Breadsmithing

Ski racing season has officially begun. Just in the nick of time too, because the snow was fading fast, even as we were racing on it. Saturday was the Hoigaards Relays up at Elm Creek. These relays have been a regular early season destination for many years. The venue, distance, and format change a bit from time to time, but they are always fun and they are always painful. This years race was the warmest ski race I think I've ever done. It was already over 40F at race start and only warmed up from there. It was a sharp contrast to my last running race a few weeks earlier. Nate was gone for a baby shower, so I decided it would be a good year to cherry pick the mixed gender race. I teamed up with Sarah Daniels, a speedy former Michigan Tech skier who just joined the Vakava team this year.

Me off on my first leg - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

The format this year was 6x1.5 km, the same as the world cup team sprint. Sarah took the scramble leg and put us in a very good position on the first lap. I chased down Rob Edman and a couple of Fulton skiers, and we kind of skied in that cluster for the rest of the race. The teams around us were mostly mens teams who started their faster skier first, so they would get ahead of Sarah and I would pass them on my leg. We were both watching for other mixed teams, but didn't see any close to us.

Sarah racing hard - Photo: Bruce Adelsman, Skinnyski.com

By the third leg I was really feeling the fast pace, but managed to pick off a few new teams on the way up the one hill on the course. We got the mixed gender win, 10th overall. A pretty respectable performance, and one that resulted in us winning tasty spice bread. I assumed we had won handily, but when the results were posted it turns out we only pulled off the win by a few seconds. That would have been good to know while we were out racing, but things turned out fine in the end.

Saturday afternoon I got a chance to catch up with my friend Dr. Krystal Math, who I was excited to find out is now engaged. I also met up with an interesting gal from out east for a run around Lake of the Isles and a stop at Sisyphus. I hadn't been to this brewery before, they are popping up quicker than I can keep count around Minnesota these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

With the warm weather continuing Sunday skiing was out, so I settled a nice long run instead. The ice was out on all the gravel roads, so with Christmasy hymns in my head from church that morning I headed out to Farmer trail, a favorite long run route of mine. The ground had softened up enough that there was a farmer out plowing. I was running in shorts and a T-shirt, and we both kind of gave each other looks as we went by, probably thinking the same thing "how did you decide to do that, you know it's the middle of December right?" The air was so thick I could only see about a quarter mile in any direction. Usually when I run this route I'm looking out over the fields at the scenic landscape, so it was fun to have my focus brought much closer in. It gave the route a new and exciting feel.

Other highlights last week include heading over to Nate, Nichole, and Greta's for some P90X strength training. We have been getting together every Monday for a few weeks too do strength work. I even convinced my brother to come join in the fun. We often get a laugh at our own antics during these workouts, mostly due to the fact that our "social" get togethers almost always center around some kind of physical activity.

Nate and I doing some sneaky lunges

I've also been joining Nichole for Tuesday lunch runs. I get to push Greta around and find meandering routes through town, and Nichole gets to decide what the workout for the day will be. Last week Jeff came down and was running some intervals, so Greta and I jumped in for the last couple. The chariot stroller is pretty sweet, we were running sub 6:00 mile pace with very little extra effort, and on the downhills she was almost getting away from me (not really though, there is a leash to make sure she doesn't get too far).

A Merry Go Round

The early season snow is fading fast around Minnesota. By next week I'm pretty sure all that will be left are a couple hamster wheels of man made snow.

Hyland Snowmaking Loop

Last Saturday Nate and I (and about 400 other people) headed up to Hyland park in Bloomington to ski on their 5k of manmade snow. Hyland just opened their snowmaking loop last winter, and it is head and shoulders above anything else on offer in the Twin Cities. The trails are wide and well laid out, there is a good amount of climing, including a beast of a hill that parallels the nearby downhill area, and there is 5 whole km of trails. That means that for the 3 hours and 52km we put in on Saturday we only had to go around the course 10 times (plus a little bit extra) and by the 10th time up the big climb on the course we were quite happy to not need to ski it again, or not sure our legs would allow us to. For a fun look at our ski, check out the Strava Labs replay of it.

While we made our goal of getting a 3 hour ski in, we kind of failed at our proclaimed secondary goal of making it an easy, social ski. We kept the pace comfortable, but easy might be a bit of an overstatement. We saw many friendly faces, but didn't really slow down to chat with any of them. Jeff tagged on our train a few times but other than that it was mostly just a brief hello as we skied by. Nate was asked to model his flawless technique for a couple of highschool girls. Oh the burden of celebrity ;)

Other than that I've mostly been confined to running for exercise. A couple years ago I would have lamented this situation, and while I have been missing the snow and skiing running is remaining a tolerable and occasionally even exciting alternative. One thing I've been enjoying for sure is having my running buddy back in action. Nichole is coming back into form very well, and since her paces are a bit more reasonable for the moment we have been getting others to run with us as well. Greta makes a great addition to the running crew as well. I'm sure we make for quite the sight cruising around town. I'm mostly laying off the speed work for the winter, since I get plenty of intensity at ski practice, but I'm hoping to keep up some good winter mileage to make the springtime transition back to marathon training go smoothly.

TNT Tuesday Crew - Photo: Mike Kosloski

I've also been joining Nate and Nichole on Monday for some P90X strength training. My brother is rooming with me right now while he is house shopping, so I dragged him along last Monday. We even got Greta in on the action. She is getting strong, but not pushup strong just yet. Strength training is definitely more enjoyable with other people to chat with, and I push myself a bit harder too.

Nichole and Greta doing some strength work

Holiday eating season kicks off this weekend with the EMVC banquet and my Friend Emily's family tree decorating party both on Friday. Ski racing season also kicks off Saturday with the Hoigaards Relays. Nate is out of town this weekend, so I'm teaming up with Sarah, a speedy Vakava skier for what promises to be a painful and fun event. Now I just need to decide what constitutes appropriate attire for a ski race when it will be nearly 40F. Tune in next week to hear how the race went, and if I ended up skiing in shorts.

An early Christmas gift

I had a blog post started at the end of last week, but all memories of what I was intending to write about were eradicated beneath a pile of Thanksgiving deliciousness and wonderful, beautiful snow. Nate and I headed up to Hyland on Wednesday for some classic intervals with actual classic tracks, and Luke Strauss joined in as well. The man made snow loop was wonderful as far as it was open, which unfortunately did not include any of the bigger hills yet. Or maybe not so unfortunate considering Nate and I both had Thanksgiving morning races on tap the next day. After skiing I met up with a lovely gal for a slice of pie and headed to Jeff's house to sleep.

Thursday morning was chilly, barely above 0F with a steady breeze. I'm pretty sure this was the coldest weather I have done a running race in. As a skier however I was prepared to handle the cold and excited to see how my trail shoes would handle the loose, powdery snow. I was perhaps a bit overconfident for the Turkey Day Trail Trot at Battle Creek, considering I have pretty handily won the last two races I did there. My hubris would turn out to be my demise. Molly showed up to race as well, so we got in our warmup jogging the 1/2 mile or so from where registration was to where the race started. I kept on my layers as long as possible so I would have some hope of starting the race warm.

"Warming Up" is a relative term in this cold

Any hopes I had of working my way into the race were quickly shattered as the pace went out fast. There were 3 of us in the lead group and I settled into second place and tried to run relaxed with fast turnover since the 3" of snow underfoot robbed a lot of power from each stride. The guy leading the race was having traction trouble on the climbs, so I figured he would wear out eventually. We came through the mile at 6:15, and I would hold almost that exact pace for the rest of the race.

Off to a fast start

 About mile 2 the guy in the lead started to lose steam and the third person in the group hit it hard on one of the down hills, the only place where it was possible to gain speed, to get a gap on the other two of us. I gave chase and held the gap steady, but wasn't able to close it up. At the 5k lap mark the guy in front let me close back up while he took off his jacket and sat on my shoulder for the next mile and a half. I kept the pace high, but was feeling the fatigue from the intervals the night before and the power sucking snow, so when he took off on a downhill I had no response. He got about 10 seconds on me and I was once again able to hold the gap steady but not close it. I ended up 2nd in 40:08.

Age group win!

At the awards ceremony I had a slight blow to my ego when I found out that the guy who beat me was in the 15-19 year old age class. Darn those speedy highschoolers. I felt a bit better when I did some internet stalking and found out that he had taken 7th at the state cross country meet a few weeks before, and with a faster time than I ran at state in my highschool days.

After that I headed off to join my family for a Thanksgiving meal or two, then joined the Porath family for a weekend at the cabin that included much more good food, some quality Greta time, and a healthy dose of skiing as well. It is hunting season in Wisconsin, so orange was a popular color on the ski trails. The conditions on the Birkie trail were wonderful around OO. I usually don't get to ski the Birkie trail until after Christmas, so to be out skiing there in late November was like an early Christmas present.

Saturday Morning Ski Crew

Nate and I skied South Friday evening where the trail had been rolled but not groomed. On Saturday we had a chance meeting with several of the Batdorf boys and decided to ski North. There was about 10k groomed heading North on the skate or classic trail so we made a few loops as we traded stories and took in the beautiful scenery. Bjorn pushed the pace on many of the uphills and I was glad to give chase. Saturday afternoon we talked Jim and Nichole into coming for a ski with us (after she ran 9 miles that morning) and we met Rob out on the trails as well, so we had quite the crew for that ski. Rob joined us at the cabin that evening and for skiing and running the next day.

Over the course of the weekend Nate and I put in just shy of 90km of skiing and got in a bit of running as well. It was a really great way to dive into the ski season and start to prepare the ski muscles for the hard training and racing to come. I owe a huge thank you to the Porath family for adopting me for the weekend.