Things are on the up

This morning there were a few flurries of snow around - a good test for the waxing. Did a faster trip this morning and a slower one at what felt a comfortable pace in the afternoon. Thus I got a total of 52km done today - most I have ever done on a second day's training. Burnt off about 3200 calories in just over six hours.

This afternoon was what they call in F1 a race simulation. Going round Kuusamo there are lots of places where roads need to be crossed - taking skis off and putting them back on. I took drink/refreshment stops and just kept on at a comfortable pace. The result - my average pace is pretty much what I need to do, and usually do manage, in the RR.

Considering how I have been hampered by a lack of training, this is nothing short of remarkable. The main conclusion I can draw from this is the benefits of cross country skiing, with the key element being that it is low impact. OK, as a precaution I am wearing running compression socks to stop the muscles being able to mode too much. Next time I have leg injuries, I will take myself off cross country skiing to recuperate.

At lunchtime I popped in to Elmo Sports to drop a pair of skis off for professional preparation - the guy in there does a really good job. As I turned round to leave, who should be coming in to get his skis prepared was Klaus, who I met on my first RR. He is skiing RR4 this year, but like me has come early to train. I bumped into him a few minutes later in a café at lunchtime. I was commenting on the rising temperatures, and he told me not to worry as it is the dew point that is the key factor, and this is not going above zero this week. Now Klaus works for the German Meteorological Office and he showed me the traces on his smartphone straight from the models. He was also going well and is on the same wax as myself.

So, this is starting to look good

1. My endurance is better than expected
2. My waxing is good
3. The conditions look like they are going to be good, at least for a few days

So I treated myself to some new lycra cross country ski trousers- stylish Italian ones. One has to look the part, even if I do feel a bit "mutton dressed as lamb". This is a bit of a family joke - to be good enough to ski that one could wear lycra - better skiers all wear lycra!

Waxing Lyrical

Well my skis did get here this time - one shouldn't really get a kick out of what should be normal happening.

With a temperature of only -2.5C this morning, we are getting into the area where waxing gets tricky, and waxes only cover a very small temperature range. Probably the most widely used wax is blue - for -3C down to -10C; brown is -6C to -15C and green special is -10C to -30C. Different manufacturers have variations - Swix Red is +3C to 0C whereas Holmenkoll Red is +2 to -1C. Today I went for the Swix V50 Violet, which is 0C to -1/3C (you get different temperatures according to whether it is new snow or old snow).

Whatever. It worked a treat. The tracks were icy - circumstances where waxless skis don't do too well because the pattern doesn't imprint on ice like it does on snow. And icy tracks can be fast - they certainly were today.

So a quick and effortless 17km this morning put a smile on my face. After lunch, the temperature was just above zero, but the Violet wax still managed to work reasonably well. It seems to take a few minutes of being in contact with the snow before the wax gets down to its working temperature, so after putting on grip wax, it might not grip much for the first few minutes - patience is required

I was reading last night about the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. Studies show that this is about the amount of playing time a musician has put in by the time they become really good. The theory is that talent doesn't exist as such and it is just practice, practice, practice. One guy is so convinced by the theory that he gave up his job to take up golf professionally. So far he is 5,000 hours into practicing, so he is half way there.

So I was thinking about this. I ski about 100 hours per year, and I because I was not so serious, I had probably only clocked up something like 300 hours before my first RR, and for the last 4 years I maybe get about 100 hours per year. So I have done about 700 hours, and if I keep up at 100 hours per year, I will finally be an expert by the time I am 153.This, dear readers, proves that I will never be an expert skier.

Skiing round Kuusamo, I observed that there didn't seem to be as much snow as normal. I asked a local skier and she told me that there was over 80cm in her yard at the beginning of the week, buy two days last week at +5C had melted a half metre of it. In the picture you can see the grass around the base of the tree - I have never see this before in Kuusamo at this time of year.

In the afternoon, the Kuusamo town loop added another 18km to the days tally, bringing it up to a respectable 35km for the first day.

Healthwise - as a preventative measure, I used my running support socks inside my running socks to help protect the leg muscles. Seems to have worked.

En Route

Finally on the way. Just looked up the long term forecast for Kuusamo and Syote - predicted temperatures above zero some days! I should have checked before I left. I had debated bringing a pair of waxless skis but this would have meant three pairs in the ski bag, making it heavier. Since I have to travel back via a meeting in Brussels I am trying to travel light. I comfort myself with the thought that the forecast can change - one year it ended up being -30C after earlier predictions of much warmer temperatures.

After the rain we had in Norway two weeks ago I think that we are seeing warmer winters. It takes a long time to separate climate from weather. Back when I was much younger the prediction was for a mini ice age and mountains like Cairngorm having a permanent snow cap!

This morning was the first real frost at home - unbelievably almost spring before we get our first real frost!

 

The coach from Bristol to Heathrow got in early. However, it is not possible to pay for the ski bag until check-in (because the flight is a codeshare and has a connecting flight, it is not possible to pay in advance) and check-in doesn't open until 2 hrs before the flight. Having checked in, my bags had to be held whilst I went and paid for the extra bag. This took 25 mins - it requires various manual transactions to be done. So there was not a great deal of time when I finally got through security - having triggered the alarm with nothing in my pockets, not wearing my watch etc. So grabbed something quick for breakfast, but to avoid rummaging for pounds, I used a credit card. Big mistake - the machine said last chance for PIN when the card was inserted and when I did enter the PIN it failed. A nightmare exchange with the bank ensued, with the result that I it fixed for a couple of weeks until I am back in the UK. Not exactly helpful.
 

Back to the skiing - virtually no snow left here in Helsinki, and the Estonian guy sat next to me on the plane said their snow didn't come until mid-January this year and after two weeks was gone and cross country skiing events had to be cancelled.

 

I blame it on UKIP - all their hot air is responsible for global warming. Has anyone else noticed that the incidence of flooding has increased with the rise of UKIP? (UK political joke).

 

It will be late when I finally arrive in Kuusamo - I wonder if my skis will make it - Finnair don't have the best record with my skis, so I have taken to photographing my luggage prior to checking in as positive identification.

 

Beginning to sound like a real grumpy old man - let's hope it gets a bit colder and sunnier to cheer me up and I can post some nice pictures tomorrow.

Final packing

Well my bags are packed, I'm ready to go,..... I'm leaving on a jet plane..

Unless you are a fan of old music, then you pretty much have to be my age to remember the song - who says "jet plane" these days?  

The big question is have I forgotten anything? Once in northern Finland, shopping opportunities are a bit more limited. This year, I have looked more at nutrition - I tracked down a gel that tasted better than most, doesn't freeze easily, and tracked down the importer (as it turns out to be Danish) and bought a box. I have straps for both knees, just in case.

Two steps forward and one step back

Just as I was getting back into training and thinking that I might just be able to get fit enough, I got hit by a virus. Some kind person where my wife works played the martyr and went in whilst sick to help spread it around. I would probably have still got it anyway, but I do wish people would at least try to keep their viruses to themselves. A month later and I still have the cough.

There was an interview at the Winter Olympics where someone said a virus was worse than an injury - with an injury, you can usually do some forms of training and retain some fitness, but with a virus you have to stop training completely.

Just got back from a week in Norway - stayed in Lillehammer; local trails were poor condition as it was raining when we arrived, so we took buses up to Sjusjoen and Nordseter. The recommendations I had for a good ski shop in Lillehammer were correct - my wife was even able to get a new pair of waxless skis. On our first day, when it was fairly warm even up on the top, she had the last laugh as I and many of the Norwegians (so it isn't just my poor waxing) struggled to find grip with our waxes.

The snow on the trees leads to some fascinating shapes, as can be seen here

I got a bit of training done - muscles I don't normally have trouble with were a problem, especially going uphill, so I had to break myself in gently - it felt like the running injury was starting to recur. But on a couple of test runs by myself, the speed is still there, so the main questions for the RR are will the leg muscles hold up and have I got the endurance after being unable to train much?

Well there is only way to find out, and that is to go out and do it!

5 weeks and counting down.

The RR is getting seriously close now. Fitness is slowly coming back, and tonight I worked the rowing machine harder than I ever have before. The calorie counter is a bit flattering - 1400 calories burned in an hour - I don't think so. A 16km run in 90 minutes only burns 1200 calories, so I generally divide the rowing machine value by 2.

Yes, the knee joints still ache, but this is now more age than lack of fitness. I treat this all as a rehearsal for old age - after all, old age is contagious - we all get it sooner or later!

I now have to get a long exercise session pretty well every day. Weight is going up as I am putting the muscle back. Just watching "The Jump" - it has Eddie the Eagle as one of the coaches. I have stood at the top of those jumps - real scary, but I have never jumped. The RR passes a couple of hills - a small one in Kuusamo and a set of jumps in Taivalkoski.

In a couple of weeks when I am Lillehammer, I can have a go at some of these - skeleton, 4 man bob (professionally piloted). I am trying to get up the nerve to have ago - at 5G the forces are same as F1 drivers get on many corners.

There is plenty of inspiration for me. Andrew Musgrave, a young British cross country skier won the sprint at the Norwegian championships. And someone I do business with, recovering from serious illness - I hope he recovers to come and do the RR with me one day. It reminds me of one of the skiers in my first RR who had beaten cancer twice. And there is Arthur Gilbert from the running club - the world's oldest triathlete - who can put me to shame. If I can keep going as long as him, then expect me at the RR for at least another 30 years.

Actually my target is to make it to 10 RRs - for my master skier award (6 more years after this year) and I'll see how I go after that.

Now the countdown in earnest

One month on and I am starting to recover some fitness. I am back to doing my 16km Saturday run - taking it gently and not as fast as I normally do.

Today I booked all my travel and will do my usual thing of arriving in Kuusamo a few days early. I am resigned to the fact that because of injury my fitness might not be up to where it should be and I might have to take the coach for a short section on the longest days.

However, this is better than trying to push back to full fitness too quickly. I know that I have completed the RR three times in the past, and it would be a disappointment not to complete every last metre. But I have just learned that my body has limits - it was pushing too hard to gain 35 seconds on my personal best half marathon time that gave me an injury putting me out of action for over 3 months.

I really look forward to seeing so many people who have become my friends over the years - I can recognise at least 15 people for this year's RR1 that I recognise.

Now I will have to add my sponsorship details for Sports Relief and see how much I can manage to raise this year.