Ultimate

My husband organizes a pickup Ultimate Frisbee game every Saturday morning with friends. It's the same group of people that I started playing with 20 years ago and were I got to know Jim. They play year round and he claims playing in the winter is the most fun because you can dive for the frisbee without getting hurt. It's a very different game in the snow since you can't run and maneuver like you can on grass. I'm always too busy skiing in the winter to play with them but I usually start up in the spring after I've gotten my legs used to running again. Yesterday was my first game of the season. I haven't done any kind of intensity for some time but I can still run pretty fast when I need to. I just can't help myself and ran pretty hard. It amazes my how it makes my whole body hurt when I start playing again. It truly is a full body sport. My arms, shoulders, back, quads, hip flexors, and even my feet are sore today. My feet must be sore from all the cutting back and forth. The soreness is coming and going in different parts of my body at different rates. My quads and hip flexors were too sore to run today. Hopefully I'll be up for another hard go by next Saturday.


This is a little figurine of a person diving for a disk that my nephew gave Jim. Isn't it cute?!

Artificial Winter

Each year around April, I like to reflect on my ski season and the training leading up to it.  2015-2016 was my best training year ever in terms of volume, intervals, and still feeling very strong. This training reflected in a “better than I dreamed of” Twin Cities Marathon and was hoping it would catapult me towards some “too good to be true” ski results, but that didn’t quite happen.

There were the not-so-good races. Namely, the series of sprint races I did (Hoigaard’s Relays and the new Master Blaster Series sponsored by Fulton). I have never considered myself a sprinter and still don’t; but doing these sprint races are supposed to make me better, right? Then there was that Ski-Orienteering race as part of the City of Lakes Loppet I really should have cherry picked….and when I didn’t, I was left feeling salty. And then there was the Lake Louise Loppet that left me crying on the course (icing is never fun)!

There were the so-so races: the 5 km team time trial at Elm Creek and the 42 km skate City of Lakes Loppet. My goal at the time trial was to show some improvement over the previous year. It is always hard to judge when competition and snow speed are different. I couldn’t really determine if I was any faster in either the skate or the classic. In the City of Lakes Loppet I just did not feel on top of my game the whole race but ended in 16th place for women which tells me that even on a so-so day I’m not that far back.

Another so-so race: the inaugural Three Rivers Rennet. I'm still sporting my hot pink polka dot suit here. We did four loops of Hyland's man-made loop for 20 km total. I do best climbing. Caitlin Gregg lapped me! Otherwise I held onto top 10. Photo: Skinnyski

Then there were the good races: 42 km Classic Mora Vasaloppet, 30 km Classic Boulder Lake Race, 20 km Classic Finlandia, and 55 km Classic Birkie. The Mora Vasaloppet was fun because I skied with the two lead women (Josie Nelson and Kathleen DeWahl) for about 13 km before getting dropped when I fell. I’ve never stayed with either of those women that long before so I think that at least shows some progress in my double pole. Although I cherry picked Boulder Lake and Finlandia, I was proud of myself for really racing the men and Boulder Lake was the first race I have ever won outright (men and women) AND got to ski with my bro! While I narrowly missed a top 10 at Birkie, I really can’t complain about 11th place. Besides, had I done much better, it would make it hard to set goals for next season. 

Over 200 meters into the Finlandia and still with the lead men's pack (albeit at the back as #2119). I'm the only woman in this group. I went on to beat about half the men in this picture. Photo: Skinnyski

While there were the races, I spent much more of my ski time training. And in both races and training, I did many, many, many loops on man-made snow. We spent Thanksgiving week in Colorado on natural snow which seemed to make the December loops more tolerable but by the middle of January it was getting mundane. Hyland’s snow-making loop is amazing; however, 60 km there one weekend were 20 too many.

By the end of January, my husband Erik, quipped “I need an adventure.”

Skiing and racing loops on man-made snow is not very adventurous.

All my early season races were on man-made snow and then Mora was saved by the little snow gun that could, so hence, only partially on man-made snow.

Entirely man-made races: Hoigaards, Elm Creek Time Trial, Three Rivers Rennet, Fulton Races at Wirth (2 total). This was 5 of my 11 races. 

Racing in the man-made slush at the MYSL/Fulton Team Sprints at Wirth after the Birkie. This was the slushiest snow I've ever skied in. It's interesting how the man-made snow slush is much different from natural snow slush. It's more like skiing through a slushy than mashed potatoes. Photo: Skinnyski

Partial man-made races: City of Lakes Loppet, Mora Vasaloppet

All natural snow races: Boulder Lake, Birkie, Finlandia, Lake Louise Loppet (not sure if this one counts...I did not wax my skis for this race).

In March we headed to Canmore to watch the World Cups and ski on more man-made snow. Canmore has about 20 km of man-made snow! The snow was dirty and since I felt deprived of abundant snow, winter still seemed missing.

Watching Petter Northug and other World Cup skiers navigate the slush on man-made snow at Canmore. It was similar to the slush at Wirth. Photo: Craig

But then there was Lake Louise and Mount Shark. Both locations, higher in elevation than Canmore, offered a true winter experience and provided for just enough real snow time to complete winter. 

Glorious, pristine, abundant natural snow on Mud Lake near Lake Louise. So much fun to be making first tracks. Check out the mountains in the clouds. Photo: Craig

So I was curious to know just how many hours and km I spent skiing at Wirth, Elm Creek, and Hyland this year. Being as Wirth’s loop didn’t open til mid-January, I spent only 6.4 hours skiing there and logged 67 km (time and distance is a bit funny because 2 of the times I skied there were for team sprint races). I skied 20 hours at Elm Creek for a total of 300 km (that’s 120 laps of a 2.5 km loop). By far I skied the most at Hyland- 44 hours in total resulting in 544 km (of which over ⅓ occurred in December when the loop was less than 2 km). That is a lot of time and distance on man-made snow. This is why when I reflect on my 2015-2016 season, two words come to mind: Artificial Winter.

In summary, I think all this training on man-made snow boils down to two points. First, this is indicative of snow conditions in Minnesota. This is not a post about global warming so I will merely state we do not get a lot of snow in the Twin Cities and given that we have so much man-made snow, this is not an unusual winter. Second, this shows just how crazy I am in my desire/need/ambition to continue to train that I spend so much time going around in circles. I seriously wonder how sustainable this is in the future which is why in December I often elected to run or rollerski instead of drive to a man-made loop. It also begs the question, how many hours does a competitive master athlete need to spend training on snow in an artificial winter?

The Minnesota Finlandia!!! February 27th, 2016

The Minnesota Finlandia, or MinnFinn, near Bemidji, Minnesota, is my hometown race. My dad served on the MinnFinn board for many years, and now my brother does. Once part of the prestigious American Ski Chase, the MinnFinn remains part of the American Cross Country Ski Marathon Series. Each year with the banners, announcers, music, and flags from many Nordic nations flapping in the wind, I feel pride in taking part in this legendary event.

Me after winning Axe #2 in 2013 with Paul and Babe in downtown Bemidji. Photo: Craig

Despite arguably the best non-cash prizes in the Midwest (check out this video to see why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9nRINv7lfA) participation in the MinnFinn is dwindling. I first attempted to remedy this situation while on the University of Minnesota Nordic Club by encouraging and providing lodging for the dozen or so of my teammates who did the race. Due to a limited number of racers, especially in the women’s field, spread over 4 races, a mediocre skier such as myself has a pretty good shot at the podium. In both the mens and womens races, the same skiers tend to show up year after year and collect the same prizes year after year. After winning 3 axes in as many consecutive tries, I again attempted to remedy the situation by making a Promo Video (see link above).

Temperatures for the race were projected to be in the mid 30s at the start and climbing. The day before, temperatures had been in the high 30s. I was racing the 22 kilometer classic race, and Craig and Erik were doing the continuous pursuit. This sounded like klister conditions and so we applied Rex Brown the morning of the race. I was worried upon arriving to the start and seeing the snow was very dry and skied more like it was 15 degrees. My brother later told me this was because they had received about 2 inches of snow earlier in the week “north of town.” I was afraid my klister would ice and was quite surprised and glad when it didn’t.

Due to low snow, the course was changed from its usual 25 kilometer lap, to shorter 11 kilometer laps on the less exposed west side. Hence race distances would be about 22 kilometers (2 laps) for the shorter races (classic, skate, and continuous pursuit) and 44 kilometers (4 laps) for the long skate race. The MinnFinn had posted a couple pictures on skinnyski throughout the week and course conditions looked excellent. Indeed, course conditions exceeded expectations and would have been perfect had it been 10 degrees colder.

At the start of the race, I was busy looking around to find other women in my race. I only saw one other woman, sporting the old one piece high school suit. My bro recognized her as Morgan Sagadahl. Knowing high schoolers can be fast, I was worried despite my bro’s reassurance. The start line was narrow and I lined up in the second row between Matt Lee and a guy wearing a non-descript blue spandex suit who didn’t look too fast. He was doing the classic as well and I vowed to beat him.

The gun went off and despite my struggling to apply power on the gradual descent (one of my continued weaknesses) the top pack of men didn’t get too far in front of me. I made a pass as we headed into the tunnel and for the next couple kilometers the course is rolling. I passed a couple guys and then my brother. As we headed into the flatter double pole section, I decided I needed to go faster so I passed a couple more guys. That guy I started next to, in the blue suit, was ahead of me and I was on the chase. As the course looped back on itself, I saw a couple women behind me in the trees. This gave me motivation to keep going hard.

Most of the first lap was glazed conditions with a few areas of slush. There were two glazed downhills that ended in sun-exposed slush. I almost fell on each of these hills as my momentum changed and remembered about these hills to be prepared for the next lap. The second lap was mostly slush although still fast enough to double pole on the flats.

Some good kick double pole. No other women anywhere! Photo: Margaret Adelsman

About 9 kilometers into the race, I caught up to the blue suit skier. I skied behind him until the hill right before the lap where I was able to stay in the tracks and make up some ground on him as my mom and brother’s girlfriend and others (remember, it’s my hometown race) cheered loud for me. The blue suit skier followed behind me. I had no idea how close the women in my race were, so I kept trying to push hard. I also wanted to beat this guy in the blue suit and through the trees I could see a bright orange suit we were gaining on. There’s a couple steep hills and I tried to herringbone run or run outside the tracks on all but the steepest of these hills. A couple times doing this my skis did ice just a tad but once back in the tracks I was able to shake this.

The blue suit guy stayed behind me in the double pole section but we could see the orange suit guy ahead and so about 16 kilometers into the race, blue suit guy took off. I didn’t feel ready to go with him. This is where I’m still working on racing the guys because I had conflicting thoughts between “I want to do well overall and therefore I need to beat the guys” versus “I’m probably going to win this by a few minutes so why should I push so hard?”

In pursuit of blue suit. Photo: Margaret Adelsman

I was so hot this race I took two glasses of water. That’s a lot for me in such a short race. Usually I wouldn’t take any as I usually operate on more camel mode, feeling that taking feeds slows me down.

Now the blue suit and orange suit were frequently in view. I kept pushing on the uphills, working hard. About 4 kilometers from the finish, I saw blue suit had caught orange suit and about half a kilometer later I passed orange suit. Coming out of the last aid station, with 2 kilometers to go, I was gaining on blue suit. Again, I was thinking about this guy not really being in my race but I said to myself, “Come on, Elspeth, you said you were going to beat this guy, you need to put in some effort. Race for place overall.”

I passed blue suit but he was following close behind. On the last uphill, half a kilometer from the finish, I put the hammer down. I heard John Arenz and the Tibstra’s and Mark Morissey and others cheering for me. I did everything I could to put some distance on blue suit. After I skied through the tunnel and down the small hill heading into the slightly uphill finish with slushy snow, to my dismay, blue suit pulled along next to me. I fought for it, double poling hard, but in the end blue suit got me by 3 seconds.

Passing blue suit the first time up this hill.  Photo: Ashley LaPlante

 

Craig got 1st place in the Pursuit, which was the most competitive men's race. Erik got 4th place in this race. Photo: Skinnyski

After learning blue suit is Beau Larson, who got 149th in the skate race at the Birkie last week (he’s trying to get better at classic skiing), I didn’t feel so bad for not beating him. In the end, I finished 4th overall (men and women), just 3 seconds off the men’s podium! Talking to Beau, and his roommate Henrik Velle, I learned these two were inspired to race the MinnFinn due to my Promo Video! And one of them ended up being my primary competition.

           There were only 3 women in the classic race; I won by 24 minutes. Out on course, I could have easily skied slower and still got first for women, but I’m competitive and as I’ve gotten better, I’m trying to race the men more. Also, Erik persistently tells me how my awards don’t mean much because my competition is lacking, so I’m going to try to save some face by trying not to get guyed! 

Me with my new axe (#4). Note the bison head in the Lumberjack Hall of Fame. Photo: Ashley LaPlante

 

 

My axe collection. Calling all women faster than me (you know who you are) to end my reign on February 18th, 2017 at the 35th anniversary.

Classic Birkie: February 20th, 2016 (My 31st Birthday)

At the expo, I got Kikkan Randall to write Happy Birthday on my bib. Note it's also Birkie #10 for me...halfway to Birchleggings!

Klister!

As the Birkie got closer and the forecast called for warm conditions, it was looking like this would be a klister year! I tried not to panic and made a plan.

1. Think about the worst possible kick wax scenario: (as in not as bad as getting sick or being injured) really bad icing. I mean like a foot of snow under my kick zone. Race over at that point. So in the event I had on klister and we got a bunch of new snow, I made a plan to bring with a kickwax scraper and some V30 to cover the remaining klister I couldn’t scrape off.
2. Pretty much anything is better than icing so it will be OK. The first year I classic skied the Birkie I didn’t have great kick and still placed fairly well. Typically most people don't have great kick with klister so I figured most others would be in the same boat as me. I adjusted expectations from bomber kick to decent kick.
3. Try to actually make a plan. I wanted to go with Thin to Win since I love double poling. I shortened my kick zones to accommodate klister and planned to put it on thin. I have Rex Brown and Rex was recommending Brown; however, I haven’t had great kick on Brown and so wanted to do something a bit different. I consulted the BNS catalogue and learned about Rex Gold- for coarse or glazed conditions. I had a hunch at 33 degrees (as forecasted) and climbing to the High Point that things would be coarse and glazed so I had Erik stop by Finn Sisu on his way home from work to pick this up. Then I planned to bring Rex Brown to the start and arrive in enough time to make a wax change if needed.
4. Phone a friend. It’s always good to have some validation that I’ve made a good choice, so I phoned my friend Andy Brown, who posted a blog on klister earlier this season: https://cxcnewsfeed.wordpress.com/2015/12/28/in-humble-defense-of-klister/
   He’s had good luck with Rex Gold in the past and thought it might work.
5. Remember that things will be OK. Not confident? Check out this video of YOLO wax recommendations and things will be better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aRJYOcXYk&sns=em
6. Rely on your husband. Erik and I have figured out a good 2 person system for klister application (Erik might not agree with this). Back in December we had a lot of klister conditions on artificial snow and I did a lot of classic skiing. I move the skis and heat the klister with the heat gun while Erik applies the klister and then uses a rubber glove to spread the klister!
7. Remember to invite Andy Brown to your wedding so he will buy you a heat gun! Probably one of the most useful gifts we received.
8. Apply the plan: I got to the start, tested my skis, and had zero kick. I heard Brown was kicking. I had just enough time to scrape the Gold off my skis (I had brought a piece of paper to put the scraped klister on; I didn’t want the klister too thick). Then I applied a layer of Brown. When my thumb started bleeding, I decided it was as smooth as it was going to get.
   
   

   

   Rex Brown is truly brown in color and I learned Rex Gold is gold in color!

   
   

The Race

    Starting in the Elite Wave is chill. This was my second year in the Elite Wave and it is so great to just get in the starting pen and not have to worry about getting in the pen early and then running for a front row position. Everyone knows everyone in the Elite Wave and we all self seed.

    We started at a fairly pedestrian pace. As we started climbing, I was glad to know I had decent kick. About 2 km in, I didn’t feel like I was working very hard and got tired of being slowed by the guy in front of me, so I made a break. As soon as I made that break, I started breathing a lot harder.

    A couple women passed me on the Powerlines and then I didn’t see any women in the rolling section until just before the 9 km aid station when Margie Nelson passed me. I got in front of her on the downhill but as we began the long climb towards High Point, she quickly got away. I’m not very good at striding and less than ideal kick doesn’t help. I always struggle on the climb to High Point and this year was no different. Before we reached the High Point, Kate Ellis, Julia Curry, and Lynne Cecil had all passed me. I made no attempts to ski with any of these women.

    Each year I forget that after High Point there is a nice double pole section and the climbs become less relenting. I passed back Lynne in this double pole section and soon CXC skier Niki  Rekker as well. I do much better on this flatter, more rolling terrain and finally started racing, trying to chase those in front of me. No more women passed me. 

In passing mode after OO. Photo: Skinnyski

    On the long climbs to OO I could see a woman in front of me. Just after OO I passed her. I had been passed by many Wave 1 men throughout the race; most I never saw again, but a few I leap-frogged with for a few kilometers, and a few more I saw again in the last few kilometers. All but one of the men who passed me made a clean pass and stayed out of my way. Once we had joined up with the skaters, there was one guy who passed me and then seemed to really slow down. I had no idea how he could have made up 5 minutes on me as he was going so slow. I made a decisive move on an uphill.

    A couple kilometers later, I came up on Julia Curry. We skied together for a bit. She is very good at striding and I enjoyed following her strides. I am much better at striding on shorter hills when I am skiing behind someone. My double poling is stronger and was thinking about making a break as I was hoping to be top 10 and thought I still had a couple more women to chase down. When that Wave 1 guy, the one who went super slow, came back up on us, I decided it was time to move on. I skied hard over the top of a hill and was gone.

    Since it was my birthday, I wrote “It’s My Birthday” on the back of my bib. I realized this would be appreciated, or unappreciated, largely by Wave 1 men. I got a good number of “Happy Birthdays” on the course which made me smile and hopefully others had fun with this as well. I’m a pretty serious person; however, I really crave spontaneity and think people in general are too serious. I got passed by a Wave 1 skater in a cow suit and told him I liked his costume but was disappointed it wasn’t my friend Jeff Lanners. 

The back of my bib on my 31st birthday.

    No one really looks forward to the hill climb out of Mosquito Brook but with all the cheering AND that Wave 1 guy toggling with me again I put in a surge. It’s Ditto with the newly named Holy Hill, but I saw a Vakava suit in front of me and wanted to catch them so mostly ran the hill.

    Coming out of the last aid station I was impressed with a Wave 1 skier who started singing Happy Birthday to me! I passed fellow Vakava skier Andrew Kromroy and kept going. I had no energy to try a glide-stride in the tracks so just ran up the hill on the skate deck. Looking up the hill, I caught a glimpse of a pink bib which gave me motivation to keep pushing harder. I enjoyed the double poling on Rosie’s Field before the last big climb.

    After crossing 77, I could tell I was gaining on the pink bib who turned out to be Kate Ellis. I caught her at the top of the hill but dawdled a bit to hear Ingrid Remak play the accordion! Once Kate realized I was on her tail, she put in a surge. Kate is twice my age and I’ve been trying to catch her in skiing and canoeing for the past 10 years. She is a huge inspiration for me regarding what I might be like in 30 years. Immediately my striding improved as I followed Kate’s perfect stride-glides. I smiled to myself, thinking, “what a birthday treat to ski behind Kate.” My skis were fast and I pulled ahead of her on a big downhill. Then it was flat to and across the slush pit lake. I was by myself and felt double poling was the fastest technique but put in a few kick double poles to stay fresh. Here I passed back up some Wave 1 skiers as well as another Elite Wave male who shall not be named.

I hadn’t seen any pink bibs in front of me for awhile but as I made the last corner, a pink bib went up and over the bridge. The chase was back on as I gave it my all to the finish to try and catch bib #606, Ingrid Leask, but in the end I ran out of real estate.

Two years ago I finished in 16th place and last year I finished in 15th place. I was less than 5 minutes out of top 10 last year and set that as my goal this year. Given that I was super nervous on the bus ride to the start, this usually indicates I’ll have a good race. I was 11th place, 7 seconds out of top 10 this year. For the third week in a row, I’ve finished short of my placement goal, but I have set very aggressive placement goals for this year and therefore just being close is an accomplishment. Comparing the much larger overall field (men and women), this year I finished 124th and last year I was 178th so I think that shows big improvement.

A couple nights before the Birkie, I had a dream in which I got another hat as an age class award. I was quite upset about this because I have way too many hats. My dream came partially true on Friday night when I picked up my bib and got a NEW HAT! Just what I needed. Then, I finished first in my age class (women 30-34). I have placed in my age class in each of the last 4 Classic Birkies. When I picked up my age class award, guess what I got? A NEW HAT! I now have a blue “3rd place age class” hat, a red “2nd place age class” hat, and a new “1st place age class” hat. I guess the Birkie doesn’t expect people to win year after year. Erik tells me I should do the “real race,” (the skate race) where I would be extremely unlikely to get an age class award.

While I agree my Birkie age class paraphernalia is becoming excessive, I’m still learning to stride-glide efficiently. Every time I do this for more than about 5 seconds, I get so out of breath. I’ve made huge strides (no pun intended) on my striding technique but still have a long ways to go to stride-glide relaxed. Over the past couple years I’ve been able to V-1 in level one up hills; I’m hoping I’ll get there striding and until I do so, I might just keep classic skiing the Birkie.

My ridiculous collection of Birkie age class hats and this year's participation hat. The hat I dreamed about looked something like this...as in out of a Dr. Seuss book.