Ski Training Central

NEVER BRAG ABOUT NOT GETTING SICK

2012-02-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

In mid December I remember sharing with some athletes at a couple of the Sport/Faith Bible studies I lead how I couldn’t remember the last time I had a cold. It’d been at least a couple of years. I wasn’t bragging so much as just being grateful (or so I thought to myself :).

Of course at Christmas time the tingling in the nasal cavity began and I was about as helpless to stop its progression as falling and sliding down a dble black alpine ski slope (in Jan. during a period of snowlessness I fell at the top of the dble black "Lone Pine" run at Norquay and slid almost the entire run to the bottom). Now here I am the week before race #2 (of 3) for our nat’l ranking and once again a cold, complete with super stuffed nose and lung hacking cough has hit me hard.

I remember reading multiple Ironman world champion Mark Allan say that if you get a flat tyre in an Ironman, it doesn’t mean your race is over, it just means there’s a tyre to fix. So too for me, all week I’ve felt absolutely energyless, but it doesn’t mean my race this Sat. is over, it just means I’ve got to do all I can to get that energy back and be able to ski somewhat what I’m capable of.

After the Dogtooth Dash. I identified 6 areas where I could gain time. Kickturns; downhills, transitions; nutrition; skin glide; fitness. Though it seemed at the time I was doing all these at my capacity even an improvement for example of 1.5 seconds over 50 kickturns would give me 2 minutes. As I evaluated each area I believed that with realistic improvement I could have skied 8:40 faster. I still wouldn’t have caught Andrew, but that’s a lot of time!

I found that pre race nerves are really alleviated when you stop focussing on who’s in the race and how you want to do against them and simply dwell on your race. Performing each area the best you possibly can.

Most of this week’s focus has been on what I can do to get over a cold in less than 1 week. Probably totally impossible, but even if I can get back to 90% that’d be great.

Better get to bed. ‘Nite!
In mid December I remember sharing with some athletes at a couple of the Sport/Faith Bible studies I lead how I couldn’t remember the last time I had a cold. It’d been at least a couple of years. I wasn’t bragging so much as just being grateful (or so I thought to myself :).

Of course at Christmas time the tingling in the nasal cavity began and I was about as helpless to stop its progression as falling and sliding down a dble black alpine ski slope (in Jan. during a period of snowlessness I fell at the top of the dble black "Lone Pine" run at Norquay and slid almost the entire run to the bottom). Now here I am the week before race #2 (of 3) for our nat’l ranking and once again a cold, complete with super stuffed nose and lung hacking cough has hit me hard.

I remember reading multiple Ironman world champion Mark Allan say that if you get a flat tyre in an Ironman, it doesn’t mean your race is over, it just means there’s a tyre to fix. So too for me, all week I’ve felt absolutely energyless, but it doesn’t mean my race this Sat. is over, it just means I’ve got to do all I can to get that energy back and be able to ski somewhat what I’m capable of.

After the Dogtooth Dash. I identified 6 areas where I could gain time. Kickturns; downhills, transitions; nutrition; skin glide; fitness. Though it seemed at the time I was doing all these at my capacity even an improvement for example of 1.5 seconds over 50 kickturns would give me 2 minutes. As I evaluated each area I believed that with realistic improvement I could have skied 8:40 faster. I still wouldn’t have caught Andrew, but that’s a lot of time!

I found that pre race nerves are really alleviated when you stop focussing on who’s in the race and how you want to do against them and simply dwell on your race. Performing each area the best you possibly can.

Most of this week’s focus has been on what I can do to get over a cold in less than 1 week. Probably totally impossible, but even if I can get back to 90% that’d be great.

Better get to bed. ‘Nite!

DOGGY TOOTH

2012-02-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

4^th year for Dogtooth Dash, the Canadian Nat’l skimo championships. Kicking Horse mountain hosts the race, but the moniker for the event comes from one of the mountains we ascend. In the previous 3 episodes each one turned into a "Dogtooth disaster" for me. Broken poles, stickless skins, sprained ankles, etc. etc. Each year it seemed like I found a new way to have a poor race. This year was different...no disaster.

My mindset was, have fun, put together the best race you’re capable of and let the results take care of themselves. Perhaps too in now my 5^th year of racing I’m finally figuring this sport out a bit. We started with the traditional run around the restaurant. Funny how the big guns hold off on this part. I think there were 3 women out of the top 4 in the run section.

It was crazy socked in this year. We tried flying as usual down the cat track, but you couldn’t see through the fog, hence it was a bit spooky. One guy was blitzing so fast that he didn’t see the groomed edge and yard saled so far it couldn’t believe it. I heard later that he never did find one of his skis and had to drop out.

I couldn’t believe how high my heart rate was. I was in the top 3 or 4, but knew I better calm down a bit. After our 3rd descent there’s a series of switchbacks that in previous years really slowed me down. I didn’t lose time on them this year, but with about 50 of these kickturns in the race, if you’re just a couple seconds faster, you can pick up a couple minutes.

As the race progressed I fell into 6^th place. For awhile I was 3^rd male and thought how cool it would be to podium at our natl’s, but I lost a couple places (one to eventual women’s champ- the Burner). This is a tough race and didn’t panic with Peter passing me about 2/3 in and another newer skier just behind me (I later learned he was fresh off the NCAA xc ski circuit-so it didn’t bother me that I couldn’t easily pull away from this unknown newbie). I tried to focus on my race and tend to my nutrition. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the heat of trying not to lose any seconds you don`t fuel your body enough. I downed a couple double caffeine gels and on the final bootpack felt a trend towards cramping, so I pulled out my gel flask of my trusty pickle juice (see my earlier blog entry from Ironman about this miracle cramp cure).

As I climbed I used a new strategy this year. Last year I discovered that in steep terrain and new snow wall to wall skins really allow you to climb and stay relaxed. You don`t get a whole lot of glide, but in so many N. American races (as opposed to Euro races) you don`t get a lot of cross country terrain....it`s mostly going steep up. So as I used my ``wall to walls`` I put my head down, relaxed and really tried to go.

Just before the final climb to the finish I got a couple breaks. Peter, who`s becoming a good friend travelling to the last couple races together, had a slow transition and then fell and sorta died out, so I passed and put 3 minutes or so into him. It seemed like Erich an American skier from Montana, who was just in front of me all day simply dissappeared. At first I reasoned he must have took off, but then I wondered if he`d made a wrong turn at the confusing last intersection. Turns out the latter was the case. I felt bad for him, but then later remembered that at his home town course in Whitefish, I ALWAYS seem to get lost and make wrong turns, including this year where I think I scrubbed about :10 going off course. Erich`s a good guy though so I did feel a little bad. But then on the final bootpack and uphill into the finish Jeff C. Let me know that I was 3^rd, but I better get moving `cause Erich was charging hard. It took all the energy I had just to keep moving, but a couple glances backwards made me realize that the male podium was back in my grasp. Yahoo!

In one of the skimo blogs a writer mentioned about this race that a couple of the faster guys (including himself) weren`t there. But when I reviewed last year`s results (where most of the big guns WERE there) I still would have come in 3^rd and done so with a 7 minute cushion. Next up is Nelson ROAM rally. There should be plenty of guys gunning for it!!

Racing and Not Racing

2012-02-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

Well it’s been almost a month since I raced the North American Champs in Crested Butte Colorado, so I suppose it’s time to do some writing!! With our Canadian nat’l team staying domestic this year, this was the big race. But my "race" turned into not quite a "race".

Day one (Sat.) Was the sprint, a handy little course that should only take 6-8 minutes. The skin to the start was about :45 and started in -30C temps. The guy next to me quickly developed frostbite on his nose, so I clued him in. Once at the race zone, it was a cool course. But let me say this, the base elevation was 9400'. Just skinning easily left me out of breath (heck, just walking from the parking lot did that!). When you race at this altitude it feels like you’re having an asthma attack- not that I’ve ever had one, but if I did I’m sure this is what if feels like).

I started fast, died 2 minutes into it and staggered to the finish. I also crashed, hitting a rock on the first downhill. It threw me off so much that racing into the transition zone I did a slow motion fall over that I was hoping that no one witnessed. By the time I got to the final bootpack my legs were so full of high altitude lactic acid that they felt like concrete blocks.

Ok, so day 1 was over. It took me over 2 weeks to finally check the results. I wasn’t last, but I was about as far back as I thought.

Day 2....the main race:

the night before as they described the course I began to get really, really nervous. They described this incredible rock climb bootpack that would be over ½ the race. It was a 5.6 degree climb with fixed ropes the whole way with each racer being hooked in by via ferrata and an ascender. They tested us out on the stairway, to make sure we knew what we were doing. I’m sure I’m not the only guy that was totally bluffing my way through the test, but I’m sure I gave myself away when I asked the assigned guide how much exposure there would be. He must have sensed my trepidation because he asked me if I really wanted to know. Sheepishly I said yes and the answer was "a lot, with sections of 1000+ feet of nothing on either side." Great.

Hopefully learning from day 1 not to go out too fast I still did. Still felt like I was having an asthma attack with legs the weight of concrete. This time though it seemed like almost everyone was in front of me. I picked it up a bit on the 100 kick turn section. Big acclimatised motors that weren’t as dialed in on skimo technique had to be passed. When I finally did get to the big rock climb section I tried racing through, but quickly realized the whole idea of a "race day" was disappearing and turning into an adventure.

The course was so bottlenecked that we spent a lot of time waiting. Like maybe a total of :40 to an hour. I was prepared with a down sweater, warm gloves with heater packs. The climbing stuff is kinda new to me and I’m glad I had some tutors on either side of me. I was almost glad I didn’t have to go at race pace, because with this serious rock climbing I think I was incapable of really moving very fast anyway. In times like this it’s best not to dwell too much on results, how much you trained to get ready, etc. Go with the flow. It was a new and life expanding experience. I truly was glad to have been there-done that.

Again, it took me weeks to finally check the results. I couldn’t believe how few people I actually beat. I heard that with the back log on the rock they had to pull several people off the course as they would have taken too long to complete the race.

Day 3:

The next day, Monday, there was a CO cup race at Winter Park as part of the Denver ski show. I was pretty bagged, but what the heck, I’d travelled a long way for some racing and racing is what I was gonna do.

We started the race with this cool promenade through the vast city of trade show ski booths, then it was let ‘er rip up the hill. Asthma attack #3. Sometimes you just can’t believe who is passing you. We went up a downhill run, then funnelled into the woods for a series of switchbacks. I got trapped behind 3 kick turn challenged dweebs. I was happy for the rest though so didn’t make much of a fuss. Maybe my previous days adventure took the race spirit out of me, but one by one I politely asked them if I could go by and when I finally did I realized how much they were slowing me down.

The first downhill was a nice mogul steep face, but not nearly as steep as Norquay where I do my downhill training, so I let ‘er rip. At the bottom a cute 30 something gal skied up behind me at the transition and said something like, "Dude, you were flying!!" I was so pumped it propelled me up a couple places on the next downhill. I could see teammate Ian ahead, not too far ahead, but couldn’t reel him in. Kinda made me wish I’d not lolly-gagged so much earlier.

Flying home I reflected on how wonderful this experience was. It made me glad I’m not an asthmatic, but more significantly I got to see some really good friends. I have 2 friends, both named Phil that live 4 miles from each other in Monument CO. 2 days before I left an old friend I hadn’t talked to in 23 years contacted me by email. Turns out he lives in Crested Butte. We had a tremendous reunion. We were hosted by a really cool guy named Sean that opened up his home to a couple of strangers. We couldn’t stop talking. It was really fun. Finally, Janelle Smiley (who won the women’s race) gave me and my friends a generous welcome. Hope to see her and husband Mark again this summer in Canmore. I realized it was the friends, not the racing that made the trip so unbelievably special.

Dynafit Evo boot review

2012-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, here they are--Dynafit Evo boots. If you're living and racing in Europe, they're old news...if you're living in North America, you probably haven't seen 'em yet.

I first saw a pair at last year's world championships in Italy. Javier, a Dynafit sponsored skier from Spain, had the only pair. He graciously offered to let me give them a try, but being a 1/2 size small and immediately after he'd raced on them I declined. Not that I have anything against Spanish sweat, it's just that I'm not into sharing footwear.

What I noticed about Javier's boots was the incredible lightness. Mine weigh in around 680g. Lighter than my xc skate boots! Apparently Dynafit mapped out the boots in square cm's and adjusted the plastic (grilamid) for each segment in order to minimize the weight and put it where needed. Last year I skied on the Dyna's (980g)and I thought those were light. Evo has definately raised the bar in lightness. This is why I really wanted to get these as now they're in the lightness category of an all Carbon boot (racers never like to give any advantage to the competition!).

As for stiffness, there's nothing lacking. They got those sq cm's dialed in and with the carbon upper cuff, the boot is as stiff as it needs to be. I haven't skied the Gignoux al carbon boot or LaSportiva, so I'm not sure how the stiffness would compare, but with the Evo it's certainly adequate.

One heads up, the wheelbase is about 9mm shorter than the D.y.n.a.'s. An advantage for the boots in skiing feel and lightness, but if you're planning on using your older model race boots for training and saving the Evo's for racing it can be a problem with our race bindings. When I remounted my Trab WC race skis I laid down a layer of carbon fibre to strengthen the ski with the additional binding holes (I remember seeing my team mate Ian Gale break his WC's in the last race of the season due to the multiple holes in his skis). For my training Trabs I've installed "quiver killer binding inserts". Another option would be to mount with an adjustable plate (ATK or Plum make these).

So how do the Evo's ski? My first impression as I strided uphill was how much quicker I could move my feet due to the lightness. The stiffness made it feel very efficient (I've also used Scarpa F1 race, with the bellowed sole). But overall I felt like I could fly effortlessly. On the descent I'm still evaluating. I've only taken them down one somewhat gnarly downhill. What I did notice was that with the lightness, any thicker windblown and cruddy powder tended to "kick" them around a bit. But after all, with a ski-boot-binding combo this light, what can you expect? My skis and bindings together weigh only 850g and with only 680g on your feet there's not much there to push back in tougher snow conditions. I kinda feel like good skiers learn how to ski on anything. Maybe that's why when N. Americans show up in Europe with our big mountain fattties, the Euro's kinda sneer and look down their noses.

Dynafit has a unique race tour/alpine closure system. For the most part it works seamlessly. When I upgraded to Dynafit over the Scarpa F1 race boots I immediately felt like I was getting a stiffer, more efficient alpine mode. The Evo essentially employs the same system as last year's D.y.n.a. boot.

In tour mode the flexibility is quite amazing. I don't think a running shoe would give you more unencumbered mobility. The feel is truly amazing. Evo liners are 20g lighter than last year's Dyna but they retained the neoprene flex zone at the achilleas. Again, I haven't skied on the PG's or LaS....but I couldn't imagine these being as flexible as the Evo's.

I finally get to race on these babies this weekend in Whitefish MT, then next week head to CO for the N. American championships. ' Can't wait to see how they help my performance.

A special thanks to Chris Clausen at Dynafit for letting this Canuck have the only pair up here in the Great White North!

Brrrrrrrrrr!!!

2012-01-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

Blog deadbeat that I am...it’s been awhile-sorry. Yesterday’s hi temp hit a not so balmy -27C (-15F). Tough to get motivated to train in that. But I had a change of mind that made getting out exciting. I decided to make a challenge out of the weather. "Could I bring all my cold weather outdoor training experience together to master even this unbelievable chill and have a comfortable, safe experience?" Old man winter threw down the gauntlet, now it was up to me to see if I was up to the task.

I have been having a hard time getting out for my long skis and couldn’t neglect yet another one, so a minimum 3 hour ski was the plan. I decided to go up Healy creek as the parking would be Sunshine DH area and in case I couldn’t restart my car I wouldn’t be stranded in K country without cell service.

Venturing out into the backcountry totally alone in those temps you don’t want to make any mistakes. I decided to go around the backside to Sunshine ski area, a trip I’d once gotten counfused in a white out and had to turn back arriving 4 hours late in total darkness (returning to an extremely panicked wife). This time as I hit the cliff band...the only avi hazard in the tour, I made the choice to turn back as the conditions seemed a bit "slabby". With a partner it wouldn’t have been any big deal, but alone I needed to be ultra safe.

So, how did I do in the cold? Primo!! I was totally comfortable and safe the entire time. Here’s some of my tricks:

-recently I purchased foot insole heater packs. You know, those chemical things that give off heat. These new models look just like an insole you’d put into a shoe. My feet were totally toasty

-I put 2 heat packs in my pockets in case my hands needed them later, which they did. The heater packs take ab out ½ hour to really get going, so if you only break them out when you’re cold they don’t help you for quite awhile. I got ‘em going on the drive over.

-polar fleece 200. I made myself a jacket of this stuff a couple years ago. It’s wonderful in cold -20C and below. I only wear one thin base layer underneath. The 200 has an incredible wicking ability. You finish your workout and the outside is coated in sweat frost, but inside you’re dry. The only drawback is it’s really permeable to wind. So when I was in the woods, no problem, but when I hit the alpine I put my new RAB team jacket on over the pf200. Our Canadian team jacket is super duper light, but I only needed it to stop windflow in.

-no skin can be exposed in these temps, so I typically wear my favourite mask...a cotton ski mask with a mouth hole. Breathing the cold air isn’t that big of a deal as air warms up tremendously fast and before it hits your lungs it’s at a safe temp. having the breathing hole helps to keep all that breath condensation from totally icing up your mask.

-over my mask I wore my fur bomber hat. With a warm head your body stays warmer longer.

-ski goggles. Though I didn’t use them too much on this trip, they can be really important. I’ve seen a couple of my friends frostbite their eyes during xc races. It’s not a pretty site. You basically go blind for a bit and for a week or two have "dog vision" only seeing in black & white. Crazy...isn’t it? Not something to mess around with.

One of the keys to comfort is temp regulation. If you dress too warmly, then overheating sweat becomes an issue. If you slow down and are totally wet, you’re in for a big problem. Hitting the right layers and skiing at the right exertion level are really important. Later in my ski, as I slowed down a bit and the terrain was more downhill, my hands and feet started getting cold. Popping my heat buzzing heater packs into the hands totally did the trick and for my feet I loosened up my boots for better circulation and consciously worked my legs a bit more to generate heat and get the blood moving.

Well there you have it...a couple of my tricks for staying warm and comfy in real cold. I guess you could just cancel your workout and stay on the couch, but it’s more fun to see if you’re up for the challenge!

ON SNOW AND READY 2 GO!!

2011-10-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Though we’re having an unusually nice and warm fall, the skiing is up and running (Oct. 15)! The Canmore Nordic Centre has opened its “Frozen Thunder”- a 2.5 Km loop consisting of snow they stored over the summer. I personally watched the process of moving the snow onto the trail last week while mtn biking....it was an amazingly complex process. Not just the building of the trail, but how they dug a massive pit to blow the man-made white stuff into last winter, then insulating it with sawdust and now moving it with multiple dump trucks and loaders . It must have cost a lot of money.

This is the 3rd or 4th year of early October snow at the Nordic Centre. The new director Mike Roycroft has done a wonderful job of meeting serious skier’s needs. Our nat’l team would normally be somewhere in Europe training, but they’re all here looping around Frozen Thunder.

It’s kinda cool to be skiing when the temps are still hitting between 5-10C in the afternoons. You can go for a real nice mountain bike or run in conjunction with your ski.

In addition to the xc skiing I’m meeting some of my Canadian skimo teammates at the Farnham glacier this weekend for some early season turns and vert training. Winsport Canada previously had set up a summer training site for alpine skiers, but it became too much of a “money pit” according to a friend of mine that formerly ran the camp. Mike told me that it’s a very “active glacier”, so they were constantly having to fill in crevasses and mold the run to the racer’s expectations. A good friend of mine, Jan Hudec, used to train there but as one of Canada’s super elite downhill aces, got to sleep at Panarama resort just over a line of mountains and then they choppered the guys over every day (after their massages, etc.).....we’re sleeping in our cars.

We’re also bringing avi gear (for those crevasses). Ropes, prusucks, atc’s, harnesses, ascenders, etc. Hopefully we won’t need them, but you never know when it comes to glacier travel.

I spent way too much time yesterday scoping out the whole scene on Google Earth and my GPS software. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost on the many forestry dirt roads out there (and be another GPS casualty lost in the wilderness).

I guess all this to say that winter is just about here and it’s time think snow!

Norquay Time Trial

2011-10-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Nordic Centre is unveiling their 2nd annual “Frozen Thunder”. It’s a short xc ski loop utiliizng snow they store through the summer. Even though it’s mid October, we’re getting close to skiing! The challenge at this time of year is to keep the hours and intensity up. The days are short (especially with “daylight killing time”), it’s cold, roller ski tips slip a lot, etc.
One of my new workouts is timing myself roller skiing up the Norquay ski area access road. It’s several Km’s uphill. It takes me around :20 on a bike and :30 on roller skis. To do this workout I drive to the top with a bike (or a couple-for multiple runs). I then drive down, park my truck, warm up then set up the watch to time myself gong up.

Last Friday my plan was to do 2 runs at anaerobic threshold, timing myself on both. As I hurriedly loaded my truck (battling eventual fading light) I noticed I had a flat on one of the 2 bikes I was going to use. I then quickly grabbed another wheel from my tri bike. However, as I unloaded the bikes at the top of the run I noticed the replacement wheel also had a flat. “Ok, I reasoned, it must be the Higher plan for me to do just one run” (my 9 year old daughter was waiting in the truck watching a movie on my I-pod until we could go see daughter #2 play volleyball in Banff when I finished). So I was going to give ‘er on the 1 run.

Hoping for a personal best I went out hard, but reserved. For some reason on sustained uphills in classic skiing my back really tenses up... and it’s painful. I don’t know if I have to stretch more, strengthen it more, or just be tougher.

There’s 7 switchback turns on the way up and I call out the number as I complete each turn. On #4 the mountain sheep grazing on the roadside grass looked up when I did this and they had this look of panic on their eyes like they were about to stampede over me. Fortunately they herded each other the other direction. Then on the final switchback when I decided to really push hard to the finish there was a load of Asian tourists in a van that stopped right in the middle of the road to take pictures of me. I would have smiled, but with all the heavy breathing I decided to drool instead. I figured they’d have fun showing that picture around.

At the very top the light was starting to fade so much I had a hard time seeing the time on my watch. When I eventually got my delerious state under control I could see that I’d set a PR of 27:34. That always feels good. To get a little faster. In endurance sport (or maybe any sport) progress comes in increments. Athletes, like anyone I guess, are always looking for that magic bullet that’s going to lop off a huge chunk of time, but that usually never materializes. Instead, the real champs know that consistent chipping away....little by little improvement over time brings real and lasting results.

Now If I can just get ‘er under 27 minutes!

TIME FOR SOME VERT

2011-09-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

After a summer of training in the "Valley" it’s time to get in some altitude-otherwise known as "vertical" or "vert". Since our skimo races have hills as long as :30 (N. America), 1:00 (Europe) you need to get used to climbing...and climbing hard!!

I was beginning to wonder if my training plan of building a base by preparing for Ironman Canada was the best idea. 2 and 3 weeks after the race I started knocking off some nice mountain hikes, but just felt sluggish. Duh, maybe it was because I wasn’t fully recovered.. Yesterday,3 + weeks after the big event I was hammering up Lady MacDonald mountain, doing 3x:10 intervals and I felt strong again. The Aerosmith song, "Back in the Saddle Again" started playing in my head. Initially my plan was to keep the intervals in zone 3, but it felt so good to go hard that I brought them up to a solid zone 4 level. As usual, at the end of the hike I was rewarded with a great mountain top view. What an awesome way to train!!

With a solid base from summer tri training it’s now time to do as much climbing as I can. This weekend my plan is to do a roller ski time trial up the Norquay access road, a :30 minute ski, then the next day scale up Mt. Allen- a close bike ride from my house.

Well, I’m off to lead a Sport/Faith Bible discussion group with some bobsled athletes, then watch them do start training in the ice house. On my way home I’ll stop in K country for a vert hike up to Baldy Pass.

Go vert or go home!

Ironman Canada 2011 Review

2011-08-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Ironman Canada 2011

Now that Ironman #5 for me (#3 Canada) is in the books and 3 days later my head has finally cleared, it’s time for my race report.

My overall goal for this race and all the summer training was to be in top shape for skimo racing next winter. I made the decision to do an Ironman (after 3 summers off) while in Italy competing in the Skimo World championships. This sport requires a tremendous amount of aerobic fitness and Ironman prep as oppose to just summer ski training I felt would provide the impetus to be more focussed and intentional in putting in long training hours. So in light of this I met my goal as my fitness level was as good as can be for me.

With school starting early this year I had to fly solo as Deb is teaching this year and the 2 little ones didn’t want to miss their first day. I copied my plan I did for the qualifier “Desert Half” in Osoyoos earlier by simply sleeping in the back of my truck. With the warm weather and comfy futon it actually was a pretty sweet set up. I got to park close to the start. There were dozens of porta potties everywhere and my little totally equipped rig had everything I needed right at my disposal.

Swim:

I tried a new line this year, I went far left. It takes you off course a bit, but the beach does curve up, so some of that is offset. The problem I had was that I continued to go left and was pretty far off course. There was absolutely no one where I was. Forget all those stories you hear about being kicked, dunked, swum over..... I was totally alone. And probably for good reason. I may have lost 5 minutes or more taking this sanity route. An on course canoe kept telling me to move back over. By halfway and the first buoy I was back into the fray, right in dead centre, which was ok as the pack of nearly 3000 had now spread out. Next time I’d start in the same place but move over quickly to get some fast feet to draft off of. My time of 1:17 was the slowest in 3 tries for me. I should have gone around 1:10. So I gave up 7 minutes.

Bike:

After a relatively quick T1 (and getting yelled at for running so fast in the T1 zone by other athletes walking their bikes) I settled in to a controlled pace. That was the mantra for me this year... “control”. Or as my old ski coach Sten Fjeldheim used to say, “Overscrud”, a Norwegian term for “reserves”. In both previous IMC races I had no legs left for the run....this year was hopefully going to be different.

My first mishap happened going up McClean road, a steep, rough uphill. There were literally 100's of cyclists everywhere. Right in the middle of the road a fast swimming older lady threw her chain and veered left taking me and another guy out. She didn’t fall. We both went down hard. I was bleeding a lot from my elbow and knee with other assorted road rash. The elbow was especially annoying as the blood kind of coagulated on my arm rest and tore at my wounds every time I moved my arms off the pads. I could deal with that though.

We must have had a good tailwind going down to Osoyoos, but to me it didn’t seem like it. I just felt tired and a little “bonky”. I tried keeping up the eating, but it seemed my stomach was full and I felt bloated. Maybe I should’ve endured that long porta potty line for visit #3. Or maybe I hadn’t slept as well as I thought in my pick up RV. There was a drunken smart aleck that was yelling out ‘til past midnight at a couple other more obvious campers, “Are you Ironmen asleep yet?”.....funny guy. I figured you really don’t sleep that well the night before a race anyway.

As we turned to begin the more challenging part of the course I was kind of even relieved to start climbing up the 14km Richter Pass. Most years I’m ripping by people, but this time I was getting passed almost as much as I was passing. But all along I kept that run in the back of my mind.

My friend Myles Gaulin caught up to me. He’d flatted earlier. Myles is usually just a bit ahead of me in most races, except in Ironmans he crushes me. He had a 10:30 this year. Almost :50 faster than me. That’s pretty typical. I actually beat him last year in the Calgary ½, but for some reason I go slower than my usual competition in Ironman. Anyway, we rode together for a good bit of the climb and chatted away, so my pace couldn’t have been too slow, and yet given the conversation, not too fast either.

The climb seemed easy. So many of my long rides incorporated similar climbs (Storm Mountain, Radium pass, Sunshine and Norquay access roads, etc). Now the downhills and rollers. There are 10 roller hills. I’d done this part of the course at the Desert Half, so I knew it well...and from other rides too. I consciously held back on the uphills, but felt like I was still going ok.

Once we hit the flat section into Keremeos the headwind really picked up. It was here that my character was tested. With all the riders it was hard not to draft and for awhile an obvious pack really formed. I was in the back and at first didn’t try too hard to stretch out. After awhile though my conscious must have caught up to me so I backed off....and was I ever glad! Just a few minutes later the drafting police showed up. The guy on the back of the motor bike stood up and was writing down numbers. I made a few comments to the person close to me....a confession of sorts, but mostly relief that I wasn’t busted!!

When I got to the special needs bags (my kids love this term... “special needs”. These are the kids in their school that are mentally handicapped. They tease me, “Daddy, you have special needs?!”)...I was really feeling good. Not tired. Not tired of riding yet. My customary kit at this point is a Red Bull, peanut butter/Nutella sandwich and a Snickers bar. I’d bought a couple of insulated lunch bags to keep everything cool. I stuck the Red Bull in my jersey pocket while I ate the sandwich, but it popped out before I had a chance to drink it. Now those things are expensive. Something like 3 bucks. If you add on the 7$ I spent on the lunch bag, that means that Red Bull cost around 10 dollars. There was no way I was going to let that ice cold Red Bull lay on the road, so even though it cost me a few minutes I stopped and retrieved it. Of course it started rolling downhill, so I had to chase after it. Then the hill was too steep to mount my bike, so I uncharacteristically took a break. I cracked open the Red Bull and walked up the hill while I drank it until I got to a place where I could mount my bike. To an average person that would seem like the obvious thing to do, but for a competitive Ironman fighting for every second it was a luxurious waste of time.....I made sure I really enjoyed that cold Red Bull!

Next up is the legendary Yellow Lake hill. The true Tour De France experience. During this very long, and at times, steep uphill there are literally 1000's of people cheering you on. Just like in the tour there are sections where there is just a 5' gap of people to ride through. As tired as your legs are at this point, I love it!! I didn’t get caught up in the hoopla though and held back, again thinking of the run. However, there were a couple of times that I ran out of gear and had to stand up to pedal. At these points I could feel that my legs could possibly cramp. Not as bad as Ironman 2006 for me, but not a good sign either.

Once the Yellow Lake hurdle is done, it’s mostly screaming downhills into Penticton. Unfortunately this year’s head wind took out all that easy riding and rest. This 25km section was the hardest it’s ever been for me in several outings. Usually you fly into town feeling awesome after the long descents. This year it was a struggle and great relief to finally be off that bike.

Run:
I knew my T2 was going to be slow for a couple reasons: 1) I had to pee the whole bike ride. I knew a porta potty stop would cost at least an additional minute, so I kept putting it off. Some Ironmen just pee on themselves on the bike. I tried that once and it took 2-3 days to get the smell out of my system. I swore I’d never do it again. 2) I changed all of my clothes except for my compression sox. As you enter the men’s change tent, a volunteer comes up with your bag to help you. Mine was mostly really great putting my stuff in a pile, except for when he mixed up what I was changing into with what I’d just changed out of. In any case, I knew there’d be a point where I’d be buck naked except for my compression sox. So there he was hovering over me. I gave him a little warning, “You might not want to watch this.” It actually helped me change fast with him there! Then it was on to the porta potty and then the run.

As I was running through the transition zone, someone noticed my Hoka One One running shoes and called something out to that affect. I think I was the only guy in the race with them, but it was a good move. These shoes have 3x the cushion of a normal running shoe. As bad as my legs hurt, I couldn’t imagine how much more the pain would’ve been. The day before the race as I was hanging out at Skaha beach I struck up a conversation with one of the 1,100 first time Ironman would be’s. He informed me his plan to run the marathon in “barefoot” running shoes. Actually not even the ones he normally used as those developed holes the week before the race. I thought of him during the run when my quads were screaming with pain and wondered how this rookie Ironman’s plan was working.

Ok, so here’s where things get a bit interesting. I thought I’d “overscruded” my legs for the run, but quickly realized that probably wasn’t the case. I started the run, and with all the 1000's of spectators around the transition and start/finish area, it seemed easy...until mile #2. That’s when the first cramp started. Every Ironman I’ve ever done (4 previous) I’ve been totally messed up by cramping muscles. Always in my calves (hence the compression calf sox I was wearing), and in my quads if I went too hard on the bike. Sure enough, at only mile #2 I felt my first quad cramp. In the past quad cramps reduced me to a walk, but this time I was hoping for a miracle cure...one that I was packing on my newly purchased Ultimate Direction fuel belt.

Only 2 weeks before IMC I was listening to a podcast and they were interviewing an exercise physiologist that did his dissertation on alleviating muscle cramps by imbibing pickle juice. It seemed kinda weird, but intriguing. I followed up by sleuthing around the internet and found an abstract from his paper. In the research they found that only a very small amount is needed (2 oz/ 80ml) and sometimes just putting it into your mouth worked. I didn’t try this at all in my training and didn’t even know if I could keep it down. Besides, who wants to train to the point of cramping? So when that first twinge came, I thought, “Here we go, let’s see if this stuff works.”

Guess what? It did work. Miraculously. In under a minute the cramping stopped. 2 small swigs of the brine was good for about :30 minutes. I kept the regimen up and had zero cramping the entire race. If you’d know how bad I always cramp up in these super marathons then you’ll realize how astounding it was to have no cramps whatsoever on this day....an especially hot one at that!

Looking at my watch I could see that a sub 11 hour Ironman was within grasp if I could run my goal time of 3:45. It’d be close and in the 35C weather probably pretty impossible for me to do, but I went for it. Over the first 10km (first 1/4) I actually was right on pace. I felt amazingly good. For the first Ironman ever I was actually running and not shuffling along nursing spasmodic legs. However, that heat (90+ F) was just too much. For the next 20km I had to slow down.

At the ½ way point it was time for special needs bag #2. Of course there was a cold Red Bull waiting for me. Man did that thing ever taste good!! It propelled me up the 2 mile uphill immediately after the turn around mid point. I have a mantra that I developed in my first Ironman Canada back in 2004. After the turn around on the run I tell myself that every step is one more step closer to home.

By the time I started to get back into town and through the 20 mile mark I was having a great time. My legs were really hurting, but it was so much easier with no cramping. I could run through that pain and continued to do so, even turning up the speed with 5 miles to go. This was by far my most enjoyable (if you could call what we go through “enjoyable”) Ironman run. As I finally hit main street and the spectator lined Lakeshore drive I told myself, “really enjoy this.” Instead of the usual grimaced painful look and desire to simply get this thing done, I had a huge grin and did my best to soak it all up. What a blast!

I saw my friends Mark & Julie Kent that came out to watch me finish. I gave a short wave. It means so much to have someone there that cares for you, if only to be a witness to the accomplishment you’ve just completed.

Some things in life we take for granted....like chairs. As you read this you’re probably sitting in one right now. But I’ve never appreciated a chair as much as at an Ironman finish. After hammering for 11+ hours, to finally sit down and get off your feet and legs is THE most wonderful feeling you think you could ever experience. I sat, smiled, drank a Dr Pepper and just soaked up the wonderful feeling of not having to propel my body forward anymore. Then it was off to the medi tent to finally clean up my 10 hour old road rash.

As any Ironman will tell you, the couple of days immediately after the race are still quite painful. The soreness in your legs is astounding. They’ve done biopsies on marathon runners and found that they have permanent scarring and muscle damage. I can only imagine how much more for an Ironman marathoner. The painful soreness in my muscles bear testimony to this. Yet, it doesn’t take long for you to begin planning next year’s come back. As the pain memories fade, the exhilarating, victorious recollections increase.

I guess after a 3 year hiatus I’m back in the Ironman game!

Compression, Ice, and Pickles

2011-08-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ironman #5 (Ironman Canada) is officially in the books. Hot weather (mid 30's C) & hi winds on the bike slowed me down a bit, but it could have been a lot worse. I got off the bike after really trying to be conservative. I had my slowest of all 3 IMC bike times, but it still wasn’t easy enough to let me have fresh legs for the marathon.

I have this tendency to really cramp in heat and exhaustion. Every Ironman before I’ve had real debilitating leg cramps. It’s hard to run when your calves and quads are seizing up.

As I started the run I thought maybe I’d held back enough this time, but only 1 mile into it I knew it wasn’t to be, but I’d planned 3 strategies for this: 1) compression calf sox 2) dump ice in the front and back of my jersey to keep my core temp down 3) pickle juice.

In case you’re wondering about #3, it was this magical potion that allowed me to keep running and actually run pretty strong. I’d read about this magic cramp cure just 2 weeks prior to the race and boy am I ever glad I did. It seems the acetic acid (vinegar) in the juice turns off the cramp response in the brain. Just 2 swallows and 20 seconds later and the cramps go away. For me it totally worked. The cure lasted about 30 minutes. And staying on top of this regimen kept me running cramp free.

I was on pace over the first 10k to meet my run time goal of 3:45, but over the next 20km I just had to slow down. The heat was too much for me....but I kept running. My previous IMC I was walking a good bit of the run because of the leg cramps. This time though as the sun got a little lower I was even able to pick up the pace again over the last 5 miles.

Pickle juice....who’d a thunk!!

Count Down To Ironman Canada

2011-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

While in Italy last winter competing in the world skimo champs I decided to make sure I did an Ironman this summer. I train hardest in the off season when I have a big goal and ironman gives me the biggest push. It's been since 2007 since I've punished my body in this way and I don't want to lose touch as it seemed I was finally figuring out the ultra long distance event.

So with that in mind I've been putting in the hours. Long bikes, long runs, even some swimming! My final big test of fitness came this week. I decided to do an "abreviated" Ironman. I swam "45 min in the cold quarry behind my house, then biked to Invermere, BC, a 180km ride (Iron distance), I followed this with a 10k run.

The swim was ok. The bike, really the big test. I did it in 6 hours. At training pace, yet at that time a respectable race time. My goal for this year's race is to do at least a 5:30 bike on a 6:00 effort. Meaning I'm trying to dial in my aero capabilities. I've got the coolest new aero helmet, aero over booties for my shoes, aero fabric bike shorts and I'm about to order an aero jersey today. For the training ride I used the helmet, as it has a definate sweet spot that feels most aero and I wanted to practice dialing that in. I did wear my shorts, but not any aero jersey and in fact carried a very un-aero-dynamic Camel back.

The bike effort was easy enough that I felt like superman on the run. It may have also been the Red Bull, but I felt great! For this year's race I'm using a new shoe called "Hoka One One". It's got 3 times the normal cushion of a running shoe. Kinda spongy, but so nice on the legs.

In any case, after my test I recovered in 2 days and feel super fit and ready. One of my greatest challenges come race day will not be overpacing on the bike. Both previous Ironman Canada's I got too excited and sucked into a pace that left me nothing for the run. I hope to change that this year. Hopefully go almost as fast, but with more juice left for the run.

I'll keep ya posted!

The COULOIR

2011-04-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Each year there are a few skis I like to knock off and if my list gets long enough I’ll declare it a good ski season. One of those skis is right behind my house....the Canmore Couloir. Also known as Miner’s Gulley, the Canmore Ditch and other affectionate monikers.

This year I really wanted to do this one because the snow is so good if figured I could ski all the way down to the powerline behind my house and right to my back door. Which is precisely what I did! Usually the snow ends quite high...right up to the large open area necessitating a somewhat precarious down boot pack, then hike down the Highline trail and long walk finally to home. But even in low snow years it’s kinda cool to ski and then hike right to your house.

This year there were 5 of us on the expedition. Nathan Smith (nat’l team biathlon), Dave Hibbard (local extrordinare outdoor guy), Ian Murray (top nat’l xc racer) and Eric Carelton, who’d just returned from Russia where he was guiding Brian McKeever to several medals in the IPC World Cup.

With the incredible snow we were able to start skinning right from the parking lot, instead of the long icy hike up with crampons. After a quick snow pit stability check one by one dropped in.

“Couloir” is French for a narrow, steep gully in mountainous terrain, and this perfectly describes the start of the descent. Even though stopping within this steep section isn’t advisable, both Ian and myself (the first two in) took a quick break to clear some screaming lactic acid. After the brief pause we made our way down to a safe zone. On the way we skied over some avi debris that probably came down the day before in response to solar heating. It was a sobering reminder that we truly were “extreme skiing”.

From here the powder was exquisite....knee high. Then we came down to the less steep open bowl. The skiing would have been fantastic except for avi debris under the powder that occaisionally we’d slam into. We tried to read the snow, predicting where the underground bombs were, but they still would emerge and briefly interrupt our dreamy pow run.

We came to the choke where we’d usually have to take our skis off, but now we were able to ski high and go around some of the usual waterfalls. From here we hit the Highline trail where the fast, banked turns really made our day. Amidst the whoops and hollers it was a great way to end our adventure. Oh, and yes, I skied all the way to my back door. What a hoot! I love living in Canmore.

A New Race

2011-04-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Though it's been a few weeks since the last race of the season, the Lake Louise race, I want to post some thoughts. This being the first year it seemed like "the Lake" wanted to keep the race low key and make it somewhat of a test event. It was only formally announced 2 weeks before the event. This being the case though, the patrols and snow safety guys really pulled out the stops.

We started at mid mountain on the front side and proceeded to the top of the mountain, dropping into the “F-Shoot.” If you’re familiar with Louise, this is the steepest offering they have. Your feet literally drop out from under you. The first time I ever attempted this shoot (on Tele’s) my partner fell and slid high speed all the way to the bottom....no way to self arrest on the steep run.

Next we worked our way over to “Speed Run”. Speed run is where they used to run speed skiing contests. You remember that sport. It was even a demo sport in the ‘92 Olympics. They had a fatality that year and this probably sealed its fate as an Olympic sport. Speed Run was a deleriously pow loaded slope, the only downside was the extremely long boot pack to access it. The boot pack had a huge climb, then we walked along a flat ridgeline for quite a long ways.

After Speed Run we tucked it all the way over to the Temple lodge where we started a long traverse into the Purple Bowl. At Temple lodge there was an aid station. They asked me if I wanted water, I said, “sure!” I only found out after the race they also had Monster Energy drinks-one of the sponsors. If they’d asked me I’d for sure say yeah to that! I could have used the energy shot.

If you’re familiar w/ the Lake, you know that Purple bowl (like Speed Run) is beyond the resort boundary. After the long traverse...very cross countryish-what I like!, we ended up at the top of the Elevator shoot. From the name you can only guess how steep this 3rd big drop is. It was great! With more quality pow. It exited into the Rock garden, a really fun area of rock covered pillows. From there we spilled onto the groomers (finally back inbounds) and down to the lodge via the ski out. It was here that xc skiers again had a bit of an advantage as it’s not very steep and skating and double poling were the order of the day.

I brought along a couple of xc friends for their first ever rando race. One is a World Cup top 40 biathlete and the other, one of the top xc racers in the country (top 30 in the recent nat’l champs in Canmore). I think they were blown away by how difficult the sport is. In XC you get some rest on the downhills. In skimo the downhills, especially in this race are total leg burners. And instead of uphills lasting a minute or so, some of our climbs can be 30 minutes to even an hour (the latter more in the Euro races).

I didn’t ski as well as I’d have liked on the downhills in Louise and lost quite a bit of time, but I did make up some ground on the lower angle uphills. One has to know your strengths and weaknesses. Maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. At this point, my fitness is as good as it can be. This training year is ending after this week and I’ve put in one of my biggest hour years ever. I knew that going to Italy was a privilege...representing your country, and I wanted to be as prepared as I possibly could. Unfortunately the Euro races (and Louise!) revealed my downhill weakness, but since then I’ve really been working on it. And yes it has improved. That’s what makes sport fun. Evaluating where you’re at...trying to make yourself better and challenging yourself along the way to bring those incremental improvements that eventually lead to larger change and advancement.

THIS STUFF CAN KILL YA!!

2011-03-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

After a hard workout I like to imbibe my favourite poison as a reward....Coke. Really, you’d think it’d be the perfect post race recovery drink. It’s got 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per can-perfect for replenishing depleted glycogen stores. But sometimes I wonder if it’s the best for me. My fears may have been confirmed last weekend. With the cold winter we’ve had, some of the Coke cans stored in our insulated garage froze pretty hard and burst. They formed a nice tar like looking pool that in my procrastination avoided cleaning up for several weeks. Upon arriving home from the Dogtooth Dash skimo nat’l champs on the weekend, I noticed a dead mouse in the middle of the Coke tar pit. Now, I’m always looking for a new method to trap the elusive mice that invade my home, but this gave some cause for concern. Did the poor fella suck up the Coke tar causing an overdose of sugar? Perhaps a hyper-glycemic reaction to the concentrated Coke gob. Did he die of a heart attack? Remotely possible, but unlikely, Coca-Cola has gone back to the original formula and put cocaine in it causing a drug overdose. Maybe the fury creature was simply enjoying himself so much that he didn’t notice that his feet were getting frozen/glued/stuck in the tar mess. Man- that would have been scary...not being able to extract your legs. It’s possible he died doing all three. Realizing he was stuck, just decided to enjoy his predicament and continue to slurp up the goo, until his poor little sugar ravaged heart gave out. Maybe it’s time for me to rethink my workout recovery nutrition

the Gear is Here

2011-03-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

This year has been "gear-o-rama". With my expedition to Worlds I figure I needed to make sure I had what I needed and even some back ups. I've gotten Dynafit boots on a pro deal. A sponsor helped me get skis and bindings. I've purchased a few pairs of skins, looking for the elusive perfect mix of speed and kick. Through it all I've come to learn where to score the stuff.

I"ve tried getting ski companies to help out, but alas even my old Atomic connections couldn't come through. So I resorted to buying retail. But I learned some good lessons worthy of being passed on.

It's almost impossible to get the skimo stuff in North America, so I resorted to buying Euro. A strong Euro dollar didn't help, but there are 3 great online shops I"ll pass contact info on here. For my skis I called "Telemark-Pyrenees" (www.telemark-pyrenees.com). They said they had 1 pair of SkiTrab World cups left. I ordered them and they were at my door in just under a week. They were packed better than any online purchase I'd ever seen. In contrast, earlier in the year, utilizing a pro deal on some back-country skis ordered out of the usa, they came falling out of the box, with messed up paper work nessesitating me paying double duty on them and took over 3 weeks to arrive in the mail.

Next I ordered some Haero bindings from Vertical world (www.verticalworld.it). They also arrived in 1 week, with proper paper work. The vender even threw in a hat I hadn't ordered. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but the gesture makes me want to order more stuff (which I did!).

Euro pricing is either comparable or way better. The skins I got cost me about 50 Euro (65$CAD/US). In one case comparable skins from a shop in Whistler cost 200$+....plus the crazy BC 14% tax and shipping (way more duty than imported goods).

Another good shop out of Germany is: www.riapsport.de maybe a little more expensive than the others, but they've also got the skimo goods.

Good luck and happy shopping!

HIndsite

2011-03-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a week since I've been back from Italy and the world skimo championships. Whenever you've geared a big part of your life towards an event/competition, I've found there's a certain amount of let down or even mild depression. You've been gunning in your mind and training for so long for the event....now it's done.

Soooo, you've got to re-focus and set yoursites on the next challenge. For me there's a little dissappointment because the race didn't go as well as I'd hoped (teams). The entire race was going right according to plan. My fitness was good, we were in the hunt, then I fell apart on the downhill. Maybe I shouldn't make such a big deal of it. We probably only lost a couple of places, but still, one of my reasons for going over was to show myself that I could ski at that level. For that last downhill 1300 meters worth I felt I failed.

But any failure, dissappointment and set back are only opportunities to re-evaluate. See where you went wrong and correct the errors. So now that I'm back and have had plenty of time to mull things over here are a couple conclusions. First, I need to train downhill with my race skis. Our tiny 160 cm narrow, insanely light skis handle totally differently than any other kind of alpine board. I found this out while training this past week at Norquay.

Norquay is a smaller hill (by Rocky mountain standards) that has one chair with only knarly runs. All double black or hard black. I took my K2's with similar dimensions to my race skis and with a friend hammered 8 runs as fast as we could w/ no stopping. No sweat. A few days later I did the same, but with my race skis. I felt like a beginner!! The light skis required a totally different balance point. After 7 runs on them though I felt waaaay better. Why didn't I do this years ago? or even a couple of months ago? Duh.

I've actually got a couple bigger races left. Our Canadian Nat'l champs included. The organizer promises a more technical course (it was alreay the most technical course in Canada). I'm going to keep hitting Norquay on my race boards. Fortunately this year has officially become an epic year and the normally rocky Norquay has great snow. And thankfully I bought one of those 100$ mid-week season passes. Thanks Norquay. Now if you'd only let us do some skinning uphill.

Teams race: Race day!

2011-02-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Man! Do I feel nervous! Gotta make sure I enjoy this! As the starting gun goes off my heart rate zooms. I know I've gotta give 'er only enough that I can sustain for at least 3 hours. Even still my Polar hr monitor says I'm working hard and it FEELS like it too.

Quickly into the race is a very long bootpack. On go the skis to the backpack and we trudge away. From bootpack to more skinning the pace continues at a high level and though we're in the back third of the field, several teams begin falling off. Even some USA and Canada teams.

When we finally get to the top of the 2nd big climb, you can see how much snow fell up here in the alpine. It's over 70cm's. On our tiny race boards it's quite a challenge to get down. As a team we do alright. Not losing any places as I fall several times and StanO almost wrenches his knee. We promise we'll go a bit more carefully on the big descent.

For the final big climb I start to cramp a bit so we decide to do some towing. It's amazing that even though there wasn't a lot of drag on the line, my hr drops 15-20 beats as Stan mules me up the hill.

Now came the disaster. My legs were so cooked they really couldn't negotiate the deep pow and steep hill. I must have fell a dozen times. The vert would be similar to more than Whistler top to bottom and then some. We probably lost 15 minutes and dropped a few places (including the other Canada team).

When we finally made It to the valley floor it was one of the toughest slogs ever. I had several cramps going in my legs. It was such a relief to finally be over. Not the greatest result, but a victory for sure in perseverance!!

Teams race: pre-race

2011-02-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Team Canada 3 is StanO and SteveO. In the day leading up to our race StanO keeps bringing up important race strategy info. We really feel like a team within a team especially as we forego the usual free lunch up in Claut opting instead to avoid the drive up and various rigimoral associated with it and pay to eat in our hotel. The meal allows us to go over more race strategy.

Earlier that day we'd practiced towing. A strategy that many teams use especially if one person starts to fade or is a weaker skier. Using climbing harnesses and a mostly static line we give 'er a go with each taking turns as the mule.
The teams race is usually the most epic of the championships and this one looks like a doozy!! Three MAJOR climbs followed with a 1350m descent to the valley floor and a tour over shoveled snow into the finish line right in the village square.

I've been taking melatonin to aid my changed sleep pattern. ..hopefully it kicks in. I'm going to need it!!

Lets Get Vertical...Vertical...I wanna get Vertical

2011-02-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe the old Olivia Newton John song is before your time, but in any case getting vertical is one of my favorite things. its unusual then that I ve never done a vertical race before. In one of these pain fests you only go up. Usually from the bottom of a valley, village or ski area to the very top. This was the case yesterday. The venue was the ski area, Piacavella. The vert was "only" 540 meters. All up, no down, no flats, no rest, just hammer, hammer hammer.

I was still a bit tired from the epic teams race from 2 days earlier, but deb reminded me via blackberry text message that I love vertical. I kept telling myself that.

Just before the race began my heart rate monitor decided to go on the fritz. Too bad, cuz I would like to know how hi my old ticker can get...and maybe prevent going out too hard and blowing. Oh well, just take it as it comes.

As the race began I conceeded probably more than I should have, but in the end I truly felt like I had paced myself almost perfectly and gave all I could (always a good feeling). My only regret was that during the boot pack section (where you take your skis off and quickly lash them to your pack) I took an insanely long time to get them onto the pack before ascending. In doing so i lost a place to a Japanees fellow and someone else. I passed them back, but had to work for it. It is especially distressing because I had practiced this art. But being here I see how important fast transitions are and most accomplish the ski to pack art leaving the pole straps on. I thought i could do so without practice.....wrong. I got so tangled up the course marshalls took such pity on me that they helped me out and untangle myself. In this sport, outside help is strictly verboten so if a course marshall helps you, the ones suppossedly enforcing these rules, then you must be pretty hapless. in any case I probably lost a good half minute.

At least I did not get -"chicked" by our super stud female, Melanie. Who, by the way recorded North Americas best ever 6th place today in the sprint.

Back to the vert race. It was so foggy at the top that even though i was totally in the alpine and only a few hundred feet from the finish, I could not see anything more than 20 feet in front of me. Having not pre skied this portion of the course I had no idea where I was. At one point I asked someone, "how far?"...their response, "not far". Boy that really helped.

I could hear the announcers and crowd, and they were loud, so I knew I was close, but could see absolutely nothing. Finally the blow up arch came into view. Good thing too cuz the Japan dude was coming hard.

As painful as this sounds, it was kinda cool. Would like to do some more of these races, but I dont think we have any true vert races in N. America. Oh well there are always time trials!

ARRIVO ITALIA!!

2011-02-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am, finally at the skimo world competition, arriving early enough to quell the demons of jet lag and a confused digestive system. However it was a little strange as there was not snow to be seen anywhere, not even in the higher altitudes. On Wednesday it rained hard all day then turned to snow late in the afternoon. By morning there was plenty of the white stuff to allay any fears.

The next few days were spent skiing on some of the wettest snow I've ever seen. This must be like Vancouver snow.

At this point I've got a couple of days to ready my system. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy soaking up some post storm rays and catch up on my vitamin D deficiency!

Sunshine Race

2011-02-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Been a long time.....

Been a long time....not since I've rock and rolled (Led Zepplin), but made a post.

Today we had the Sunshine 5000. So named for the vertical feet. It was a beautiful clear, cold (-8C) day. The family came out to watch and all in all it was a great day!

I was feeling a little pressure cuz in just over a week I'll be heading over to Italy for Skimo World Champs. I felt like I needed to show I was worthy of going. As it was I finished 8th. Last among the team guys going, but not too far out of the hunt. In this I felt I accomplished a bit of my goals on the day.

Not sure why, but just didn't feel energized. I went out hard, backed off a bit to try to race smart. Tried to ski a perfect race (that was my mantra in my head). Fast transitions, no wipe outs, even pace. For the most part I did these. First race ever I didn't fall on any downhills. Maybe could have skied a couple a bit more aggressively, but mostly did ok.

With a lot of new and blowing snow I elected for full length skins for the 2 major climbs. I had great kick and could relax on the steep switchbacks. Unfortunately, both of them had longish lead ups and my glide was pretty slow on these parts. Deb even noticed on one of them when I went by..."your skis seemed slow". I think I'll replace the full lengthers with my new Pomocas once they get broken in. I bought them a little wider (65mm) for full coverage under foot.

So....hopefully I'll be logging in a bit more regularly as my adventure heats up....off to Italy. Man! What a privilege. Representing your country in International competitions.

I'll keep ya posted .

A LITTLE REST

2010-11-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago I had a typical training week...including a quality interval session up Nakiska, a time trial up Ha Ling (2 min off my pb in 39:00) and a couple nice real long hikes (longest was a 6 hour jaunt up 3 Sis' Pass). On the Monday I was baked, so I did an easy spin on the bike. Tues I was still real tired and really had to push through my interval workout. I finished it and was really glad I did, but I knew a whole lot of punch was missing. The next day I did an easy 2 hour run, but it was here that I decided to take some days off.....4 to be exact.

I realized that since my 1/2 ironman in early Aug, I'd never had much of a training break. Each week I take Sundays off, and there were a few weeks when I was either busy or distracted with a project and took another day or so off, but really no rest planned in the schedule for the last 3 months.

I could tell that mentally and physically I needed a break. My motivation to do my 3x per week strength workouts was gone. So to was the pop in my legs. It's like Ironman training when you kind of get used to that "always tired" state of being.

So this week after 4 days of rest I'm good to go! I put more weight than I ever have on the squat bar. Did a new interval protocol workout at the Nordic Centre and generally feel great!

Here in Canmore we've seen a few athletes develop what Deb and I refer to as "Canmore disease". It's when overly gung ho xc athletes come to train full time either on the Nat'l team or just below it and train themselves into a hole. Some never climbed out and retired. Others went for months or even a couple of years before they felt energetic at all. It's a kind of chronic fatigue. So after witnessing this in several athletes I know it's critical to not let that training hole become a black hole from which there is no return!

GETTING CLOSE

2010-11-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Days are getting short...winter and ski season can't be too far away. It's a tough time of year to keep the training going though. With such little light it means my weekly middle long run on Wed. mornings starts in the dark. The nice part is I get to see the sun come up over the mountains. Usually it cast a really cool orange on the now covered with snow peaks.

I did my last high altitude hike this week. Corey Pass in Banff nat'l park. I made it up to the pass in around 1.5 hours, but there were some real sketchy-icy sections towards the top. The "don't fall or you're going for a long slide" kind of footing. At this point I'll keep it to the valley floor and hope for some winter weather soon.

It's suppossed to be a La Nina winter, which usually means snowy and cold. The last 3 of 5 La Nina's around here though have been warm, yet snowy. That's a nice combination! Snow, but not not killer cold.

Last year we had an unusually cold and quick start to the ski season, doing xc on the golf course from early Oct. It was fun and good training, but with the warmer weather this year I feel like I've gotten a lot more quality training in. I've kept up the 2 intensity workouts per week as well as the 2 long ones.

GEAR DILEMNA

2010-10-03T08:51:00.001-07:00

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS RELIGIOUS MATERIAL THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME READERS!!

For a gearhead like me this is a great time of year. Deciding what new gear I need for the season and pouring over the specs and comparing. Since I'll most likely be going over to compete in the World Championships in Italy for Skimo I'll want have the best gear I can obtain/afford. What makes things kinda fun too is that our team leader in charge of gear, Ryan, has drummed up great pro deals for us. Did you hear that word? "Pro"? When I go to the Dynafit page I get to check in as a "PRO"!!! I love that concept. It also means a lot of markdown for the "PRO"!!

Cool.

So I have my boots figured out. I'm going to try to get some Dynafits. If I sell my Scarpas I can probably come close to breaking even there. Now comes the tricky part. Skis. It seems my 2 decade long affliliation with Atomic may finally be waning. The Dynafit skis are a super great deal, but word on the Int'l street is that they break and are really hard to ski on. Even the super stud Euros (the real pros that get them for free) are refusing to ski on them. Movement, a Swiss comany with the Canadian rep living right here in Canmore, may come through with a pro deal. I could always order some Atomics from Europe or try to get another pair of SkiTrabs.

So here's my dilemna. Even with a pro deal on skis and bindings it's probably going to cost me 800$ for a new pair. I've got 1 decent pair of SkiTrabs (probably the best skimo ski out there, but expensive). They're not the top line ski (weighing in 100g more than the World Cup model) and technically the bindings on there might not pass the new int'l rules (I have Gignoux heel-Dynafit toe, you're not suppossed to mix bindings). But in reality, they probably would work. I'd like to have a back up pair, especially racing in Europe.

But as I began to ponder the price.....800$ I began to wonder if I could get along with one pair. 800$...I wonder how much it costs to build a home in the 3rd world for a family living without one? I do have a fairly large quiver of skis....but racing at the top level demands good equipment. But 800$. I bet 800$ could purchase enough materials for a new home to be built in places like Mexico or Mongolia. I could get my pair of race skis, but a family could have a house!

I remember in the Bible there's a verse that says, "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Ouch.

To be continued...

Training Markers

2010-09-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Just recently got back from Wisconsin where I competed in the Chequamegon mountain bike race. 1700 start and at least that many others are denied entrance due to llimiting the size of the field. It was only my 3rd mountain bike race ever. The 2nd being the Cheq. 2 years ago.

My goal was top 200....I finished 286. Ironically, if I'd gone about 4 minuntes faster I would have made my goal. Alas, I'd given it all I had.

I find that in training you need some markers. Timed events or races that show you where you're at. When you repeat the time trial or race you have a realistic way of comparing and charting your progress or re-gress.

In 2006 my friend John Bauer elected not to go for another olympics. Although he was by far and away the USA's best xc skier in the '02 Olympics and a sure bet to make the team in '06 he stated that several markers in his training revealed that he wasn't where he felt he should be if he was to compete at the level he wanted to.

As athletes we should never fear laying it all out on the line and take an honest look at where we're at. So what if the test revealed that you need some improvement in a certain area. It could also show that the training is paying off and you're doing well....giving a confidence boost in the next big competition.

HOw did I do compared to my other Cheq? I was about 6 min slower and 30 places further back. I'm still not sure why, but it means I may have to buckle down a bit and get some riding it!

Training As Healing

2010-09-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Life can throw some curveballs at ya sometime. This week has seen not just one of those curveballs beaning right toward my head, but a couple. As one of my favorite rock groups, 7th Day Slumber sings, "life just sucks sometimes". But in the middle of harsh relational realities I've found that training can keep you from going insane. Each workout this week I had a smile on my face as I buzzed through the woods on my mtn bike or hammered up Ha Ling Peak behind my house. If I had to live in Regina or another vertically challenged place I don't know if I could take it. But no matter how sour things can get, there's so much joy by moving your body either through the woods or up a mountain.

Several years ago I had a friend that had just lost his wife and was himself diagnosed with a permanent physical disorder. Besides this he already suffered from depression. He'd talked of suicide from time to time, but never seriously- when these things hit him though I began to fear for him. In the midst of all this he began to run again with the goal of finishing a marathon. He joined a group at his health club. With the new goal and relationships he had a reason to get out of bed each day. I seriously think the marathon (which he finished) saved his life.

There's a lot more to training than going fast, beating someone or accomplishing a time goal. Sometimes a run can be the most spiritual, emotionally healing thing you can do for yourself.

THE POWER OF THE 5 HOUR

2010-07-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

There's something about doing a 5 hour workout. Whether it's all one discipline (run, bike, etc.), or a mix of cross training. I find that in the week following a 5 hour I'm stronger in any discipline. It's just something about going that long on your heart and lungs and muscles.

I remember reading how Mark Allen recommends not going over 6 hours (ironman training) as it has diminishing returns. But "The Grip" also talks about workouts that are so ridiculously hard that they make your race seem easy. Imagine the confidence that can give you come race day.

At this time of year when I still have some tri's to do, the 5 hour is mostly bike-run. Come August I'll be doing a mix of biking-hiking....maybe some long 5 hour run-hikes too.

The Norwegians used to refer to their research where the heart size begins to expand after 2 hours of training. Bigger heart = bigger stroke volume = higher VO2 max = faster race! So a 5 hour is way out there in performing this important function.

It's interesting to me that if I train for 1/2 ironmans (as I have the past 3 years) instead of the full, I only do a 4 hour bike-run. But for a full I'll make sure I do 5 hour bike-run. You wouldn't think it's significant, but for some reason that extra hour just has an exponential effect...hence "The Power of the 5 Hour"!

Strength Training Residual

2010-06-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder if all that strength training you did in the off season is still paying off? Perhaps it's so long ago that you've lost all of it by now anyway. I've come to a conclusion on this based on this past ski season. Around this time last year I began whitewater kayaking (a new sport to me), weight lifting and swimming (prep for tri's). It was all too much for one of my rotator cuffs and it was really sore. I kept up the swimming and kayaking, but stopped doing upper body weights and did a fair bit of stretching. Usually this would be enough to quell the pain, but it persisted until January.

I knew I had to get serious about this so I began a series of dumbell strengthening exercises. Being during the ski race season time was short so I soon just worked out the offending limb. In a matter of 3 weeks all the pain was gone. A good enough lesson here...use strength development to prevent and cure injured areas; however another lesson emerged months later.

In May when I decided to do pre-emptive strengthening of those shoulders before the injury happens, I noticed how much stronger the past injured limb was. The one I'd worked exclusively for only 3 weeks. Here it was 3-4 months later and with only 3 weeks of training only that limb it was significantly stronger that the non-worked out shoulder.

The lesson I take away from this is that we may not lose as much strength as we think when we taper off intentional strength building in favor of racing in our chosen aerobic sport. Maintainace workouts are a good idea, but we may be retaining more of that hard earned fitness than we realize.

Hanging On

2010-05-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well here it is May 13. We’re still skiing after 7 months. Around here in the Canadian Rockies a good ski year is a 7 month ski season. 2 weeks ago myself and a couple other guys skied into the Little Yoho Valley and stayed 2 nights at the Stanley Mitchell hut. There was great skiing as we checked out both Emerald pass and President’s pass. On the way down the warm weather turned the snow iso under our feet....my really sore feet- due to some bad news blisters. I told myself as the skiing gave way to hiking, that I’d be at peace putting the skis away.

But that was 2 weeks ago, and it turned cold again! Last week I was up early (sunrise is around 5:00 a.m. now) and reasoned that if I got going I could get a ski in around Sunshine Village and be back in the office a little after 9. So I went up the ski out, then took a right up to Wawa ridge. It was cool topping out long before the lifts even got cranked up. The snow was fresh pow over a firm base....unreal for May! I resolved to come back on the weekend.

Saturday, top ranked Canadian xc skier Ian Murray and myself returned up to that Wawa ridge and yo-yo ‘d 4 runs off the steepest, longest run we could find. Bright sun and great snow really amped us up!

Then....Monday I returned yet again and skied at the Sunshine Village ski area downhill area. Yup, I took the lifts this time, even dropping into Delirium Dive 3 times. I was kinda tired and in the a.m. mostly unmotivated....pre-Delirium, and was contemplating an early departure (something the ski nut and cheapo in me would never do!). However, the Dive and the warming sun combined to give some amazing ski conditions. I squeezed out the day to the last lift going for the day. Mentally I was relieved as this is normal behavior, vs. that wimp out early departure stuff.

Am I done? Probably not. But it is getting warm this week. Maybe I finally should get those bikes going.

The Zoolander of SkiMo

2010-04-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

For goofy movie afficionados (I’m guilty) Zoolander is a big hit. The one main problem Zoolander, male model extrordinaire, had was that he couldn’t turn left. You can be male model of the year several years running, but inwardly when you know that you just can’t turn left it’s going to leave you feeling somewhat insecure.

In some ways I feel like the Zoolander of skimo. No, I’m not referring to my chiseled good looks, six pack abs or the "black lung" post race cough I experience. It’s that when under pressure I can’t seem to get into my Dynafit bindings or perform quick efficient kick turns. In our nat’l points race finale, the Dogtooth Dash, I experienced another Dogtooth disaster. The reason being I lost so much time on kick turns and Dynafit snafues. I didn’t help that my razor sharp ski edges....thanks to the world’s best ski tuners- Couloir Bike and Ski of Canmore.....sheared off 90% of one of my pole baskets while performing one of my technically disturbed kick turns. Those same edges sliced my pole in half mid way in the race on a downhill crash. I missed that pole and basket and certainly lost time because of it, but really-after all these years now of racing you’d think I’d have kick turns and Dynafit transitions down.

These are mental errors and can be fixed. Yes I practiced both before the race and thought I had them down. I think this summer I’ll go out to steep grassy knolls and practice the kick turns. I’ll also go down to my local rink, gather ice shavings, dump them on my skis and practice getting in and out of Dynafit bindings (everyone knows that ice and snow clogging the binding makes it more challenging).

So another race season gone. I’m already looking forward to next year. Who knows, if Zoolander can rescue the Prime Minister of Thailand from the evil Mugatoo by overcoming his disability, then maybe there’s hope for me too....the Zoolander of skimo!

One Last Blast`

2010-03-30T11:32:00.001-07:00

It had been a couple of weeks since my last race (Rocky Mtn Ski Marathon...30km....6th), so I felt I needed one last race type effort before our SkiMo nat'ls this weekend. What to do? Time trial up Sunshine ski area. I've gone from gondola bottom to the very top several times, but only a couple in a time trial format. The total climb is 1070 meters of vertical over approximately 12km.

It was a saturday so I wanted an early start to avoid the crowds. Starting out low the freeze/melt cycle had set up a bit of an icy course but I was surprised how quickly it gave way to untransformed powder. I used all my best race gear, mohair skins included. I find that icy conditions really eat up the mohair skins, so in the spring I switch to synthetic. Today though I could see the mohair was the right choice.

My format is to ski easy for 15 min., then give 'er. I don't know if it was the short night of sleep or the 3 hour easy ski I'd done the night before, but I was tired and I just couldn't get my heart rate up very high. O well, I thought, just go hard, see what the intermediate time is at the main lodge and see what happens.

As I started cranking. My first thought was, "I gotta shorten these race poles." I've already cut 'em down 3 times....any more and they can double as sledge hockey poles. But I'm finding that for climbing the shorter poles are the way to go. 125 cm for me, otherwise they just get in the way...in the ups and the downs.

I made the lodge in 47 minutes, a pb by almost 3 minutes. Even though the heart wasn't getting very high, I must have been moving pretty good. As I continued to climb I could see the area had really been getting a lot of spring pow. If fact that day it was wind blown in. It kinda slowed me down. As I reached the "Bye-Bye Bowl" the steeper sections were challenging as the new windblown was slipping away over the ice. I had to make several extra switchbacks to keep the angle lower. This obviously was going to cost me time, but reasoned I needed to practice my switchbacks anyway. With each one I ranked it for its speed and efficiency.

As the top of the mountain lift station came into view I could see from my watch that a new record was in reach. I'd tell myself, "13 minutes to get to the top." Then, "7 minutes to get to the top." With each glance at the watch I could also see my heart rate also begin to climb. Maybe I'd just needed some motivation to get it high, which now seemed to be the case.

Final time: 1:28:02

My previous best was 1:32:00. A PB by 4 minutes. I was stoked. I guess I am in ok shape after all. How will this compare to the other guys next week? I couldn't tell ya (probably be in my next blog). But in the end it's not about beating anyone or placing at any position. It's about doing the absolute best that YOU can do. That's where you have to focus your energy. A lot of people really have big time race nerves, but I've found that if you just concentrate on you- your race and doing all you can to be the best you can be, it really helps the pre-race nerves. Go as hard as you can, maximize every opportunity to pick up time and let the results take care of themselves. In this way you can walk away from any race at peace with yourself.

After posting that time I must admit I was stoked! Though my legs were shaking I teamed up with someone and dropped into Delirium Dive. On my light 160cm race skis the powder mank was a challenge, but I was up to it. The ski out saw this skier with a big smile on his face as I contemplated how cool it is to live here, do a (shortish) 2 hour workout in this manner, in this environment.

ROAM...The One That Got Away

2010-03-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

With all the nat’l team guys in Europe I figured ‘d better win this one. It had only been a week since my very hard effort at the US Birky, but I’d babied my body as best I could within that week in preparation. In retrospect I think I was tired and burnt from being away at the Olympics for 3 weeks plus the travel. I’d never been so exhausted after a race and took so long to recover.

In any case, at the start line I did the usual check out the skis to see who would be competitive. It didn’t look too threatening. It was almost comical at the start as several dudes with heavy gear really charged up the first incline. I was redlining it and still wasn’t in the lead with my lighter gear. Finally, after about 400m they all died off and I was off to the races. After the first small climb and very short somewhat gnar mogully downhill there was a nice 1.5 km cat track downhill. I was planning on skating away from the pack and skating up the first incline before the climb up into the woods. I’d even scoped it out the day before. It’s kinda funny though that the only part of the course I checked out was the one I took the wrong turn on...duh. The course took a Y to the right, but my speed was so high I went blowing right by it. After awhile sensing something might not be right I looked back and saw no one behind me.....so I stopped....a big hi speed hockey stop....still no one there. Shoot!! I realized what I’d done. Now I had to skate ski up the downhill I’d just torn down. By the time I was back on course at least ½ the field were in front of me. So much for my blazing skate ski speed and confidence after last week’s Birky.

Climbing up the wooded trail was tough. There had been several freeze thaw cycles and in the morning the south facing track was quite icy. Those with big skis and big synthetic skins actually had an easier time. However, I kept hacking my way up and by the time I got to the top of the climb (almost an hour later), the snow had turned untransformed and I’d caught everyone but the top 2.

It was here that I did something right. Along the ridge top it was a gradual up, down and flat. I brought my very short skins....the well broken in ones, and had waxed them with a hi flouro wax. I also put a hi flouro wax on the tails of my ski. On this section of the trail and later in the race a 1.5 traverse to the final bowl, I really made some time. There were even some downhill sections where we kept our skins on....I flew.

After navigating Ymir bowl’s death cookies, we climbed up to the top on the other side of the valley. It was here that I saw 1^st and 2^nd place. Time to move!! I reeled in 2^nd no problem, but the lead guy was pretty far up there. In the end I ran out of real estate. At the top of the mountain they said that "Spider Man" had 2 minutes on me. Spider Man!! I know him! I skied with him in Whitefish (he beat me).

At the finish there he was. 2 minutes ahead. I figured I’d lost at least 5-6 minutes on my wayward tour off course. He looked kinda sheepishly at me and said he’d yelled out to me when he saw me go awry, but to be honest I’m guessing the yell wasn’t too loud. He was getting the interview and picture taken for the local paper. They weren’t interested in 2^nd place. I was a little ticked at myself for letting this one get away...but get this...

First place award was a nice pair of Dynafit Vertical bindings. 2^nd place was a really nice Arcyterx pack. I’d secretly been hoping to win such a prize (the pack). I’d just purchased those very same bindings just the week before to put on the G3 Tonics I’d won from Backcountry magazine. Everything works out in the end!!

ANOTHER BIRKY IN THE BAG

2010-03-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't written since November...it's about time!!! One of my goals for the year was to go to Andorra and compete in the Ski Mo Worlds. Fortunately I was named to the team (squeeking on), but with working in the Olympic Village for 3 weeks felt it was just too much additional time away (not to mention the cost). So my consolation prize was to race the Birky for the 23rd time.

My goal here was to continue to be in the elite wave, but now qualifying at age 50. In the 25+ years that they've had the elite wave, I've always qualified. Mind you, it's getting a bit tougher. The days where you would go out hard and fast but bonk midway, yet still hold on for a top 200 position are over. You falter even for 5 minutes and you're out. But still you have to go for it. The race is fast and when you start with the elites they suck you right in to a pace that most likely is over your head.

Such was the case this year. The first 15 km has a lot of climbing and as I kept an occaisional eye on my HR monitor I tried not to panic. "Can I really go this hard?" after 9 km my per km time was 2:44. I barely ski around 3min when I race in Canmore for 10 Km! But I hadn't raced this year...what? Yes this was my first skate race of the year! Maybe my only one too! That seems strange to me as the Birky usually is the cap of a season of long racing. Racing prepares you mentally and physically and I'd only done a couple of low key classic races (bombing in both) and 3 skimo races.

At the 10km mark I really felt a bonk coming on. I'd been going too hard trying to keep up with the group. I only brought 3 gels, even then thinking it was 1 too many. So I began to nurse that bonk flirting on the edge for the next 40km. I was able to pick up a couple of gels at aid stations and get drink feeds. Somehow I never fell over the glycogen depletion precipise and hung on and even kept the pace up.

I latched on to 2 other guys. One of whom was "Rocket" Rod Raymond of Duluth (I didn't know it was him until I checked the results). From OO on we had a nice pack of 3-4 except for when the lead women passed us at 30km. We hung on for 10 km, but then they started challenging each other for the win-trying various breakaways in the hilly section. Usually the the gals (who start 2min back) don't catch me until the lake, so I suspected maybe I wasn't going as fast as I thought I was.

It's always a huge relief to hit the lake knowing there's only a few km's left. You can hear the crowds, see the water tower and taste the finish line at the end of main street. Most years though the lake can be a long slog and usually I get passed by packs. This year the packs weren't around and though I couldn't quite keep up with my OO pack, I reeled in several stragglers...those drifting in bonk land just trying to make it in. My right tricept muscle began to cramp with every stroke of the pole. My legs had been on the verge of cramping for 20km and I knew that if the race was even 2km longer I'd be in big trouble!

It's hard to describe the feeling of coming down the spectator lined main street. Later on when there's streams and streams of racers the cheering may ebb downward a bit, but when you're still kind of up there and only dozens v. thousands of skiers have passed by, the crowds are still going pretty berserk. It's a lot of fun, but mostly because you know the end is just right there.

Finishing is such a good feeling. Not only can you finally rest after almost 2 and 1/2 hours, but there truly is joy in completing the journey. I know I had the biggest smile on my face. I'd raced with absolutely everything I had in me. When I felt bonkish at 10km I continued on pace for another 40km. Through the battle I felt I had skied at the top end of my capabilities the entire way. For the effort it seemed to me that I'd for sure be top 100, maybe even top 80. But it didn't matter because the real victory was in the effort. I'd known I'd given the best effort I was entirely capable of. I was a little surprised to learn later of my 160th place, but that didn't diminish the joy and satisfaction of racing my best.

My per km time averaged out to 2:48. For me really good!! I met my overall goal of top 200. It used to be that you'd be really happy with top 50. Then it was top 100. If you didn't meet the goal at least qualify for next year's elite top 200 wave so you could have another shot. Now though I think the goal is just stay elite! And to give an idea how competitive it is if I'd skied 31/2 minutes faster I would have placed in my age group (I was 5th-my best a.g. ever) and been in the top 100....if I'd have skied 4 minutes slower I would have been out of the top 200.

My head is still Birky buzzing 4 days later. But really my focus for the year has been on skimo racing. Somehow I've got to get it together mentally and physically because we have a nat'l points race in Nelson BC this weekend. I've never been so tired for so many days after a race. It's thursday today and the first day I felt like I actually had some energy (non-caffeine fueled).

I guess going to WI and racing my 23rd Birky gave me Birky fever. I've heard about it and for many years of my life lived, skied and trained under its clouding influence. Funny though....I don't really mind!

An Epic....& a Few Lessons Learned

2009-11-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok.....it was my day off (mon.) I was looking forward to some back country skiing as the snow has been really piling up in the b.c., even though it’s only early Nov. My plan was to do some sewing repairs on ski pants and then head out. My destination: Sunshine Village Ski area via Healy creek and the backside meadows. I’d done this trip many times, knew it well, knew the avi danger is almost non-existent (except for a small-short rock band that is very well flagged). I set out at 2 PM expecting the ski to last between 2-3 hours.

It was great skiing on snow right from the beginning. It was also snowing, not very cold and shaping up to be a classic winter day. Everything went totally well until I reached the top of the rock band. I was about 2 hours out (the quickest I’d ever done the tour was 2 hours total-so a little slower this time) and was following the flagging on the trees up to the alpine. Once in the alpine everything looked completely different than all the other times I’d ever been up there. Wind, snow and flat light conditions eliminated all mountain reference points. It was now 4 and darkness would start in 1.5 hours....I was getting a little nervous. I’ve done this tour so many times I didn’t even think to bring navigational tools (compass, map, gps). I was going to bring the latter, but I’d left it in my other vehicle and Deb had that in Banff.

I began praying to find the remaining flagging, but never did. I figured I was pretty much still on course so took a left and heading out for the remaining couple of km’s to the ski area. At this point I didn’t recognize anything. Later, after pouring over the topo map at home I realized I probably was on course, but a couple of ridges over.

I reasoned that there was maybe a 20% chance I’d gotten turned around and could be going the wrong direction. It was now 5pm and light was really fading. At this juncture I made a critical decision. I could either continue on with a chance of never finding the ski area, thus I’d be shuffling around in the windy alpine and would have to spend the night hunkered down somewhere....not a very appealing thought. The other choice was to back track my ski tracks. I was over 3 hours out, so that would make for a loooong, dark ski...not very appealing either, but I thought it was my best chance to get home to my warm bed.

As I was backtracking, at one point my trail had been blown away. This was the only true moment of panic as I realized if I didn’t find that trail I definitely would be sleeping in a tree well. After a loud shouted prayer I was able to find the ski trail in the now seriously waning light. Back in the trees the trail was easy to find. I made it safely down the rock band and down the drainage to Healy Creek. Now however, all light was gone. This would have been no problem, but dumb-dumb here didn’t bring his headlamp. I had 5 km to my truck. The trail is pretty straight forward, but in this darkness it would be possible to veer of track and never find it again, so I proceeded very cautiously.

What happened next I’m not sure if it was a blessing or the opposite.....my ski came out of the binding. Now I have a thing going with Dynafit bindings. In rando races I’ve lost a lot of time trying to get those stupid bindings on. In the darkness it would be very difficult. I never did get that ski back on. I must have tried 100 times. I even took the boot off my foot and kneeled down trying to feel it in. Using the light on my watch gave me a little visibility, but I still couldn’t get ‘er. So I continued down the trail, occasionally stopping to give it another go....but to no avail. I mention that it might have been a little of a blessing in that with the free foot I could defiantly feel the firmness of the track and if I was inadvertently getting off the trail. It was a slow slog but finally I could see the light of the gondola base.

It was a quarter to 9 when I finally got to my truck. Immediately a SSV staffer came up on a snowmobile and asked if I was Steve..... "uh yeah". He gave me his cell phone to call Deb and let her know I was ok. I could hear the kids cheering in the background. I wondered how many people knew about this.

Sooooo, here’s what I did right: I left a detailed description on the phone answering machine as to my itinerary. I carried a down jacket with me and extra dry gloves. A night out would be very uncomfortable, but in this weather easily survivable. In retrospect I think I would have found the ski area, but in evaluating my odds, I made what I still think was the right decision to backtrack.

What I did wrong: no headlamp......that was really dumb. Plus not having the gps. The whole thing would have been a no brainer even in the white out if I just had the gps. Sometimes gps can fail, so a map and compass are important too. A partner is always a good idea, but not always feasible.

The day after the ordeal I ordered an E-Bivy from MSR. It’s a 71$ emergency bivy bag. At ½ pound light enough to keep in your pack. I also am in the process of putting together a permanently designated back-country backpack with 1st aid and repair kit, extra sox-shirt-warm gloves and food. I’ll keep the bivy bag in there too as well as a compass. I’ll never leave home without a map/compass and warm jacket.....oh, and a head lamp! In addition, my good friend Dave, who was preparing to get up at 4 am the next day to come looking for me, has offered to let me use his sat phone any time I venture out.

I guess a lot of people learn valuable back country lessons the hard way. It could have been a lot worse for me. Fortunately, I’ve hopefully learned the lessons and now will always be prepared for the worse. Even if that pack is a little heavy, that just means the workout is better.

Blisters and Beauty

2009-09-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I did one of the classic tours around here in the Canadian Rockies. Mt. Shark to Sunshine Village ski area via Mt. Assiniboine. Winter or summer the beauty of this high alpine traverse is amazing. I’ve vowed to go back this winter and make the trip in 2 days. My venture began at the Shark trail system (back up nordic venue for ‘88 Olympics). The trail to Assiniboine was ~25 Km. I counted 5 storm squalls along the way. The higher I hiked up Marvel pass the worse storm #4 got. Tonnes of lightning and a lot of hail put me under a tree for a few minutes while I calculated my move over the exposed alpine pass. There seemed to be a window of clearing so I bolted for it. I found out later that even down in the valley the storm got pretty adverse as it knocked power out in Canmore for 2 hours. Up high- you can imagine the lightning peril!

The view over the pass was amazing though. Crossing over into BC I could see the Tamaracks were getting ready to turn brilliant yellow and drop their needles. Just as I got into the trees storm #5 hit and the lightning cranked up again. Man was I feeling blessed, lucky, etc.! I was planning on camping, but there are a series of huts (Naiset hut system) that only cost 15$ per night, so I went for it. The rain was really picking up and only a few meters higher the rain was turning to snow. As luck would have it, the cabin I went to had an incredibly friendly couple that had not only stoked the fire making for a toasty warm hut, they’d just finished their dinner and had a lot left over. Not wanting to pack out the leftovers out they begged me to finish it off for them. I was sort of expecting them to dissapear a.l.a. "Angels are Us"...that’s how unbelievable everything seemed.

Before setting out on day #2 I had to spend some time just soaking in the views of the majestic Mt. Assiniboine. While sitting on a bench looking across lake Magog up to this Matterhorn wanna be mountain, I was so struck by the stunning beauty I was so overcome.. I think there were tears in my eyes....(ok, enough of this sensitive ‘90's man stuff).

The only glitch in the day was the ball of my left foot. A blister had been forming. Day 2 saw another 22km of trail and that blister really worsened and then another started forming on my right foot in the exact same place. By the end of the day I had the 2 most ginormous blisters I’d ever seen....no kidding they were both 4x7 cm!! I was pretty relieved to get to camp at Douglas lake. The last day’s hike out was a mere 13km in the Sunshine Meadows. It was so nice up there. I was really wishing though that it was winter because then I could ski out the last 9km all downhill. Hiking with those blisters was painful!!

Lessons I learned:
-I really, really like the new sleeping pad I got for the trip. Big Agnes from MEC. 97$ and well worth it. It’s an air mattress with Prima loft....toasty warm!

- don’t use lightweight hiking shoes when carrying a pack. I think you need the extra support hiking boots give, even with a lighter pack (mine was 30-35 pounds). I think this was the cause for the blisters

Hiking & Running with Poles

2009-08-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

This morning I bagged one of my local favs....Grotto Mountain. Well, technically I didn't get to the total top, just the false summit. It's where I generally go. From the Alpine Club Canada clubhouse it's a major vertical climb. much of the hike is serious steep. It's good training for rando racing bootpacking because of its equivalent steepness.

A hike such as this without poles would be much harder....both up and down. Going up I generally double pole it really leaning over and reefing on those poles. On the descent it keeps your speed in check and is a good back up in case the ankle starts rolling over.

A friend recently commented that he couldn't bring himself to run with poles after observing all the "Nordic Walkers" at the ski hill where he works. Granted, the new fad has its fair share of "cherry pickers" (those that really aren't using the poles but pluck them ahead anyway), but the guys that do it right really use their arms.

Here's a video of some jr. athletes bounding....some good, some not so good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shmGa1XgPh8

The bottom line is that xc & skimo are quadrepedal sports, using all 4 limbs. As such, it places a higher demand on the cardio system (why xc skiers record such unworldly VO2 values). So we've got to train this way.

While in line for some lunch in Italy for the skimo Euro champs last year Dave D. and myself talked a bit to the Austrian delegation leaders. One of them commented that they used to just mountain bike all summer, but with their new coach- a former nat'l team xc skier, they were radically changing things. Mountain biking has a couple of serious limitations. First, it's not quadrepedal and second, it's not weight bearing. In the 80's a few of my xc friends would bike a lot, but take their saddles off (making it weight bearing). It was a whole new workout!!! Try it, you'll see the difference (just make sure you don't mistakenly sit down onto the seat post....ouch!!

Go Vertical or Go Home!!

2009-08-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Deb & I did the inaugural “Hector’s Haul” running race up Kicking Horse ski area. It was a 4400' climb over 4km. With only 8 competitors (Deb being the only female), a podium finish was within grasp. I say this half jokingly because races like this are all about training. The timing was interesting as we’d just returned from our family vacation. After 10+ days of sitting either in a car or at the beach I was feeling less than fit, but pretty well rested.

Local ski patroller, Ian Gale and myself went head to head until the final alpine bowl where he seemed to want it more than me and pushed harder....going for the win at just around 1 hour. I ended up a couple of minutes back.

At this stage of the training year I’m doing 1 interval workout each week. We’re still in the base period, but next week will transition into the build period. So for the next 16 weeks I’ll increase the intensity workouts from 1/week to 2. I still remember my ski coach talking to Greg Lemond about his training and racing. Greg was the first American to win the Tour de France. He received a lot of criticism though for not doing so well in the classic Euro races leading up to the tour. But Lemond knew what he was doing. He shared with my coach that he knew about lactic acid curves (charting your heart rate and lactic acid level) and that too much hard stuff moves your curve in the wrong direction, meaning that when it comes time to peak....you won’t. Another great athlete, Swedish skiing star Thomas Wassberg once mentioned that he was proud of the fact that he never won a race before Christmas. However AFTER Christmas he won a lot, including Olympic and world championship races.

Racing is good for training though, even in the base period. It keeps you mindful of the discomfort often felt in racing and it keeps your body on that upper edge. But for sure it shouldn’t be over done this time of year.

As for vertical, it’s time to start climbing!! I was pleasantly surprised at my mental attitude during Hector’s Haul (other wise known as H.’s Hurl). I think I’m getting used to prolonged vertical climbs. Rando racing sure puts a premium on this. The first uphill at the Euro champs individual race last year took me almost an hour.

So from here on out I’m planning on doing 2-3 major mountain vertical hikes per week and one shorter uphill interval workout. I love these workouts as you usually get rewarded with an amazing mountain top view!!

So....go Vertical or Go Home!

Racing in Thin Air

2009-05-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

April 25th I found myself in the rarified air of the big CO....that’s right, Colorado. Taking a 1 week sabbatical from my work to reflect, unwind and recharge, I decided to head south for some sun, friends, mountain biking in the desert of Moab and yes a Rando ski race in CO.

Having taken my final 4 week period of rest/recovery otherwise known as “de-training” I wasn’t in the frame of mind or physical space to enter the longer, more demanding race, so at the risk of being labelled a sand-bagger I entered the rec course. I didn’t wear my nat’l team suit as to give myself away, but I ran into Scott Coldiron at the start and my cover was blown.

After Canadian nationals and my disasterous performance there I just didn’t have the heart to continue training hard intervals and such to prepare for this race that probably wouldn’t help my Canadian standings. Besides, that injured knee from the Euro champs still wasn’t 100% , so I decided to end the race season, rest up, plan the next year’s training and get ready to mount my drive towards the 2010 season.

However, being in CO it was too tempting not to toe the line on the race. I reasoned with myself that even if I wasn’t in full on race mode, every start gives a new experience and lessons that can be learned. There’s just so much to this sport to figure out....equipment, pacing, training, technique, etc.

But holy cow!!! Is CO ever high up in elevation!! The race was at A basin and started....yes STARTED at 11,700 feet! We ascended up to over 13,000 feet.
I watched the first group go up and I thought to myself, maybe I should have entered the full on race division as they seemed to be moving pretty slow, then I started my warm up and realized why they were moving so slow!! There’s no air!!

I started out ok....leading for awhile, but as I kept a watchful eye on my heart rate monitor I realized that backing off a bit would make my day a whole lot more enjoyable, so I slipped into 2nd place where I remained all the way to the top of the mountain.

The rec division seemed to be the main race, at least numbers wise. The longer event had only recently been added, so there almost seemed more prestige.....anyway, all told it was a great experience. The downhill down a double black chute (after bootpacking up) was powder ice crust and a real pain. Yet I skied it ok with the new SkiTrabs helping a ton.

So what up now? Training man!! I’m recharged, refocused and ready to go. I’ll do some posts on laying out a systematic plan for the year. A couple guys have asked help with this, so I’ll start to put some info down. Plus, I’m contemplating putting together a manual on the “when to’s, why to’s and how to’s” For ski mo. Let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in!!!

Ciao 4 now!!

Trapper Jerry's Last Run down Delirium Dive

2009-04-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about the history of "Trapper Jerry", but here’s what I do know. Supposedly he worked around Banff decades and decades ago. At age 94 he’s become somewhat of a local folk hero legend. His legendary status has been achieved by his unbroken string of years descending "Delirium Dive" at Sunshine ski area. If you’re a local, you’ll know about Delirium. It’s a double black diamond super expert area that is technically inbounds, but has a decidedly back country, wild feeling to it. You cannot enter into the gate without a partner, avalanche beacon and shovel. It’s super steep and definately not for the faint of heart or the "sort of kinda expert" skier....

So today it was Trapper Jerry’s big day. My party of four just happened upon the momentous occasion as we barely squeaked into the gate under the 3 o’ clock deadline. Jerry was accompanied by 3 ski patrols, with another in radio contact from above.
I shouted out to friends to hurry and get their butts up the bootpack when I suddenly realised what was transpiring.

We watched a very tentative 94 year old barely pick his way down the easiest line. It hadn’t snowed in awhile and the white stuff was very firm and skied in. On my earlier 3 runs I’d been thinking how if one were to fall, there would be no way of stopping the slide unless you had one of Andrew McClean’s whippet ski pole self arresters..... which still would be iffy as to its effectiveness.

Just as we were watching, to our horror, the worst came true. Old Trapper Jerry lost his balance and started his slide. The 3 patrollers helplessly watched as their companion in care careened speedily out of control down the mountain. Now you’ve got to understand Delirium, it goes on and on in its steepness. Before the steeps end there are several cliffs. Not super big ones, but you could easily flop off into a 50-100 metre drop.

T.J. was doing a major rag doll. Arms, legs head....everything just flopping around. When he finally came to a stop, very close to one of the afore mentioned cliffs well over ½ km from where the slip up started, we were sure he’d broken every bone in his 94 year old body. The patrollers immediately radioed up to the patroller watching with us that only his shoulder seemed injured. It could be bad, but man o man it could have been a lot worse.

As I skied down in the general direction, I tried not to turn above him, because each turn would release snow balls and even rocks that would shoot down the mountain. O’l Jerry had his pockets unzipped, because all the way down the slide path there were several Kleenex’s spaced out, Blistex and other assorted junk. I came to a stop a fair bit away from the crumpled geriatric pile and talked with one of the patrollers. He said they were going to try to bring him out on a sled...a huge task considering the terrain and the distance back to the main ski area proper.

And then this patroller stated the obvious, "I’m pretty sure this is Trapper Jerry’s last run down the Dive."

TIME TO SKI!!!

2009-03-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

ok, now the racing season is over. If there were more races to do, I'd do them, but the season has run out. I know some people who are tired and want some off time, but now is the time to get on those boards!!

When I lived along Lake Superior we got super dumped on with snow. The race season would be over in early/mid March, but the skiing would often last another 4-6 weeks. With the melt/freeze crust the mornings were set up for great skiing. We’d embark at dawn skiing on snowmobile trails until we found a good crust layer and then go darting randomly through the woods and between trees dancing over a firm crust layer. If we stuck to the "biler"trails sometimes we’d cover up to 100km’s. By noon the crust would be thawing so we’d call ‘er a day, come home and collapse into bed for a recovery nap. The results of such adult play forays? An incredible sense of comfort on skis.

It’s called accumulated snow time. Being on your skis for hours on end, just playing would give us an amazing sense of balance, comfort and "at-homeness" on our skis. We’d often wonder why we didn’t do this in the fall, pre-race season.
So, if you’re a skier... a true skier that loves to be on the boards in the woods, backcountry, on the trails, etc. don’t put ‘em away!!!

Today it’s March 29th and it’s snowing like crazy out my window. The skiing out my back door is the best it’s been all season. The weather man is calling for the entire week to be cold and snowy. And to think we almost went down to Moab!!! That would have been a huge mistake!!
I’ve got to face it...I live in ski country and I’m a skier. For the month of April I may be done with structured intervals, races and time trials, but there are many ski adventures awaiting. Starting tomorrow. My 9 year old daughter Anna and I are skiing into Lake O Hara for an overnight at the hut, then it’ll be a month of downhill, back country, xc, wood ski tours, etc. I can’t wait. Detraining period will have to wait!!!

2009 Canadian Ski Mountaineering Champs

2009-03-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Ok....here's my personal race report for the race today. The final result was not at all what I was hoping for and I'm a little bummed out. However, life is good. I live in the mountains. As long as I've got my health I'll be skiing. My family (which went w/ my this weekend) is awesome and fun. Finally, there will always be more races to do and goals to shoot for. Here's what happened to me today:

Start:
we ran around the lodge before clipping into the skis for the downhill. I was a little slow as usual getting into those dang Dynafits, but wasn't too far behind.

Hill 1:
going up I wasn't in the bindings right and had to stop and re clip in slowing me down (did I say I hate Dynafits?). I was only about 20m behind the lead group of 5-6 and a quick transition into the first downhill brought me right back into things.

dh #1:
My new SkiTrabs did their job and I skied respectably down the difficult dble black chute.
A decent transition put me chasing the pack right w/ Reiner the eventual Canadian winner. Another good transition put me still in contention. I was flying down the hill and almost had a major wipe out. I’m convinced an angel righted me up as I was about to crash Big at hi speed and somehow recovered. I then proceeded to the transition point and became one of the talks of the race. I came in somewhat "hot"....actually, really hot and crashed super big. It was b/c I hit the fence. I was fine, but several guys in the lead pack verbally made sure I was ok.
shades of disaster looming:
Up the switchbacks as we now began to climb back up to the start were problematic. The skins weren’t delivering enough kick and despite all the switchback practicing I’d done, I was losing time. Then as a couple of guys were bearing down, I lost a skin. I was reeling in Jeff, but had to stop and grab one which was handily placed in my suit.
Coming up to the top of the bootpack I again struggled to get my dang Dynafits on, but wasn’t too far behind the lead group.

Dh#3 and big climb
I went down ok, but w/ the lead group out of site, didn’t take the chances I’d taken earlier. Now there were 2 guys between me and the lead group. As I climbed up the bowl, my skin tip attachment was coming off. Somehow the knot had worked its way through the stopper I’d placed on there. After putting it back on several times I was able to gingerly ski with it until the bootpack #2.

Top of the world and major disaster.
Having been warned that if you lose your ski at the top of Dogtooth mountain (hi point of the race), it’d be a point of no return for the ski, you and your race. Maybe I was freaked out by all that, but in any case, I couldn’t get into my Dynfit binding (are you seeing a pattern here?). Finally, after monkeying around w/ it for what seemed like several minutes I started the narrow, spooky descent right next to the "point of no return cliff". Wouldn’t you know it, my Dynafit binding wasn’t on and I lost a ski. Fortunately it didn’t careen off the end of the world, but I was in a major spook zone. The big Swede then passed me here as I was sliding around on one ski. After finally getting in and moving ahead, I clipped my pole on a tree and it bounced out of bounds sitting on the edge of the now several timed mention "point of no return". So I had to side step down and retrieve it.....more time lost....what a gong show!

Dare Downhill
Finally, some good news, my run down this dble black was actually pretty decent. The snow was good, my turns were good and it was fun.

Disaster once again
After all the playing around at the point of no return, people were starting to catch me. At the final transition, not 1 of my 4 skins was sticking to my skis. About 4 people came in and finally I started begging for a skin. Some really cool, natty snowboard looking guy tossed me his synthetic back ups. I never got his name, but I love this man. With the synthetics I was bomber in my kick. The funny thing was that all the folks that passed me really weren’t in my aerobic league, so I blazed back by them all (well the close ones anyway).

Finish
It was great to finally finish this race. I was about 15-18 min. back of the leaders. A few of the guys I’d beaten the last time we raced, but that seems like an eternity ago now. I was so bummed out as with my missing Fernie (knee injury) and Nelson (being in Europe), it seemed like if I’m to have any chance at getting back to Europe to redeem my poor performance there I had to deliver today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
I really needed to have Whistler. It would have given me another chance to race and score some points towards the nat’l ranking, plus it’s a course that suits me. It’s long, not too technical and you don’t have to do a lot of Dynafit switches!!

What really gets me is that aerobically, I’m fit. And w/ my technical blunders it’s as if the hard training was wasted. Of course there’s purpose and joy in the journey, but when you’ve done many really hard gut busting workouts to be ready and blow your race because your skins aren’t working or you can’t get your skis on....it all seems kinda sad. Week after week of my Sunshine ski resort interval workouts and time trials.... weekly Canmore Nordic Centre intervals and other training...oh well.

The good news is, there’s always another race. Always another challenge. I learned a heap this year. The Euro experience was amazing. I did a major gear upgrade. For the first time ever I did my dryland training specifically for rando racing and hope to do so again this year with refinements. I don’t even know if there’s a chance for me to go to world’s next year, but even if I don’t, the domestic calendar is getting good and it sounds like Whistler is going to be a major North American championship race. Life is good.

European Ski Mountaineering Champs Race report

2009-03-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

2009 European Ski Mountaineering race championships
race report:
I’ve gotten in the habit of writing a race report for big events ever since I started doing Ironmans 5 summers ago. It’s a great way to review, contemplate, and plan for the future. I decided to do one for this event as it was my season focus and I want to learn as much as I can and come back for more.
Overview:
It was amazing to be able to compete in this event. My fitness level was about as good as I could have made it to prepare. Unfortunately as some of these events have gone, I made several mistakes that negated a lot of my fitness preparation. Fortunately, these mistakes are easier to fix than not having a sufficient training base. At this point my heart’s desire is to return to this level of competition and prove to myself that I can do it at an acceptable level.
The Good:
It was really great having Dave D. there as someone for support. With his involvement at an international level I was able to get a lot of good info and be in the race loop. He brokered a great deal in that the int’l body paid for housing, food and race entry.....a 400Euro bonus. Amazing!
Being in Czech the week before allowed me to be fully acclimated to the time zone. If possible an entire week before the comp. is really helpful to be over in Europe. Having the coaching gig I was busy, but not too much. I was tapered to a good level, yet able to get some good workouts in at race intensities to get my anaerobic systems ready.
I didn’t pre-ski the course, but would have liked to. I wasn’t prepared for such long demanding downhills. We pre-skied part of the race, maybe 25%. That was helpful. However, these courses are so well marked compared to N.American ones that I knew getting lost wasn’t an issue. By pre-skiing the course you know where to hammer and what challenges lie ahead. I’ll try to do this in the future as much as possible.
The Bad:
Having broken one of my skins at the Sunshine race I repaired it and didn’t think it’d be an issue. It held during my ½ hour plus warm up, But right at the start it fell off. There went all the skiers as I had to take off my ski and re-install the skin. 5 minutes later as I’d caught back up to the group, it came off again, so I removed my pack and pulled out a replacement. By this time I was hopelessly behind. I continued to hammer though, catching many of the women and some of the men. At this point we started our climb up a single set of ski tracks making it difficult to pass. My heart rate was at my typical level all the way up the 1 hour climb. We had a short bootpack which went well then the long downhill. My legs were totally seizing up on the long demanding downhill. I couldn’t believe how painful it was. I’d tried to train for this, but will need to adjust my training to better prepare for the future. Perhaps the new boots contributed. The fwd. lean is greater than on my others and I only had 1 day on them. The skis worked ok, but on the downhills I realized that I need some beefier skis. I’m looking into some Goode’s. It looks good for a pro deal from Couloir. They’re great over there.
The final bootpack w/ fixed rope and crampons was ok. I’d never raced w/ crampons before and only used them at all once. It was fun though and I was glad I got to use my new CAMP ones I received for my Christmas gift from Deb. I should have practiced a little more putting them on. I did a little, but will work on it in the future. I had trouble getting on the 2nd one. I also had to purchase a via ferrata rope system. It cost 150 Euro. Only found out the day before I needed it. You can get one at MEC for 1/3 the cost. It’s use was optional and I didn’t use it.
Now came the disaster.... The final descent was icy and skied out. My soft Atomics really couldn’t handle it. I crashed hard. Hurt my knee. Lost my ski. It flew down the mountain. Fortunately someone retrieved it for me and helped me put it back on as I’d suddenly become Dynafit challenged. Meanwhile my legs were absolutely locked up. This whole thing is embarrassing to even mention, but it was part of my race and one that hopefully will never be repeated.
As I finished I didn’t even make my goal of finishing before the flower ceremony.....bummer.
Things I did right:
-This past summer I did a lot of hammer hikes with poles. I see now how important these are. I’ll do more and start sooner
- getting the F1's was really great. They’re lighter, more flexible for longer strides and more comfortable uphills.
- I did a lot of Sunshine intervals and the week before I left even though I was tired from the Sunshine race I did a time trial to the top, setting a p.r. in 1:32
- incorporating more anaerobic intensity this year has been key in feeling comfortable hammering in these races. I’d been neglecting it the past few years concentrating more on Ironmans and level 1 training.
- I’ve done several short interval workouts at the Nordic Centre where I also work on my transitions (5-6 min up). It’s helped, but of course you can always improve. The new boots did throw me off a little.
- At the start when I had my skin problem I tried not to give up and keep hammering. It would have been easy to mentally quit
Things to improve:
- First things first... my knee has a strained MCL. It presently hurts a lot. Get this healed up first. Dr. Says movement is good for healing so I’ve been staitionary biking and easy skiing. I’ll be ready for Golden for sure.
- I’ve already replaced the skin that caused the problem
- new Goode Carbon fibre skis hopefully will allow me more hammer ability on the downhills
- My switchback kick turns were pathetic. Work on this.
- Keep working on anaerobic power. Short, long and steady state intervals
- in the past I’ve had good success with 4-5 hour xc skis in preparing for marathons. Do more 4-5 hour skis
- Do more balance training (dryland +). Get Jungle Jim to give me some advice on this and maybe even ask Jan Hudec what the CC’s are doing these days for that (glad I have some pretty good advisors!).
- Do more isometric training at the top of my hammer hikes. Maybe more specific downhill training like plyometrics.
- keep working on downhills. Get out more. Back country, front country...just do it. Take up Mike’s offer to train at the Farnham glacier this summer
-Next year enter the Norquay mountain stoker. I may suck, but it’ll give me incentive to downhill train harder.
- practice transitions (continue), practice: putting skis on pack. Crampons on. Also work on hooking up fixed rope system

Nordic Nudes... keep your lycra on girls!!!

2009-01-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

When the original "Nordic Nudes" unveiled themselves in 1998, even though I was a chaplain at those Olympics in Nagano, Japan I thought the whole idea was kinda funny and harmless. Now as a father I’m seeing things a bit differently. A recent conversation with the father of one of the Canadian nat’l team women who recently bared all for their "Girls with Guns" nude calendar was enlightening. I asked him (as did about a thousand others) how he felt about his daughter bearing herself for all the world to see. His answer, "It’s just too bad they have to do this anyway!" The tone certainly belied the fact that this was a fundraiser with an attitude. Actually, as much protest as money maker (and it has been successfully making money). But what message are they sending out? To me it’s loud and clear.... " ‘ can’t get what you want? Just take your clothes off!"

How many times have you heard an NBA or NFL player (usually after getting busted for some vice crime), exclaim, "I’m no role model...I don’t want to be a role model." Well guys, we’ve all got some news for ya, whether or not you want to be a role model, there are millions of young kids following your moves and emulating them. Same goes for Olympic athletes. Especially skiers. Especially in our town of Canmore. My 9 year old daughter has an autographed ski poster of the original Nordic Nudes hanging above her bed (the lycra clad one). She recently came home with her top 20 goals, several having to do with ski racing. In particular, noting the influence of Chandra Crawford, she wanted to win a world cup in her home town as she saw Chandra do the year before.

So biathlon girls, et. al....having a hard time with funding? Why don’t you buckle down and knock on some corporate doors yourselves instead of waiting for the overworked sport administrators to do so? How about picking up the phone and making some calls? That would certainly do a better job of preparing yourselves for a career after the skis and guns are put away. Or I guess you could just continue to take your clothes off, but what kind of career is that preparing you for?

"Gear Guy"

2008-12-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ok.... I'm known as the "gear guy". Years ago the original Crazy Canuck Jungle Jim Hunter called me a "toy boy". I'll accept both of these monikers willingly. In fact, it’s kinda fun having gear, planning on getting gear and new to me....making gear.

That’s right. I’ve been trying to make some stuff. My latest creation: carbon fibre ski pole baskets. Nat’l luge team coach (and very good friend) Walt Corey has provided a lot of his experienced advice on where to get materials and which ones, plus how to use the stuff. My reasoning in making the baskets was that for rando racing we’re often plowing through ungroomed pow. A bigger basket makes tonnes of sense, but a heavy plastic unit on the end of your pole is definitely going throw off the pole’s swing weight.

Here’s how I did it: I used modelling clay for a mould, plugged a basket with a design I liked in there. Formed a little expansion to the mould, making it bigger, then coated it with vaseline for my mould release agent. I then cut a paper pattern that fit the mould. Used it to cut my carbon fibre. I cut 2 layers of carbon fibre. I brushed out the epoxy resin in the mould. Laid down the first carbon layer. Brushed in epoxy, then repeated for the second. An important step was that I used roller ski tips. I made a hole in the mould, then placed the tip in there. R. Ski tips are over made and hence kinda heavy, so I drilled and sanded some of the material off. This also roughed up the surface giving the epoxy more to grip.

It took about 3 days for the resins to fully cure. I could see that on one of them there wasn’t a good bond with the rs tip, so I shored it up with some carbon strips and more epoxy. On my first outing it was going good until ½ hour in when the non shored up basket seperated from the rs tip. It made for kind of a bummer of a ski. I was skiing out to Skoki Lodge behind the Lake Louise ski area. As soon as I got home I repaired and reinforced it. The previously reinforced basket seemed to really hold up well, so I think in the long run they should work. However, I’m going to really use them in training to make sure I’m good to go in the races. I don’t want to be hammering away (especially in the European champs this Feb.) and have a pole basket failure like I did last week.

What else am I making? Carbon fibre wise, I’m going to make a base plate for my new Pierre-Gignoux binding heel piece. The sucker weighs only 49 grams!!! Amazing. My skis and bindings now may actually be a few grams under the minimum weight limit. I guess I’ll have to put an extra heavy coat of wax on.

Finally, just like the kids on High School Musical (1), I’ll have to sheepishly admit..... I sew. Yes, I’m putting my grandma’s sewing machine into use that I inherited. Lately I’ve made 2 super cool racing tops, soft shell pants, tights and some hats. In the works is a rando race suit, but it looks like I’ll be getting a Nat’l team suit soon and I’m hoping we decide on the red, white and silver Crazy Idea (it’s Italian....which explains the weird name) suit . It looks super cool and has all kinds of bells and whistles...perfect for a "gear guy toy boy".

"No Train...No Bathe"

2008-11-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

(The above is to be said in your best Eastern European accent).
In our home we have the above saying. No we're not trying to "go Euro". If you've travelled much to some of the European countries you'll know what I mean. Taking the weekly bath whether one needs it or not. It's just that to my wife & I it makes more sense to shower after a workout than in the morning. I know a lot of people take their daily early morning shower, but really, how much sweat do you work up sleeping? It's when you train that you get sweaty and smelly. So, we skip the a.m. shower and bathe only after training sessions. Hence the phrase: no train...no bathe".

I guess some people shower to perform some sort of "tabula rosa" on their scalp. But if you have my hair style (or lack of anything to do with hair) it's not an issue. I guess too, if you have long hair as my wife does. You just brush it out. And really, no shower gives yo 10 more minutes to sleep in!!

Lest you think that our household is a smelly one, most days I get in a couple of workouts. My early morning run, strength or swim, then later in the afternoon the main training workout. So in the end I ususally get in a couple of showers each day. One quick one (no shaving), and one longer one (shaving!).... my wife doesn't shave. We'll, maybe her legs.

On the swim days I get my favorite hygeine dose: Chlorine Clean!! Man, I just love the smell of chlorine on my skin. There's no more clean smell than that! After swimming dozens of laps, that chorine just gets in there and permeates all the nooks and crannys of your bod. and really purifies yours skin. I have a friend who was a world class swimmer and the captain of his University swim team. He told me he once went 3 months without a bath or shower (except maybe a pre and post workout rinse). He also ran out of clean laundry and wore his speedo for underwear for several weeks.

You may think I'm joking or exagerating, but in our home we are so in the habit of showering after the workout, that if we fail to get training in, the showering habit kinda goes to the wayside too. Fortunately, I don't miss many sessions, but my wife...

2008-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

THE VALUE OF GOING LOOOOONG

I just got back from my weekly 3 hour run. Each Wed. is the big day. With our shortening days up here in Alberta one needs to develop some nocturnal habits and the willingness to train in the dark (that is if training isn't your full time job!). Starting out this a.m. a good hour before sunrise gave a whole new perspective. The moon shining off of the snow covered mountains was beautiful. The stars were shining brightly and with Orion now in the sky, winter is sure to be here soon!

In the past I've had good results from long training workouts. In the mid to late '80's the Norwegians were starting to get spanked pretty good in the xc ski world. They decided to throw a bunch of Kroner into research and went about asking, then ultimately answering the question, "what makes a skier go fast?" Their conclusion? Hi VO2 max. That pretty much summed it up....was the bottom line, etc. So the next logical question was, "how do we get high VO2 max's?" Their answer: long training sessions. They found that the heart size began to increase with training over 2 hours. With a bigger heart, each stroke volume pumped more blood....result: higher VO2 max. My coach at the time, Ahvo Taipala, learned this information from coaching clinics in Europe. He added that they showed videos of the Norwegian Nat'l team going on low intensity, but very long (5-6 hr. ) hikes, roller skis, etc. The results over the next decade and a half truly bore out their findings. They dominated the World!!

At the World XC champs in Thunder Bay in '95 I had an interesting conversation with the Norwegian team Dr. and one of the athletes. With this previous knowledge I began to inquire as to the veracity of the physiology and the training methods. The Dr. wasn't too loose lipped, but the athlete spilled the beans that their team's VO2 max average was an astounding 92!!! I think the highest ever recorded is 94. When you consider that several of the US team's best skiers had VO2 max values around 68-78 at that time, you can see they weren't exactly playing on a level field (I'm not making ANY accusations of doping either).

So now, when I look at how the Norwegians seem to be getting away from this type of training and seem to be emphasizing high intesity training you have to wonder, what are they thinking? Sure, they are the best in the world when it comes to sprinting...by far. But what about the other traditional distances? They really seem to have lost their dominance.

A little closer to home... one of our local skiers that grew up in Canmore and is now on our nat'l team had an usual way of peaking for major events that really seemed successful. Several times he qualified for trips, teams or events, that no one thought he would. It seems that a week or two out, he'd do 2 back to back 5 hour skis (one each day). Apparently it brought to him a new level of fitness.

In the summer of 2006 I won a running marathon (ok, it wasn't the most competitive event, but a win is a win!). When a friend stated the next week that I must run a lot I realized that I was only running 2 times a week (with some swimming and biking too). However, each wed. I got my 3 hour run in.

Now, I'm not saying super long and slow is all you need to do, but I am saying it should be the foundation to any training program. Don't neglect it. The optimum is 2 long ones each week. I try to get in a 4-5 hour workout on Saturdays in addition to my 3 hour run. The Saturday workout is often a cross trainer. My last one I ski skated on roller skis for 2.5 hours followed by a 1.5 hike up a mountain. The idea is to keep that heart working. By cross training, I don't exhaust my muscles, but give the best workout to my most important muscle....my heart.

Happy training!

The Altitude Advantage

2008-10-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

Man 'o man....!!! I went out for a run this morning and did I ever feel out of shape. I've gone from feeling like superman at 850 meters, now like super-slug back at 1400m.!! The value of training at altitude is often underestimated, but I sure felt it today!

While in Vancouver yesterday I stopped by the Speed Skating Oval for the fall world cup trials. The Canadian team was slugging it out (men's 1500m yesterday and women's 3k). They've decided to make their training base here right at the foot of the ocean until the Olympics. Considering their elevation is about 0 meters one wonders if they're making a mistake. Sure it's one thing to be familiar with the venue, but could it be that the Calgary's oval elevation is what contributed to our country's success? The sprinters (Lemay-Doan, Witherspoon, Auch) broke the success barrier initially, but in 2006 it was the middle and long distance skaters that secured the dynasty. I hope that there isn't dissappointment in results in front of the home crowd because of preparing in the wrong venue.

Coaches should be training:
As long as I'm ticking people off I may as well continue! So many coaches are so far removed from their competitive days that they've not only forgotten many of the lessons they personally learned, but they no longer are familiar with the feelings (physically and mentally) of training and racing. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten important lessons in the 30+ years of racing I've done, whether it's technique, waxing or training. It seems I'm constantly telling myself, "o yeah, I forgot about that." And then re-learning things.

Even if coaches just casually competed they'd be reminded of many an important lesson. I'm told that Canada's new Xc ski Norwegian coach Arlid Monson is one of these. If he even has 70% of the juice he had while racing for team Norway it's no wonder he has no problem keeping up with our boys while doing intervals. Way to go coach!

Anyway.....gotta go!

Bears, Bobsleds and the 2010 Olympics

2008-10-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm here in rainy Whistler for a couple of reasons. First, in my role as Canadian sport/faith chaplain, we've got several Christian athletes here for a 3 week training camp. I'm here to meet with them, be a part of their world and encourage them. It's been a fun, but rainy week. Next, I poked around the 2010 xc venue and did some roller skiing (for my role as a coach). Technically it's closed during the week, but as the good book says, "you have not because you ask not". So I got a good ski in yesterday. The elevation is 850 meters....not too high. As I've been training around here in coming down from 1400m in Canmore you can start to feel super-fit. It'll be back to reality tomorrow!

The bears seem to rule around here. There have been about 6 of them hanging around the bobsled track. Apparently they like munching on the wildflower and clover mix they planted all around the venue. Yesterday I wanted to ski hike to the top of Whistler mtn. departing from my Creekside base. I hadn't gone too far when I encountered a large bear (grizzly) on the trail up. So I circled around back to the base. Trying a new route I covered a lot more vert before I ran into my 2nd bear. This time I was a lot higher up and b/c of the fog didn't see him until I got pretty close. I was making a lot of noise though and he heard me and casually lumbered over to the woods. I could see him intently looking at me though and the trail narrowed and veered pretty close to the bruin, so I decided I'd had enough ursa close encounters. I was carrying bear spray, but this only works in hand to claw combat. Wanting none of that was what motivated me to retreat.

When it comes to training for ski mountaineering....vertical is king. At home (Canmore), I've been doing a lot of mountain hikes in the peaks close to my home. I recently read where one of the top Euros kept track of all his training by vertical meters. He was up to several hundred thousand that year. Really, there's probably no better training for Randonee racing. Each week I try to do one hike in zone 1-2 heart rate (~70-80% of max) and one in zone 3-4 (~85% of max.). The latter, my hammer hikes, last about 45min to an hour for the uphill hammer portion.

This trip has taken a major hit on my training hours, but it's been fun to be in Whistler and motivating too. Our Nat'l randonee championships are here and it brings back some good memories from last year's race. I finished just off the podium, but this year...who knows?

Welcome: here we go

2008-10-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog place, "Ski Training Central"!!

We've all got our personal quests and goals. I've been pursuing skiing sports for over 30 years now. Mostly cross country and more recently ski mountaineering racing. You can't help but pick up a few things along the way. This blog is to share some of my experiences and what knowledge I've gleaned.

After 25+ years of shooting for xc success I felt it was time to expand my horizons. In 2001 I started doing triathlons, including ironmans. It was amazing how my skiing improved, even though I wasn't doing specific off season training anymore. Seeing competition and my body from a whole new light easily transferred into better skiing. I'd never done 5 hour skis before, but workouts this long were common place in tri training. I learned new things in nutrition, particularly in race and in training nutrition that equated to better performance. My mental approach also changed. Among the helpful new strategies was to be more focused and "in the moment". As I did this and learned to quiet my mind, tune in to what was going on, I found that the hours during racing and training flew by and were really enjoyable.

Now I'm delving into another new horizon that's got me really pumped up. It's the new (new for North America) sport of ski mountaineering. I'm in a totally steep learning curve and one of the reasons for this blog is to record what I learn for other newbie racers. My friends call me the "toy boy" and it's true...I'm a total gear head. The down side is I'm not rich, so I'm always looking for ways to gear up on a tight budget. I'll have some future posts on how to make stuff and where I found places to get stuff.

I'm also very actively involved in coaching, so future blogs will incorporate technical stuff for athletes and coaches. My current coaching involves our local clubs youth programs, but I've coached in 2 Olympics, coached High School skiing in MN for several years, done some volunteer coaching for one of Canada's devo. nat'l teams and done various clinics for past sponsors Atomic and Karhu.

Check back soon!!