Ben's Birkie Pre-Cap

 My last race report was over a year ago, and was titled "Not Dead Yet".  It even ended with a "To Be Continued..."  Sometimes they just don't renew your favorite show for the next season.

So maybe this is a reboot?

Whatever it is, here we go!

2022 Offseason Recap

Not a super ski focused summer of training that included:

Spring "gravel" rides:

Lutsen 99er (actually 89 this year due to flooding):

Failed attempt to do a Double Duluth Traverse... we got rained out just as we started the return trip.

Ian's first century... on his fixie!

Hosted the 2nd annual Lindstrom Bakgard Ultra:

Did a couple of mounatin bike races with my kid:

Went backpacking in Alaska:

DNF'd Marji Gesick Duathlon... again...

Got COVID and missed Artie's now annual 100k roller ski.  Used Artie's special exemption and did a stupid solo 100k roller ski.

Pre-Race Ski Season

So basically I came into the start of serious ski season training not super ski specifically fit.  And maybe slightly less overall fit than many falls.  The power to weight ratio was definitely not improved, both the numerator and the denominator headed in the wrong direction.

Weekly Vakava practice was an exercise in patience and not pushing harder than I should.  Snow came pretty early and I was on snow frequently starting mid November.  By December I was starting to feel like a skier again, though I didn't necessarily have any expectations of a stellar race season.

The holiday season this year resulted in a couple of pretty big weeks for me.  Closing out 2022 had a week with a two long L3 sessions of 2 and 3 hours and another 3 hour OD ski.  That week was followed up with a week that was capped by an epic tour of all of trails in all of the Three Rivers Parks that don't make snow.  Just an 80km day.

Race Season

With all that, it's time to race.

Seeley Hills 42km

Nearly every year I say I should just do the short race.  Nearly every year I sign up for the long race and regret it.  This year was one of those.

I like classic skiing, and I want to like classic racing.  To do that I think I really need to work out my equipment and get better at waxing.

Finn Sisu did the glide waxing for me and my skis were rockets on the downhills.  Unfortunately I did the kick waxing and it was marginal at best.  I tested the kick on some gradual hills and it seemed fine.  But race pace and the bigger hills it just wasn't enough.

I was satisfied with the effort I put out.  I was able to move pretty good on the flats and downhills and keep the effort up.  Just when the trail went up (like the last 11km of the race), I just couldn't move as quick as everyone else.

Woodlands Loppet 20km Skate

I think the original Skinny Santa date might have been one of the few weekends that Woodlands was not great for skiing (or would have been challenging to race on anyway), so the race was pushed to mid-January.

This was a low pressure, low expectations race.  I opted to wax my own skis and did the first race on my Atomic S9 Gen S.  I don't recall what I waxed with this long after racing, but I definitely liked the skis.  Like really liked them.

As the course is pretty tight and the field was pretty big this year, they did a wave start.  That meant wave 2 for me which was probably a good thing.  It allowed me to not go blasting out of the start trying to keep up with the uber fast dudes.  I was able to build into the race which is good because you spend the first 2.5km climbing to Top of the World.  Its pretty easy to blow up 10% of the way into the race.

Matt Peterson and I made a move on Stony Rollers to go to the front of the wave 2 chase pack.  I took the lead part way down Bullsnake Run.  Then just before the tight hairpin turn Matt took a digger.  Post race he said he psyched himself out trying to be ready for the turn.

I raced the rest of the race pretty much solo.  I caught one of the skiers shed from the lead pack, but passed him and dropped him part way into the second lap.

Another race I was happy with my effort and pacing.  Fast skis definitely helped.

Boulder Mountain Tour

The following weekend would have been Noquemanon or Marine O'Brien, both races I really like doing.  But we had other plans this year.  Saturday we started driving west into the teeth of the oncoming polar weather.

We made it to Bozeman Sunday evening and skied Sourdough Canyon at -20F.

Our original plan had us skiing in West Yellowstone the next morning... but it was something like -40F there overnight... so we kept on driving to Sun Valley where we spent the week skiing our brains out.

Anyway 130km of skiing at 5000+ feet of elevation later it was time for the Boulder Mountain Tour.  Definitely a fun race... but not exactly the best prep for it.  I also totally botched the skis.  I only brought my Gen S skis and a bottle of Rex RG42 to wax in the condo with.  My skis were bad.  Eric waxed his skis with some paste wax the night before the race.  On the very first downhill I got in his draft, tucked, and watched him pull away from me.

The course was fun though!  And while I was there to "race", it was more that I was there because of the race.

Mora Vasaloppet Dala 35km Skate

Back in the land of oxygen for a week I tried to get a bunch of recovery in from the big week at altitude.  Basically just super easy skiing other than practice on Wednesday night.

Before the season began I had 4 pairs of skis I would race on.  I took advantage of the Finn Sisu ski swap to sell off two of the pairs of skis that I pretty much never raced on any more.  Then in the course of two days in January I broke the bindings on both of my remaining pair of race skis.  I had Finn Sisu put screw in bindings on my primary pair that I do 75% of my racing on. That was also when I bought my Gen S'.

But for Mora it was looking pretty warm which is really weird for Mora.  I'm used to crazy cold temps for that race.  In any case, the other pair of skis with broken bindings are my warm and sloppy conditions skis.  But they were still broken.  So it was my Gen S or my "universal" skis which I know are less than stellar if it does get wet.  I thought it was going to be colder over night than it turned out to actually be.  So I gambled on my universal skis and lost a bit.

Finn Sisu waxed them again and they were good until they weren't.  I didn't outrace the slop and as the sun started to take its toll my skis sucked.  Literally and figuratively.

I also went out HOT.  It was fun and I was racing with folks I didn't know that I could hold onto.  Turns out I couldn't.  I popped hard about 20km into the 35km race.  Oddly I was able to keep my HR up, I just couldn't move any more.  Partially the skis, but definitely used up all of my anaerobic muscles pushing too much.

Hans passed me like I was standing still and shouted for me to jump on the train.  Thanks Hans... but you put 2.5 minutes into me in that last 10km.

Its a fun race, one where I have had one of my best races ever, so I'll keep going back.  Maybe pace it a little smarter next time...

To Be Continued....

Next up is the Birkie.  Do you believe me if I say I'll actually continue this time?  I guess we will all find out.

Idaho Ski Trip and the Boulder Mountain Tour

Continuing on our quest to ski all the American Ski Series Marathons, this year Erik and I targeted the Boulder Mountain Tour and got our teammate Ben and his wife Starr to join us.

We left Minnesota just as the temps plummeted at the end of January. After driving most of the day Saturday and Sunday as well (including on a very icy I-90), we arrived in Bozeman with enough time for a ski before sunset on the Sourdough Canyon Trails. 

Rough driving conditions on I-90 between Billings and Bozeman.

Garmin map of our Sourdough ski. Too bad we didn't make it to Mystic Lake.

It was a cold ski:)

A very cold ski according to the thermometer along the trail.

But a very beautiful ski! I'd highly recommend this trail for anyone in the area. Had we had more time and the temps been warmer, it would've been nice to make it up to the lake.

On Monday we finished our drive to Sun Valley (technically the town of Ketchum) where we got in an afternoon ski at the Quigley (Squiggly) Trails. It was cold again in the single digits. 

Warming hut yurt and looking up valley at the Quigley Trails.

And looking down valley at Quigley.

Tuesday we waited for temps to warm up and then drove up to Galena Lodge in the afternoon to ski their famed trails. Erik and I initially made a plan to skip most of the black trails but then Ben's friend saw our Quigley ski on Strava and said we had to do Cherry Creek and Psycho. Challenge taken. Galena sits at over 7,000 feet and the snow was cold so we skied quite slow except for the long downhills. It was beautiful skiing although definitely not rolling by Minnesota standards. We climbed for many sustained minutes to whiz downhill in a single minute. Some of the corners were intense but the trails wide and freshly groomed so Erik and I had fun doing big skid turns.  

 

Our Galena ski.

And corresponding elevation profile. Almost 2,000 vertical feet in 15 miles or twice as hilly as the Birkie Classic course.

Ben and Starr skiing at Galena. No frost = warmer.

 

I love this photo with Ben showing how deep the powder was off the trails at Galena!

We hit up Psycho as our last "run," best described as a downhill run. Erik and I both side slid the initial very steep pitch. I did skid turns down the rest of the run which was super fun.

View from the top of the steep pitch on Psycho. You can kind of make out the lodge below me.

 

Wednesday Erik went downhill skiing and Ben and I headed back to Quigley to do the Vakava workout for the week: 3 x 15 minutes of 30-30s classic skiing. This was mostly double poling and we both took the rest incredibly easy. 

A complete loop of the Quigley Trails!

Seriously hard (and fresh) corduroy at Quigley.

 

Me skiing at Quigley.

In the afternoon Ben, Starr, and I went to the Lake Creek Trails, home of the SuperTour. These trails were incredibly deceiving. Somehow I have trouble figuring out the slope amidst the wide-open landscape. Sure, I did the hard trail twice but was quite surprised to find I did 1,000 feet of vertical in 1.5 hours. No wonder why I had to jump out of the track so much, even with my skins.  

Lake Creek Trails all out in the meadows.

Careful crossing the bridge to the Lake Creek Trails if you are tall!

 

Thursday we skied the Boulder Mountain Tour course. For anyone not familiar with this course, it's a 34 km point-to-point with a fairly substantial drop of 1,500 feet and just 480 feet of climbing (per my Garmin). I was glad to see the course, learn that there was only one sketchy corner, and also to be able to just enjoy the views not racing.  

On Friday my friend Kathryn came up from the Salt Lake City area (also to race) and we hung out, doing an easy ski again at Lake Creek Trails. They had groomed some fun rollers into their course and we did these a bunch of times! 

My Garmin map of the Boulder Mountain Tour course.

 

Saturday it was time for the Boulder Mountain Tour. As for the race itself, well, I wasn't sure what to expect with the course profile and starting at over 7,000 feet. I submitted a qualifier time and got into the Women's Elite Wave (technically Wave 2) -- I both felt privileged and not really deserving. The course started in a very wide area with a gradual uphill that was really slow on the cold snow. From there we had a long swooping downhill followed by another climb, another downhill, and the only blacktop road crossing that brought us to the main Harriman Trail.

Boulder Mountain Tour elevation profile.

 

By now we'd already had two of the significant climbs out of the way. The course wound gradually downhill and then about 15 minutes into the race we hit the steepest hill followed by the only gnarly descent with a big left-hander that I had skidded around on our practice run but this time snowplowed.

I found myself skiing behind a para skier with one pole. She skied away from me on every downhill with great technique but I would catch up to her on the uphills. It was interesting watching her V-2 and switch into a V-1. I thought it would be good for me not to pound the uphills too hard since we were at elevation so I stuck behind her on the uphills till the first feed station. 

Photo of the Boulder Mountain Tour course.

 

One elite wave woman passed us on this part of the course. Her technique wasn't very good- she stood up on the downhills and even snowplowed around very easy corners but she had an engine and a very fast V-1 (in arguably V-2 sections) and she just skied away from me like I was standing still. I can't help but wonder if skiers with a good engine but deplorable technique would be very successful if they mimicked more "ideal" technique or if they've simply found the technique that works best for them? I've wondered this myself in terms of classic striding where I've never been good at getting a stride glide but seem more efficient to just run. It's not pretty but maybe it's just better for me.

The first feed station came 42 minutes and about 13 km into the race. After taking down some energy I continued on the false flat and eventually caught the para skier, passed her, and didn't see her again.  Around 20 km to go there's a bit of an uphill but this is followed by a nice downhill section from 18 to 16 kms to go. From there I don't remember much other than being passed by lots of Wave 3 skiers, some in big packs, none of which I could hang onto. It was mostly fast skiing on gradual downhill but not super fast conditions and from 15-5 kms to go almost entirely out in meadows. We returned mostly to the woods for the last 5 km and this section flew by and also included a couple hills. Only one Wave 3 skier passed me in those last 5 kms although lots of skiers came in shortly after I did. 

 

View from the course.

 

It's always easy in hindsight to think I could have and should have pushed harder in the early hills but it's hard to know if that would have negatively impacted me or worked to my advantage. I learned many years ago how important it is to keep working hard even on downhill sections and I did work the whole course. I also know fast flat-ish skate courses are not my strong suit. That's why I made sure to be back in Minnesota for Mora:)  

Erik and I on a sunny course preview day at Galena.

Thanks for reading!

Chilling Out: Literally and Figuratively

Perhaps I’m just getting old, but my cold tolerance has taken a dramatic downturn over the past few years. Last year’s January and February were brutal, resulting in a frozen thumb and subsequent mega handwarmers for four weekends in a row of racing. My core can handle the cold as can my face, but my hands are weak. I’ve always had cold hands and Raynaud’s since high school, hence skiing isn’t exactly the best sport for me.

Erik got a hand boiler for Christmas. It’s a glass device with some colored liquid in the bottom, that when held by hot hands, moves upwards through a bunch of tubes, and "boils". The joke was on me. Everyone else could get it to instantly boil, but me, not at all. So it goes. 

Hand boiler and its box in case you're interested.

My training was going average until mid-November when after some running intervals, a long walk, and an overdistance skate rollerski, my posterior tibial tendonitis (more on this in a subsequent post) reared its ugly head and I haven’t ran since. Now I’m trying to tell myself that a 5 mile walk counts as much as a 5 mile run. I do walk fast but don’t think it provides quite the same cardio; the jury is out though on muscle fitness.

I decided to keep on with ski training and hope the break from running alone would be enough to rest my inflamed tendon. This was going OK but then back in December we had a week of rain, then snow, followed by cold. I volunteered at high school ski practice and thought I’d be OK. I used hand warmers inside my mittens but my thumbs got cold. I pulled them inside with my other fingers twice and then the third time I decided it was time to go home. But my car key fab was too cold and didn’t work. I fumbled getting out the back-up key which didn’t work either. I ran around frantically and the whole time my thumbs didn’t get warm. When I finally got into the car and got my hands warm, I realized my thumbs still felt numb. I’d frostbit both of them. Not again, and this time so early in the season.

I didn’t ski the next three days, hoping my strength workouts, shoveling, and starting to bring back in some walking would be decent training.

This brought me to Saturday December 24th, a sunny but cold day barely above zero with a fierce wind. It had been over a week since my last intervals and so with a short warm-up and an even shorter cool down knowing I’d be really sweaty, I got it done, 3 x 15 minutes, and mostly was able to keep my thumbs warm.

The next week I was lucky enough to have a ski vacation in Duluth and Bemidji and we were all lucky enough to have some temps in the 20s. I suppose the upside to cold weather is that it really makes me appreciate warmer weather. I got in 11 days in a row of skiing (although one day was a brief street ski during the big snowstorm) and two interval sessions amassing 20 hours. OK, that’s not actually that much but in the previous 11 days I only skied 7 hours. Now the weather has remained moderate and we have excellent natural snow so I’ve still been skiing a good amount.

Excellent skiing at Three Island County Park in Bemidji.

Well, I’d be skiing more but as I previously mentioned, I’ve been doing some volunteer high school coaching. The Type A in me is regretting the time I could be spending training instead of giving lots of technique advice and often skiing slower with the kids. It’s a balance between wanting to give back, feeling good about the coaching, and feeling bad about my lack of workout. I try to get in at least 8 miles during those coaching sessions which often last nearly two hours. It’s always more than what the kids ski and it reminds me of one of my high school ski teammates who was also a swimmer. Her specialty was the 500 meters in swimming. One day she remarked, “so in swim practice we usually do 2,000 meters but in ski practice we usually do 5 km and the pursuit race is 10 km. No wonder why I feel like we ski a marathon for every race.” So true. Between busing to snow for practice and an incredibly wide range of ability of skiers spread throughout the trail, it just doesn’t leave much time for skiing. 

High school throwback- first varsity race, a team relay at Mount Itasca. Date on photo.

I’m still not running but am doing a lot of walking. Next week is trending cold again and I suspect I won’t ski as much. But the week after that we’re headed to Sun Valley and planning to log some long days. I’m telling myself all this is good to switch up the routines- have a few high volume weeks, some very low volume weeks, and try a winter of not running. It mimics a lot more what I did in college and I was relatively successful back then. Indeed, despite so many more hours of training, I don’t think I’m that much more proportionately faster now, so maybe this new experiment of sorts, this kind of forced periodization and changing things up with injury and weather and ski trips, will be good for me.

Does our snowy back yard look impressive? So easy to ski with temps in the 20s and lots of natural snow.

So in essence I’m trying to chill out more in the figurative sense- train when the training is good, try not to stress about it when it’s not, give back, and try new things. And avoid chilling out in the frostbite sense. We’ll see how it shakes out come February racing season.

Ben’s Backyard Ultra

Last year, Vakava member Ben and his wife, hosted the Inaugural Forsta Upplagan (first edition) Lindstrom Bakgard Ultra after having recently moved to a house which abuts Linstrom’s Allemnsratt Park. This year, Ben hosted the Andra Upplagan (second edition).

Over the past couple years, I’ve been dealing with right posterior tibial tendonitis. I had been thinking about running another half marathon, but wasn’t too stoked about the courses available. Hence, when Ben announced his Bakgard Ultra, this gave me some training motivation to ramp up the distance.

For those unfamiliar with the backyard ultra format, there are some official rules. Briefly, participants must complete a 4.4 mile loop starting on the hour and ending within the hour to be eligible to continue. Most backyard ultras last 24 hours or until no one is willing to go any longer.

Ben’s version is more informal, largely designed for the Vakava team and some friends. Hence, the loop is closer to 4 miles and relatively easy. Biking is allowed, along with skipping laps or starting late (although you have to follow the rules to be eligible for the overall trophy). Hanging out is also highly encouraged along with potluck food, beer, yoga, and kuub. Last year, Vakava member Craig Cardinal took the win with 28 miles and seven laps. I had a work party and so arrived late to the noon start and due to my tendonitis, only made it a full three laps and two partials (partials get part of a sticker on the official board). 

 

Craig winning the inaugural 2021 Lindstrom Bakgard Ultra and last year's board (note the partial stickers).

Last year's official results. I like the bikers.

When Ben sent out the invite for the Andra Upplagan, I had a goal of 28 mile to make it a full ultra, but my training didn’t go so well. On my first 10.5 mile run my tendonitis really flared. It got better on subsequent 10.5 mile runs but I wasn’t interested in pushing the distance so that was my longest run prior to the ultra. After my poor training, I scaled back my goal to 20 miles, for five laps. 

The Andra Upplagan course.

The Andra Upplagan was held on July 30th, starting at 10 am. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot, but it was sunny. We had a large pack on the first lap but by the second I was the only woman with a few guys. The pack slowly dwindled throughout the day (although technically finishing the lap faster won’t get you any closer to the win other than more recovery time). We were running the loop in just over 40 minutes which meant 15+ minutes of recovery in between. Temps were already a toasty 79 degrees at the start and climbed to the upper 80s by mid-afternoon. The first half of the lap was mostly shaded through the forest but then we ran nearly a mile on paved roads before doing a fairly open section through the fields. 

Most of the crew for the Andra Upplagan (a few had already left by the time we did this photo).

After eating a large breakfast, I only hydrated between the first and second laps and took down a cookie between the second and third. After the third lap though, I was ready for some serious fueling. Someone had brought Seven Layer Dip and the saltiness of this combined with some protein and a more “real food” feel was awesome. After a couple scoops of dip, I had a handful of fruit (cherries or watermelon), and then finished with another cookie.

The chillin' scene in the shade under Ben's deck between laps. Craig just got more water and the food is closest to the house.

Teammate Alex joined us for the fourth lap. He was fresh and kept the pace hot, even for Craig. I had noticed on the previous laps that the guys started a bit fast and then slowed but not on this lap! We weren’t going that fast but seeing as I was now running farther than I’d ran all year and temps were climbing into the mid-80s, my heart rate really jacked up towards the end of that fourth lap. At least Alex brought some leftover Costco cake and a piece of that cold was amazing before starting the 5th lap which I scaled back a tad and ran with coach Mark. I was still breathing hard and struggling a bit out in the heat and called it a day after that (well, except that I was tempted to keep going even though my body said no and I started on another loop before calling it and later walked almost 2 miles).

Heart rate graph of my laps. You can see my heart rate really got higher on the 4th lap and then didn't rebound as well before my last lap.

While my tendonitis definitely flared the next day, my muscles didn’t, which I attribute to the 15+ minutes of rest between laps.

According to my Garmin, I clocked 20 miles in 4 hours and 42 minutes with 3 hours and 30 minutes of “on time,” climbing 575 feet (very flat land!), and burning 1,949 calories.

We had better run participation this year compared to last with two people bailing at 20 miles, an additional two completing a conventional marathon, and Craig taking the win again at 28 miles. He says “someone has to make it an ultra!” 

 

Craig taking the win for the second year and this year's board.

The super sweet traveling trophy. Craig needs some competition so flag down a Vakava member and ask to be invited to the Tredje Upplagan in 2023!