Headed up in interesting conditions, cold minus16-19, windy not sure in speed how does strong work for you?, and snowing not hard but mixed with the wind made it a little crappy outside. Pulled in the parking lot right about the meeting time. No cars in the parking lot, cell phone coverage, none. Well I set the cut off time before I would either opt to ski here alone or look for a big think warm blanket to hide under. The boys showed a few minutes and we got ready to move.
This was another one of those days that prep time was left to the minimal. Armed with my backpack again loaded with more layers again just in case we were off. After the day before experience with the crazy wind along the Bluffs I suggested that we do the route in the opposite direction I did the day before. This would have us going downhill and with the wind to our back, sorta, for that very cruel .5 km. Of course we had to get to that point first.
Groomed and track set, not today. Looks like we were busting are own today. We kept the pace pretty sane and I was forced to change about 25 minutes in. Working a little harder today with the snow I was not taking a chance of overheating. The clothing list I had on. Upper body, LG short sleeve base layer, a S2S long sleeve base layer, Hind long sleeve outerwear synthetic. Blue team kit long sleeve insulted jersey, Blue team kit jacket. Lower, that layer you don't need to know but it's not a thong, fleece lined full length spandex, MEC winter grade spandex with windbreaker front, wind breaker pants. Yep, I'm skinny and I'm staying warm. I'm loving my old race kit clothing for winter adventures.
We motored along with stories that could save the world, solve the lack of LBS in the area problem and other miscellaneous things. Each of us taking turns at the front breaking the track. 3rd person was enjoying the track set. Things were taking longer to get around today because of the conditions.
We made a quick stop at a map just before the mid way point. Dr. Bill was interested in where we were. Sometimes ignorance is bliss and it's better to just keep your head down and only look a few feet ahead.
I'm attempting to thaw my frozen camelback hose. Even shoved down the front of my jacket it was still freezing in a few places. Rob is thinking, the Velodrome is so much warmer right now.
From here we made our way out onto the bluffs where the trail pretty much disappeared. It was a bash through 2 plus feet high drifts. I did attempt to take a picture but there was not a chance in hell I was taking off my glove out there and I couldn't seem to push the button.
After a few minutes of blah we were back int eh woods and making our way to the lake. It was nice and protected. We were still busting trail though. It was enjoyable today though having a steady conversation the whole time. More talks about different ski races, more so endurance ski races. My thought, not a chance in hell, I don't like skiing that much. The long climb out of the valley was great at keeping the body warm. As we reached the trail split from where we started out the loop it there was going to be no extra miles needed to get the time into today.
The cool down consisted of walking around the parking lot again. It was nice to hear that it's not even my body that will ache in the car if I don't do a good walk around right after I stop. So 2 days, just under 6 hours of skiing, roughly 45 km. Not a bad weekend. Back to work today.
I am a little stiff today but I do see Dr. Bill and he already knows what I did on the weekend. Gotta go, thoughts on the snowshoe tonight are questionable.
No comments:
Post a Comment