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!