Sisu Year-Round Group: Roller Skiing Classic

You may notice the discrepancy between my the title of this activity and activity type: I don't have classic roller skis, so I skated through the drills. Drizzle and moderate temps were a change to the steamy weather that was with us since spring. A sign of fall, and the actual ski season? Another hint of change of seasons is dusk catching up with us towards the end of the session.

The workout included

• Striding w/o poles over short distance with increasing lengths, about 6 repetitions 
• Striding with poles, tricky to get that rhythm going. Coach Mike showed us how it's done.
• The entire hill, 6 repetitions.

Skate roller skiing on wet surfaces is somewhat dangerous because of the slipperiness, especially when leaves cover the trail. I was extra careful to make sure to stay in control. Eventually I will upgrade to a combi skate and classic roller ski. 

Summary of Cross Country Skiing Season 2010-2011

Our trip to Breckenridge was a wonderful way to end this year's winter sport season. I had known by mid-January that this would be my best cross-country ski season to date, thanks to the fantastic snow cover. Like last year, I replaced my running routine entirely with skiing. Because of the low-impact nature of the sport, I was able to much more, a lot of it in the company of my faithful companion Mellie.

	Time	km	mi	km/h	min/km	mi/h	min/mi
Skijoring	18:25:08	264.63	164.43	14.37	4:11	8.93	6:43
Skate Skiing	11:57:53	150.91	93.77	12.62	4:45	7.84	7:39
Classic Skiing	5:59:33	55.52	34.50	9.26	6:29	5.75	10:26
Totals	36:22:34	471.06	292.70

Some thoughts on those metrics:

• Initially, I thought that my dog Mellie was slowing me down. While this may be the case for long distances, it is clearly not the case for the shorter ones, those under 10 km. Especially during races, Mellie was pulling hard.
• More than half of my activities were with that faithful canine. I am very thankful for the opportunity to be able to ski with a dog at Highland 9-Hole. I hope we will continue to be able to do so.
• While there was some improvements in my performance without dog, it was by far not as remarkable. I do need to work on my technique.

Spring Seems in the Air

Last week, I had been keeping a worried eye on the weather forecast. True, morning temps from Monday through Friday had been -18 C to -24 C, but for the weekend and the coming week, a major change had been announced. Temperatures up to 10 C and with that a major thaw, ending the near perfect skiing conditions.

I did my best to get some more skiing in. Mellie and I braved the cold on Tuesday afternoon. The week until Friday was too busy to squeeze in another session but we were out at Highland Golf course on Friday at around 16:30. The temperature had climbed from -19 C at 7:00 to +1 C when we started. The snow was perfect and we had a good two laps.

We were out there again on Saturday morning at 8:00. The temperature was still above freezing and like the evening before, conditions were near perfect for our three laps and we clocked close to our fastest pace for a practice run in spite of a couple of tangles and a fall due to a dog with spring fever.

I was glad to have been out that early for the remainder of Saturday saw a strong thaw. I cannot say that I did not enjoy the warm temps but I regretted the melt.

When James requested a ride to Afton Alps ski area I embraced the opportunity to get another ski in, certainly the last one before another shift in the weather, at the state park next door.

All uphill from here, NE corner of Afton State Park 

Afton State Park is classic only and has an extensive trail system. One of the challenges is that the park consists of a plateau delimited by the deep St. Croix Valley on its eastern flank and divided into a northern and a southern section by Trout Creek valley. The descents into these valleys are quite steep, fortunately the trails are wide and allow for breaking. From the trail head near the visitor center I descended into the valley of Trout Creek and skied north as far as I could along the St. Croix. Before the steep climb at the northern edge of the park, I applied some Swix Violet Extra, which provided the necessary kick.

I love the landscape at Afton SP, the ravines leading to river and creek valleys and the open prairies on top. I enjoyed the sun out in the open though I noticed that the snow conditions were deteriorating rapidly. Dark litter such as bark, scat and even leaves had started to sink into the snow. The difference in glide between shade and sun started to be very noticeable, there was hardly any glide left in sunny spots. At one point I fell head first into trail-side powder when I emerged from shade to sun on a downhill stretch and my skis stopped dead.

I returned to the St. Croix Valley via a long forestry road that challenged my snowplowing muscles. Here, I was glad for the slower snow. The steep climb back to the parking lot rounded out this challenging 14 km outing, likely the last one for a while. I will have to look for my running shoes if I plan outdoor exercise in the near future.

Classic Skiing Homestead Loop, Sugarbush Trails, Tofte, MN

I decided after yesterday's 25 km to make today an easy one and also to use my classic skis, which I have ruefully neglected. After dropping James and Joe at Lutsen, I headed for Sugarbush where I did the Homestead Loop.

Parking to I, right to J, turn back at K, right at J, right at H,
left at G, right at F, left at E, right at C, B and A

Since today's outing was not as remote, I saw many more skiers. All were taking advantage of the unusually mild weather. At J intersection I chatted with some skiers who had come from the Onion River parking lot. They alerted me to some wolf tracks and scat on the trail.

Trail between J and K intersections

I had hoped to take the spur to the overlook above Chateau Leveaux, but my impression from the previous day had been correct, the trail leading south from K intersection was not groomed and looked overgrown. Snowshoes or BC skis might have been the correct mode for this excursion. So I returned to J to continue the Homestead Loop.

Venturing out to K had not at all been in vain as I got to more closely view the mess of wolf and deer tracks which suggested some drama that had very recently unfolded in the middle of the trail.

Dogs on the trail? Nope, it's wolf tracks ...

... and scat. 

After Picnic Loop, today's effort seemed slight to moderate. With the temperature hovering just above freezing, waxing was somewhat tricky. I re-waxed with Swix Purple Extra which came off thick and unwieldy. It was very slow and grippy but eventually brought acceptable performance.