Notes
This was a fantastic training ski, and an exhausting one as well.
Anders and I knew we needed to tackle the 3ish hour ski at some point this week, in prep for the season to come, and long enough before next weekend that it wouldn't still be in our legs for our race next Saturday. Anders is working nights all this week, and Thursday evening was the only night that worked out in our schedule.
I left school around 3, headed towards his house, we went to drop off his car at the mechanic shop, and made the trek to hyland. The roads were awful because of all the snow we were getting, so the whole drive took a while. When we finally got to Hyland around 5 o clock, I was not every optimistic about our ability to ski for 3 hours, from 5:15-8:15 on a Thursday night, starting in the dark, after a full day of work, and over all the normal dinner hours which usually messes us up. Im VERY proud of the effort we put in, and the commitment to the plan we made.
I ate a peanut butter sandwich at about 3:30 when I got to Anders' house, and I carried a bag of trail mix for our ski. A little over an hour and a half in we stopped for food and I ate my trail mix, and that was VERY necessary. I was starting to bonk, and the 15 minutes of the ski before that had been miserable simply because we were bot QUITE hangry.
The first hour of the ski went pretty quickly, and we stopped for water about every half hour. The snow conditions were fast and light, which drastically helped our ability to endure a longer effort. For the first hour we mostly discussed last weekend's races, training right now, and our upcoming race schedule. It was fun to reminisce about last weekend and discuss small elements of each others' races we hadn't discussed yet.
Not much talking happened during the first half of the second hour because we had been out for a long time, but were still not even halfway there, and mentally and physically I was getting tired. A little after an hour and a half I snapped at Anders angrily, he snapped back, we skied in silence for about 6 minutes, and then decided it was time for a snack. After eating and getting some water I was mentally and physically much more energized.
The last hour was absolutely exhausting, but worthwhile and a great training session. This is officially the longest, continuous ski I've ever done. In the last half hour my butt cramped, my triceps and traps cramped, and my right calf started to go. With about 20 minutes left my stomach started getting angry because of the lack of food as well. But the effort was awesome. I climbed well up through the last minutes of the ski, which is always my downfall.
We specifically chose to do our long ski at hyland because it is incredibly hilly. I don't know exactly how much climbing we did over the course of 40k, but it was a TON. I'm also proud of this effort because thus far I've always had some sort of structure or quality in a long ski in order to break up time, and this one was just a straight, long ski with no other quality added.
When we finished I couldn't stand up entirely straight because my core and back were so rocked, and by the end of the ski my V2 even on flats was awful-looking but my glutes were cramping even just standing up.
We got back to the chalet, changed out of all our wet clothes, and ordered pizza before we left the chalet. We stopped at a gas station on the way home to grab some gatorade, and right about when we arrived at Anders' house our pizza was delivered. We had a fantastic time refueling and watching some promo videos for the big vikings game on Sunday! We didn't get home until about 9 o clock, and around 10 after some food and a shower and short hang-out time, we crashed.
Very proud of the fact that we got in an almost 3 hour effort, in the dark, after work, on a Thursday evening. That ski WAS the evening, in its entirety. That wouldn't be possible every evening of the week, but it was a solid adventure to tackle and conquer.
The plan for the next week is a good, L4 workout at some point in the next 3 days, a good workout next Monday on MLK day when neither of us work, and then a big, competitive race next Saturday!
I need to race more often when I'm running as well, I forgot how fun it is to have a true race schedule on the calendar. Currently loving everything about this ski season, ski training, ski racing, and spending long hours with my favorite person out on the snow :)