Baby it's cold outside!
As Saturday, Feb. 4, approached I was more and more excited to be back in the snow. Taking last weekend off was nice, having that downtime helpd me realize how much I love my workouts in the snow. I bounced out of bed, or something similar to that, around 4am on Saturday...eager to get my day started. We were scheduled to have time trials today to see which race we all should be signing up for. I was pretty anxious to get the day started. My carpool arrived not long after 5:15am and we started our commute to Bear Valley. When we got on the freeway, I asked if anyone had checked the weather to see what we were in store for. One of my carpool buddies mentioned that she had pulled it the day before and it said that it was supposed to be 45 degrees and raining. The other gal and myself didn't believe that for a second. How could it be raining and that warm at 7000 feet elevation?
We soon found out how it could be! We had driven through a lot of rain at the start of our commute. Once we entered the mountains it stopped raining, but it didn't seem that cold...so I started to fear that the weather report, read by my teammate was going to be accurate. As we pushed on through the mountains the clouds were getting more and more black...not a good sign for those of us that didn't want to ski in rain!
We go there just before 9am...just in enough time to buy skis. Yes that is right, one of my teammates and I bought our ski package! We were so excited with the deal that we got! We looked outside while we waited for our skis and bindings to be put together and it was snowing. It was then that I thought that the weather report had to have been wrong. We were going to be in a lot of powder today, but that has to be better than slush. It at that moment that I jinxed us!
After purchasing our skis we walked out and it started to rain! I didn't think it would last so I pulled out my knew GPS distance tracker that I got for my bday....it was an early gift so I could start using it now (Thank you Den again! This gift rocks!).
The start of the practice we were told that we were going to play a game. I didn't quite understand the reasoning behind it until we started playing the game, Sharks and Minnows. We start with one shark, and all the minnows had to run, while in skis, across the space that was the designated sea area to the safe zone. If you are tagged then you became a shark and you had to try and get as many minnows as possible. It sounded absurd to me at the time, but watching all of us running around without our poles made me realize that we weren't beginners anymore....we were skiers!
Anyway, I digress...so after our little game we were down to business. We had a timed trial to complete in the rain. It was going to be a 11K and we needed to stay on pace. This was going to help determine which race we should be competing in. We started the timed trial like we would have a regular race....doubling polling. And trust me that isn't easy! It is like a constant crunch as you are pulling your body weight through the snow. After we got to the area were we could start striding we all sort of separated. I felt really good through lap 1 and as I started lap 2 the rain and the wind got so strong I couldn't see a thing. In fact the wind was so strong that it was pushing my backwards! I was drenched at this point and couldn't keep my mind off how cold I was. Being wet while skiing is no fun. The only song that would come to mind as I was pulling my soaked booty through the snow was the Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside." So I sang that to myself as I kept going.
I got to lap 3 and realized that I was lagging big time....so I tired to pick up the pace, but it was so dang hard in this sort of snow. Snow that is slush is hard to glide in so it was acting as a deterrent. I finished lap 3 and had to go climb the hill that I always fall on to actually be finished. I was praying at this point to not fall....I was wet enough and I didn't want to get my GPS messed up by falling. I got to the top of the hill where the coaches were and took a break. I was told that with the time that it took me to finish this pace trial I would be okay to compete in the 40K, but I would need the whole 7 hours. So I would have to pick up the pace. Which was very evident after the time trial.
After grabbing a quick bite of food from my pack I went down the hill of doom and was reciting my Stuart Smalley Affirmations to myself and I made it down without falling! After finishing the pace trial I skied to the warming hut to grab some more food and meet up with teammates. It was then that I realized that my ankle bone on my right foot was killing me! I guess I had been concentrating a lot on my pace that I wasn't paying attention to the throbbing pain my ankle was in. So getting off my foot was going to be needed at this point.
Once I reached the warming hut I looked at my GPS to see how far I had gone, I had logged a 13K in so far. I relaxed for a good 15 minutes then decided that I needed to go again to keep warm. I only made it another 3k before I had to call it quits. My ankle was killing me at this point and ever little bit of pressure I put on my foot was agony. So I separated from the group that I was skiing with and went towards the lodge. I ran into 2 of the coaches to talk to them about how hard a day it was and what to do about my boots. I got some good suggestions that I hope will help me break my boots in.
All in all, it took 4 hours to complete a 16.7K....and in good conditions I would have completed a 26+K. So to say the least, I was disappointed with the conditions and how crappy of a training day I had had. Though I couldn't feel bad b/c a number of my teammates turned in before lunch. Saturday was definitely the hardest ski day that I have had thus far, and it put serious doubts in my head about completely the 40K that I signed up for. This coming weekend will be the make it or break it point for me. I will know after this weekend if I will do the 25K or the 40K.
And as for my ankle....it wasn't blistered like I had initially thought. It was bruised and swollen from the pressure of the boot. I am still dealing with a swollen and bruised ankle and I pray that it will be better by Saturday for me to ski again!
Until then.....
We soon found out how it could be! We had driven through a lot of rain at the start of our commute. Once we entered the mountains it stopped raining, but it didn't seem that cold...so I started to fear that the weather report, read by my teammate was going to be accurate. As we pushed on through the mountains the clouds were getting more and more black...not a good sign for those of us that didn't want to ski in rain!
We go there just before 9am...just in enough time to buy skis. Yes that is right, one of my teammates and I bought our ski package! We were so excited with the deal that we got! We looked outside while we waited for our skis and bindings to be put together and it was snowing. It was then that I thought that the weather report had to have been wrong. We were going to be in a lot of powder today, but that has to be better than slush. It at that moment that I jinxed us!
After purchasing our skis we walked out and it started to rain! I didn't think it would last so I pulled out my knew GPS distance tracker that I got for my bday....it was an early gift so I could start using it now (Thank you Den again! This gift rocks!).
The start of the practice we were told that we were going to play a game. I didn't quite understand the reasoning behind it until we started playing the game, Sharks and Minnows. We start with one shark, and all the minnows had to run, while in skis, across the space that was the designated sea area to the safe zone. If you are tagged then you became a shark and you had to try and get as many minnows as possible. It sounded absurd to me at the time, but watching all of us running around without our poles made me realize that we weren't beginners anymore....we were skiers!
Anyway, I digress...so after our little game we were down to business. We had a timed trial to complete in the rain. It was going to be a 11K and we needed to stay on pace. This was going to help determine which race we should be competing in. We started the timed trial like we would have a regular race....doubling polling. And trust me that isn't easy! It is like a constant crunch as you are pulling your body weight through the snow. After we got to the area were we could start striding we all sort of separated. I felt really good through lap 1 and as I started lap 2 the rain and the wind got so strong I couldn't see a thing. In fact the wind was so strong that it was pushing my backwards! I was drenched at this point and couldn't keep my mind off how cold I was. Being wet while skiing is no fun. The only song that would come to mind as I was pulling my soaked booty through the snow was the Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside." So I sang that to myself as I kept going.
I got to lap 3 and realized that I was lagging big time....so I tired to pick up the pace, but it was so dang hard in this sort of snow. Snow that is slush is hard to glide in so it was acting as a deterrent. I finished lap 3 and had to go climb the hill that I always fall on to actually be finished. I was praying at this point to not fall....I was wet enough and I didn't want to get my GPS messed up by falling. I got to the top of the hill where the coaches were and took a break. I was told that with the time that it took me to finish this pace trial I would be okay to compete in the 40K, but I would need the whole 7 hours. So I would have to pick up the pace. Which was very evident after the time trial.
After grabbing a quick bite of food from my pack I went down the hill of doom and was reciting my Stuart Smalley Affirmations to myself and I made it down without falling! After finishing the pace trial I skied to the warming hut to grab some more food and meet up with teammates. It was then that I realized that my ankle bone on my right foot was killing me! I guess I had been concentrating a lot on my pace that I wasn't paying attention to the throbbing pain my ankle was in. So getting off my foot was going to be needed at this point.
Once I reached the warming hut I looked at my GPS to see how far I had gone, I had logged a 13K in so far. I relaxed for a good 15 minutes then decided that I needed to go again to keep warm. I only made it another 3k before I had to call it quits. My ankle was killing me at this point and ever little bit of pressure I put on my foot was agony. So I separated from the group that I was skiing with and went towards the lodge. I ran into 2 of the coaches to talk to them about how hard a day it was and what to do about my boots. I got some good suggestions that I hope will help me break my boots in.
All in all, it took 4 hours to complete a 16.7K....and in good conditions I would have completed a 26+K. So to say the least, I was disappointed with the conditions and how crappy of a training day I had had. Though I couldn't feel bad b/c a number of my teammates turned in before lunch. Saturday was definitely the hardest ski day that I have had thus far, and it put serious doubts in my head about completely the 40K that I signed up for. This coming weekend will be the make it or break it point for me. I will know after this weekend if I will do the 25K or the 40K.
And as for my ankle....it wasn't blistered like I had initially thought. It was bruised and swollen from the pressure of the boot. I am still dealing with a swollen and bruised ankle and I pray that it will be better by Saturday for me to ski again!
Until then.....
posted by Patty at
3:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home