Sunday proved that every time on skis isn’t always a blast. I don’t know enough about this sport yet to know why, but my skis were not gliding at all. It was about -7 out with a wind chill of -25. I was using a Teal Fast Wax, which is supposed to be good down to -5. I can’t believe 2 degrees made that much more difference. I’ve read a little bit about how the texture of your skis can be different for different conditions – maybe that was my problem. The sad thing is, even though I was dressed perfectly for the cold conditions and skiing on trails that were out of the wind, I was only able to ski for 25 minutes before getting so frustrated.
In the past, I’ve basically written about being a slave to the log book and trying to increase my mileage each winter. Well, there’s a reason – because I swear I loss aerobic fitness faster than anyone of the face of the earth. Just 6 weeks ago I was doing 12 miles with 8 at 6:36 pace. Now I can barely do 10 miles with 6 at 7:00 pace.
10 weeks until Boston.
Quote of the day;
“It finally began to penetrate my thick skull that I had to rise above the world’s fixation with sheer work. I had to attend to my own eccentric physiology. I accepted easy days into my life. I stopped counting miles.” – Kenny Moore in Bowerman and the Men of Oregon
The 2 degrees probably didn't make much of a difference - it's got more to do with the fact that really cold snow is just slower. If you want to feel a bunch better, compare the results from the City of Lakes Loppet to the Mora Vasaloppet. They were about the same length, but the race day temperature for COLL was ~20 and it was about 10 below for Mora. The leaders at the COLL came in at about 2:22/k and the same guys were 2:43 in Mora. That's about 15% slower on a much easier course. And you can bet that they were waxed right.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, it's nice to read a little about skiing in blogland. I've looked and looked but haven't found ski chatter anywhere.
Adam,
ReplyDeleteYeah, you're probably right. I'm sure the 30 degree difference between COLL and Mora caused more things to slow down than just the skis.
Glad to hear you enjoy reading about my skiing efforts. That makes 1 reader. I've looked a little for other x-c skiing bloggers too, but haven't found much. I looked for forums too and only came up with xcskiforum.com.