Powderhouse, I'll Say!

Picture pause.  Not just the usual exhaustion pause.

Long Skate

Swedetown, 10F, calm.  Rolled, then snowed on. Low temperature wax.

This time we skied on the last of the loops missing from our training collection, Len's loop, Powderhouse and the Pine loop. Swedetown operates Pine loop in a clockwise direction.  The Bearchase comes off of Powderhouse onto the back of Pine and goes counterclockwise.  It was a light traffic day, so we went the wrong direction.  After returning to the Powderhouse turnoff, a special Bearchase trail leads one right onto the Greenstone loop.  Instead of doing the rest of Powderhouse we found our way back to the chalet by means of the Valley trail.

I expected the snow conditions to be like yesterday, cold and hard packed or else rolled. Instead we had light, fresh powder to ski through, up to a foot deep.  It was all from today, they had already rolled the trails in the morning.  It was funny to watch - boots plowing through the snow with no skis apparent.

Technique underwent a re-think.  Lifting the skis required extra effort.  Sometimes I could leave a fairly straight ski just plowing through under the snow, shifting my weight over without lifting the ski. anything to be learned there?  Hmm.

With the balance shifting as the snow compressed underneath, I had to keep on the balls of my feet more, not standing solidly in any one place.  That may prove useful under normal conditions as well.

Yes, we were very slow.  Although the powder was fun, it was more work. We stopped a lot.  Kirsten says her hip flexors are worn out.  Powderhouse has a lot of hills, so slow and more stopping.  Kirsten figures that if we can conquer Powderhouse, we can conquer the Bearchase.

Nutrition:

Some big news on the race nutrition front.  We tried a supplement that I've been wondering about.  It's called 3FU3L. Designed to fuel workouts and recovery, it has grass-fed whey protein, coconut fat and resistant carbs.  The carbs are a slow release kind of thing, so a serving should last a while.  We hope to use it as our race fuel.  At $60 per bag it's pricey, so we're only going to use it for race fuel.  

Today was our first trial.  I bought chocolate.  One serving is 2 scoops and 24oz of water.  I chugged that before we got ready to go, so about 30 minutes before.  Kirsten had half a serving.  It was yummy, like a cocoa with coconut milk.  An hour before that we had chicken soup.  Eventually I hope to try it in lieu of some or all of breakfast.

So, did we have energy the whole time?  I still get pooped at the top of every climb, either stopping or skiing weakly on for a while.  I think that's actually more about my conditioning.  The thing is, I always came back after a break and I was never hungry. Kirsten never noticed feeling hungry, thirsty or tired, except for the hills.  Yeah, that's it, me too.  Everything except peak efforts.

Best of all, neither of us felt any tummy upsets.  This may work!  It would be much better than sugary gels or sports drinks.  Solid foods would be problematic as well.  We'll just take on water if we need it. We'll keep trying it on our long efforts.

The Data:

• 7.3km
• 1:01:10
• average 8:23/km