Straight Busted
I bailed on the Tuesday night race this week. I was just totally broken from running that 5k on Sunday -- and part of my revolutionary 2009 training plan is "don't race when you're really, really tired, because you'll do badly and be unhappy." That's right, it only took me twenty years to figure that out.
It helped that the race had been shortened to only two laps because lots of folks had done Jackson or the Gunstock Tri (and I guess one idiot did both...), but the thing is, when it's that short you actually need more preparation because if you aren't ready to hit 105% effort at five minutes in you get dropped. I actually would rather do a longer (three lap, 8k) Tuesday night race when I'm tired, where you can actually settle in at race pace instead of spiking really hard and then having to recover -- because when you're tired you can't recover worth crap.
This weekend is a raceless one, so there might not be much blog fodder for a while. But after that we should be good to go at one race per weekend until March 14. Then I might actually try getting on a bike.
Next up is some nutty rando race Justin pushed on me like the crack dealer he is. I just picked up some new-to-me tele gear so what better way to test how the boots fit than 4000 vertical feet of skinning?
Now that's it's the end of January it's time to get some nordic ski base, right? Sunday is gonna be attempt #1 of the "one-lap-no-crossovers-or-repeats-50k-challenge" at the Balsams. Tentative course map is below; we mapped it at 48k but I'm hoping there's enough turns missing from that map to hit 50k. The Garmin never lies.
It helped that the race had been shortened to only two laps because lots of folks had done Jackson or the Gunstock Tri (and I guess one idiot did both...), but the thing is, when it's that short you actually need more preparation because if you aren't ready to hit 105% effort at five minutes in you get dropped. I actually would rather do a longer (three lap, 8k) Tuesday night race when I'm tired, where you can actually settle in at race pace instead of spiking really hard and then having to recover -- because when you're tired you can't recover worth crap.
This weekend is a raceless one, so there might not be much blog fodder for a while. But after that we should be good to go at one race per weekend until March 14. Then I might actually try getting on a bike.
Next up is some nutty rando race Justin pushed on me like the crack dealer he is. I just picked up some new-to-me tele gear so what better way to test how the boots fit than 4000 vertical feet of skinning?
Now that's it's the end of January it's time to get some nordic ski base, right? Sunday is gonna be attempt #1 of the "one-lap-no-crossovers-or-repeats-50k-challenge" at the Balsams. Tentative course map is below; we mapped it at 48k but I'm hoping there's enough turns missing from that map to hit 50k. The Garmin never lies.
Comments
Plus the added cost will go towards retrieving my body from the Slide Brook area between the Sugarbushes, I presume.
Also, come get your ass kicked at stowe on Saturday while you're up there at MRG...at least some of the Ass-kickers will be pros
Jonathon Dodge
BALSAMS Nordic Ski Director
:)
For starters, slap some glue on your skins and store them well between the first and 2nd ascent, or else they'll never hold the 2nd time up.
J
Jonathon