We’ve been putting together a lot of big workouts this past week, as having a volume week coincide with Thurs/Fri off from school really allows for some freedom. Things kicked into high gear on Tuesday with some skate intervals that went from L3 to L4 focusing on good skiing as a pack and patient pacing.
Aside from a tough fall by Alex during the warmup (always be careful checking your watch and losing track of the trail!) everything went well and the hammering was well done. It’s getting dark quickly now, and since there was some electrical work being done on Tuesday we had to finish things up before total darkness ensued. Big, exciting things happening at the Range these next few months!
On Friday, a huge crowd of runners took to the Range for an XC race hosted by MMU. They didn’t race on the paved paths but instead went through the woods straight down to the old alpine hill and climbed the brutal woods trail all the way back up. Luckily, the MNC skiers who were competing are pretty familiar with hills.
Baxter ran with the main pack and moved up as the climbs got tougher to end up 2nd
Lily (3rd here) at the front of a big group near the finish!
Sammie (2nd here) racing up the hills behind the rollerski loops!
These are all pretty blurry, but here you can see Kai rocking both the shades and hat to look like a true skier
Cheering squad, looking like a squad for sure
Once the weekend hit, the great weather continued and we had ourselves summer-like days for two busy workouts. The first was a bounding session with the St Mikes team up at Bolton. Instead of heading straight for the alpine hill, we utilized the World Cup trail at the Nordic center. We were pleasantly surprised to find the trail recently mowed, with a few new drainage ditches even added in. Things are looking up for Bolton under their new ownership, and hopefully the Nordic trails will begin to receive the renaissance they desperately need!
It was a sunny warm day with beautiful yellow leaves…a great session!
An excellent race trail that we hope we get to ski on this winter! Bounding this time, though
Ladies on the trail!
On Sunday, the grew dwindled to a hardcore few…Kai and Ali, namely. Ali, Kai and I put in about 2 hours of double poling down by Kingsland Bay, with Liam along to support and capture some footage. We grabbed some water and said goodbye to Ali after the 2 hour mark, and Kai and I continued on for another 3 hours…yes, you read that right!
Now, it must be said that Kai did not just go out and simply double pole 75K on a whim. Last year Kai had to sit out much of the training and racing due to back pain sustained from a fall while cliff jumping in the summer. It was a very delicate process to come back to full capacity, starting this spring with back injections to muscle groups and 15 minute easy runs around the Volunteers Green in Richmond.
I told Kai (and I mostly held to this) that the summer would entail a lot of me reminding him to take it easy and stay away from overdoing things. With double poling, we’ve increased the distance of long workouts from 30k, to 50k, and beyond. This was the “beyond” day and I have to say, it was incredibly impressive to see Kai double poling so far with strong technique and good energy.
So…75K complete! Now it’s time to rest with a recovery week and some extra off days!
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