Charles' Sport Blog: The Great Bear Chase

Well, Kirsten finished.

25 Freestyle Event (skate)

Swedetown 25F, Windy. Groomed, drifted in open areas and skied over with fresh snow falling. Wax medium-temp LF with another layer of HF over that. Glide was pretty good.

I started prep yesterday with a day off (thanks to adroit work scheduling by Kirsten.) Large breakfast and lunch with a small dinner. Actually, dinner was normal size. Kirsten apparently figured it would be small for me. Touché.

A relaxing day was complicated with me waiting too long before waxing skis and packing clothes. Kirsten was a handful, being very keyed up and worried about how little training we actually had. By the end of the day, I was grumpy and literally slouching under all the stress. Not quite the relaxing day I had planned, but as well as we could manage. We also had a nice visit to the barn, see below.

Bedtime was to be 9pm, but we eventually had lights out by 10:15. Up at 6:30am for a 9:10 race start gave us plenty of time to get up and at 'em. No breakfast to sit in the stomach, we each had a full serving (2 scoops and 20 oz. water) of 3FU3L two hours ahead. See later for results on our nutrition.

Partly dressed, I did a little warm up and and a lot of stretch, I was able to work on everything. I did forget one area, the thoracic spine. This was possibly important for two reasons. Not only because my posture is usually bent over on account of the work I do, but especially for finishing the 'rest' day in a bent over posture. Here's the list:

Ankles/feet
Calves
Hamstrings, upper & lower
Quads, upper & lower
Inner thighs
Basic back openers
Shoulders, overhead and facing away
Wrists

Finished dressing, into the car (packed last night) and off to the races! We found a parking place on the road right on the corner near the entrance. A full half hour early we had time to look everything over, get cold, find a fire (it's amazing how even with the wind against you, the radiant heat of a fire can still reach you,) See the race 10 minutes ahead of us go off, pull off our warmups, leave our apr ès (I looked it up) ski bags, head down the hill to the start area, put on skis and poles, fiddle with our phones and take off with the gun.

The plan all along was to take it easy and stop to rest when necessary. Kirsten hoped we could stay together. I hoped to avoid 'burning any matches' along the way. Big efforts would deplete my meager energies. I did about the same as in training. Powderhouse had some big climbs, but I managed ok. Going down the Bears I approached cautiously. I could easily get carried away having too much fun on the easy parts. The hills in this section look easy, but always seem to sap my energy for the coming climbs.

I want to take a moment to write about poling strategy. The most taxing strategy would be to pole on every stride. I only did this to get over a little hump now and then. Poling every two strides I did on the steeper climbs. Otherwise my skis would come to a halt. For shallow climbs and some flats I would pole once every three strides, sometimes four. I've taken great pains to pole with either my left leg or my right. Poling every three strides kept me from going into the red too soon, kept my skis gliding along and also kept me symmetrical.

Things took a darker turn for me on the way up the Papa and Mama Bears. These are largely long shallow to medium climbs. I must say they did me in, even stopping every once in a while. It got to be I would look ahead and see where I'd need to stop. Kirsten was doing much better, and we agreed that she should go on ahead and not risk getting chilled waiting for me. By that time, I was stopping three times to her one. My right hip had begun to ache, feeling inflamed when bearing weight.

The Gingerbread Man made his whereabouts known at this time. Slight waves of nausea originating down below accompanied frequent stops to rest. This evening I looked up time from eating to pooping - 24 to 72 hours! So, one small dinner was not enough to keep away the Gingerbread Man. I played a dangerous game. Gas cramp, farting a little. But beware - farts can sometimes have solid centers! (acknowledgements to Mark Rippetoe) Thankfully I was spared this embarrassment.

Once I had caught my breath, my skiing was pretty good for a while. As I topped the Bears and came through the last of Greenstone, It seemed that the stamina tank was emptying from my repeated attempts to reboot. At the entrance to Ed's loop, I had about 5k to go and had to decide on my best course of action. The hip was getting worse, a possible showstopper. I did not yet realize how empty my stamina tank was, and hoped to hang on to finish.

I've done the whole Tamarack section of loops. There are a lot climbs, some long and steep. Ed's loop gave me a taste of what the rest of the race had in store for me. I found myself unequal to the task, reduced to stepping herringbone-fashion up the long hill. I even had to rest several times from that. When the back of my arms started to cramp up, I knew what to do.

The downhill on Ed's provided one more pleasurable moment. There is a long downhill with three S-curves. I had no problem at full speed stepping through the turns. In fact, I had a great time with all of the downhills. I only snowplowed on the first Powderhouse downhill. I think I skidded a little through the bottom turn of Papa Bear.

Arriving at the last aid station, I decided that continuing the race to finish would simply not be any fun. I told the aid workers, who were all game for me to keep going. The last aid station is back on the Valley Trail where Ed's loop ends and Cedar begins. Usually Valley Trail is an easy slight uphill to the chalet, Swedetown's usual entrance. I knew I had made the correct choice, as I had to stop three times on the way back. The third time was in sight of a last little tiny hill that I usually sprint up no matter how tired I am. Just looking at it broke me. I turned off my GPS, took off my skis and walked up to the chalet.

Mrs. Abbott riding a very cool Surly Moonlander snowbike met me on the way. I was told that one skier in my race collapsed with a complete stoppage of his heart. Only quick work by others kept his blood flowing. A snowmobile transported him to a nearby house where an ambulance met him and they were able to restart his heart. Holy cats! My prayers go out to him.

After Kirsten finished her race (Yay, Sweetie!) and put on some dry clothes, she drove to the chalet to bring me dry clothes. I was a mess. Going Hypothermic, nauseous, I changed (Ahh! dry clothes!) and we went to the awards/pasty feed at the high school gym.

Me, chillin' at the chalet.

About our après ski bags. When we did this years ago (in much better shape,) there was no hot water in the locker room. This year, the plan was to have a towel, strip/dry/change upper layers right then and there to avoid hypothermia from standing around in wet clothes. Long sleeve T, sweatshirt, fleece-lined jeans and new undies. Comfort.

At the high school, all I wanted to do was lay down somewhere warm and quiet. Food and even water was repulsive to me. Back at the chalet, the sledding hill families eating Burger King smelled disgusting. Smelling Kirsten's cherry lip gloss gave me a wave of nausea (oddly enough, it didn't bother me any to immediatley apply the same lip gloss right under my own nose.) I found a corner in the back of the gym and sat down on the floor, no doubt looking stupid. I did not care. Kirsten, still full of life, brought me hot tea. It was a great idea to warm me up, but the taste of Sweet Dreams herbal tea was wholly unappetizing. Apologizing for being ungrateful, I asked for a cup of hot water alone. That must have taken me ten minutes to get down. Then I laid down on the gym floor in my winter coat, hood, hat and gloves and took a nap with my arms wrapped around myself for warmth. I must have looked like a homeless person on a cold night. Nearby, people were stripping down to get free massages.

After a nap, Kirsten gave me a bite of her pasty. (For those of you in the Ukraine and elsewhere, here's a recipe: Upper Michigan Pasty Recipe) It was a yummy challenge. After that, Kirsten brought me my own pasty. I sat up, and after a bit started to nibble. Before I knew it, I was through the crust. I made myself slow down until my stomach could report back on the success of my food adventure. Satisfied, I continued to nibble, peeling down the paper wrapper. Then it was all over and time to go. I wrapped my pasty in the paper plate and took my time getting up. No head rush or other problems, yay! I thanked the food volunteers and the masseuses, feeling a bit more myself, and we left. I finished my pasty at home. I had some bits of it stuck in the bottom of my coat pocket, along with pieces of thread.

As far as the nutrition went, I never felt hungry. I did get quite nauseous. That must have been my stomach shutting down under heavy duress, along with poop issues lower down. Kirsten reported being hungry at the last aid station, eating a piece of banana and being set for the rest of the time. Perhaps a longer distance would have needed a re-feeding. I'm calling that part of things a success.

As I sit in my favorite chair, I feel none worse for wear, so far. DNF-ing was the right thing to do.

Obviously I missed my goal of finishing the 25k skate. But that's the only negative. Here's all the positive effects:

I stayed coherent the entire time. The last time we did this I became disoriented and didn't know where I was on the course.
The point of training is to improve. I did improve; I can now ski the MTU green trails uninterrupted.
Fun times. Kirsten and I were motivated to make time to get out there.
A rededication to improving my health.
It worked for Kirsten, she met her goal!

So should I change before a repeat?

Not be fat. Too little too late this time, we'll have to keep it up for the future. I want to improve my strength to weight ratio.
Schedule at least more gym sessions. They got a little skimpy. I don't know that my job allows for more sport workouts.
Small (really small) nutritious meals the entire day before. We'll see if that helps.
In future, don't shy away from long 'hero' WODs at the gym. I'll just do what I can do, it should help my long endurance events.
Portapottys at aid stations would be a nice touch. My suggestion.
Check out second lanes on outside of downhill turns. Possibly better conditions.