Raising The Level Of Cross-Country Skiing In America
Race Report, Mora Vasaloppet, 35K Freestyle. Sunday 10 Feb, 2008.
I was a DNF.
Here's the breakdown--
Conditions: Temperature -12F with winds out of the WNW, wind chill approaching -40F. Course consisting of dry, windblown snow from previous week.
Clothing: No real problems with clothing--I got this part right. Bottoms were mesh lined windpants w. silkweight longjohns. Top was light weight polypro shirt under fleece lined windbreaker, had a windbreaker vest over the top for added protection. Balaclava, Lobster mitts, and wool cap, with copious amounts of vasaline on the face to complete the setup. I was chilly to start, but warmed up nicely. I tried ski goggles, but had problems with my glasses fogging up so I gave up on those after about 4k.
Skis: Full fastwax baseprep, followed by 1 layer of fastwax blue, under 2 layers of white, heavily brushed and polished. I'm not sure it made a difference, actually I'm not sure that anything would have made a difference, the glide was terrible.
Course: The windblown snow on the trail had all the glide of sandpaper. There were some areas of tilled corn snow (the base from earlier in the week) that were very fast, but those areas were the exception rather than the rule. Glide in the skate lane was bad to the point where I was able to kick/stride up most of the hills, and in quite a few areas forward progress was reduced to either a shuffle or a snowshoe-like slog. Progress was a combination of V-1, slog, touring shuffle, kick and glide, a little jogging, stumbling, pretty much anything I could think of to keep moving.
I pulled out when I saw the bus at the Cty RD 3 crossing (about 15k). While I could have gone another 10k, 20 was out of the question.....I just didn't have the engine to push myself that long in those conditions, and I probably would have gotten into trouble trying to finish.
In hindsight, my best bet would have been to prep the classic skis, and stride the whole thing, I like to think I would have at least finished. Live and learn I guess.
Warman to Cty Rd 3--15-ish K, 1:20:35
Congrats to all who finished, it was a hard thing to do on a hard day.
Here's the breakdown--
Conditions: Temperature -12F with winds out of the WNW, wind chill approaching -40F. Course consisting of dry, windblown snow from previous week.
Clothing: No real problems with clothing--I got this part right. Bottoms were mesh lined windpants w. silkweight longjohns. Top was light weight polypro shirt under fleece lined windbreaker, had a windbreaker vest over the top for added protection. Balaclava, Lobster mitts, and wool cap, with copious amounts of vasaline on the face to complete the setup. I was chilly to start, but warmed up nicely. I tried ski goggles, but had problems with my glasses fogging up so I gave up on those after about 4k.
Skis: Full fastwax baseprep, followed by 1 layer of fastwax blue, under 2 layers of white, heavily brushed and polished. I'm not sure it made a difference, actually I'm not sure that anything would have made a difference, the glide was terrible.
Course: The windblown snow on the trail had all the glide of sandpaper. There were some areas of tilled corn snow (the base from earlier in the week) that were very fast, but those areas were the exception rather than the rule. Glide in the skate lane was bad to the point where I was able to kick/stride up most of the hills, and in quite a few areas forward progress was reduced to either a shuffle or a snowshoe-like slog. Progress was a combination of V-1, slog, touring shuffle, kick and glide, a little jogging, stumbling, pretty much anything I could think of to keep moving.
I pulled out when I saw the bus at the Cty RD 3 crossing (about 15k). While I could have gone another 10k, 20 was out of the question.....I just didn't have the engine to push myself that long in those conditions, and I probably would have gotten into trouble trying to finish.
In hindsight, my best bet would have been to prep the classic skis, and stride the whole thing, I like to think I would have at least finished. Live and learn I guess.
Warman to Cty Rd 3--15-ish K, 1:20:35
Congrats to all who finished, it was a hard thing to do on a hard day.
Comment
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Comment by Burgess Eberhardt on February 14, 2008 at 5:49pm - And here in International Falls we say "Only the Bold ski the Cold" as if it applied to us. Congratulations on even starting. I'll have to admiit the Pre-Birkie in Hayward although "slow" was a delight in the mid-20's.
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