Payak Loppet

Saturday was the Payak loppet at Callaghan…and it is best summarized as having been a very, very hard race. Quite a bit of snow fell Friday, but fortunately it only snowed lightly at times during the race. But the upper trails were quite soft and bumpy, with built up snow that made the corners extra challenging. Overall I am satisfied with my race, as expected my biggest weakness was not having the stamina to skate strongly for the full 50 km distance. I ran out of gas the second time through Porter’s Glide after which I lost touch with the group I’d been skiing with most of the race. I’ve done enough long distance races over the years in a variety of sports to know that when my body gets to this point all I can do is go into survival mode and just try to be as efficient as possible while expending minimal energy. In this case that included counting down the last few climbs on Mountain View before the final stretch into the stadium. Although I was completely wiped from the effort, I was well satisfied for having completed the loppet. I’m particularly happy with my 2-skating during the loppet as I was able to use it on the flat sections to catch and pass quite a few skiers without working too hard. My time was 3:28, which is about the time I’d hoped to achieve. I’m already looking forward to next year’s Payak having identified things to work on that will allow me to better my loppet time: 1) improve my offset technique, particularly on steeper climbs, 2) improve my step turning for winding descents, and 3) prepare better for the 50 km race distance.

Unfortunately for JG, he broke a pole on the first climb 1 minute into the race. On returning to the start area he was loaned a pair of poles by the Salomon rep. With the loaner poles JG was able to restart with the 15 km group and although he skied mostly on his own, was able to finish the 50 km distance. Katja had a good race and you can read about it on her blog, along with some photos. Now it is time to recover before next weekends 30 km Overlander Loppet near Kamloops.

Payak preparations

For the past 2 weeks skate skiing has been the focus to prepare for the Sigge’s Payak loppet this Saturday at Callaghan. Last week I managed to ski 3 nights at Cypress with the main focus to practise offset climbing knowing this will be critical due to the very hilly nature of the Payak course. On two of the nights I climbed Lower Powerline 8 times, rather than trying to go fast, I focussed on a steady rhythm that I could maintain semi-comfortably. Seemed to work out ok…although the steepest part of the hill still bogs me down more than I’d like. Last Saturday we skied Callaghan with the objectives of 1) checking out the new loppet course and 2) getting a final long distance ski on my skates. Early in the session our first objective was met with resistance as the Olympic and biathlon trails were not groomed. The 3-4 inches of fresh powder made for slow skating and was tiring since it required really exaggerated picking up the skis. The skiing improved once we made our way onto Norwegian Woods and the rest of the trails familiar to us. Skiing the new course, which is basically reverse to the direction we did last year, worked out pretty well. Although while skiing up the Lunch Lake trails JG commented about how much more enjoyable the trail was when coming down the twisting turns…it brought a smile to our faces as we rounded another corner and trudged up the next hill. As the ski progressed it seemed JG was having to wait for me more and more at the top of the hills. I think I was feeling the fact that my longest skating session had been about 2 hours. On top of that I’d lost confidence in the glide of my skis…really felt like I was having to work harder than I should have to keep up with JG…maybe he was feeling particularly strong. So on the climbs I went at my own pace, not wanting to go too deep so soon before the loppet. We ended up skiing for a little over 3.5 hours, only covering 44 km. Oh, and the trails were for the most part in uncharacteristically poor condition…there was a groove down the middle of most of the trails so one ski was always fighting a hole in the snow. According to the groomers, when they groom freshly snowed upon trails at around 0 deg C the snow tends to build up on a spot between the 2 blades resulting in the groove. Fortunately we don’t encounter this often and hopefully not again this Saturday!

Sunday Katja and I paddle Burnaby Lake…I paddled my Neloski. The lake was flat calm and I was feeling surprisingly good in the boat for having not paddled for quite some time. I remember feeling that the paddling motion was really working my lats and triceps, the same muscles used for poling. In fact, I skipped my planned Monday night ski since my lats and triceps were sore. Tuesday night I skied in the rain, but my raincoat did its job and the snow was really nice…except for the really soft parts where the pole would sink deep. Did an easy steady paced session on the upper trails, working on long relaxed 2-skate strides and efficient offset on the short climbs. I really like the feel of soft wet snow…too bad I have to get wet to enjoy it! Wednesday night Katja joined me on the trails…very hard packed lightning quick trails. The trails were not icy but the snow was compressed quite hard. I like these conditions since it is so easy to go fast, but it make me uneasy, thinking that at any time I might catch an edge and loose the little control I have of my skis. But I made it unscathed and even climbed Lower Powerline a couple times, taking advantage of the strong tail wind pushing me up the hill…yessss! All that’s left to be done now is rest, eat properly and prepare the skis…then enjoy the loppet!

 

Nickel Plate Loppet

Katja, John and I travelled to the South Okanagan for the Nickel Plate Loppet, a 30 km classic ski race on Apex Mountain. To get straight to the point…this event was excellent! The course was a good mix of flat and rolling terrain with some moderate hills and a couple short steeper hills, of which we completed 2 laps. The venue has a nice lodge complete with a wood stove and the après race consisted of chilli and a seemingly endless selection of baked goods supplied by the Nickel Plate Nordic Center members. As for the race, well all 3 of us had performances we were very happy with. The flat and rolling terrain provided ample opportunity for double poling…which I took full advantage of. All the practice I’d done really paid off as my double poling allowed me to finish ahead of many skiers with much better diagonal striding technique than mine. On pretty much all the climbs I herringboned outside the tracks…didn’t seem to have much grip and my technique was pretty weak. But any time I lost on the climbs and technical descents I was able to more than make up for on the flats…was so cool to be able to double pole to catch and ski away from other racers. On the 2^nd lap I had caught a few skiers during the 15-20 km portion of the course, despite crashing on the flattest section of the course…(is important to plant the pole outside the ski, not inside)…with 1 of the guys passing me again on the switchback descent down Cannonball. He stretched his lead up Eagles Nest but I kept him within sight. Then as the trail levelled out I caught him as we rounded the meadow at the 25 km mark and just kept on going, really pouring on some powerful double poling before the trail tilted down. Turned out I managed to stay ahead of him through the last 5 km, a fact that I’m sure contributed to my satisfied grin at the finish line. That and seeing JG at the finish line having finished 45 seconds ahead of me with both of us finishing in under 2 hours (1:57:08 and 1:57:53), the magic time that as we chatted earlier at the starting line seemed out of our reach but something we’d be stoked to achieve. Katja finished in 2:40, well under the 3 hours she thought it would take her and she had some good racing with other skiers, managing to finish just ahead of the gal she’d been swapping places with throughout much of the race.

We visited our buddy Keith in Peachland Saturday evening, catching up over beers and enjoying a fine meal at a great local restaurant called Gasthaus on the Lake. The place was packed but they managed to find us a table despite not having a reservation…great food, highly recommend it. I never get tired of the view from Keith’s place…the lake and the snow covered hills…and the family of quail darting around the bushes. Thanks again for putting us up for the night Keith…keep paddling, we’ll be back in the summer!

Sunday JG and I skied again while Katja had a snooze and took a walk. We skated this time as we now are turning our attention to final preparation for the upcoming P’ayak Loppet at Callaghan. And we found the hills…they are on the trail called Panorama Ridge…and they have some serious hills! After a long winding descent we must’ve spent the next 30-40 minutes climbing, taking many breaks along the way to catch our breath. All I could think after finally making it to the top was how thankful this trail was NOT part of the loppet course!

The drive home went smoothly…arrived at the curling rink 25 minutes before our match. Once again we were tied going into the last end and Dad again made his last shot to give us a 7-6 win…doesn’t matter that we were leading 6-2 at one point! J

Early Feb. skiing

Skied Callaghan yesterday under beautiful sunny skies. Started off skating with JG, we ventured up onto “How it goes” the very hilly trails that are part of the P’ayak loppet course. Fortunately the snow was excellent on these upper trails, packed soft snow that was very nice for skating, most of the lower trails were a bit on the crunchy side. The views from these upper trails are majestic, check out Katja’s blog for some of her photos of the day. My offset technique is coming along, I felt much better this day at Callaghan, last Saturday I could not keep up with JG on the long climbs, in fact I found myself wanting to stop to rest often last weekend…these moments were far less frequent this weekend. After 2 hours skating I switched to classic skis. With the bright sun and about 5 deg C temps the tracks were softening in the non-shady areas, perfect for my crowns. JG didn’t want to apply klister to his skis so stayed on skates. I did some nice double poling practice on Porters Glide then skied Mountain View. JG and I skied this last weekend on skates on Katja’s recommendation, she said it was nice to ski it coming back toward the lodge. We didn’t share Katja’s pleasure with the trails, finding the hills more than we needed late in our day. Well, this time it was a very nice ski, especially since most of it was open to the sun giving snow my skis thrived on. And as a major bonus, the steep downhills coming off “Around the World” trail had excellent tracks and allowed me to pick up huge speed, so much so that I glided about the ¾ the way up the steep hill at the end of Mountain View. This route was so much fun that I did it twice, hitting a top speed of 45 km/h on the descent…very cool! My totals for the day were 3:20 and 46 km.

Earlier in the week Katja and I skied Cypress Monday and Wednesday, I skated both times. Monday was quite snowy, a wet heavy snow that seemed to slow my skis. Wednesday I did lots of offset practice, and was finally able to climb “Powerline” without having to stop for a rest. Although near the end of the ski my left calf started cramping likely due to having run to/from work earlier in the day. Leading with my right leg fixed the problem, but showed that I need to improve leading with my right leg while offset climbing. Thursday I skied classic at Cypress despite feeling quite tired, was feeling short on sleep. So I did my five intervals up Hollyburn and Lower Telemark, mostly to practice my double poling for the upcoming Nickel Plate Loppet.

Last Sunday evening we won our curling match when my Dad threw a perfect last shot of the game to grab just enough of the button to give us a 5-4 win.

In racing news, Canada’s Devon Kershaw continues to show fine form, grabbing a second consecutive 3^rd place at a skate sprint World Cup race at Moscow. Then he followed that up with 1^st place in a 15 km mass start skate World Cup race at Rybinsk, located about 300 km north of Moscow. There are some cool videos of the races on the FIS cross country website, check out the link to the right under Skiing Organizations.