Ramping Up the Training
A big part of the last week was dedicated to ramping up my training as I was accepted into this year’s Border to Border Ski in northern Finland. This has been a bucket list item for me for years, but has not been an option the last few years due to Covid. If you have been following my blog, you probably have a good sense for how much I enjoy cross country skiing and endurance athletics. My heritage is 50% Finnish from my Mom’s side of the family and a big part of 25% of that heritage comes from the region where this event takes place. My Karvonen, Pousu, Karjalainen, and Tormanen ancestors trace back to the 1600s in the area around Kuusamo which is one of the stops on the course. My Raisanen, Manninen, Hiltunen, and Parkkinen ancestors trace back to the 1600s in the area around Pudasjarvi which is located just to the south of the course. To say I am excited about the opportunity to participate in this event is an understatement. I will do my best to blog about this adventure as it takes place!
So what did the training look like over the last week? Going back to last Wednesday, it started with a Keweenaw Running Group run from the Student Development Center at MTU.
I included the weather information here as this was by far the mildest day from a temperature perspective during this past week which may end up being the coldest of the winter looking at the long range forecast.
Thursday I got out for a ski on the Chassell Trails with our friend Mark while Julie snowshoed. We had picked up a little new snow coming into this nice sunny day which helped to slow down the steeper areas in the lower loop.
A good deal of my Friday was spent getting my travel to Finland squared away and researching other needs I will have to address in advance of the trip.
Saturday morning we headed up to Hancock for the Heikinpaiva parade which we participated in as members of the Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club. Heikinpaiva is a mid-winter celebration which reflects the significant influence of Finns here in the Keweenaw. You can learn more about the rolling over of the bear in this article that appeared in the Daily Mining Gazette and about the events associated with the celebration at this Finlandia University link.
Saturday afternoon I skied the Nara and MTU Trails as my first significant distance ski in preparation for Border to Border. I covered just short of 13 miles in a not much over two hours with almost 1,300 feet of elevation gain with a temperature of 13 degrees with a wind chill of 4 degrees. The pace was comfortable and at a level that I will want to maintain in Finland as I will be covering daily distances ranging from 43k to 86k per day to cover the 440k course. I do need to figure out a scheme for my clothing layering as I was soaking wet on my inner layers by the completion of the ski.
Sunday afternoon we skied 6 miles on the Chassell Trails from the Archambeau Trailhead with our hiking/skiing group. The temperature was 12 degrees with a wind chill of -2 degrees. It was definitely one of those days where you wanted to keep moving!
Sunday night into Monday we had a lake-effect snow that unexpectedly pounded the Keweenaw! I needed to drop the truck off at Northern Driveline in Ripley that morning to get something checked out. They dropped me off in Hancock where I spent the morning knocking out emails over iced mocha at K.C. Bonker’s. While waiting for them to open, I walked downtown Hancock to enjoy the atmosphere created by the over one-foot of snow that had fallen over night.
I got out for a 10.25 mile ski at Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids on Tuesday in a temperature of 11 degrees with a wind chill of -6 degrees. There had to be nearly 20 inches of snow, so the groomers definitely had their hands full over the course of this lake-effect snow event. There was nothing about this ski that would be focused on speed as there were no tracks and only the route out to and around Mud Lake was rolled. The one thing I did find was an incredible array of beautiful scenes. For now, I will just share a link to this reel I posted to Instagram and this image. I will share more photos from this ski in my next post!
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