Training Grounds

Quick update on the Granite State Snowshoe Series final standings...they're still not done. Last week I started a contract with my friends at Equest to once again provide a twice weekly fitness program to some of their riders. Although this is quite possibly my most challenging and rewarding work, it does result in my fairly precise regimen being thrown off by an hour. This, by the way, isn't a whine. My schedule is what it is because I have chosen it to be this way. Right now it's 8:00 pm and I honestly don't have the energy to crank the numbers. I will, however, have the series standings updated and published by the weekend...promise. Tonight's workout was scheduled to be a :30 snowshoe run. It turned into a :60 snowshoe slog as I broke trail in knee deep powder the entire way. I'm extremely lucky to live in very close proximity to a hidden gem, Blue Job State Forest. By the way, "Job" is pronounced "Jobe". For me, this place is a year round playground with miles of trails for running and mountain biking. I have been lucky enough to run across all manner of wildlife up here including deer, porcupine, raccoon, fisher, and even a mother black bear and cubs. There's no place I'd rather train and it's less than a 5 minute drive by car or :45 mountain bike ride on logging trails. I brought my camera and planned to hustle to the summit of "Little Baldy", Blue Job's smaller, balder sister summit. It's actually Little Baldy (LB) that the above sunset photo was taken and by far the better "sightseeing" peak with views of both the White Mountains (in the daylight) and Newington, NH (at night). Typically in snowshoe's I can make the gradual climb to LB in about 10 minutes. And typically the rail is very tramped out as I'm not the only one around who enjoys 'shoeing' here. This afternoon was a completely different story however. The last snow storm had dumped over a foot of fresh powder on the mountain and resulted in many of the white birches bent and twisted with their tips buried in the snow. The normally hard packed rail was instead no wider than singletrack and appeared to have been travelled by only a very few in the past 48 hours. What should have taken me :10 took almost :25 as I ended up breaking trail in knee deep snow to the summit. I was, fortunately, in time to snap the above picture before darkness closed in around me. The wind always blows on the summit of LB and tonight was no exception. In February, in the dark, is no time or place to spend more than a moment too many here. It's very cold. I made my way down past the frozen swimmin' hole and up toward LB's more famous sibling, Mt. Blue Job. Again, the rail was narrow and only freshly trekked making running impossible and merely walking in snowshoes not far behind. Just before I began the climb I actually reversed turtled...in the dark I missed the change in snow depth and caught my tip in a snow drift sending me lunging forward. As my hands hit the snow my arms sank up to my elbows as I postholed thigh high in the deep drift. I was absolutely and utterly stuck. I managed to gain a little bite on the snow with my hands and push myself back to a semi-seated posture and free myself. By this time the :45 I told Karen I'd be gone was already spent and I still hadn't made it up and over Big Blue. The power hike up and down Blue Job was great training for next weekend's Frigid Infliction Winter Adventure Race in Bolton Valley, VT. The snow there last year was out of this world with waist deep powder in spots during the postholing section of the course. Although not exactly what I set out to do, the conditions did help me realize at least one important thing...I think I prefer the light wash from my Black Diamond headlamp because the LED's are arranged in a 2.5 inch straight line and provide a little better peripheral lighting. Had this been a typical Tuesday snowshoe run I probably would have been out of the woods before it got dark.

Scouting Trip

With a little more than a week to go, the Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble course is beginning to take shape...finally. Anyone who knows me knows this is generally not how I operate. I'm the guy with the 50 item checklist for races and events. Teammates ask me for copies of my checklists. Putting on a great show for our participants means everything to me. For the past few weeks, it seems any number of circumstances have conspired against me getting up to King Pine & Purity Spring Resort to set this course. Despite this being the best college football day of the year...Pop, Brayden, & I were in the parking lot at the resort this morning at 8:00 AM. With air temps in the single numbers and wind chills below zero (on one of my few days off), for a fleeting moment I wondered what in the world motivates me to do these things? When we finally started and snowshoed our way around Purity Lake on the nordic trail network the answer came to me...it's about spending time with family and experiencing the natural beauty that surrounds us. We had a great morning. The trek up the Pooh Hill Trail was spectacular and an interesting surprise greeted us near the summit of Toll Hill. A small, fairly neglected cabin with a wood stove was nestled among the evergreens. One of the 'hallmarks' of our events is my father positioned at the top of the highest point of the course greeting people as they're ready to hurl their morning coffee and muffin. Stocked but locked, this cabin may play a role in next weekend's event. Although I'll plan to head back up there again this weekend and work a little more on the bushwhack, the course is 99% completed and will measure approximately 8 km. I think it's a great mix of groomed nordic, ungroomed snowshoe, and backcountry authentic old-school snowshoe tramping. Although the roughly .3 mile climb up the Pooh Hill Trail will leave many cursing my name, all will be forgiven on the FAST and packed groomed nordic trails that constitute at least 1/2 the course. I'm excited to get the first race of the Granite State Snowshoe Series off to a great start!

FLIGHTboot in Action

Full disclosure first...Kahtoola is sponsoring our three snowshoe races this winter. However, I will admit that I race in another brand and probably have nearly every snowshoe manufacturer represented in my garage. Even a pair of Tubbs circa 1930. The conditions for this afternoon's workout at Mt. Blue Job were best described as a 'tweener'...somewhere between needing snowshoes and not. The 1-2 inches of snow overnight and cold temps today helped to cover the icy rail with a serviceable surface. The inevitable and predicable bare spots still persisted however, particularly in the open easterly facing areas. Here is where the '08 Kahtoola FLIGHTdeck set-up with the FLIGHTboots was perfect. My ASICS running shoes slipped right into the overboot which are designed with a crampon-type bottom and binding which "clips" into the snowshoe. Literally, I was running in the snowshoes until I hit a bare icy spot at which time I clipped out of the snowshoes and within seconds was running with the snowshoe in my hands. No fuss, no muss, no straps...pull the lever and the boot pops right out of the binding. And, what's most impressive is the fact that after running through an icy creek, mud, and more snow I was able to clip right back into the binding without a hitch. Try that with your snowshoes. By their own admission, these folks aren't ready for the hardcore race scene yet, but to be very honest with you...they don't need to be. They've got a fantastic product that performs exactly as advertised. Now I just hope my brother doesn't want his snowshoes back.