Last minute training - part 1

Sunday 1 March

22 km in morning. New track round the lake some 7 km is flat. Challenging in places with wind blown fine snow; icy in other parts. Two circuits of the Tolpaniemi track on the skintecs was illuminating. I had a fall which resulted in a slight twist of the ankle at what is my Achilles heel when skiing - namely a fast corner at the bottom of a hill. Good skiers push off on the corner,  but this results in the outer track being broken. When I get to it my outer ski tries to follow it and go straight on.

In the afternoon I did the Kuusamo town loop with my newer boots as they have more ankle support. I also strapped the ankle up.

So what did I learn? My circuit of the town loop was a few minutes slower than last year but massively quicker than two years ago. Also, it is possible to strap an ankle up and still get it into a ski boot and ski without chafing.

At lunchtime I had taken a closer look at the skintec module and it looked more worn than I expected. At the end of the day I cleaned it up and it looked better,  but I thought that although I have the full grip module unused it might be wise to get a spare set. So I looked up Atomic dealers. Intersport is the one in Kuusamo but not open on Sundays.

Monday 2 March

First thing on Monday I skied round to Intersport. Walked down to skis and my hopes were raised - Atomic skintecs. But alas, they were the touring version which doesn't have the replacement module. I guess these are aimed at people who do not ski so much. I thought I didn't do much at 800km in a year.

Anyway,  after a few phone calls and the mention of the Rajalta Rajalle Hiihto, they can get them for Wednesday.  I am not sure if they are coming from Helsinki or if they are having to get them in from Austria.

The RR may not be so widely known outside of Lapland despite being the world's longest cross country ski event but up here it is important.  One of the Sokos hotel's receptionist's husband is the safety snowmobile driver on our first day.

So how did the skiing go today?  Well it started at +1C  and rose a degree during the day. Today I decided to do my endurance test rather than risk stressing the ankle. Since last year they have built a loop round the lake in front of the hotel which is just over 7km and  more or less flat. This was incredibly busy which for a weekday in somewhere that isn't especially a resort (that is Ruka 20km up the road).

So I got just over 7 laps -a bit over 50km done (53.6km to be precise).  This shows me that I have the endurance so I can cut down the distance for the next couple of days to recover. Comparing lap to lap, it appears that I got slower throughout the day but that the training load went up from morning to afternoon, but it was fairly constant for the last three laps in the afternoon.

On enquiring if today was fast, slow or tricky conditions,  I was told that they were tricky. The skintecs performed flawlessly - probably a bit slower where snow had blown into the tracks. Not scientific,  but on a one degree slope down I was double poling and keeping pace for a while with those skating - normally much quicker if you have the ankle strength and can maintain a higher energy output.

So I think that regardless of scientific testing,  for me they work well and provide a level of confidence that I can take anything in my stride. They seem good on ice crossing roads and other icy patches. The guy who sold them to me that I would no longer be like Bambi and so far these skis have been everything he said they would be.

Good equipment has an attention to detail. For example,  my small new rucksack has the chest strap higher than most so that it clears the heart monitor chest strap. But then it is designed for cross country skiing and mountain biking - people who commonly monitor their performance. 

So tomorrow I may do some comparative tests and cut the distance back to about 25-30km and around 15km on Wednesday to allow the body to recover a bit. Professional sports people have trainers to help them figure out how to optimise this, but I have only the one gruelling event each year, so I won't be able to apply this year's "lessons learned" until this time next year.