High Noon in Finland
30 Days, 6 Races, 33 training sessions, 8.8 pounds of sinappi, countless jars of duo-spread, its been one incredible trip here in Finland! Great snow, great racing, and great training all the way around
But I’m sure everyone is also looking forward to getting back stateside for Thanksgiving with their families!
Well the whole Green Team group made it safe and sound through security here in Logan Airport and are waiting at the gate for our plane. Travel days usually are a drag. Traveling in a group even more so. Traveling international in a group goes from being unpleasant to just comical, and our check in process earlier certainly qualified. Just as one attendant would finish and we moved up in the line, they would pack it up and leave for the afternoon. 50 minutes later we were at the front of the line with 1 baggage attendant and no sign of progress and people piling up behind us. Just watching the scene I was absolutely convinced that the check-in lady was doing everything in her power to only check in a maximum of 3 people for the rest of her hour shift, and it looked like she was succeeding. Its not that I am blaming her for not wanting to work unnecessarily hard, there was certainly no incentive for her to bust her back checking people in, but I can only imagine that dealing with a whole line full of angry people who missed their flights would be much worse than trying to get someone checked in in less than 10 minutes. Perhaps the only pleasant part of the whole experience was finding out that the American Airline scales that we used had to have been the most generous scales I have ever seen. I think just about everyone made it through with a total of less than 55lbs between their two bags including the Swix tables, benches, and wax boxes. Perhaps they were accidentally set to kilos in preparation for going to Europe
Oh and another added bonus? Monopoly month at McDonald’s! Gotta get that last taste of America before flying across the pond. Already got a free double quarter pounder and am 2/3rds of the way to a Monopoly. Damn you marketing executives at the Golden Arches!
Should see some snow in 24 hours or so…
I normally don’t tend to break too much ski equipment but recently though I have been going through a streak of bad luck. My faithful old pair of V-2 920’s that I got in high school finally broke in spectacular fashion. While doing striding speeds one workout I managed to rip the front wheel completely off the plastic fork mid stride. Needless to say I was taken a bit by surprise but managed to stave off a nasty crash and the shame of yard sailing in front of some kids on razor scooters and BMX bikes. I only started to get a little grumpy when I did the same thing to two other skis in the following workouts. In a temporary lapse of judgment they both ended up somewhere in the woods. Whoops! I also noticed a little later in the week (doing speeds again..) that my Marwes were getting a bit squirrely. Turn out I had also broken both of those shafts as well.
All these skis in a week??
So at this point I decided it might behoove me to get some new skis. Some replacement skate shafts and swanky new Swenors (thanks FinSiSu and Swix!) and I was back in business!
In my college days I got into a habit of getting every last mile out of my equipment. 6+ years out of my V-2s and 4+ years out of my Marwes, I certainly can’t complain about the durability of either of these skis. But there is something to be said about having new equipment. Skiers spend the majority of their training time not on their skis. Having new skis and wheels that track straight means less time thinking about not falling and more time concentrating on actually training.
I have only used the new Swenors a couple of times but have been really impressed with how the ski. With the #2 wheels speed is comparable to Pro-ski C2s and the composite shaft helps dampen road vibrations and feel about as close to a snow as roller skis are ever going to be. The skis track straight and the wheels seem to hold up well to wear. And with all the broken bits of my old skis I decided to do a little tinkering. What could mimic ski feel better than a real ski!
I am optimistically betting that I can get 10 minutes of skiing out this baby before catastrophic fork failure/wipe out… Test results to come!
Over Labor Day weekend Rosie and I headed to Moab for a some camping and riding with friends from Dartmouth. Moab in the fall is an incredible place with cool night turning to to scorching days in the desert sun. Fortunately our campsite was located right on the Colorado River so we could jump in and cool off after hot and dusty rides.
The Colorado River keeps Moab alive in the desert sun
After a couple days of hitting up the must do rides like Slickrock Trail we decided to get a bit adventurous. My old coach Ruff Patterson had told me to try to get out on his favorite long ride, Hurrah Pass-Jackson Hole and Amasa Back, but I never got around to it previous times in town. I had a general idea of where we were going from a trail description Ruff had given me earlier in the Spring as well as from a mountain bike guidebook Rosie had brought. The ride started out climbing up and over Hurrah Pass which was fast fun riding on packed dirt and mixed slickrock with a twisty rocky downhill into Jackson Hole.
The climb to Hurrah Pass with canyons in the background
It was only on the way to Jackson Hole that the ride went from a fun long cruiser to a true epic ride. Our guidebook was from 1997 which didn’t really worry me because most rides in Moab like the Slickrock trail haven’t been changed since the late 80’s. Not the case with this ride. Judging by the absence of tire marks the Jackson Hole section of the the trail had probably fallen out of favor a while ago and for good reason. We hit sand. Deep Moab sand and lots of it. After a considerable stretch of not so pleasant desert hiking and a flat from all the thorns by the trail we finally got to Jacobs Ladder, a really cool 500 foot vertical portage from the desert floor up a steep rockfall to the mesa above. It certainly felt a bit like Hannibal’s army crossing the Alps with our bikes slung across our backs stair stepping our way up a near vertical face!
Yikes John! We gotta get up there?
After a quick breather on top of Amasa Back we headed down the fast technical decent to the trail head and closed out our adventure with burgers and shakes in town!
Yeeeeeees!!!!!!! Made it!
After our long day in the saddle Rosie and I followed John and Eric back to Durango where Jane and Pat Gerstenberger were kind enough to house and cook wonderful food for us. Of course no trip to Durango would be complete without actually going for a ride so on the morning of our last day there we all set out towards the local trails despite a light rain. The trails were fast and swoopy on the hard packed dirt and I felt like I could ride all day. Unfortunately as I began to recall from one of my “dirt” classes, the clay soils that make these trails so fun and fast when they are dry also makes them very gummy as the clay reaches saturation. How sticky? Well lets say I have never had my bike simply come to a grinding stop as the tires pick up inches of the trail like a iced up ski picking up snow on a tricky wax day
This is a new experience…. and good reason for disc brakes
SPD pedals are NOT going to clip in this stuff!
What was really amazing to me was just how quick trail conditions changed. We climbed over a small pass and the soil went from sandy loam to mostly clay. We started descending and my bike just stopped and I almost endoed as the wheels locked up. John and Eric laughed. Then their bikes and laughter stopped. Cue second portage in 3 days as we carried our bike down the pass we had just climbed minutes earlier. Then as we got back into sandier soil our tires freed up enough to roll again and we were off slipping and sliding like kids on ice.
So what did I learn from these two very new experiences biking? Don’t try to ride in Moab sand or Durango mud. Seriously. Wait for the mud to dry with clay and for it to rain with sand. Also this one seems obvious but bring lots to drink when you are riding in a desert. Pack you bag, then double the amount of liquid. Its better to push you bike through a mile of sand hydrated than not. And always bring a pack of Top Ramen for anti-bonk. The noodles are straight carbs and the flavor packet has all the sodium and MSG you could want on a hot day. This way you will be prepared for almost any unexpected addition to your ride!
I’ll be the first to admit that the idea of blogging has never greatly appealed to me but it really is one of the best ways to show what we do on the Green Team in our daily lives so I am coming around to it. And since my mom keeps asking why I never post anything on the blog, I proudly bring you the summer in short!
I graduated from Dartmouth June 13th and moved into the house shortly thereafter. Transitioning from college life to being a full time athlete was harder in many ways than I expected. It involved a lot more downtime than I was accustomed to in my school days and it took a while for me to actually put my feet up for a while in the afternoon to absorb and recover from workouts. So for living situation and group dynamic at the house has been really productive. Having training partners around at a high level to push workouts as well as instant feedback from Pepa has been one of the biggest differences from past summers training mostly alone. As well, the farmhouse we live in was a bit of a shock compared to the college apartments that I had become accustomed to in the past years. There has been a remarkable dearth of small furry critters residing in the house, no electrical wiring that appears from the Edison era, or the nice leaded paint dust film that built up on the window sills of 14 West Wheelock Street. Moving into a clean, comfortable environment conducive to training, I just felt…better… than in the previous months. Unfortunately the roof of the farmhouse is much harder to get on than my previous residence.
Adapting to the actual training was probably one of the easier aspects of the move. Pepa’s coaching style is different in some ways to my past coaches, but in the whole very similar with a focus on summer volume while still maintaining quickness, speed, and good technique. I think by the end of the summer I might even be able to bench my body weight, finish a plyo jump workout without being incapacitated for a week afterwards, and do at least 50% of what Pepa can do on her wheel of torture ab roller!
Work at the center has also been great. The COC has a garage full of toys to help accomplish any job or task and Dylan and I have been quick to put the tractor and Argos to work on projects. Craftsbury is currently in the process of installing 8 large tracking solar panels on the upper soccer field and Dylan and I have been clearing the tree line to let in more sun as well as generally prep the site for installation. The installation of the panels should go quick once all the concrete footings are in place and be quite a sight!
Dylan and I putting the tractor and winch to work on the Solar Panel Project
Dylan getting in some extra pull-ups on the job
As well a bunch of us on the team have been hard at work cutting single track trails for mountain biking and trail running. The rocky terrain coupled with cedar bogs makes for some incredible riding terrain and technical challenges such as rock drops and log rides although it also makes the trails much slower to cut and buff out. Hopefully by the end of the fall we should have a linkable network of new and old single-track for longer rides. On top of the Kingdom Trails and Cady’s Falls network, there will be a great variety of riding all within a short drive!
Kingdom Trails-Life is Good!
September marks a bit of a turning point in my schedule. After a productive chunk of time in Craftsbury interspersed with some trips to Hanover and Home, I am headed out West for two weeks. Should be a blast!
Moab calls (again)! Post NCAAs 2010
Probably not this much snow in the La Sal Mountains this time around though…