February 11, 2012

2/9/12

After work skin workout on Gotcha Cutoff.  At the bottom, started the clock before skins on, went up, down, up, down, skins on, stop clock.  Previous time for this double lap was 1:11:14 (particular variant had ~250 more vertical gain, but 1 fewer transition). 

Distance: 4.46 mi
Elevation Gain: 1340
Max Elevation: 8014 ft
Time: 49:23  Moving Time: 44:14
Transitions: 3 skins on, 2 skins off
Transition time: 5:09
Climbing speed ~ 1628/hr, though the grade of Gotcha is super gradual, and so it's hard to score vertical.

Transition times were the focus for today, and just paying attention and having a way to do them made them so much faster.  Last time was roughly 13 minutes of transition, with one fewer skins-on transition.  This came from having an order (Boot, binding, skin, one leg at a time, completely) and from recognizing downhill time as recovery time, so resting isn't needed at the transition.  Eating and drinking while skiing will speed this up further.

February 5, 2012

2/5/12 - Girl Look at the Body

There's been a long radio silence in here.  That's in part because my computer died and never returned, and in part because I slacked.  I kept climbing, but I stopped lifting.  I kept ski patrolling, but I stopped rowing.  I stayed active, but I stopped eating for performance.

Now I've invented a guillotine for myself.  I signed up for the Wasatch Powderkeg, and I did so in the race division.  As in, not rec division.  As in men in spandex suits kicking my ass.

The race is on March 10th, and it's 11 miles and 6000' vertical gain.  Last year last place came in at 4:08, first at 2:06.  My ego is going to be crushed.

Anyways, I've started training for this late.  My thinking is that volume is key right now.  Getting a good endurance base will do more for my speed than speed workouts will.  More time on skis means more time to work out transitions, fueling, pacing, etc.

Today was step 1.  Tour from Guardsman's pass lot at Empire via Daly Pk, Jupiter Pk, Pk 10420, to the top of Brighton, bottom of Great Western lift, and back again.  13.6 miles, 5750' vertical gain.  With a few breaks to say hi to folks around the way discounted, that took around 4.5 hours. 


 That's the starting point.  Off the sofa.  One month and change to affect change.