4 x 4:00 L4 Skate Skiing Intervals - Como Park

It never works quite the way it is supposed to: got myself out of bed bright and early and changed the battery on my Garmin HRM. It still didn't work. I changed the battery on my old (original) Garmin HRM, that one worked. I need to make a new rubber strap for that one, pretty stretched out. It worked, aand it was certainly better than when I forgot my Garmin for a Sisu training on Tuesday. Anyway, I was a little later than I had intended. Arrived just a little before the second skier.

• 10:00 warm-up
• 4 x 4:00 L4 skate intervals with 3:00-4:00 recovery
• 10:00 cool-down.

I would have preferred more warm-up and cool-down but didn't have the time.
Saw a fox, right by the club house, was standing on top of the steep little climb from the parking area. He took off as I approched and the loop I took must have made him think that i was trying to round him up, as I nearly circled him. On Monday I had seen his tracks, it looked like he had followed most of the course.
Much milder this morning, a very light dusting of fresh snow. glide was very good. The trail is wearing thin in some spots.
Did this without a headlight, only lost the trail once.

Summary

Name	4 x 4:00 L4 Skate Skiing Intervals
Location	Hamline Midway/Como Park to North St. Paul
Start Time	12/12/2013 5:55 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Other
Distance	10.97 km		Time	00:49:51.0
Time Moving	00:49:51.0		Stopped	00:00:00.0
Average pace	04:32 min/km		Max. pace	02:42 min/km
Average heart rate	148 bpm		Max. heart rate	168 bpm
Total Ascent	76 m +7 m/km		Total Descent	-67 m -6 m/km
Weather	Cloudy; -15.1 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

Skate Skiing - Skate Ski with Sisu Friends - Lake Elmo Park Reserve

I had two options today: going with the boys to Lake Elmo Park Reserve or with the grrrls to Battle Creek. I knew Heather, Kitty, Margie and Battle Creek would have turned me into hamburger, so Lake Elmo it was. A nice, civilized outing with John, Tom, Dayton and Peter with lots of chatting. Like the other venues I visited thus far, I am impressed with coverage. There is no grass or dirt showing through the snow. And more snow was falling as we skied! My last ski at Lake Elmo last winter had been on March 19.

Dayton, Peter, Tom and John.

Summary

Name	Skate Ski with Sisu Friends
Location	Lake Elmo Park Reserve
Start Time	12/8/2013 9:19 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Cross-country Skiing:Skate Skiing
Distance	13.65 km		Time	01:15:40.0
Time Moving	01:15:40.0		Stopped	00:00:00.0
Average pace	05:32 min/km		Max. pace	02:42 min/km
Average heart rate	146 bpm		Max. heart rate	165 bpm
Total Ascent	59 m +4 m/km		Total Descent	-45 m -3 m/km
Weather	Snow; -14.7 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

Skate Skiing - Como Park Skate Skiing

Two laps. What a glorious day. A little brisk but for 10 cm of snow, the coverage is awesome, no problem what soever on the skate portion of the trail, a little grass here and there in the classic tracks. My right thumb and a couple of my fingers got cold, but not painfully so, and it abated after a while. If anything, I was overdressed. Not many people out. I don't get why quite a few people seem crabby, so serious, not cracking a smile, while it's hard for me to wash a stupid grin off my face. I just feel like sharing the joy over good snow: AWESOME, get out there and ski, people!

Summary

Name	Como Park Skate Skiing
Location	Hamline Midway/Como Park to North St. Paul
Start Time	12/7/2013 11:47 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Cross-country Skiing:Skate Skiing
Distance	10.83 km		Time	00:44:51.0
Time Moving	00:44:51.0		Stopped	00:00:00.0
Average pace	04:08 min/km		Max. pace	02:47 min/km
Average heart rate	164 bpm		Max. heart rate	171 bpm
Total Ascent	78 m +7 m/km		Total Descent	-64 m -6 m/km
Weather	Sunny; -17.3 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

Skate Skiing - Skate Skiing--First Time Out this Year! - ABR, Ironwood, MI

So great to be skiing on real snow again and what a place to start! There were a few) (very few indeed) wet spots but that was it. Did the majority of open trails but did not do Peltonen Passout, not because I wanted to avoid the climb, rather because I was concerned about the descents. I want to get my snow ski legs before I dare going down technical hills.

Definitely a different feel than going on roller skis. Initially, I felt some muscles in my lower legs that I hadn't felt, well, that I hadn't felt since about a year ago. Fortunately, that tension dissipated quickly. Very enjoyable ski!

Summary

Name	Skate Skiing--First Time Out this Year!
Location	ABR, Ironwood, MI
Start Time	11/30/2013 9:40 AM (UTC-06:00)		Category	My Activities:Cross-country Skiing:Skate Skiing
Distance	14.42 km		Time	01:01:11.0
Time Moving	01:01:11.0		Stopped	00:00:00.0
Average pace	04:14 min/km		Max. pace	02:48 min/km
Average heart rate	150 bpm		Max. heart rate	169 bpm
Total Ascent	62 m +4 m/km		Total Descent	-66 m -5 m/km
Weather	Cloudy; -1.1 °C

Heart Rate

Splits: Recorded laps

Pace

Splits: Recorded laps

Elevation

Splits: Recorded laps

Created with Activity Documentation Plugin for SportTracks
(see http://www.sporttracks-plugins.com)

American Birkebeiner 2013

My first Birkie! What can I say, there were certainly some cons, like big crowds, long lines, slow shuffling up the steep hills and other mass-sport related distractions but they were fare outweighed by the pros, like physical and mental challenge, fun tag games trying to weave an ideal route while passing the big crowds and being with many friends.



I passed a few of my club mates and it was nice to give and receive encouragement at those time. I actually bumped (very lightly) into our host John, who let us stay in his family cabin in Minong. I had descended a hill and following coach's orders I maximized glide from the momentum and did not pay attention, ever so gently touching the last guy in line up the hill. When I passed him, it turned out to be John. I was passed by fellow Sisu Skier Per, who due to big gap since his last Birkie (he likes the crowds even less than I do) and without a time from a qualifying event found himself in Wave 6, one wave behind my own. He caught up to me after the first 10 km in a particularly crowded passage and I heard him coming: "Passing on your left! Passing on your right! Oh hi Christian, looking good!" He finished in 2:55. Awesome!

Last and certainly not least there was the great instruction, coaching and encouragement we received from Sisu Skiers and the warm welcome we received from our club mates at the finish line! I will certainly do it again!

  Conditions: with an average temp of around -2 it was very mild, lots of soft, fresh snow which made me think of Sisu Ski Fest and most skiing I've done in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

  Waxing: Gear West Birkie wax service, not cheap but better than I could have done. It felt like that by the time I began the last third it had been skied off. This is the wax review by Gear West (I inserted the actual wax type in parentheses which I received from Tom at Gear West):

Sat and Sun we applied a low fluoro basecoat (Swix LF6) based on current trends and forecasted temps.   Swix Team tested on the Birkie trail Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning we applied the recommended HF Wax (Swix HF5), loaded the skis in the van and hauled them to Hayward.Swix, Matt Liebsch and Gear West wax techs tested Thursday and Friday mornings. Friday after testing we determined for Waves 1, 2, 3 we would apply a top coat appropriate for the new fresh snow. Waves 4, 5, 6 we choose a top coat (Swix FC100) for corn snow conditions and for Waves 7, 8, 9 we applied a top coat best suited for heavier and wetter snow.

   Skis: Atomic Worldcup Skate '11, bought on sale at the beginning of this season. Nice step up from my '10 Race Skates, several ounces lighter.

  Boots: '11 Salomon S-Lab Carbon Skate. They fit my foot, my second pair of this type of boot.

  Poles: Yoko 8100, the orange sticks. At km 40, something detached on my right hand strap and I did not have a good hand grip any longer. I decided to finish with the poles in spite of this inconvenience. I have not closely investigated, but it may be just a Velcro strap that came undone.

  Clothing: thin waffle shirt, vented Nike Pro Combat shirt, Sisu skin shirt, X2 compression tights, Sisu skin tights, Fit socks, Sisu ski fest hat, MNOC buff, Yoko WindStopper gloves. Close to perfect, everything was wring-out wet at the finish.

  Goggles: Oakley Half Jacket XLJ with yellow tint glass, very good. Have had those for a very long time.

  Nutrition:
  Breakfast: 1 1/4 cup of oat meal with brown sugar and raisins, 1 banana.
  During race: Hammer gel: 70 g of Hammer gel berry, 14 g Hammer gel espresso from squeeze bottles. This corresponds to less than 3 gel packs but I think it is easily more. I never can get everything out of the gel packs. 1.5 L of Gatorade from powder in S-Lab XA Advanced Skin 12 Set, which I tried out extensively during longer skis prior to the Birkie. 3-4 cups of energy drinks I picked up during the second half and a couple of banana pieces.
 Never hit the wall and never cramped, so I must have done OK in the nutrition and pacing department.
Post-race: Since the line for the free chicken noodle soup seemed too long, I re-hydrated and fortified with 3 pints of beer, a hamburger, a brat, a Snickers bar and a Twix bar.

  Physio Observations:
  Garmin HR monitor: Average HR, at 157 bpm definitely closer to race pace.
  Omron body composition scale: A couple hours after my beer and junk food binge I weighed in at 81 kg, which is normal for me, high after such an effort. However, my body composition showed body fat of 10.4% over 42% of muscle mass. Typical is more like 15% for body fat 39% for muscle mass. New record.

MNOC friend Darryn worried that I didn't have enough fun. How does this look? I hope my
technique looked a little better most of the time but at least I look like I'm having a good time.

Some analysis, with an eye on next year's Birkie:

Here are the official results from birkie.com: Bib # 5276.

I created a spreadsheet file for the skate results from the pdf available at the official site. It can be accessed here. Based on that,

• I finished 6th from Wave 5 starting from the back of that wave.
• Faster than 94% in Wave 4, 76% in Wave 3 and 35% in Wave 2 
• Physically passed at least 650 skiers from waves 2, 3 and 4. 

Based on the Birkie's current wave placement rules (see wave placement tab I created on my spreadsheet) I should get into Wave 3 next year. That aught to gain me at least 10 minutes I wasted being stuck behind masses of slower skiers. On the other hand, being stuck probably helped me pace myself.

One question I have is whether a highly technically skilled skier has less of an advantage in these soft snow conditions over a less skilled but physically strong skier such as myself. I dropped several competitors who looked like much better skiers than me. I'd pass or catch up to them in the hills but they pulled ahead on the flats. Bitch Hill did them in ...

During the last uphills, there had been a hint of a cramp building in my inner thighs but it never materialized. When I reached the lake, I was able to cruise past another good number of skiers. At the finish, I was greeted by my friends from Sisu Skiers.

Done! Thanks for snapping the pic, Ben!

I walked to the bag pickup and based on the overwhelming number of bags still there for wave five I sensed that I had done pretty well in my wave.

A see of bags awaiting the skiers. (Photo by Emily Green)

Early Season Skijoring 2012-13

Early season snow in 2012 made for a few nice skijoring outings and brought some hope and promise for a better season over last year. It was better alright, nine skijoring outings with 65 quality km for December-January, including the King Boreas race over last year's three skijors totaling less than 18 km for the entire season. Unfortunately, the snow on the trails that allow dogs was soon whittled away by thaw and rain events that left Mellie and me high and dry after the first January week.

January 4 at Highland 9-Hole Golf Course

It came to no surprise that after a week of forced rest, Mell was raring to go on January 13 King Boreas race, which had to be moved from Phalen Park in St. Paul to the man-made loops of Green Acres. Mellie was so excited to be out there and so unruly that I was glad for the help of a kind ski patrol person who helped to subdue the wild beast.

We are kind of wild before we start running.

When the start finally came, Mellie pulled me with such force that I lost my balance and sat down, fortunately in a position that only cost me a few seconds. She had also managed to pull apart the cheapo carabiner hooks I was using to secure the pull rope to my harness. The left separated just shortly into lap 1 of 3 and the right just before the finish, letting Mellie and me cross the line together, but without being tied up. We finished in the middle of the pack, Mellie pulling a solid performance without slowing down at all on Green Acres' lower loop.

Two cheapo carabiners were no match for the Mellster Unfettered. 

Good luck wrecking this new getup, Mellie! New and improved skijoring
hardware. Petzl Maillon Delta P11 8B (times 2, in steel), Attache 3D
(yellow) and snap shackle (brass)

As a consequence of the equipment failure I did some research, looking for appropriately strong and functional replacement hardware. I replaced the broken carabiners with two Petzl Maillon Rapide P11 8B Delta for the sides (opting for steel rather than the much more expensive aluminum) a Petzl Attache 3D Screw-Lock Carabiner. These new components let the force of the pull go to the corners of the hooks, unlike with my previous setup. Equipment failure should not be a problem any longer.

In the meantime, I am hoping for more snow to do a few more practice runs at Highland 9-Hole, and also for the City of Lakes Skijoring Loppet.

Como Park Championships 2012

After last year, when the Como Park Champs had to be moved to Green Acres for lack of snow and I did not participate because of the mother of all colds, we had 5 cm of fresh snow on a decent base. In addition, Ben and Co shoveled to add more snow at some weak spots, notably the open sore in the steep downhill and the City of St. Paul did a super job grooming. Consequently the course was in great shape.

Como Park bare spot in steep downhill, BEFORE trail 

work and Championships

This was also the first time I used my new Sisu skin suit. The only time I had worn it was when the package arrived in the mail last summer, when temps hovered around 35ºC. Now, I was a little concerned on how to dress for temps around -10ºC. I decided on a tech short-sleeved tee (the old green Sisu summer tee), my trusty Nike Pro Combat Hyperwarm Fitted Dri-Fit Max base layer and the Sisu race top. I did wear a warm-up jacket and a down parka on top, shedding the latter when I started my warm-up after bib pick-up and the former a couple minutes before race start. There were quite a few people decked out in the new Sisu suit, good to show your colors!

As usually I hung back at the start, fully knowing that I wasn't here to win any prizes. But I had a good start, passed some people and fell in with a group who looked like they were around my strength. The snow was maybe a little slower than two years ago, when the course had been quite icy. But it was a pleasure to skate getting a good edge in the firmly rolled fresh layer. My choice of layers turned out to be right on, not too cold and not too hot.

The top women, most of them college age from what I could glean, started to pass during the first uphill slope along Lexington, they were moving at a great pace. Margie passed me someplace in the back bowl, shouting out some encouragement. I was waiting for Heather, Kitty and Sarah to be next, but they never materialized.

There were a few wipe-outs, fortunately nothing serious and never hindering me. During lap two, I kept with an oldster in a City of Lakes Loppet 10th anniversary suit. Several times I thought I'd be able to pass him but it never quite worked out. When we got to the steep downhill, there was somewhat of a crowd at the needle's eye between the trees and Odd, the guy in the suit decided to attack to pass. He wiped out, I was able to avoid the confusion and passed left, zipping through the narrows for the steep hill. But for that I do not think I would have been able to pass him.

About 50 m to the finish.

I was able to hold off a young woman who was trying to pass me and made it in, wading through some pretty soft stuff before of the finish line. I somehow missed Heather, who must have been right behind me but was quickly joined by Sarah and Kitty.

Great event! Ended up finishing 60th of 84 in the men's, 6th of 12 in my age group. My pace was a bit faster than last time, too. Results can be found here.

Bitter-sweet: Last Session of Sisu Year-Round Group

It kind of sneaked up on us, after almost 10 months of working out once weekly with a group of like-minded people the Sisu Year-Round Group finally came to an end with one last workout on Valentine's Day. It was likely because of the holiday that only six of us--and no coach showed up. Tim had instructions from Coach Mike for an hill interval workout.

Seven (plus one warm-up) nice double-bump hill intervals at Green Acres with
a good recovery period.

Tim and Kitty had done the Pre-Birkie and were still recovering from the race in cold temps on slow snow and Dayton and I had put in 40 km on the north half of the Birkie Trail as well on Sunday. I was certainly still feeling my legs. Tonight, the Green Acres track was in great condition and covered with some of the fresh snow from earlier today and we made the best of it. During cool-down after the seven intervals Kitty gave Dayton some pointers for his upcoming participation in the American Birkebeiner.

After good wishes for upcoming races and the end of an odd (for lack of snow) ski season we split, looking forward to meet again, on the trail, or during next season's Sisu Year-Round Group.

Skating the North Half of the Birkie Trail

Left the house around 4:20 this morning, picked up Dayton in Shoreview and after a short pit stop in Hayward arrived at the County Highway OO trail head at 7:40. 

Pristine corduroy on the Birkie Trail and I'm the first to ski it!

We were the third car in the parking lot and since the others were skiing south, we skied on pristine corduroy for the first 15 km. I took a wrong turn and ended up having a little escapade on the classic trail. I took my first rest at the highest point of the trail at 527 m (1730 ft) where I had a good drink and a Hammer gel. 


Warming up my Hammer gel under my hat, next to my skin. Easier to suck it
out of the tube that way ...

On the way to the northern trail end, I skied across a few trails that were in today's North End Classic race. Dayton saw our sometime coach Andrew Tilman in the crowd, he won his age group. Skiers were warming up when I passed the start area and I finished the two km to the end of the skiable trail. Another Hammer gel pack and a good drink, a chat with a North End Classic volunteer who finished the end of his shift witha ski back to OO and off I went again. 

Had to wait for just a moment as a siren signaled the start to the race. On the way back, I had to hesitate a few times to let the racers pass. Stopped again on the apex of the Birkie trail, only for water this time. The hills felt harder as I got closer to the starting point but I made it. 


Finally skiing on real snow! The temps climbed from -15C to -5C during my ski and the total climb was 490 m per Garmin Connect, and 910 m per SportTracks, both with elevation correction enabled. In spite of the discrepancy between the two products doing a ski from OO to the start of the Birkie and back has 100 m more of climb than the Sisu Ski Fest in Ironwood.

City of Lakes Freestyle Loppet

Like Chuck & Don's skijoring event yesterday, today's freestyle loppet was a shortened substitute for the full event. I parked at Mortenson's Construction (quite the campus for a builder) right next door to Breck School. I had been in that parking lot for Colin's high school hockey games a few times but it had been at night in the dark and I would have never guessed that it was adjacent to Wirth Park.

After taking the school bus (did you know that school buses have "Body Fluids Cleanup Kits?") shuttle to the main parking lot, I hiked back to the lower stadium area. On the way there, the classic skiers who had just finished were coming towards me, including Vinu from work, whose wife and in-laws had participated. Fun to see him! I now recall that he had told me that his wife and entire family were big time into the sport.

I switched from shoes to ski boots and parked my stuff in the coral. In order to kill some time I went to the vendors tent and checked out the wares. Chatted a bit with the owner of RollerSkiShop.com. I do own a pair of theirs and am quite happy. My only regret is that they do not have any classic models or even wheels. To my question on that subject he said that it was too big of an investment for poor chances of return. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and acquire a more expensive model. 

Start of wave 5/6. I'm in center, bib 5029.

By now it was about 15 minutes to the start and I headed back. The 5xxx wave was allowed to line up ahead of the 6xxx skiers and I found myself next to MNOC club-mate Jim Mullins in the very front row. On the other side was a kid sporting St. Paul Central HS Arctic Commando suit and I chatted him up. Turned out he was a 2003 grad. Looked like a strong and competent skier and he ended up being the only one to round me, during the fifth lap. 

After we got going it became very quickly apparent that this would be a hard five laps. The entire loop, especially the uphills were solid ice, covered with very lose sugar. On stretches with deeper snow, it felt like the skis sank and it required some effort to pull them out again. On the steeper downhills, the sharp turns quickly lost this cover and became bare ice. The trail-side volunteers heroically jumped into gaps between skiers and raked snow back on. After the early frenzy of passing stronger skiers, I settled into a routine, staying with a lose group for quite for quite some time. I seemed to be doing better on the uphills while the others had an easier time on the downhills and the few level stretches. Towards the end of lap 2, I began rounding the first of  my cohort. During the following laps, the slower skiers became thicker and it took some effort during the uphills and some daring during the downhills to keep passing. There wer not too many falls, I was glad for that especially on top of the hill adjacent to the tubing area, as the choices were deep snow that could stop you cold in your tracks or bare ice. 

The official City of Lakes Foundation clip for my race. Afraid I look the best at start and finish ...

I think I managed my stamina well, as I was able to accelerate during the last lap. A kid from NDSU stopped for water at the upper stadium, I passed him and didn't see him again till we finished. I felt it was a good race, finishing a little ahead of the middle of the pack overall, in men's and in my age group.

My results--Overall Results

Sisu Ski Fest Marathon

I had signed up early to participate again in the Heikki Lunta Half Marathon in Ironwood, MI and planned to do the Birkie this year when I realized in September that the Birkie has 9000 participants. Since I am not one for big crowds, I switched from the half to the full distance when I got a re-confirmation email from the race organizer. As the date approached I became a little worried of having committed to the longer distance. On on side, the lack of snow and consequent missed opportunity to have long distance training sessions worried me, but on the other I had participated in one of Sisu Skier's Year-Round groups and also trained some on the Twin Cities' various man-made snow trails (Theodore Wirth, Green Acres and Elm Creek Park Reserve). On the last weekend prior to the race I had a couple of fast and long (25+ km) sessions at Elm Creek, and the only reason this did not cemented my confidence was the fact that there were no hills.

I had come across the Sisu Ski Fest because it coincides with our traditional ski weekend together with four families of the Lexau clan, which has been going on for more than 20 years at one location or another, the past half dozen years or so, when we escaped the multi-year snow drought in the Cable, WI area. When I arrived in Ironwood, I heard that the trail conditions were soft again, due to the 18" of snow the area received in the past couple of days. However, it was still much better than the previous year.

Joel kindly gave me a ride to ABR and took the "before" picture. I did a few warm-up lengths and immediately noticed that the base felt soft and the skis felt slow. I wondered whether the Rex LF Black plus  RCF White had been the right combination. I spent some time in the warming house, waiting for the departure of the freestyle 42K. It came quickly enough, as I walked out, the Elites were sent on their way with the blast of a shotgun. Ten minutes later it was my turn. I started farther back in the pack, not wanting to get into some sort of a pile up. But no worries, there weren't that many in the second wave and the field stretched out quickly.

Fairly early in the game, no ice in the whiskers yet. (Photo: Linda Slining)

I did not have very good glide but I was hanging in there. Soon, we were doing the Peltonen Pass Out outside loop for the first time and the steep uphills were testing my cardiovascular system. The soft snow was rather helpful during the equally steep downhills, providing good control in the sharp turns. I heeded coach Ben's warning "Snowplows will be shot on sight" and quick-stepped on the outside of the turns. Overall it seemed that I was doing generally better during the downhills, open field and gradual climbs while I was really struggling during the steep climbs. I am generally a strong climber and wonder whether everyone else had better hill training or better glide wax.

I took one small tumble on the Coyote Canyon loop, near km 13 or so, a moment of inattention. I was back up quickly enough and unscathed, but the incident left me winded. I took a moment at he km 14 aid station to suck my first gel pack and drink a couple of cups of water.

Beginning to pass the classic skiers who started 30 minutes before us in Coyote
Canyon. Told #115 that he must be my Doppelgänger because of the orange top.
(Photos: Linda Slining)

The climbs were moderate, until we returned for a second round of Peltonen Pass Out. Boy, those were hard and I was glad when we moved onto the easier portions at the north end of ABR and then into Norrie Park and the long stretch connecting to the east side of Ironwood. I started also to notice a soreness on the outside portion of my right deltoid muscle, which stayed with me for the remainder of the race.

I was mostly skiing by myself now, only occasionally catching up to another skier or being caught by a pursuer. A couple of the elite classic skiers from the 21K event caught up with me, and as I reached the outskirts of town, some of the skaters passed. I did quite alright and I passed one of the skiers with whom I had been playing tag when he took a breather at the bottom of a hill. Feeling rather cocky and knowing that I only had about 3 km left, I kicked it up a notch. Maybe I shouldn't have, as all of a sudden I felt the start of a cramp on my right inner thigh. I immediately slowed down and a group of four skiers including the guy I had just passed zipped by. This was the last serious uphill of the race and I was cautious not to aggravate the cramp. By the time I made it to the top, the cramp had subsided but the group was too far away for me to catch them. So I did my best to make an effort on the last 1000 m through the city of Ironwood.

Passing the "Finnish" line. Must have left my form behind where I started to
cramp up. (Photo: Joel Alter)

 I was glad to pass the "Finnish" line, glad for the helpful volunteers undoing my skis and for Joel's friendly face and camera work. I was tired and sore but had no trouble walking to the place were our gear packs awaited our arrival. I quickly changed into a dry top, impressed with the good organization which included ministrations to an exhausted skier who looked who was shaking and looked rather grey in the face.

As evidenced by the frost I kept my cool throughout the race. Thank you for
operating my camera, Joel!

I was rather behind on my expectations for myself and I am not sure where I was lacking. The snow was a lot better than during the previous year, even doubling the distance, I improved my pace by 15 seconds from 4:56 min/km to 4:41 min/km (4:34 min/km for the first half, which was much hillier than the actual half marathon distance).  Of course, the snow conditions were quite a bit better than last year but I do hope that part of the improvement is due to my Sisu Year-Round group's relentless work on technique and specific strength and endurance training.

Another disappointment was that I finished farther down in the field as I expected. (see the results, here, Individual and Full) My expectations must have been way too high, all I had for comparison was my one other race, last year's Heikki Lunta Half Marathon, an altogether different distance and a much smaller group of competitors. Based on the first half of my race I would have finished in the middle of the pack of my age group and closer to the top tier in the men's division. So this is a learning experience and I do have to work on improving my long distance performance.

Sadly, I am not sure whether I will make the Sisu Ski Fest next year, as it is held on January 12, on the weekend before Martin Luther King Holiday, which falls on the 21st in 2013.

This was a success, after all, I am not doing this to do better than others but to improve myself. I finished the race, was able to walk away from it and put in a nice 11 km loop with quite a few good climbs in the Wolverine Nordic Ski Area the very next morning. I do have to say that the glide was much better ...

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. 

Wolverine Trails Outside Loop

I had to do this, since it is such a beautiful tradition. When we arrived, we found the parking lot nearest to the warming house nearly full, and a couple of pups frolicking in the snow. The corduroy on the trail looked great and the classic tracks were deeply set. Joel took off while I was struggling to get my stiff new pole straps over my cold weather mitts with the thumb brace on the right, but I have to start breaking them in. I forgot my Garmin so I needed to recycle one of my previous maps.


View Wolverine Outside Loop in a larger map

As usual, I started with Cliff Trail and Cliff Hanger. The trail seemed slow in spite of the lack of fresh snow cover and perfectly groomed firm surface. This time it was because the more intense cold and it didn't help that the trail climbed 110m over the first 2km.  I paused to take a picture at the old ski jump on top of Cliff Hanger, my only stop during this outing.

This used to be a working ski jump. Pretty stiff climb
to get there.

I continued down the serpentines off Cliff Hanger, rejoining Cliff and eventually Powderhorn Trail. From there, it was north, towards the ski area, including a couple of good climbs and the eventual downhill on along a stretch of Big Powderhorn Mountain. The most notable on the stretch south towards the hospital parking lot was the fact that I did not have to take of my skis to cross the two roads, there was enough white, clean snow.

After joining up with Wolverine Trail, I caught and passed a group of tree and was closing in on a skier with a black lab, making me regret the absence of Mellie. We arrived at the warming cabin at about the same time. Inside was Joe, already waiting for me. He had had a mishap with his antique 1980s vintage ski boots: the sole on one of them cleanly separated from one of them, probably when he attempted to escape from one of the local wolverines.

25 years and counting. time to replace those boots, Joel!

Without the Garmin it's hard to give an exact data report but I did the 12km in about an hour.

Heikki Lunta Half-Marathon

I was debating on whether or not to carry water and decided against it. For one, the half-marathon distance seemed at the limit of when dehydration would become an issue and I also read about the four aid stations having water and snacks.

Did have some butterflies in my stomach before this event. It didn't help when ten minutes after leaving I realized that I had left my skis behind and getting stuck in deep snow when attempting to turn around. With plenty of time, I did not worry too much, though.

The race was exceedingly well organized, from shuttles for skiers and gear in both directions to aid stations, road closures directions and parking.

Pre-race picture courtesy of Liz and Peggy

The 42k waves had left already and when I tested the waters I found the skating surface soft and deep, even more so than during my last two practice runs at Highland. The organizers combined the elite and first wave for the 21k freestyle and a very short 5 minutes later, the second wave, including me, was sent on its way, too.

21k Classic Start (Photo: Linda Slining at skinnyski.com)

Because I am new to racing, I like to start at the back of the pack. and I found myself bogged down by others slower than myself, with little room to pass. As expected, the 6km ABR portion of the race held some major physical challenges, including the climb on the Peltonen Pass Out loop. It was followed by a major downhill with many falls. There was a backup with skiers descending one by one in the order of their arrival. I was glad that the folks in front of me did not fall and even gladder that I stayed on my skis. One annoyance was the fogged-up and iced-over glasses, in spite of the CatCrap.

Getting out of ABR, the terrain became much more gentle. However, there was more exposure and consequently more snow, making the going tougher even without the hills. I fell into a routine of making my way up to a slower skier or group and then waiting for a flat stretch to pass double-poling in the classic lane. I took a swig of water at every aid station, barely slowing and didn't miss not having brought my own water. A brisk northerly breeze started to blow and every time I turned into the wind, my hood started crackling with frozen sweat. At one point I passed a guy carrying one of his pole. "Broken pole?" I yelled in passing, the reply was "Wrecked my shoulder." The snow on parts of his ski outfit attested to a spill, possibly at the tricky Peltonen Pass Out.

Hot pursuit. I am in fourth position. (Photo: Linda Slining)

Keeping at the heels of 1644, who passed me earlier and whom I eventually
passed again (Photo: Linda Slining. Thank you for sharing, Linda!)

Only one skier passed me, at a pretty good clip. I was able to match his speed and followed him diligently for 7-8km. After a short uphill I had to pass him because it seemed that he was getting slower. I lost sight of him and he ended up finishing 2 minutes after me.

The soft snow made itself noticed on a long straight line out in the open. It just seemed to take for ever. Fortunately, it was possible to see many skiers ahead which was motivating, and, at this time skiing by myself, I was able to work my way up to the back of the next group.

All of a sudden the end was within reach. At 18km I spotted the first buildings in the outskirts of Ironwood. Within the city limits, with 2km to go, the trail descended into a deep valley, I understood very well that we would have to climb back out before the finish. It was a pretty steep climb, fortunately I did not hit the wall at this wall. I accelerated when passing the tall Indian in fiberglass and--was done.

Done!

I was very happy that Lynn showed up within a couple of minutes of my arrival, I would not have liked to wait around for ride after the exertion. On the way to the car, I hit on yet another lightly built mustachioed man, asking "are you Duane?" David had suggested I should try to locate him, a good old friend of his. My attempts at finding him before the race had been unsuccessful, but the one after the race was it, sporting a good-sized icicle hanging from his mustache. I hope I will still be as fit when I am 10+ years older!

I was very happy with my result, 19th of 69 starters in the men's freestyle 21k, 5th out of 19 in my age group. Also, I am always amazed with the low impact nature of this sport. A foot race at only half this distance takes a much bigger toll on me.

Getting Ready For Sisu Ski Fest 21k

Every year, almost as long as I have lived in the US, we have gone Up North on Martin Luther King weekend to enjoy cross country skiing and the company of good friends. The early years we went to Cable, WI, dividing our time pretty much equally between Lakewoods Resort and Valhalla Townhouses at  Telemark Resort. Snow permitting, there were great opportunities for cross country skiing. Telelmark, tying into the ... trails and having its own network of superb trails was a special treat, as was Rock Island SP, literally across the street from Lakewoods. Unfortunately, snow was a rare commodity from the mid-90s into the latter part of the first decade of the new millennium. The tots, who had been always happy to participate in any activity grew into moody teens who had only downhill skiing on their mind. So we moved operations to Big Powderhorn, near Ironwood in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Here, we had it all, downhill for the kids, gorgeous trails at Wolverine and ABR for the adults and no worries about snow for all of us.

On a whim I decided to sign up for the Heikki Lunta Ski Half-Marathon. Last year I missed the activities of the Sisu Ski Fest by a week. This year it happened to fall on MLK weekend. This year I skied significantly more than previous years and had done a couple of longer runs (for me), a couple of 15ks and the 25k on the north shore. After the decision to do the race was made, I added another couple of long workouts, four laps at Highland 9-hole with Mellie and four laps at Come by myself. I also worked on technique and by the week before the race I felt in reasonably good shape.

My concern when planning my last long workout, the four Como laps, I was a little worried about a sore thumb that I had contracted during a fall, but the brace I had bought to protect it worked well.  My last two runs in that week were outings with Mellie and both times I skied in 2-3 inches of fresh snow. Little did I know that these would be close to the conditions I'd encounter.

Picnic Loop at Sugarbush Trails, Tofte, MN

I should really be putting in a rest day, but it's just so much fun! I woke up early but dozed in my soft bed at Bluefin Bay, listening to the radio until the daylight bekame apparent. I moved into the boy's room and sat in the brigth morning sun, gazing over Lake Superior. A little after 8:00 I started to rouse them and in expectation of a fun day on the slopes, they were soon up and assembling their gear. While waitig for them to get ready,  I studied the map of the Sugarbush Trail System. Since the the weather forecast for the coming days was sketchy, I decided to frontload my program with the long day and chose the Picnic Loop.

Straight from Parking, right at D, I and J, left at K, L, M, and N,

right at O end E and straight back to Parking

After dropping of James and Joe at Lutsen (and getting their ski passes), I headed for the Britton Peak trail head parking lot. There were a few other cars but not a person in sight. I had spoken to the owner of Sawtooth Outfitters where we had rented canoes for our 2009 BWCA trip. He had suggested to do the loop counter-clockwise. I had my hydration pack with a couple of liters of warm water, a couple of candy bars and a banana as well as some layers of warm clothing in the event of an emergency. I also had my fanny pack with my Canon D10 and Garmin Oregon 450, the latter strictly to record my progress. 

The Britton Peak trail head is connected to the Picnic loop via a short spur of green trails. I could quickly tell that the Sugarbush Trail Association is doing an excellent job grooming. the skating surface was firm and the classic track was well defined. Once I left the spur and moved onto the SE portion of the loop, the terrain became slightly more challenging, with gentle but long slopes. It seemed like the spur from K intersection, leading to an overlook point was not groomed, though some folks had broken their own track. I am planning to do a shorter classic ski tomorrow, maybe I'll check out that trail.

Almost the entire leg between K and L looked as though a herd of bison had stomped along. It looked like 4 or 5 people had decided to walk rather than ski. When I turned north from L, the tracks fortunately seized. After the gentle rise on this green leg, black segment started. Over the next 1.5 km, I gained close to 100 m in elevation. The downhills were steep, too, but never dangerously so. The excellent condition of the trail contributed to its safety, too.

I reached an overlook point just as two women arrived from the opposite direction. they graciously agred to take my picture. One of the woman told me that they had just relocated from Alaska to Embarrass, MN. Judging from their choice of abode and recreational activities they must be suckers for the boreal biome and its accompanying climate. In parting, they assured me that the remainder of the loop would be a walk in the park.

In the meantime I was sucking the last of the 2 liters out of my Camelback bladder. The banana and candy bars were wearing off, too and in spite of my trail acquaintance's assurances I was hitting the wall, literally and figuratively. I ascended a thankfully short stretch of trail so steep that I was tempted to walk. I hooked a ski in the soft snow on the side of the trail and kneed down. I made it. I was grateful when O Intersection came about, signalling the end of the long black leg and promising the end of the outing. When I reached the spur to the parking lot I accelerated on the fairly level trail.

The loop combined with today's weather presented an interesting challenge. For my Rex blue, skiing was fast in the sunny patches, though the snow had started to soften where the sun had been shining longer. In the shade, where the snow was holding the colder temps from previous nights, the skiing was much slower.

All in all a great challenge and a wonderful outing on Sugarbush trails.

Como Park Championships 2010

A beautiful morning, and a perfectly groomed skating surface. I did feel a little queasy to my stomach  but decided to not let that get in the way.

I'm the third in this group, bib #220.

Looks like I am dying, after barely 1/2 of the first of two laps. Pictures can
be seen at skinnyski.com

Very happy with my performance, compared to last year, when my chip time was 39:26.3, while this year's is 34:02.3 .

Happy with my placement, too. 62nd out of 97 starting men. Last year I placed 88th out of 98 starters. See results at endurancepromotions.com. However, there is room for improvement, got to work my technique. 

Pre-Storm Skijor

The augurs of the elements had been unanimous on this one: around midnight on Friday we were to get a good dumping of snow, lasting through at least the entire Saturday. This made me think that Saturday skiing might be challenging, if not impossible, certainly no fun. I was excited about the prospect of solidifying the until now fairly skimpy snow foundation with something more substantial but I did not want to miss out on a day of skiing. So I decided to to take advantage of a beautiful late Friday afternoon and do a couple of laps at Highland.

Mellie, pulling hard!

After work, I changed into more appropriate clothing, grabbed Mellie and the GoPro Hero HD and headed for Highland. Mellie was giddy with excitement and I have to admit, so was I. Much busier during daylight hours than very early mornings or late nights. Highland HS XC Ski team was out and various other skiers, too. After the arduous task of strapping on my skis with an hyper-excited dog tethered to me, I got moving. Some skiers were really hogging the skating lane, two and three abreast; fortunately they scrammed when they saw the Black-Lab-Express bear down on them. One group had another black lab, this one on the lose. He ran over to be friendly with the Mellster, it barely slowed us down. This first lap was likely our fastest at Highland, and the combined two laps was too.

The video was not ideal, because of the sea-sickness inducing motion of my head, and even more so because of a slight mis-orientation of the camera, showing rather more sky than necessary, and not enough dog action. I take it more as a proof-of-concept and will try experimenting.