Another Slow Night

Thursday night and the weather has lined up again to make it another slow ski day. It seems like winter has finally arrived in Barrie as we are getting more fresh snow. Pulling into the parking lot at Hardwood and it is snowing with at least three inches on the ground already.



Since I got here while it was still light it was nice to get out on some of the trails not usually open to night skiing (all the ones with bigger, steeper hills).

At least the previous snow was packed in now as compared to last time. The fresh pow sitting on top sure is slow though. I still haven't rewaxed since the loppet so maybe that is a factor explaining why I couldn't even glide down a hill let alone up. To quote my former VP with the best ski advice ever; "Why the hell would I wax, I'm just out for a workout anyway".

Anyway I set out to test myself on the Fischer Loppet course which is already laid out to see whether I should aim for the 20 or the 40 km distance. The first lap of 20ish km went pretty slow and I still sort of felt like I could feel the last weekend's ski in my shoulders and legs. But then as I started into a second lap it almost felt like the wax started working better. This could either be due to the dropping temperature or the onset of a hallucinatory state in my tired brain.

Either way, while I don't think I was going any faster,I definitely felt better so I think it can only be the 40km. I didn't finish the second lap through to the end but I think that in a week and a half I will be feeling good to take a run at the longer distance race without completely embarassing myself.

Below is a picture of my beardsicles after I finished. This is definitely the most extensive mass of stalagmites and frost I have ever accumulated so that is a little exciting. My mouth was sort of frozen in the position it would take due to heavy breathing. I couldn't deviate much from this as everything was frozen in place and to try to smile or close my mouth hurt alot as it pulled on all the hair. It is weird to write about this so there must be something wrong with me.



It occurs to me that I have alot of pictures of myself on this thing which is sort of bothering me and probably appalling anyone actually reading it so I will try to get some pictures of something else for the next while.