X-Country Skiing

My last preparation before my ski-O race next weekend. This time decided to try the famous Hardwood Hills everyone talks about. I went with my friend CK, who had taken me skiing the last time, and with JL, who hadn't skied for a long time - I didn't want to take her to Highlands Nordic because I thought the beginners' loop there was kind of boring. This one was great - flat, but twisty and perfect for a warm-up.

Route Link

Our first loop was about 4.5K, at which point we stopped for a quick snack. I thought we'd advance to the next-hardest loop, but JL had picked up the moves so quickly again, she elected for the "green" loop, which is kind of moderate. That was the best - it took us all over the park and was challenging here and there. I started modulating my body weight on the turns and managing getting back into the classic track after a downhill. We had one crazy downhill that looked more like a ski jump ramp, but was actually only the lower half of something called the Terminator! We each took a minute staring down the slope but all went for it and survived.

Later on, we came to a crossroads, and while JL had gone on ahead, CK and I lagged a bit and continued, thinking we'd catch her up. We came to the top of an enormous downhill, but shrugged and went for it - this immediately turned into a second, then third huge downhill - it seemed impossible to stay on my feet at these speeds! But I even made it across an ice patch and stopped safely after this incredible descent. CK wasn't quite so lucky, but I was out-scoring him in wipe-outs so he was overdue!

What comes down, must come up... After a flat loop, we began to climb... and climb, and climb, and climb... and after I had basically exhausted my herring-bone abilities, we came to a sign announcing something ahead called the Stairway to Heaven! It was as steep as it sounds. The top was, of course, called Heaven.

We hadn't caught up to JL at all and were very confused. We finally found her waiting for us nearly at the end of this whole loop. We asked if she'd gone down "the huge hill," and she shrugged and said "yeah." Hmmm... We had another lunch, and then CK and I decided on one last quick loop before the park closed precisely at 5pm. We had 1hr to the minute, and opted for the shorter Red loop.

The first km was brutal for me; it had taken me 10mins to do it, and I was so exhausted I didn't think I'd get anywhere along this 8K loop in that timeframe. But suddenly the food kicked in, and I got my fightin' spirit back. We started running the course hard. We eventually made it back to the crossroads where we'd lost JL before. I suddenly realized that the Green loop was supposed to go left, not right! We'd accidentally skied a part of the Orange loop - the hardest one! Well, what we didn't know didn't kill us, haha. We opted to stick to Red/Green this time. I muscled through the rest of the course and finished at about 5:00:30, with CK a couple of minutes behind. Phew!

When JL heard about our screw-up, she said, "yeah that hill didn't seem so huge to me!" :)

Loop 1 - 4.5K
Loop 2 - 11.5K
Loop 3 - 8.5K (60mins)

--Distance: 24.5K
--Duration: ~4hrs on and off