41 days to go.

Wow, time is slipping away. Did a two and a half hour ski last Monday on my waxless skis. Might as well be out on steel wool. Wondering why it was so easy to climb up the hills, my answer is in my lack of speed descending. How do I know this? Took my wax skis out today and was able to double pole forever! So that's my lesson. Even in bare snow conditions, use my wax skis and, well, toss the old fishscales!

Today's ski was as much about fitness a it was about learing to wax. My buddy Gord said klister was the order of the day but I'm still waiting for a MEC mail order with Klister. So I used a real gooey Swix concoction, V50. After 3 coats it began to hold....the light was such that I couldn't see the snow, nor my old tracks, and the top of the snow was all crusty from the freezing rain. Of course any weather may happen the 11th and 12th, so I'd better be ready for anything! Talk about a dispiriting training outing. Anyway the trip back in my fresh tracks was good, and the wax was holding.

Heading out to Massachusetts tomorrow so I won't ski three days. I'll run though.

Happy New Year!

Finally...snow!

I've been jogging and working out every other day. Working especially on hamstrings and glutes ...
Robert told me that's important for climbing herringbone style!

Well it finally snowed. So with about four inches of snow on the ground I clipped into my 20-year old waxless Fischers and hit the links. It went great! I managed about 4kms around the golf course, an excellent first outing. Didn't get out Christmas day but Boxing day is a lock!

Stretching until I cramp.

Went for my standard 3.70km run around the neighbourhood last night, in the rain. With all the rain we have been having you figure we would be up to my nose in snow if it were just a tad colder. I started slow and warmed up nicely.

I have a love/hate relationship with running. It must be my latent laziness. Running is hard. One can't tune out. If one runs with bad form injury will result. I focus on staying upright, no slouching, no slacking, feet pointing forward, not flopping around, arms pumping back and forth, no flopping, trying as much to breath properly, knees over toes. I hope the ski marathon is easier.

Got home and stretched. If I don't stretch injury will result. Stretched so hard a muscle next to my right scapula cramped, and is still cramping (or did I pull it?) at 6:58am. Took an Advil Extra Strength bomb to get me to sleep at 1:30am.

While I was up I watched a 1975 movie about Jack Rabbit Johannson. Those old movies are clichéd...the old man at 100, sitting by his fire smoking his pipe thoughtfully, staring off at the distance...at one point he's chopping wood. Hacking away with a dull axe at one particularly frozen piece of wood. Anyone who has ever chopped wood knows how silly that scene was. The very next scene he's lighting a perfect fire....ummm, not with that snow-covered piece of maple!

Here is the link in case you want to watch the film. It's 28 minutes long.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_rabbit/

The funny thing is that I thought I would start training myself to sleep longer yesterday. After all, the week before the race I'll need lots of sleep. I also had this weird idea that I'd start getting up at 4:30am for the next two months and training early....

Okay that was a dumb idea!

Hill training

So today I went to Mt. Rigaud to work my stride and my poling. They've been making snow, which is encouraging, it was about 0 degress C, and their snow is sticking.

I have a heart rate monitor and have realized that my max effective rate is about 160 beats per minute. Any more and I'm gasping, any less and I'm not going fast enough. I wish I could find someone I trust to coach me through this.

So the training consists of trying to emulate cross country skiing, with poles and long strides.

It's fine on the uphills but the downhills I have found are hard on my knees if I jog down, and walking takes too long.

So with any luck it'll snow and I can start skiing soon!

I want to be a Coureur de Bois!

"You have to do the Ski Marathon this year!", said Robert Saunders, as he pushed a Canadian Ski Marathon brochure in my face....and that was the last I heard from him, as he and his wife went off to New Zealand for six weeks....


Robert is a fellow parishioner at Evergreen Anglican Community, where we attend church. He is a small-framed, bearded tour de force, having collected 15(!) "Gold Bars" over the last decade or so. He is part of the elite group of skiers known as the Gold Coureur de Bois. In order to attain this status, one must ski 80 kilometres in a day (with a packsack full of your gear), sleep outside, then wake up and ski another 80 kms!


http://www.csm-mcs.com/index2.html
But first one must attain Bronze and Silver levels. Bronze is the beginner level, you ski 80 kms on day one and then 80 kms on day two. You can't sleep outside. The Silver level means you ski the 160kms, but with a 5kg pack on your back (and sleep inside). Once you accomplish these levels, you qualify to sleep outside as well!


So Robert has pulled this thing off many times, and he is about 65 or so years old!


I have known about the Canadian Ski Marathon since I was a kid in the 70s. My friend in elementary and high school, Chris Austin, is Jack Rabbit Johannsen's grandson. The Ski Marathon had been going just a couple of years at that time.


Read about Jack Rabbit here...he's a legend! http://laurentian.quebecheritageweb.com/article/herman-jackrabbit-smith-johannsen-1875-1987


So when Robert exhorted me to ski the event in 2012, I started thinking.....I have thought for over two weeks now, and decided I can do it.


Just sent in my application today....


I have decided that since there is no snow I must train using ski poles and long strides over at Mont Rigaud.
I must train for cardio as I always do, mostly running a this time of year.


My big dilemma at this point is whether to use my classic touring skis (light, long and lighter/more flexible boots) or my Nordic Touring Skis (a bit shorter and heavier due to their metal edges and heavier, less flexible boots). Why the dilemma? You'd figure that the classics would be a slam dunk, right?


But there are some wicked downhills on this course....it is not flat at all, and the metal edge touring skis are bombproof on hills. I go down ski hill runs on them confidently. The Classic skis scare the crap out of me on twisty downhills! I need new Classic boots, my current boots are twenty years old. Maybe the newer boots have better support for downhill?


Decisions, decisions.....follow me as I journey the 71 days to the start line, 6:30am in Buckingham, Quebec.