STRAVA ... end of year training statistics

Every year Strava does mult-media summary of your training; often the presentation is in a video format.  (I actually prefer this more static display, as Strava does more drilling down with the data. For instance, I love the shout-outs for your longest workout or hilliest day.)  A note about these stats: 1) the running is overplayed, as much hiking and skiing were lumped in; 2) the climbing time, is just that, physical time moving not total time on the route or boulder. 3) finally, as a skier I log my year from May until the end of August. 

At least it’s not raining yet!

Dawn Patrol and uphilling at Whiteface.

Snowshoe Thompson ... early American ski mountaineer

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2019/12/snowshoe-thompson-a-badass-mailman-who-brought-backcountry-skiing-to-the-west/

Not as much snow as we like ...

But, I continue to find places to ski, however I am doing more running than anticipated. Despite the dismal snow, the sunsets never fail to disappoint!

Killer Core Routine ... not sure I can do most of these

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqpbU1Y3bU&feature=emb_title

Merry Christmas

Selden, Lucy, and I had a wonderful Christmas morning.  

Lucy's presents centered around books and clothing fit for interviews, or working in a Congressional office. Selden's gifts  - as always - were almost exclusively books focused on the American Revolution. (The one exception being a workout outfit for when she rides her stationary bike.) 

As for me, it was a bit unusual, in that I only got two books!  A Mountaineer's Life by Allen Steck, and Unique And Unknown, The Story Of Biathlon by Art Stegen, both welcome additions to my expansive climbing and skiing library.  Most of my gifts this Christmas were focused around the outfitting of the Hockmobile. Key items included a two burner stove, a waste basket, gear storage bins, inside illumination called faerie lights, as well as some heavy duty carpet for my muddy dog to stretch out on after a trail run. 

Of course, there were also two key pieces of athletic gear, a pair of lightweight nordic racing gloves and a 19 piece set of resistance bands for strength workouts. 

Skiing the Whiteface Toll Road

Often windier than you like; frequently lacking snow on the turns; and usually a plethora of footprints in the first mile. Still, this is a classic tour, and rates being in consideration early in the season, or on any clear day.

Biathlon IBU Cup Trials

Lucy was home from college for about eight hours before she headed off to this three race series at Craftsbury. These trials were to pick one (possibly two) athletes to travel to Europe for the month of January to compete on the IBU circuit. 

Yesterday Lucy finished on the podium again, cleaning 70% of her targets. She finished third for the series. Ahead of her was Deedra, the top National Guard biathlete, who skied on the IBU circuit last year, and Chloe a Middlebury College student, who finished fourth last year at the World Junior Championships. Lucy who is comparatively new to biathlon was quite pleased with her results. 

Now Lucy can begin a well earned Christmas break.

Spectacular solstice sunset

The six toughest ski touring races

I found this link on the Wild Snow website ... the go to site for all things pertaining to ski mountaineering.

 https://www.ispo.com/en/trends/ski-mountaineering-6-hardest-ski-touring-races-world

Breakout biathlon race

Despite a heavy academic load in her senior year at St. Lawrence University. Despite not having any shooting practice since October, Lucy nailed it at the first race in the IBU Cup trials.

She finished on the podium; she shot 80% of her targets, and she had the second fastest ski time.

Training for the uphill athlete

Every so often I dip into this wonderful book: for inspiration, for great photos, to learn something new, and to be reminded of something I already know.

Skiing is so much fun. Being out in the forests and mountains is energizing. It is so easy to neglect those strength workouts I need to do in my basement ... General and specific strength will be important for the 160k Canadian Ski Marathon.

First Brutal Cold Of The Winter

It is a few degrees colder out on our farm. Gusts up to 45 mph, and so windchill will hover around -40 degrees for awhile. I am heading over to Craftsbury to watch my daughter race, but I trust they will delay the start time.

Ski Touring, Old School Style

Well, I am not using pine tar and wood skis, but a pair of leather boots and cable bindings from the Fossil age.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: robert macfarlane

"Mountains return to us the priceless capacity for wonder which can so insensibly be leached away by modern existence, and they urge us to apply that wonder to our own everyday lives."

Dust on crust northeastern style ...

Two inches of boilerplate covered by an inch of fluff ... actually not too bad.  I was out the door at 6am heading to Whiteface for some uphilling, and finished the day skiing with my dog on old metal edge touring skis. For crap conditions ... not too shabby. 

Despite the second warm spell this week which has decimated the snowpack ...

I have had a good start to the season, and Lucy rocked it today in the Nor/ams in Gatineau finishing 6th in the 5k skate.

Beautiful Adirondack Sunrise

Another uphill Dawn Patrol.

Skinning has become mainstream ... so says the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/travel/skinning-ski-aspen.html

Dawn Patrol ...

My first skin up the ski area this season. Sixty minutes - up and down - Facelift with 1350' vertical gain. As I may be doing the Crested Butte to Aspen Grand Traverse, it's likely I will be doing a lot more of this.

Grand Traverse skimo race ... I just got off the wait list

I am hoping to combine this race with a trip to watch the NCAA Nordic Championships in Bozeman next March. I guess it's time to pull out the AT gear and start brushing up on my skills. I think I will do a dawn patrol skin up the ski area tomorrow.

https://www.uphillathlete.com/10-skills-to-practice-before-skimo-race-season/

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: J.B. Priestley

Having just finished Macfarlane's, incredible tour de force and imminently scholarly Mountains Of The Mind, I thought I would share a few of the wonderful quotes over the ensuing weeks.

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?"

James Bond ... Is this where the concept of an avalanche airbag pack came from?

Usually I watch a news program while working out, but how much impeachment news, is really "Breaking News."  So yesterday, I was watching The World Is Not Enough, while rowing on my ergometer, and I noticed this oddity - inflatable protective device - as Q was outfitting 007.  What could he possibly use it for? Turns out, that in the ski sequence filmed in Chamonix, James Bond uses it for avalanche protection. The film was made in the late 1990s, well before any prototypes were coming to market. 

Was 007 the inspiration for your Black Diamond Jet Force?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IpqOHZMuDI

Getting ready for the climbing, skiing, or trail running season the thing I always forget ... training my core

https://www.uphillathlete.com/5-reasons-why-a-strong-core-makes-you-a-better-ski-mountaineer/

1980 Olympic Cross Country Trails

Snowing again, and I think they have rolled and/or set tracks on all 50k. Good to be back out on my classic race skis.

Spectacular Adirondack Ski Tour

The ski up the Whiteface Toll Road gives you the "most bang for the bucks." Yesterday, was one of those gorgeous days, which caused me to drop all thoughts of training on our marvelous groomed tracks.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: a cold mountain poem

Han-Shan was a Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty (600s A.D.), and was a contemporary of the poets Tu Fu, Li Po, and Wang Wei. Of the 300 poems that survive, the collected works take their name from Cold Mountain where this hermit lived. The sentiments expressed have something of Taoist, Buddhist, and Zen flavor.

Monday morning sauna

In the Fall and Winter, I am trying to make this part of my retirement routine. Stash waits patiently by the cabin for me to get out and rub down with snow.

Brilliant Day In The Adirondacks

Skiing with my dog, eating leftovers, and seeing my grandkids. Tomorrow is the first day of December and I already have 15 days on snow.

Amanda and Jon are packing the car to head back Connecticut. Lucy just had a good result in a collegiate time trial in Quebec, and will be heading back on the long drive to SLU in another hour or so.

Snow storage ... the adaptive key for Nordic skiing in America

This doesn't solve Climate Change but it is one of the ways we will need to adapt. Bravo to Craftsbury! 

https://fasterskier.com/fsarticle/innovation-and-the-science-of-over-summer-snow-storage-at-the-craftsbury-outdoor-center/

FKT ... WHITE MOUNTAIN HUT TRAVERSE

 Katie Schide is not really well known in America, in either the trail running or ultra community ... but she is tearing it up in Europe. A great little video of her attempt to break the record for the 52 mile Hut Traverse record in New Hampshire.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DQSiygnDm-U&t=17s

An ode to snow

Excellent essay by a former climbing partner, Jon Waterman. 

In the late 1970s we climbed extensively in the White Mountains, Katahdin, Scotland, Chamonix, and in RMNP. He even gave me a sniff at the first winter ascent of the Cassin on Denali. However, when I asked him what were the expected low temperatures ... it blew my mind!

https://www.wildsnow.com/27211/confessions-of-snowman/#more-27211

The pain cave

Lucy and the Saint Lawrence nordic team are up in Quebec for the traditional Thanksgiving training camp. They had been on snow for ten days prior to Quebec. However, late fall for nordic racers is all about intensity work, and in this phot from two weeks ago, she is clearly in the pain cave, with a difficult ski bounding workout. 

While I have spent the fall getting ready for an ultra run, and the 160k Canadian Ski Marathon in February, you can be quite sure I will not be doing these workouts. My memory from back in the days, was that these tough bounding workouts brought you to your knees and puking in occasion. 

JFK 50 mile ... DNF

So, a DNF is always a disappointment. After all, you sign up and train for two months, to complete the damn thing. However, during the fall I began to have the sneaking suspicion that my knees were not going to tolerate the pounding for 50 miles.

My fitness was up to the task, but I feared my joints were not. And so my "B goal" was to complete at least 50 kilometers (31 miles). And having run 52 kilometers over the toughest and hilliest part of the course, there is some satisfaction.

Race day dawned chilly and beautifully clear, and the sunrise over the South Mountain was spectacular. The route was historic. The race well organized. The selfie was taken at 6:29, moments before 1200 runners took off.

POSTSCRIPT ... Muscles and energy level were good the morning after, however the knees hurt quite a bit, and I was hobbling around like I was 90 ... ibuprofen, CBD cream, and single malt all helped. By Monday morning I was ready to jump on the ergometer and take Stash for a jog.

Great article about weight lifting and life ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/well/the-zen-of-weight-lifting.html?algo=identity&fellback=false&imp_id=663127536&imp_id=834876167&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage