Training Week January 22 - 28

This was perhaps the oddest, most off week of the season. Last week's 20k at the end of a fairly high volume stretch seemed to take a toll that lasted through Sunday.

Monday - 1:30 ski, freestyle, at UAF trails. Online thermometers registered +5 F all afternoon, so I went to UAF to take a break from the hills. It was actually -5 to -15 out there, and after an hour, a pretty miserable ski.

Tuesday - Easy ski, 50 min classic, include 20 min without poles.

Wednesday - 20 min warmup, 4 X 4:00 intervals, with 2:00 rest, 25 min cool down

Thursday - rest

Friday - Easy 1 hour, mostly skating, but did a little classic to practice exchanges

Saturday - warmup, 4X4 km "pursuit" race, with 4k classic and 4k skate. That was probably the toughest race all year. Never felt good, and had a series of lapses/mistakes from 3.8 to about 5.5 km, culminating with having to stop for 10 sec to control breathing. 26:45, 17th place. Looking forward to longer races.

Easy 3 mile run later in the afternoon.

Sunday - easy 3 hr ski, skating. Felt much better than any time during the week. Finally recovered.

In the afternoon I went for family ski and had encounter with a moose on the trail. Fortunately the moose was more interested in lunch than defending its space, even though Tristan skied by (and fell) less than 5 feet away.

8:40 for the week