I've not done any Mt. Washington training since starting my Mt. Washington training. But I've skied every day, although generally not very long or hard. I cannot say I'm getting much endurance or strength training in. I am mostly focusing on technique. The reason I'm not getting long, hard skis in is because nearly all of my skiing is with the FHS nordic team and I'm focusing on, you know, coaching. Our practices are short. Between the bus dropping us off and picking us back up we generally have about 50-60 minutes of practice at most. And that's not all skiing.
Last Monday I joined James and Tim C. on a 3 lapper of Oak Hill. It was beautiful. Absolute perfect conditions for fast skiing. When I got home I couldn't find my Garmin 305 and thought I had left it in James' car. James checked. I checked. No watch. So I drove back out to Pineland to look in the parking lot. Had it fallen out of the car while I was getting in? No luck. James has let me use his Garmin 405 in the mean time but I seem to be all thumbs. Or dead. The bezel doesn't seem to recognize that my finger is rubbing it. I do have frostbite again on 4 fingers (same four as last winter) from Bretton Woods so maybe my finger really are dead.
I've skied two fun courses recently - the course behind Telstar high school in Bethel and Starks Hill in Fryeburg. Starks Hill is where Alpine skiing in America started (more or less). But the HS nordic course doesn't go very high up the hill although the kids still fear it. Telstar's course also had a good hill. I wish we had a good hill near here.
Race/practice was canceled Monday and Tuesday due to snow. I made about a 1K classic track the old fashion way and skied it a few times. Beautiful. Our wonderful parent groomers had groomed a nice trail for Tuesday practice but that was also canceled so I got in a good 15K. I did one loop with all the little Bill Koch kids whose Tuesday practice was not canceled (interesting that the school canceled all after-school activities but not the town). Community Park is on fire this winter. The week before we had about 100 kids out skiing between the HS, MS, and Bill Koch (2-5th grade)! Watch out Yarmouth!
Yesterday we had a make-up race at Riverside but only three teams could make it sense most of the other schools had midterms. It snowed for about 1 hour yesterday and our race was right in the middle of it. Waxing was tough and no one could figure it out. Lots of icing in the kick zone (classic race) made a frustrating day for those who couldn't ski it off. Double poling was the gear-o-the-day. Other than the first, short wall, our fastest skiers only double poled. It would have been a great day for waxless skis or to just double pole on skate skis (yeh double poling on skates skis is faster because less of the ski is in contact with the snow!).
James and I timed the race, with help from Hugh Coxe and JC xxx. Just before the race I reached into my coat pocket to warm my hand and found my Garmin 305! Sweeeeeeet! After the race I skied the course twice (about 11K) so I could re-bond with my old friend.
On Sunday, three Falmouth Land Trust board members and one friend of the trust strapped on the bc skis for a tour of Falmouth. We started at the Lowell Preserve in Windham and finished Hannaford's on Grey Rd. Along the way, we crossed at least 10 conserved properties (Chase, Wilshore, BHP, Carr, Hadlock, Community Park, McGlaughlin, McCrann, Adam, River Point). This was mostly snowmo trail, all of which was in excellent shape for speed. Sunday mornings also seem to be a fine time to avoid snomobilers too as we only started to get traffic near the end.
Lowell Preserve had been lightly snowshoed, apparently the day before by a fellow FTACer. The orange trail on Wilshore (Blackstrap Community Forest) was virgin. What an amazingly beautiful trail along the River. McCrann had also been lightly snowshoed and the trail cut through their is a black diamond until a few more small trees are taken out.
We had to cross only four roads and we didn't have to walk along any, which is quite amazing given Falmouth's development in the last decade.
Total Time: 4:15
Unfortunately, a Noacian deluge hit all of Northern New England the day after and this is what the McCrann field looked like on Tuesday. This was 20 inches of powder when we skied through it two days before. The water is the flooded Piscataqua River.
