Good skiing but no race
Posted by bckcrainbow on January 18, 2012
Had a great skating session Monday evening…the trails were in excellent condition, soft packed is the best description I can think of. I ticked off 30 km in 2 hours and found that I could hold my speed through all the corners and downhills thanks to the cooperative snow…no ice and no build up of soft snow. Only bummer was my eyes after skiing, once at the car my eyes became very irritated, like they had been scratched, was difficult to keep them open and they were watering non-stop. Made for a tricky drive home, fortunately I could follow the flashing lights of a snow plow to get down the mountain.
Tuesday I picked up a pair of ski glasses from Deep Cove Outdoors on my way to the mountain. Bob recommended the CASCO Nordic Spirit Vautron, it has both a photochromatic lens for daytime use and a clear lens that worked well while skiing at night. Fortunately my eyes seemed to like the new glasses, had no vision issues post last night’s ski. On the down side John and I had planned to team up for the TNR which the website indicated would be a team pursuit race where teams of 2 ski classic and skate, 2 laps each, alternating. At registration we found out the race had been changed to an individual pursuit where each skier does 1 lap skate and 1 lap classic…great. I don’t own, and don’t plan on owning combi-boots, those designed for both skate and classic skiing, and from what I’ve been told do neither overly well. Anyways, I am not impressed with the poor communication so I’ll be taking a break from the TNRs for a while…will focus my skiing on improving for upcoming loppets. I ended up skating for an hour Tuesday evening, left earlier than I might have since my face and ears were getting cold…was -10 deg C when I left the mountain. Not too cold to ski but need to dress a bit warmer for those colder conditions.
Ran to/from work today on snow covered roadways and trails. Traffic on Knight St. bridge was slow but people seemed to be using more than their usual caution on the treacherous roads. But I got to run past some of the slow moving traffic this morning on the bridge…I really enjoy that! 
