Category Archives: Winter

01132019 – Bike & Ski

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I was excited to take my new fat tire bike out for its inaugural spin. We haven’t had hardly any snow lately so the tread of the mountain bike trails are pretty much straight ice. I don’t have studded tires but I thought I would ride out and see how bad the trails were. So I rode down the Luce Line and rode fine over some rougher patches of ice. Right before the ski trails cross the Luce Line (right by the mountain bike entrance) I hit a patch of smoother ice and I felt my rear tire sliding. It all happened in slow motion, but I put my foot down and it slid too and as my right side slammed into the ice I saw my bike keep sliding a few more feet. It was a lot of pain, but no real damage to me or the bike – my right hip and knee took the worst of it and I got a good sized goose egg on my left shin.

After shaking myself off I got back on the bike and proceeded on the snowy edge of the trail to take a look at the mountain bike trails. Yup, the tread was icy on everything I could see. Had I not totally just biffed it, I might have been dumb enough to try it! So I turned around and stayed on the paved trail. I rode down to the Cedar Lake trail and then to the river and back home on Plymouth getting about 9 miles in. The paved trail was pretty much ice free except for a few shady spots and I could have ridden a different bike. I think it was still good to get the new bike out and see what adjustments I would need to make to it.

9.4 miles in 56:33

Later in the afternoon we had the kid’s ski lessons. We decided to move them both into Level 2 and we spent most of the time actually skiing and getting some of the hills in. It is funny to see how their different personalities respond to the different challenges of going up or down. And how one wants to really focus on just skiing and felt that the games were a waste of time! I ended up with about 2.4K of skiing during the class.

After class was over I went out for a quick loop with my classic skis. I did the Hidden Lakes trail sections and then up towards the upper stadium. I was still dressed for ski lessons which meant I was way over dressed for skiing at a more aggressive pace. So I was sweating way more than I needed to be. I decided to use the ski as a way to get the car instead of walking back from the Trailhead to the Chalet parking lot so I went down the Drevil’s Drop which I’ve never successfully made all the way down. I made it onto the flat section before falling, I think my ski edge caught one of the tracks. Guess what, I fell really hard on my right side again! Yea, the same spots hurt a lot! This quick ski was about 3.3K in 23:20 on my classic skis.

So that was a lot of work for one day!

11102018 – Run

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We got a little bit of snow the last couple of days and we’ve had highs below freezing so the Loppet Foundation is starting to make snow.  I’m excited for ski season and got out to enjoy the beautiful weather.  It was about 10f with no wind.  As the man made snow area expands I won’t be able to run here any more so I enjoyed the scenery.  There is ice forming on some of the smaller ponds already too.  Some of the downhills were a little slippery and I slid down the hill by the staircase.

I did 3.3 miles in 33:24.

04152018 – Ski 

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Yes, you read that right. Skiing on April 15th. It looks like we will probably be able to ski for at least another week. The Historic April Blizzard dropped about 15 inches of snow and a second round is still dropping snow! 

Joe and I decided to join the small mass of people enjoying the 3k of groomed trails. Grooming was supposed to officially end a month ago! The Loppet is actually hosting a ski race tomorrow on the trails!

The trails had been groomed earlier in the day and we had gotten even more snow throughout the day so it was pretty sticky and I had trouble gliding. Joe was giving me some pointers and tips throughout the ski such as double poleing and tightening my pole straps. I didn’t fall at all but like I said it was pretty slow conditions. It was still a lot of fun just to be out. 

I did 4 miles in 48 minutes. Joe did a couple extra of the small loops since he is so much faster than me!

04142018 – Run

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I put the pictures in the post and then never came back to do my write up. Oops.  This was my 5 mile time trial. We had fresh snow, but I got out before the blizzard really came down!  Overall run was 7 miles in 1:13:02.

My 5 mile time trial was in 51:30 so 10:18 on snowy trails!

04122018 – Run

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The workout this morning was 5x800m.  The trails were a mixture of icy and mud.  I swear my phone updated and said that it was 40 degrees so I opted for shorts.  I realized pretty quickly that it was actually colder as the sidewalks had a thin layer of ice from the snow melt. But it didn’t feel too cold. By the time I got home my legs were just starting to get cold.  It was hard to know where the icy parts were since the run started before 5am and it was pitch black.  The headlamp doesn’t really provide good depth perception or awareness of puddles!  Once I got into the woods it was more about a thin layer of ice on the remaining snow pack or areas of mud.

Looking at the splits you can tell when I was on flatter and better surfaces!

5:14

5:02

4:44

4:56

4:05

The overall run was 4.63 miles in 49:17.