As I have been for the last 7.38 days, I am on tenterhooks waiting for a proper report from Fraser, Centennial State. However, I've been doing my best to soldier on despite no contact with you guys, and only late night tear-filled phone calls with Chris.
However, all things must come to an end, that also pertaining to the sinfully delicious ski weather we've been having in Austria. We were struck late last week with a typical Alpen Föhn, a large warm air mass that originates near the Sahara. (Not to be confused, of course with its' homonym Fön, which means hair dryer.) When a disparity in temperatures between the Alps and the Mediterranean exists, the warm air rushes North to even things out, resulting in a big warm air mass that slams into the southern Alps and Dolomites, cools, rains, melts my snow. So sadly, the snow began to say "Auf Wiedersehen", last Friday and we endured some rain this weekend. Thankfully I hopped town for a class field trip to Salzburg with my program colleagues and our good friend Professor Klaus Franz, a native Salzburger, who gave us an incredible two day tour of the incredibly historic city. Salzburg is really the jam, as it's the birthplace of Red Bull, my personal favorite Dark Dog, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen and Stiegl beer. Quite fun.
Anyhow, I returned home Sunday night with my hands over my eyes as the train pulled into the station, yet was elated to see the ground covered with yet another fresh white blanket. Despite having lost a few inches of snow, the low pressure system that followed the Föhn has blessed us with more of the white. Skiing is again luscious, 200km open.
Training is really going well and I'm staring to feel significant technique and strength gains from the hard work I've been putting in in the past few months.
-------------------------------------------------
Friday, 23.11.07: 5x5 vo2m intervals, skate, 3.5m rest b/w sets
48m warmup, avg 142bpm
Work sets:
- 5:09, Avg 177, Max 186
- 5:02, Avg 183, Max 191
- 5:04, Avg 184, Max 192
- 5:04, Avg 184, Max 192
- 5:34, Avg 185, Max 194
These were the best set of tough intervals I've had this season. I picked a killer piece of all uphill terrain with several really tough transitions. I deliberately paced the first one and then picked them up from there. By really focusing on technique and transitions, I think I saved a few bpm of what I think of as 'scramble speed', and allowed for really solid and sustainable efforts. The times were all up to the same tree at the top of a knoll, the last one was the fastest but I went to the very top of the hill and then collapsed into a snowbank after passing an elderly French gentleman.
-------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 27.11.07: 3x20 threshold intervals, classique, 8 min rest b/w sets, varied terrain
1:03 warmup on Wildmoos, Avg 148 bpm.
Work Sets:
- 20:03, Avg 170, Max 184
- 20:05, Avg 170, Max 184
- 20:10, Avg 171, Max 185
These were tough to do. I had to really hammer the flats and my upper body got pretty tired. The hills were really tough and I had to go quite slowly without bumping up to 178 or so. Just shows that I need to work on these, but it's a great pacing workout.
PM: 2:03 recovery skate, Avg 164, Max 183
-------------------------------------------------
Once again, waiting on tenterhooks for a plethora of barely legal photographs documenting your time in the frickin' Rockies. I'm trusting you guys spent your evenings quietly humming Tim McGraw, scrubbing mud off of your white pick-up rental, turtle waxing the white pick up and taking pictures of Trevor dancing to Tim McGraw.
Tenterhooks, baby. Tenterhooks.I'll leave you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6F5xm0QooE
I find it rather fitting. I've also found my Halloween costume for next year. Best of luck with training.
-D
No comments:
Post a Comment