NEVER AGAIN

Just a few more things on the Birkie. Here’s the freestyle winner’s race report, along with the classical winner’s race report. If you’re not familiar with Bjorn Daehlie, think the Haile Gabrselassie of skiing – but a little passed his prime.

I took 2 days off after the race and am now trying to get consistent with my running. The problem is that an hour of running seems to beat up my body more than 3 hours of skiing. So I’m trying to be patient and gradually work myself back.

I will say that I feel like I’m in the worst running shape in probably 8 years. It’s funny because during that stretch I always felt like I was in the kind of shape needed to run a 30-minute 8K or a 3-hour marathon. After awhile, you kind of take that running fitness for granted. Now I’m realizing that a lot of work went into being able to do that. When the topic of weekly mileage comes up in the future, I’ll never again proceed it with “just” or “only”. I can remember having a conversation last winter where I said something like I was only running 70 mpw. Right now I’m not even able to comprehend that figure.

Finally, I’ll close the week by throwing out a link to Chris Lundberg’s blog. He's one of the top local runners and he moved out west last summer. He was severely frostbitten on a back-country ski trip last week and there's still a chance he could lose his foot. If you know Chris – or even if you don’t – stop by and wish him well.

Quote of the Day;

“For 2k I skied nearly as hard as I could. I was passing skate skiers like they were standing still. Spectators and road crossings whizzed by. Suddenly, the vast openness of the lake appeared before me. I decided to have a peek back behind me. No sign of Mike, no sign of Geir, and Bjorn Daehlie is standing on the back of my skis. Crap.” – Gus Kaesing

BIRKIE VIDEOS

HOW TO IMPROVE

Of course, now the question becomes; “How can I improve upon my performance?” Or as Adam asked; “What would I do differently with my training?”

I guess the first thing would be to get some lessons to help me with my technique. Given how I felt at the end of the race, I definitely think technique is slowing me down more than my engine. I mean I was passing people that looked like they had great technique, but they were exhausted. One guy in particular looked really smooth. He kept pulling away from me but I seemed to catch him on the hills or at the aid stations, due to the traffic. Towards the end of the race I thought for sure that he dropped me. However, I was surprised to catch and pass him on the lake.

I think simply replacing an easy run with an easy roller ski once a week will help too. And then once the fall marathon season has passed, I can increase that frequency until we have snow.

As for specific training ideas, one would be to take what I know about marathoning and apply it to skiing. I’m thinking something as simple as MP skis and tempo workouts.

I always tried to end my long ski sessions by including some hills towards the end. I think that really helped prepare me for the Birkie. However, the race does finish by crossing Lake Hayward for the last 2K. So throwing in a hard tempo effort or two at the end of those long skis would probably pay dividends on race day. I’d say doing the City of Lakes Loppet race also helps with that because it finishes by crossing a bunch of lakes.

One other technique that I could work on too is the Herringbone. I didn’t use it in training much, but when some of the Birkie hills get congested and the snow is like mashed potatoes, then the Herringbone seemed to work best.

As far as strategy goes, I’d probably get to the start earlier and make sure I was near the front of my wave and then try to get out hard. Given I had no idea what I was getting into, I went out conservatively. The problem with that strategy is that you use more energy trying to get around people when the course narrows or you just get stuck behind them on the hills. I think getting out hard and then settling in would be a better strategy.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more ideas, but these are what come to mind right away.

Quote of the Day;

“Skiing down Main Street was a highlight of my life--looking back across the trail and the 51km, I knew I had tamed both the Birkie trail and my own personal demons; it was truly a wonderful moment.” – Martin Gibbs

THE BIRKIE

I don't think most people want to go through life with a bunch of regrets. Luckily, I think I've been pretty fotunate in that regard. Quitting high school basketball, instead of waiting to get cut, may be my biggest regret - at least until this weekend. Now my biggest regret is that I didn't start skiing earlier in life so that I could have more Birkies under my belt.

Now I'm not going to say this is the absolute greatest event I've ever participated in - mainly because I don't think it's fair to compare the likes of a Grandma's, an Ironman or a Birkie - but it's right near the top. I do think all these great events have a couple of things in common, namely a leader with a vision - whether it be Scott Keenan, John Collins or Tony Wise - and unique, albeit small, beginnings that have grown into international events.

The Birkie's humble beginnings included 35 classical skiers making a 55K trek mainly using a trail in the ditch next to the highway. 36 years later the weekend of events consists on nearly 10,000 skiers making their way along the most beautiful and challenging trails I've ever skied. Along the way there are such landmarks as the Powerline - a series of hills within the first 5K, Bobblehead Hill - a long downhill with a 90 degree lefthand turn where a bunch of snowmobilers (the bobbleheads) gather to cheer, jeer and wait for skiers to wipe out, Bitch Hill - a long, steep hill 42K into a 50K race - think Heartbreak Hill, and a great finish on the streets of downtown Hayward.

It was difficult for me to think of a time goal for this race. It was only my third ski race ever and it was the longest by 17K. I thought 3:20 seem pretty reasonable - plus or minus 10 minutes depending on whether I was have a good or bad day. For a non-time goal I was hoping to ski well enough that next year I'll move up from this year's 3rd wave.

When it comes to running marathons I've talked about 2 distinct races depending on what I'm thinking around mile 16. If I think, "Damn, I still have 10 miles to go." I'm in for a long day. If I think, "Damn, I only have 10 miles to go." I'm having a great day. Since this was my first skiing marathon, I have no idea if they follow similar criteria. I do know that I didn't want my first Birkie to end. I felt great the whole way and seemed to feed off of passing people from waves that started 10 and 20 minutes in front of me. I ended up crossing the finish line in 3:12 - a time that should definitely put me in wave 2 next year.

After changing clothes and grabbing a bowl of soup I walked 2 blocks to a great coffee shop that was playing Neil Young. Does it get any better than that? Well maybe if I knew some other skiers.

While I didn't come out and proclaim the Birkie the greatest event ever, I will pay it this compliment - with apologies to Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets". The Birkie makes me want to be a better athlete. The Birkie makes me want to work on my core strength. The Birkie makes me want to eat my fruits and vegatables. The Birkie is enough to make winter my new favorite season. The Birkie is an event I can see planning my entire season around. And maybe the best compliment of all; I can't see not doing this race in the future.

BETTER THAN SEX

Good news…

HAYWARD, Wis., Feb. 17, 2009 – With just 4 days til the 36th anniversary American Birkebeiner in Cable and Hayward, Wis., Executive Director Ned Zuelsdorff today announced Birkie skiers will ski a full race with finish on Main Street, Hayward.

“The trails from the start line to Lake Hayward are in excellent ski conditions, very firm, clean and fast," reports Zuelsdorff. "In preparation for a Main Street finish we have a crew who will be finishing the route across Lake Hayward on Wednesday.”

Now my only concern is that this event won’t live up to the hype. Given all I’ve read and heard about this event over the years, if it’s not better than sex I’m going to be extremely disappointed. All right, maybe my expectations aren’t quite that high, but it’s close.

I think a good comparison would be when a movie gets a ton of hype which makes you expect great things from it. But then once you see it, it’s just okay. That same movie without any expectations may in fact be great.

That’s what I’m hoping to avoid this weekend. Somewhere between Grandma’s Marathon Weekend and sex would satisfy my expectations.

Quote of the Day;

“I skied across the lake yesterday and anticipate that skiers will have very good trail conditions over their final kilometers of the race.” – Ned Zuelsdorff

STRANGELY SATISFYING

The problem with spring melt we had a week ago is that now everyone thinks winter is over. However, we still have a good 4-6 weeks left of cold and snow. And with “all” of the snow gone, skiing isn’t much of an option. I did manage to make my way to Hyland Park on Sunday and ski on the manmade snow on their downhill ski area. Going into this Saturday’s race without being on skis for 2 weeks would not have been a good thing, so now I feel a little better. I will say that there’s something strangely satisfying when you ski to the top of a hill used for downhill skiing. Granted this is Minnesota I’m talking about, not Colorado, but it was still pretty cool.

I also managed 35 miles of running last week. While everything seems to be a little sore – especially my hamstrings – it feels like my running legs are coming around a little. And if, like me, you needed a little extra motivation to get out and run, be sure to check out Ryan’s blog and congratulate him on his first sub-3. This is a guy who’s path to sub-3 is fairly similar to mine; “had to” give up a sport he loved (hockey for him, basketball for me) to make it happen, kept adding mileage to his programs, and had a bunch of near-misses. His training since running 3:06ish at TCM has been amazing and he definitely earned his sub-3.

Quote of the Day;

“I achieved my goal and made personal running history this morning at the Austin Marathon.” - Ryan

IN SHOCK

I am seriously still in shock by how quickly the snow has disappeared. If my computer worked at home, I’d take a picture to prove it. Since I can’t, you can check out a photo or two on Jean’s blog.

Here’s the official report from the Birkie office:

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 12:00:00 PM

The weather in Northwest Wisconsin has not been cooperating or making it easy for the event. The weather has cooled since Monday and the rain is no longer falling. The high on Monday night reached 44F. A first assessment of the trail was done this morning and a second will be done on Wednesday morning.

The trail base remains strong and frozen with 4"-7" of good base. The crews will begin tilling on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. We anticipate that the trail will groom up nicely and conditions will be very good again. However, the trail is becoming icy as temperatures drop and we ask that people not ski on the trail until we've been able to re-groom.

A couple of sites I visit say it’s not a lost cause yet and that they can do amazing things with their high-tech grooming equipment. Probably the biggest problem is that as the race comes into town, it crosses Lake Hayward, which I’m sure is just a sheet of glare ice now. So I’m guessing we’ll probably be racing, but it may be on a shortened course. Who knows, maybe that’s a good thing when you consider that I might be heading into this race without touching ski to snow for over 2 weeks.

I have been running more and will actually be over 30 miles this week. Woot, woot!!! Thinking about my last post and checking out a calendar, I see that Grandma’s Marathon will be 18 weeks away on Saturday. Hmm, that seems to tie in nicely with a Pfitz plan.

I’ve mentioned that my (nearly) 8-year-old has taken an interest to skiing the last 2 years. We usually just go to the local county park and rent skis for her. I’ve been thinking about getting her some skis and mentioned to my wife, who wasn’t as gung-ho. I see her point, financially, it’s like $7 to rent versus probably $100 or more to buy. And since she’s growing like a weed, it makes even less sense. However, I think my wife only sees it as money out the door, where as I see it as laying a foundation to exercise that will last a lifetime. As someone who started running at age 10, I can’t even imagine what my life would have been like without that introduction to endurance sports. Sure we can continue to rent, but I think she’d have more opportunities if the two of us could go whenever we wanted. Sounds like I have some convincing to do.

Quote of the Day;

“As my girls get older I've realized my workouts aren't only for my own benefit. They benefit my children too because I am (along with dad) their role model for fitness. When your kids include triathlon in their creative play you know you're doing something right. I've read that studies show if parents exercise, children are likely to grow up exercising too. That's very important to me. Fitness is a family value in our house.” - Kara Thom

SUCKS FOR EVERYONE

I think it’s safe to say that 40 degrees and rain sucks for everyone. Our awesome ski conditions have basically disappeared overnight. I guess the good news is that most of my “training” for the Birkie is complete. The next two weeks would have been maintenance anyway. However, if we don’t get any more snow in the next 10 days, the whole thing could be off.

The thing I’ve been struggling with the most lately is whether or not I should sign up for Grandma’s Marathon. Based on my experience at Boston last year and on what other skiers have told me about transitioning from snow to a spring marathon, I’d be smart to skip it. However, it’s very hard to skip your favorite marathon. I mean, they only come around once a year.

I think one of the cool things about endurance events is that they’re a whole different creature than the every-weekend 5K and 10K. All our training focuses on one or two events a year and we get really fired up for them. One of the things I wrote about last winter was how skiing would allow me to add to the number of these types of events, so I’ll be able to do three or four big events each year, instead of one or two. With that in mind, it makes skipping Grandma’s even less of an option.

I guess the lack of snow will “force” me back in to my running shoes a little earlier than I was planning. In fact, Rick dragged me out for a 10 miler this morning – my furthest run in 3.5 weeks.

Quote of the Day;

“The only problem is that you end up being really fit in March and you have to be really careful getting back into running to make sure you don’t get injured.” - Jan Guenther

CAUGHT UP

Well, the Birkie is less than 2 weeks away. Maybe after that I’ll get back to talking about running. I ended up taking the day off from work on Friday in order to get in one last long ski. Taking the day off served 2 purposes; 1) it allowed me more time at home with the kids during the weekend and 2) it allowed me to beat the heat wave.

Warm-weather running = great.

Warm-weather skiing = not so great.

I ended up skiing for just over 3 hours and covered 44K. Chris joined me for about half of that and it was great having the company – although skiing together is not the same as running together. It’s not like you’re side by side having a conversation the whole time. It’s more like ski for awhile, regroup and talk a little, ski, regroup, talk, etc.

Saturday was my first run in 2 weeks - and it felt like it! 4 miles felt like 104 miles. With our current above freezing temps and rain in the forecast, I’ll probably end up running more than skiing this week.

Since I haven’t blogged much lately, here are some high-level things that are new;

Bailey, our dog, turned 10 years old.
Katie turned 5 ½ years old, which is a big thing when you’re that age.
Kinsey now owns 2 guinea pigs; Shadow and Cocoa.
Recent parent-teacher conferences went really well.
I “PRd” at Wii bowling with a 244.
We had a power surge 2 weeks ago that fried our computer (even though it was plugged into a surge protector) and screwed up the readout on our treadmill.
I’ve subscribed to the Food Network magazine, which I really like – although no one else is too fond of my cooking.
We’re thinking about going to Disney World this year but can’t decide between June, October, or just waiting another year.

Now you’re all caught up on my life.

Quote of the Day;

“I knew I was the top returner from 2008 so there was some pressure to win the race.” – Emily Brown, after winning her first national title over the weekend

CITY OF LAKES LOPPET

What an awesome weekend! I’m sure the City of Lakes Loppet organizers were thrilled to have temps above 40 on Saturday for more of their family events and then in the low 30s on Sunday for their main races.

This was only my second x-c ski race. As soon as I got off the bus I was literally looking around and listening to people – trying to get a lay of the land and gain some insight from some of the more experience skiers. Scott did the 10K as his first race ever and he summed it up perfectly;

I was like a fish out of water pre-race. It was so close to something I've done a million times but so far.

For me, it’s weird to go from running races where you see tons of familiar faces, to a ski race where I might recognize 2-3 people – if that. But I think that is just something that adds to the uniqueness of this whole experience. And it’s definitely a unique experience when you train by yourself or with a handful of people on perfectly groomed courses and then try to race 800 people on narrow trails through mashed potatoes. That’s the best way to describe much of the course – especially the hills.

I was a little worried that I had the wrong wax on. I based wax on Friday’s forecast and then it got warmer than expected on Saturday, so it wasn’t as cool on Sunday. But I stuck with what I had, FastWax LF Blue, and it seemed fine.

Just before the start, I decided to use my stopwatch even though there aren’t any mile markers like in running. I know with wave starts that sometimes it can be hard to figure out your final time because the race clock starts with wave one. Now I’m glad I did this because it appears I was given the wrong chip. At first I thought it was a little odd that my name wasn’t read off, like all the others skiers, as I crossed the finish line. It wasn’t that big of deal and I proceeded to change clothes and grab some soup. 15 minutes later I hear my name being announced. Sure enough, the results have me finishing in 2:17 even though my clock showed 2:02.

Obviously, I don’t have a lot to compare those results to, but I seemed to be moving up on a lot of people in the wave ahead of me. So I’ll take that as a positive. Also, I averaged 3:46 per KM or like 6:05 per mile, which seems pretty quick compared to my training paces.

With that said, I still have a ton of work to do. Going from the top 5% of running races to the top 40% of skiing races is very humbling. I did find it kind of interesting that this race was made up of 81% men. That seems disproportionately high. Where are all the women at?

Even though I had a great time during my race, my favorite part of the weekend was taking my (nearly) 8 year old daughter with me on Saturday. After picking up my packet she participated in the kids’ carnival as well as the Minne-Loppet. She earned her first blister and her first medal. It makes me super proud to see her out there.

Quote of the Day;

“Skiing the Birkie was an amazing experience! I feel the best I have ever felt in my life.” - Mary Krook, First-time Birkie skier

JUSTIFICATION

I always thought becoming a Masters runner would be enough to motivate me to train hard and achieve new heights – or at least better than average heights. However, with my 40th birthday still 6 months away, I’m not feeling motivated at all. I’m not sure if it’s because of skiing, 30 years of running taking their toll, or something else entirely. Maybe it has something to do with having a birthday in August, which means the first half of the season I’ll still be 39.

I don’t know what it is, but I do find myself thinking more and more about trying different events this year and focusing on having fun rather than performing at my best. Maybe these are the same thoughts that have led to less consistent training lately. I find myself skipping workouts more readily lately. For example, last week was solid, but this week I’ve slept in on 2 occasions and cut one workout short because I couldn’t warm up my hands. Of course, I’m able to justify all this by claiming that it’s a taper for this weekend’s race. However, if I “taper” much more, I won’t remember how to ski. And 6 miles of running in the last 2 weeks doesn’t bode well for tearing up the roads as a Master.

Stuff like this has me contemplating whether or not I should sign up for Grandma’s Marathon. Part of me wants to, just because it’s such an awesome event. Plus, I want to see how my skiing fitness will transfer to a spring marathon. However, even with 17 weeks to train between the Birkie and Grandma’s, it doesn’t seem like enough time – at least not to get into top shape.

I still feel like I have more marathon PRs in me, but not if I don’t find some motivation soon.

Looks like a bunch of Team USA Minnesota runners are not lacking motivation. You can read their journals HERE.

Quote of the Day;

“When I first started running, I was so embarrassed, I’d walk when cars passed me. I’d pretend I was looking at the flowers.” – Joan Benoit Samuelson

NO WORSE FOR THE WEAR

I’m still trying to figure out the similarities/differences between training for a running marathon versus a skiing marathon. Normally, I don’t like to increase my long runs by more than 2-3 miles at a time. Well, on Friday I was able to bump my longest ski from 32K to 40K or roughly 5 miles – and I feel no worse for the wear. That gives me a lot more confidence with the Birkie only 4 weeks away. And it doesn’t hurt that I skied 128K last week. Doesn’t that sound more impressive than 80 miles? Maybe I should start tracking my running mileage in kilometers too.

All this talk of the Birkie has nearly made me forget about the City of Lakes Loppet which is THIS SUNDAY!!! With all this training, I’m so looking forward to getting out and competing in my second x-c ski race ever. Just for a refresher, here’s my race report from last year’s Korte.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to consume calories while skiing. The good news is that since skiing doesn’t involve bouncing up and down like running, anything works. The bad news is that carrying, opening and consuming everything is exponentially more difficult while skiing. If you’re not familiar with the latest in ski pole straps, they now wrap around your wrist with a Velcro strap – you no longer just put your hand through a loop and grab the pole. Trying to do anything with your hands, while they’re attached to 5-foot long spears is a challenge. So one goal for this weekend’s race will be to try and figure out my nutritional options a little more.

I did video tape some sledding over the weekend. However, the power supply on our home computer crashed, so it’ll be at least a week before I even have a chance to look into YouTube.

Quote of the Day;

“When you add in the terrain and having to dodge people, on top of the speed, pounding heart, and oxygen debt, it’s just a different kind of fun than a running race.” – Me, after last year’s Korte

CAN'T COMPREHEND

I really don’t understand how people can live without snow. Of course, I’m mainly talking about the ability to ski during the year. But I’m also talking about going sledding in our backyard with the kids, building snow forts and snowmen, going skating, etc. Getting out and playing in the snow is so much fun, that I really can’t comprehend not having winter.

There’s a small hill in our backyard and every winter we build a cool little sliding hill on it – complete with a built-up starting area, a “jump” and a big “bobsled” turn that is banked. My only complaint is that we only have two round saucer sleds – one for each kid. Every now and then they’ll even let me take a turn. I’m not sure who has more fun.

I’m tempted to bring out the video camera and see if I can figure out the whole YouTube thing.

Anyway, I’m off the rest of the day and I’m going skiing. I’m looking to get in 35K-40K at Theodore Wirth before the next cold snap arrives.

Quote of the Day;

“Three hours slow is better than two hours fast.” – Pete Gavuzzi, marathon coach in the 1940s, on how to train

ALREADY WORRIED

Well I survived the cold snap. And as Adam predicted in a comment, there’s been some great skiing lately.

Even though it had been four days without skiing, I decided to go for a run with my Saturday morning group. I guess I missed them more than I missed skiing. I ended up with a nice 12 miler around the lakes – and 39 miles for the week.

Sunday started a nice string of skiing; 32K on Sunday, 13K on Monday and 16K today. I’m feeling a lot better about my Birkie prep after that 32K outing. But I do need to keep in mind that I still have another 18K to go. If I were training for a marathon and my long run was a comparable 16-17 miles, five weeks from the race, I’d be a little – okay, a lot – freaked out. But the long skis don’t beat you up like the long runs, so I think I can still get in at least 3 more of them. And I don’t know anything about tapering for a 50K ski race, but intuitively, I think the “normal” 3 week taper I do for a marathon would be too long. We’ll see… one month from tomorrow!

Quote of the Day;

“I'm already worried about the snow next year.” – Scott LaFrenz

NINJA WARRIOR

I admit that yesterday’s -40 degree windchill scared me off. I crawled back into bed after seeing that. I was “rewarded” with an hour commute – double what it would have been if I had gotten up to run. Once at work, Eric emailed me a photo of him after his run – standing next to the thermometer that read -20. Of course, that made me feel guilty

This morning it was just as cold, but the windchill wasn’t as bad. I dressed similar to my last post – I just added another long sleeve shirt and ditched the feet warmers. It is really amazing how much heat your body can put out as I felt comfortable – albeit slow – the whole time.

These aren’t the conditions where you bump into a lot of people along the way. So I was a little startled when I came around a corner and saw 3 guys – at least I think they were guys – coming toward me. For a moment, I thought we were in some type of Enter the Dragon movie. We all had on dark clothes and all you could see were our eyes.

I managed an hour run that included 6 trips up the Bush Lake Road hill. I’m not sure if running hill repeats will help when it comes to the Birkie hills, but I figure it can’t hurt. Besides, the hill repeats take my mind off the weather.

Anyway, the warm-up has started. We should be above zero any minute now. Now, hopefully, everyone can stop pissing and moaning (and blogging) about the weather – including me.

Finally, here’s part 2 of the interview I conducted with Olympian Van Nelson.

Quote of the Day;

“First, we never missed a day. It didn’t matter if it was cold or raining. We just dressed appropriately, but we never missed a day. I ran two-a-days all the time.” - Van Nelson

TOASTY WARM

I realize yesterday’s post made me sound like a wuss. Plus, I’m sick and tired of having other people tell me how cold it is outside. I’ve decided that I’ll determine what’s cold for me – rather some weatherman on TV or a co-worker. Just because the thermometer happens to go from +1 to -1, doesn’t mean it all the sudden becomes brutally cold outside. It’s all about mindset and I think the “weather terrorist” have it all wrong.

As I tell my girls, if you can’t get outside and enjoy our winters, you’re going to be miserable.

Of course, starting this new hobby in my late-30s makes me wish I had started earlier. I did ski a little as a kid, but it was mainly back-country blaze-your-own-trail sort of skiing – not competitive skiing. On Sunday I was all pumped to get in another nice ski in the afternoon. However, when my daughter said she wanted to go to skiing at the county park, I happily traded a solo ski for a father-daughter outing.

Anyway, with all that said, I was bound and determined to get out and exercise this morning. Last night I re-waxed my skis and laid out all my clothes. This included, from bottom to top;

Thin socks
Toe warmers
Thicker socks
Shoes
Wind briefs
Old running pants cut into half-tights
Thick pants
Thin pants
Long sleeve mock turtleneck
Long sleeve shirt
Thick jacket
Thick vest
3 pairs of thin mitts
Hand warmers
Face mask
Hat

With all this on, -7 degrees with a wind chill of -15 were no match. I was toasty warm.

Unfortunately, there were 2 problems when I got ready to ski. 1) I bought some new skis and I couldn’t get the back hook on one of the bindings to snap into place. I had a little problem with them the first time I used them, but eventually got them to work. Today I couldn’t get them to work at all. 2) I tried skiing anyway and there was absolutely no glide. Luckily, as I was leaving the house, I threw in my running shoes and I was able to get in an hour run.

So today’s question for the skiers out there is, how does a wax that claims to work from +10 to -25 degrees not work when it’s -7? Is it a grind issue? I’ve had problems with warm weather waxing too. It’s really going to be a bummer if I can only ski when the temperature is between 5 and 25.

Quote of the Day;

“I wish I learned to ski really early, so I could have taken it further than I was able to take it.” - Jan Guenther

CRUELTY

Cruelty = 4-6” of fresh snow, immediately followed by a cold blast.

Sure I could have re-waxed my ski today, put on every layer of clothing I own, throw in some feet and hand warmers and gone out for a ski. But I didn’t. I guess I’m getting soft when it’s -15 degrees and the wind chill is -25.

I’m sure running would be even worse given the fresh snow.

I guess the good news is that the conditions will “force” me inside where I’ve been trying to run harder workouts on the treadmill. My training plan for the Birkie – and I use the term very loosely – is to focus on technique and distance when I ski. Then I use running workouts, like tempos and marathon paced efforts, for my aerobic conditioning. I figure trying to do harder workouts on skis could lead to poor habits. Also, hopefully running harder workouts will make for a smoother transition back to road racing.

Quote of the Day;

“The key to making a commitment you can keep is to be realistic. It also helps if you ease your way gradually into a program that advances slowly enough to leave you eager for more rather than dreading each workout.” – Alberto Salazar

ONE PROBLEM

I’ve talked in the past about having those perfect training days when everything seems to come together. You know, you have a key workout planned, say a long run, and the weather is perfect, the kids are away so you have all the time in the world, you’re physically and mentally prepared, etc. Well that’s what happened on Friday – sort of.

With the 50K Birkie only 6 weeks away and my longest outing only being about 25K, I had plans to get in a long ski after work on Friday. The weather was great, the kids were at a birthday party, and I was ready to go. There was just one problem.

I forgot my skis!!!

Usually, I leave them in my car, but I took them out to wax and never put them back in my car. Given how far my office is from my house, I couldn’t just zip home and get them. By the time I got home I ended up just going for a run.

What a total bummer?!

Saturday I did get in a nice ski of about 24K – notice the conversion to kilometers when I talk skiing. During this outing I was eager to compare my V1 and Open Field techniques that I talked about in my last post. My experiment consisted of skiing a 6K loop of V1 and then skiing the same loop using Open Field - only using V1 for the hills. The first loop ended up taking about 24:30 and the second loop took just under 23:00. I wasn’t wearing a HRM to measure my level of exertion for each technique, but I’m guessing I was working about the same. If so, that means I can ski about 15 seconds/K faster using Open Field, which translates into 13 minutes over 50K. The 24K ended up taking about 1:40 – or 6:40 pace for those of you that like minutes/mile.

Now if I could just make those kinds of improvements to my running, I’d be set.

Under the category of “How did you spend your holiday break?” we have a little twist on my interviews. Working in conjunction with Down the Backstretch, I was able to sit down with 1968 Olympian Van Nelson over the holidays and talk about the good old days. Part 1 of that discussion can be found HERE. Part 2 will appear later this week.

Quote of the Day;

“I felt strong. I was strong. I was ready to get a medal. I just couldn’t withstand the conditions. We thought we were doing the right thing by training for the altitude, but we didn’t take the other conditions into account.” - Van Nelson

GRANNY GEAR

2009 is here and I’m struggling to get into any sort of routine – whether it’s exercise, blogging, working, etc. This week has been hectic at work and, yes, if you can believe it, my social calendar. It seems like I’ve either done 2 workouts a day or zero. Hopefully next week I’ll get back into the routine of working out every morning. If I can do that, everything else should fall into place.

Obviously, I’ve been writing about skiing a lot lately. As a blogger, one of the cool things is that everything is so new. I have tons of questions regarding technique, waxing, ski flex, training, etc. As someone who’s been running for 30 years, it can be very difficult to remember what it was like when everything was so new and exciting. So being able to capture these thoughts and feelings along the way is pretty cool - at least to me.

Of course, being new to the sport can be very frustrating too. I still constantly find myself confused by all the different techniques, along with all the different names for the same technique – depending on who you talk to. It appears I’m still getting V1 and Open Field mixed up. Well, not necessarily mixed up, but my Open Field technique was such that I assumed it’s slower and more leisurely than the V1. Then last weekend, Chris showed me I was planting my poles at the wrong time. With this slight correction, Open Field “should be” faster than V1. Thinking back to last year’s Korte, I basically used V1 the whole way because I thought that was my best/fastest technique. Another indication that V1 might not be the fastest technique occurred to me when I read an article where it was described as the “granny gear” of skiing.

So it appears I still have a lot of work to do as I prepare for the Birkie. One thing I’m trying to do along the way is enjoying the journey. I know this can sound cliché, especially this time of year with all the resolutions floating around. However, too often, with marathons, I get so caught up in all the numbers and a time goal that I don’t enjoy all the cool things that go into each marathon build-up. Even when I trained for Ironman Wisconsin, it was more about just doing the training in order to get to the finish line. Looking back, I think I could have enjoyed that journey a lot more.

Quote of the Day;

“The problem for a 37-year-old athlete is they’ve probably been doing it for 25 years. At that point the mind goes, ‘Let’s do something else here. This is enough.’” – Lance Armstrong, talking about the challenges he faces, compared to younger riders, during his comeback

HARD TO DO BOTH

Not even a single “Yeah, baby!” for Giada? My readership must really be down.

Obviously, my blogging has been next to nothing lately. That’s what happens when you have 12 days off in a row from work. I could definitely get used to staying at home – if only I could convince my company to continue paying me.

With all that time off, my main goal was to ski as much as possible. I think I got about 8 hours on my skis and was able to increase my longest outing to 1:45. I did manage to get in a few runs too, although my 88 miles for the entire month of December makes it my lowest month in a very long time. I still managed to seek over 2,500 miles for the year with 2,515.

I’ve mentioned how an inch or two of snowfall can leave runners in a bad mood, but makes skiers extremely happy. Well, I discovered the opposite situation. A day of 35-40 degree temps makes runners happy, but it really does a number on the mood of a skier. The warm conditions make skiing really slow one day and then turn everything to ice the next. So goes the life of endurance athletes in Minnesota.

Quote of the Day;

“If you end up really loving skiing, you make a ton of time for it. And there are a lot of runners who’ve done that. But you do end up not running because it’s hard to do both unless you have a lot of free time.” - Jan Guenther