when there is no TV or internet to get a weather report. After getting unpacked and settled in it was nice to just relax and read with no distractions for the rest of the evening.
The next morning I pulled out the classic skis and headed over to the bear cub world cup trails. Most of the central gunflint trails around Bearskin are fairly flat or rolling hills, and while there are a few bigger hills up near Golden Eagle they still are not all that technical. The bear cup trail is the exception. There are very few flats on this trail, which suits me well since double pole is my least favorite classic stride. The snow cover was very good, and the tracks were full depth and well layed out. There is a very fun descent called "Death's Door" coming down off the loop that I had to snowplow on a bit even. Then I headed over to some of the easier classic trails that connect to the Banadad trail that goes through the BWCA. The Banadad trail is very neat, sometimes the pine trees overhang the trail so much that you can't see the sky, and they are so dense it's like a wall of trees around you, a little bit claustrophobic almost. I also came across a nice little Yurt out there that would be very fun to stay at I think.
I had made a variety of soups for lunch before coming up so that I could have the most time possible to ski while I was here, but the comfy cabin made it hard to leave at times. After lunch and a bit of relaxing I headed back over to Golden Eagle to skate some of the big hills on the North end of the trail system. There is one hill that is so steep it's almost impossible to V1 up even, the single stick skate came in handy, and one of the hills on the red pine trail has a 1km section that is all uphill, and it gets increasingly steeper as you go up. Since all of these trails were designed for classic skiing only, so skating can feel a bit cramped at times if you are trying to avoid skiing over the classic track, except summer home road, which is a road in the summer as the name implies, so it makes a nice wide ski trail. It had been quite a while since I've gotten in 2 skis in a day, so it was really nice to get back, eat supper, and just relax the rest of the evening with no distractions at all.
The next day I got a nice classic ski in in the morning before my friends Dave and Emily showed up that afternoon. That night it snowed about 5", so the skiing the next morning was a slow trudge through fresh snow. It was an amazing ski with nothing but a few animal tracks breaking up the smooth white blanket covering everything. In some places the snow even covered the trees so well that you had to search to see any colors at all besides the white snow and grey sky. On our way back the sun poked through the clouds and the entire landscape glittered.
By the time we went back out for a skate ski after lunch almost the entire trail system had already been groomed. A very impressive feat considering the small grooming crew available. We put in a long ski and the sun was down completely by the time we got back to the cabin. Good thing the last couple km of trails are lighted.
By Wednesday the trail had firmed up a bit and classic tracks were set over most of the trail system. My plan was to try skiing 100km. Dave classic skied 45km with me in the morning and skated 15km in the afternoon before leaving. This left me with about 40km to ski after he left. I did the Bear cub and all the trails at Golden Eagle for about 33km, then stopped back at the cabin to throw some lasagna in the oven and grab a headlamp before heading out on Summer home road to get my final 7km in. Skiing the wide open trails at night was very relaxing, even with over 90km under my belt, but sadly there were no stars out. The cloudy skies are probably the only thing that kept it from being a perfect trip, the trails were great, and the terrain and scenery along the gunflint trail are simply amazing. I was sad to leave the cabin at the end of the week, trading in this world of snow and silence for phones, traffic, and brown grass did not seem like a good exchange.
2012/02/14
Riding, Relays, and Routines
With the Mora Vasaloppet getting cancelled this weekend it was a great opportunity for me to go try a new ski race somewhere up north, but I didn't. Instead I stayed home and did my dishes and laundry, both projects long overdue. There was some excitement to be had though, here's a rundown.
Sunday Gravel Ride - Played hookey from church to head out on a gravel ride Sunday morning. I had planned to go with earlier in the week, and tried to get other EMVC riders onboard. It's good I did, because I was thinking of skipping Sunday morning until Jim told me he was going, so I figured I better too. I quick swapped the tires on my ever versitile Gary Fischer hybrid and hit the road. It was a chilly start, especially since my riding tights do not have a bit of wind stopper to them, but a well positioned glove part way through the ride eventually fixed the problem. There were hills a plenty to get the heart rate up and a nice pace with few breaks kept things moving well. There was one unexpected stop when I got my wheel caught in a rut and suddenly found myself sailing for the ditch with the bike still firmly attached to my feet. A bruised and slightly lacerated hip was the only bad result. It made for a bit of a stiff start off whenever I stopped pedaling, but a couple days later it is already feeling much better.
P90X - I have been hearing about this workout program that a few people have been doing and I was kinda getting tired of that horrible lady, so I thought I'd give it a try. I typically only use my muscles in a few very specific ways, so this muscle confusion thing is leaving me sore for sure. I'm excited to build a bit of general strength though, always useful for preventing injury and engaging in random physical activities.
World Cup Relay - Saturday was not the best day for the USST in Nove Mesto. After some amazing performances in weeks past not a single US athlete made it into the points. Kikkan sat the race out, Holly had to drop partway through, Sadie is getting ready for U23's, and nobody on the mens side has been consistently in the points at all this season. Sunday turned things around though, at least for the women, with a historic 5th place in the relay. I love this event because it is a true team event and covers both disciplines. While the Norwegian women continue to be unstoppable the US showed that it is within striking distance of a podium position. Brooks led off and lost time to only a few teams. Sargent raced an amazing race and while she did lose some significant time to Johaug, who can blame her for that, she held her position well and kept the team in the running. The same can be said for Liz on the third leg. Jesse Diggins continues to impress and is quickly learning tactics. She started even with Olympic champion Charlotte Kalla and held on to her for the entire 5k, even taking the lead for a while. She ended up losing the finishing sprint to Kalla, but still posted the fastest time of the day.
Finlandia is this weekend, my second attempt at racing for the season. A few warm days has erased all the snow from south facing hills on the east end of the course, so it will be 2-3 laps of the hilly west side this year. This could make things interesting for the Pursuit. I haven't decided for sure which race I plan to do this year, may depend on if I can see the start list when I get up there, but am hoping for a podium in any case since not many big names show up at this race on a good year, much less on a short course year.
Sunday Gravel Ride - Played hookey from church to head out on a gravel ride Sunday morning. I had planned to go with earlier in the week, and tried to get other EMVC riders onboard. It's good I did, because I was thinking of skipping Sunday morning until Jim told me he was going, so I figured I better too. I quick swapped the tires on my ever versitile Gary Fischer hybrid and hit the road. It was a chilly start, especially since my riding tights do not have a bit of wind stopper to them, but a well positioned glove part way through the ride eventually fixed the problem. There were hills a plenty to get the heart rate up and a nice pace with few breaks kept things moving well. There was one unexpected stop when I got my wheel caught in a rut and suddenly found myself sailing for the ditch with the bike still firmly attached to my feet. A bruised and slightly lacerated hip was the only bad result. It made for a bit of a stiff start off whenever I stopped pedaling, but a couple days later it is already feeling much better.
P90X - I have been hearing about this workout program that a few people have been doing and I was kinda getting tired of that horrible lady, so I thought I'd give it a try. I typically only use my muscles in a few very specific ways, so this muscle confusion thing is leaving me sore for sure. I'm excited to build a bit of general strength though, always useful for preventing injury and engaging in random physical activities.
World Cup Relay - Saturday was not the best day for the USST in Nove Mesto. After some amazing performances in weeks past not a single US athlete made it into the points. Kikkan sat the race out, Holly had to drop partway through, Sadie is getting ready for U23's, and nobody on the mens side has been consistently in the points at all this season. Sunday turned things around though, at least for the women, with a historic 5th place in the relay. I love this event because it is a true team event and covers both disciplines. While the Norwegian women continue to be unstoppable the US showed that it is within striking distance of a podium position. Brooks led off and lost time to only a few teams. Sargent raced an amazing race and while she did lose some significant time to Johaug, who can blame her for that, she held her position well and kept the team in the running. The same can be said for Liz on the third leg. Jesse Diggins continues to impress and is quickly learning tactics. She started even with Olympic champion Charlotte Kalla and held on to her for the entire 5k, even taking the lead for a while. She ended up losing the finishing sprint to Kalla, but still posted the fastest time of the day.
Finlandia is this weekend, my second attempt at racing for the season. A few warm days has erased all the snow from south facing hills on the east end of the course, so it will be 2-3 laps of the hilly west side this year. This could make things interesting for the Pursuit. I haven't decided for sure which race I plan to do this year, may depend on if I can see the start list when I get up there, but am hoping for a podium in any case since not many big names show up at this race on a good year, much less on a short course year.
2012/02/07
City of Lakes Loopet
With the snow and temps being what they have been this winter few people expected that CoLL would run on it's full course this year, but when the melting snow flooded onto the lakes the week before the race the plan to finish in uptown was given up on, and the entire event was moved to the snowmaking loop at Theodore Wirth. Since I won the Hoigaard's challenge last year I got to don a leaders bib and line up in the second row for the start. This is the closest to the front I would get however. My poor condition technique is below average to start with, and the lack of on snow training has not helped this year. I settled in and skiied with some very fast Russians... who had 1 arm. There was unprecedented attendance by foreign skiers due to the IPC races earlier in the week. I ended up 39th overall, so not a complete disaster, but for sure not what I would consider a good race. If Matt or Brian decide to do the entire Hoigaard's challenge I'm sure I won't be holding on to the leaders bib next year. Despite the conditions it was a fun day, and it was good to catch up to many ski friends I've seen too little of this winter.
Meanwhile in Russia Devon Kershaw takes his first individual victory after a couple straight 3rd place finishes, and by the end of the weekend had moved into 3rd in the overall world cup standings. I really am wishing I had chosen him over Harvey for my team this year now. Jessica Diggins continues to impress with a trip to the sprint finals on Thursday after posting the fastest qualifier and leading for the majority of her quarter and semi heats (probably not the best move tactically, but it always worked in those Nor-Am races.) Then she took down a number of very good racers in the 10k mass start and was the first non-Scandinavian finisher in 5th. She followed that up with a 12th in the Skiathlon the next day after taking a fall near the start of the race that put her at the back of the pack. Not quite the amazing comeback that Frode Estil pulled off in 2006 Olympics, but impressive nonetheless for the 20 year old.
Meanwhile in Russia Devon Kershaw takes his first individual victory after a couple straight 3rd place finishes, and by the end of the weekend had moved into 3rd in the overall world cup standings. I really am wishing I had chosen him over Harvey for my team this year now. Jessica Diggins continues to impress with a trip to the sprint finals on Thursday after posting the fastest qualifier and leading for the majority of her quarter and semi heats (probably not the best move tactically, but it always worked in those Nor-Am races.) Then she took down a number of very good racers in the 10k mass start and was the first non-Scandinavian finisher in 5th. She followed that up with a 12th in the Skiathlon the next day after taking a fall near the start of the race that put her at the back of the pack. Not quite the amazing comeback that Frode Estil pulled off in 2006 Olympics, but impressive nonetheless for the 20 year old.
Big Talker
I got to be part of a panel discussion on skiing, and especially skiing in years with low snow, at Fit to be Tri'd. It was myself, Nate Porath, and Ken Drivdal that were the panelists, but really it was more just a chance to get together and chat about skiing. Snow conditions have continued to be not great, so I am putting my advice to work, cross training as much as possible and skiing when I can get to good snow.
2012/02/01
Racing from the couch
The past few years I've entered a fantasy nordic ski contest that the magazine Ski Trax puts on. I've steadily gotten better at picking teams that compete well under their strange scoring system, and after finishing 12th last year (prizes go to the top 10) this year I seem to have picked a winning team. With over 1/2 of the season done I'm sitting in 1st place, but not by much. The greatest part is that there are 2 North American skiers on my team. Kikkan Randall has been on top of the sprint standings all years, and Alex Harvey's flashes of brilliance have brought him close to the podium several times this year. My wildcard pick Vibeke Skofterud has picked up a great collection of 2nds and 3rds so far this season, possibly even a better wild card pick than Johaug was last year. Hattestad was my mens wildcard again because he can always put up some good results and earn a lot of points, but as a pure sprinter he lacks the consistency to put him in the top 15 overall. There was a seperate competition for the Tour de Ski, and I led that the whole way through except for at two points, the break where the leader gets a prize, and the finish where the top 10 get a prize and I slipped back to 16th, so despite leading almost the whole time I wound up empty handed. A bit disappointing, but the excitement is worth almost as much as a prize anyway.
Making my mark on the New Year
This not skiing season has put me in a kind of bad funk. When it is 40 and raining I'm in no mood to ski, especially when the ground is ugly brown here in Northfield. Even a little bit of snow would help with the attitude adjustment I think. Anyway, this is what greeted me on New Years Eve. I skipped going up to ski with friends because it just didn't seem like skiing weather. Then I decided since I wasn't going skiing there was really no reason to leave my house for any reason. This is an affliction that has been hitting me more and more often on weekends, a bit of a problem really. About 11:00 that evening I finally decided enough was enough. I got my gear together and decided to run in the new year. Running has been spotty with the cold and ice, but I decided to just get out and go, and it was worth it. I was running in a kind of snow/slush that at least left everything looking whitish, and when I got out in the arb with the howling wind and darkness I remembered how great nature is. I saw the fireworks that St. Olaf was setting off in protest of the ball dropping tradition (which was established when fireworks were banned), and when I went out running the next day my footsteps had been frozen in ice. So for a few days I would have a reminder that I had gotten out and put my mark on the new year.
2012/01/13
A decidedly not white Christmas
With the complete lack of snow dimming my enthusiasm to ski I got to spend a few fun Christmas days with my family. On Christmas Eve we went to my maternal grandparents in Southern Minnesota, a first for the wayward Cardinal branch of the family. It was fun to catch up to cousins who are in college and buying houses and other grown up stuff. The realization that I'm aging is catching up to me this year for some reason. Anyway, Christmas!! Nothing spectacular really, but great to spend time with family that I don't see often enough. It was odd sleeping in my own bed on Christmas eve, I don't know if that has happened since I moved out of my parents house.
Since this is so late getting posted I'll also include second Christmas with my mom's family at my cousin Andrea's. She has a nice, newly purchased house in Mankato and we got together to play games, eat chillie, and drink wine. Me and my cousin Allie almost won the game of life (not as exiting as winning actual life, but maybe more exciting that winning the cereal life) and I tried my hand (ear) at madgabs.
Since this is so late getting posted I'll also include second Christmas with my mom's family at my cousin Andrea's. She has a nice, newly purchased house in Mankato and we got together to play games, eat chillie, and drink wine. Me and my cousin Allie almost won the game of life (not as exiting as winning actual life, but maybe more exciting that winning the cereal life) and I tried my hand (ear) at madgabs.
2012/01/12
Double Hill Challenge
Christmas break wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Birkie trail. This year it was just Jeff and I that went up to do some skiing on marginal snow (but still better than found anywhere closer than the UP). I was debating a trip to the UP but wasn't really motivated to do that much skiing. Not that the idea of 2-3 days of skiing sounds unappealing, just that my overall energy level to plan and go on a trip like that is really low. A shame really, because once I hit the snow everything is wonderful.
We put in at OO and skied North. The original plan was to head to the powerlines on the classic trail, but Jeff was falling a bit behind so we decided to cut it short and catch a quick break at the North end cabin before heading back. The trail had pretty good coverage, but was very uneven and had a lot of debris everywhere. The further north we got the better conditions became. My arches hurt pretty bad the whole ski, just from lack of time on snow I think.
On the way back South the Birkie trail was in quite good shape for the first few km, so I put a lot of time into Jeff quickly as we headed through the climb/km section. I decided to try the double hill challenge. I came up with this challenge a couple years ago on my friend Mike's first trip to the Birkie trail. I was a much faster skier, so it was my goal to ski with him until a hill and then try to climb the hill, go back down (initially to take pictures, then on subsequent hills because it was fun) and climb the hill again to see if I could make it to the top a second time ahead of him on his first time up. Since Jeff is a much stronger skier than Mike was then I modified it a bit, so I would ski ahead of Jeff, climb the hill, go down and climb it again. This gave Jeff time to catch up and me time to get some extra climbing in and burn off some of that excited energy one gets while skiing the Birkie trail.
After crossing the county line I decided to go ahead to the high point and see how many times I could climb it before Jeff arrived. I figured it would be a double climb, but when I was starting my 3rd time up with still no Jeff in sight I decided I would not go past 5 times. Luckily for me as I descended to start my 4th time up he was beginning his climb. After 4 times up the high point climb my energy level was sufficiently subdued that I could ski the next couple km with Jeff (the downhill probably helped too). The 18km hill I was not intending to double ski, but then I ran into Caitlin Wilke at the top and decided to ski back with her until we found Jeff. Again at 21km I was not intending to double ski that hill, but I reached OO and knew I had some time to kill, so I went back down and found Jeff at the bottom. This probably marks my best effort at the double hill challenge yet. I don't know if that is a good sign for my conditioning or a bad sign for poor Jeff.
2012/01/09
Behind the times
I took a couple weeks off posting over the holidays, but it's time to get back at it. This post will be somewhat short, since I just want to lay out the topics I hope to cover. I will have subsequent posts to actually address those topics, since I think I will jump around less and the posts will be higher quality overall. So here is the list:
- Christmas with the family
- Birkie Trail
- New Years (and old year by the books)
- Minecraft
- Tour de Ski
- Social night at Tri store
- Racing outlook and machine outlook
So for now I'll let you know I haven't been consistently working out most of this ski season. Today the EMVC went out to do the Illinois loop and Ivan came along. We pushed a fair bit harder up the Cannon City road climb and both of us were in the hurt locker at the top. This made me think that Seeley might be a bad idea since I've only been on classic skis one time since West Yellowstone in November. On the plus side, I haven't driven my car since Thursday of last week, and should be able to make it a whole week without driving with the help of the studded tires Fixie Paul gave me for my Gary Fisher.
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