Styrofoam Wheezing

Today I was reminded of the importance of two things while skiing:
1. Wax
2. Technique

After a 3-hour meeting, I needed to get out for a ski. It wasn't a bad meeting, but it was 3 hours. Count 'em: 3. So therapy was in order.

The snow at Great Glen is on the verge of super, perfect, awesome. Not quite there, but close. It snowed about 9 inches on Wednesday. When I headed out this afternoon it was starting to get cold. It was in the low teens, and the snow had that familiar crunch: the sound of styrofoam. For skiers, that styrofoam sound means slow, cold snow. I was skating, and my skis were in need of waxing. And, the last couple coats where fairly warm. This made my skis really, really, really, really slow. When skating, you want a lot of glide. Today, I had none. I actually stopped halfway down a short hill. Climbing every hill was like climbing double. I should have waxed my skis.

The other deal with skating is that it is really based on technique. My technique is OK. I know all the basics: I can V1 all day, my V2 alternate is solid, and I can V2 pretty well. Well, I can do all those things fine for a random dude off the street. For someone who claims to be a skier, I suck. The key is efficiency, and I'm not very efficient. Like I said, I can handle all the basics, but while being basic I flail. It's good times. So, with my slow skis and flailing technique, I wheezed and panting my way through a half hour today.

I mean, it was fun.

What Was I Going To Write About?

Throughout the day I always have these great ideas for blog posts. No really, they're great. Awesome even. Now that I sit down to write something...I've got nothing.

Anyway, today I ran 5 miles on the bike path. I was sort of tight at the start, but everything felt better as I moved along. The wind on the way back was a little more than noticeable, and my face was cold. Weird. I spend a fair amount of time outside in the cold, and I don't usually get that feeling, so it was surprising. All in all, it was a good run.

My "plan" over the next couple weeks is to build up my mileage. Slowly. Every time I mention it D says, "You need to be careful, or you'll get injured." I have no idea why she would think that. But if I'm going to have any success in longer races, I need to be running more than 12 miles per week.

What Kind of Runner Are You?

With a headline and post stolen directly from Mercury Worm, take the runner quiz.

Me?

Eating Yogurt

Nordic Meisters, Week #7

So, when the weather is odd and you go for a run, it just means that the weather is odd. Well, when the snow is odd and you're trying to ski race, everyone freaks out. The snow was bizarre at Great Glen today for the penultimate week of Nordic Meisters. Not that conditions aren't good—the skiing is really good—but the surface has frozen, thawed and refrozen a number of times making it coarse. The tracks themselves were a strange granular, hard pack, icy mix. Then throw a little fresh snow on the top. Keep in mind that waxes are made to work on a specific type of snow at a specific temperature. Well, today there were 6 different types of snow with rising temperatures. It was funky.

I ended up using binder wax and a warmish hard wax. It was slipping a bit during my warmup, so I added a warmer wax on top. It made the kick marginally better, but unfortunately, made my skis really drag. I have no idea how the kick can't improve much, but the skis can drag a lot. Anyway, I didn't have great skis.

The good news was that a couple of the fast people didn't show up this week, so I moved up to 5th. I was tired from yesterday's run, but I skied pretty strong. Not a great result, not a bad result, but a solid one. One more week to go.

Bradbury Run

Today, D and I hit the trails at Bradbury Mountain State Park in sunny and beautiful Pownal. We are both itching to get off the roads/bike path as many chance as we get, since trail running is so much better in every way. After a lazy start to the day, we donned our YakTraks for a long run on the snow covered trails.

We started out on the Northern Loop Trail, then to the Boundary Trail. Both of these trails were well used and well packed down making for a nice running surface. A few minutes before we hit the summit, we saw a pileated woodpecker. (Looked tasty.) We eventually reached the summit and had great views on this stunning day in southern Maine. The skies were crystal clear and the temps were nearing 40. In fact, neither of us were wearing our winter hats, and each had just a light long sleeve t under our shells. Great weather. We left the summit and headed down the Tote Road, which was not quite as well traveled. The surface was still good for running, but we had a few more slips and would sink in more than we wanted every now and then. Eventually, we reached the Northern Loop Trail which led us back to the parking lot. This portion of the run took us about 42:00.

We had planned to run longer, so we crossed the street and ran an out and back on the snowmobile trail. While the trail was well packed from all the sled traffic, it was still somewhat loose. Really hard to describe, but it was a decent surface for running even if it didn't always feel like you were getting the best footing or return. When our watches hit an hour, we decided to turn around and head back to the car. We ended up with 1:16:00ish, which we think is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.5 miles. It was a really, really great run. Bradbury is one of my favorite places to run, and I hoping to log a lot more miles there this year.

On this run I was testing a new toy: Fuel Belt Helium.

I was in need of something to carry fluids on my long runs, and D has one, which she purchased when she was training for the Maine Marathon in '06. She loves hers, so I thought I would give it a try. I have to say, I really liked it. I only used the two rear bottles as I didn't think I needed more than 16 ounces for this run. You barely notice that it's there, and you have easy access to the bottles. I had a little trouble getting the bottles back into the holsters, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice. Also, it was nice to have a little extra boost along the way: I filled one of the bottles with half water and half Raspberry Hammer Gel. So, thumbs up for the Fuel Belt.

We also made a stop at Maine Running Company this afternoon to pick up new shoes: Inov-8 Roclite 315's. I'm stoked. Lots more on these later.