Good Luck Racers!!!
Sorry for my lack of posting this week, but between work and preparations for the FIWAR, I have not had a free moment. However, things are looking great for the race this weekend. We have gotten plenty of snow in the last couple days, and may even get several more inches Friday evening. The course is awesome, and I can't wait to get some racers on it. Just want to say good luck to the 100 people (wow!!!) that will be racing in this years Frigid Infliction. See ya'll tommorrow night at registration, and then bright and early Saturday...
Race summary etc to come next week as time allows.
Grambo
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Snowshoeing
So I have offered my "advice" on skiing and postholing in adventure racing, and I figured I should probably write something about snowshoeing. This is probably the most "basic" of the disciplines, in that snowshoeing is basically just the winter equivalent of trekking/trail running. But, I think there are a few tidbits I can offer that may be of help, especially for the novice...
1. Be very familiar with your equipment. Snowshoes made by different manufacturers have very different binding systems, and some can be finicky. My shoes, in fact, which are some Tubbs that are about 7 years old, have been great, but it has taken me, literally, several years to get the bindings dialed in to where they don't come flying off every hour or so. They now work great and I wouldn't trade them, but they are "customized" for me (with some duct tape). I would advise against renting snowshoes unless you absolutely have to. Get some shoes, and practice, practice, practice.
2. As far as the practice goes, practice in different terrains and snow conditions. It is very different shoeing through deep powder than it is shoeing on an icy crust. And for you non Vermontters racing in the FIWAR (and I know that 88% of you are from out of state), keep in mind, there is a CRAPLOAD of snow up in the mountains. Even for the VTers in the race, those of you in the Champlain Valley may be thinking, bah, there's not much snow left after the rain this week, so the snowshoe leg will be a cake walk. Well, I am here to tell you that I did some course work earlier in the week up at Bolton, and there are still FEET of the white stuff. So go find some snow, even if it's big piles in the corner of parking lots, and practice climbing, descenting, and traversing steep slopes. Because after all this is an adventure race in VT, and we are probably gonna show you some elevation.
And that's about all I have to say about snowshoeing. We did pretty well in the snowshoe leg of last year's FIWAR, in fact it was my favorite part of the race. So have fun and be careful out there...
Next week, some advice on gear....
Grambo
So I have offered my "advice" on skiing and postholing in adventure racing, and I figured I should probably write something about snowshoeing. This is probably the most "basic" of the disciplines, in that snowshoeing is basically just the winter equivalent of trekking/trail running. But, I think there are a few tidbits I can offer that may be of help, especially for the novice...
1. Be very familiar with your equipment. Snowshoes made by different manufacturers have very different binding systems, and some can be finicky. My shoes, in fact, which are some Tubbs that are about 7 years old, have been great, but it has taken me, literally, several years to get the bindings dialed in to where they don't come flying off every hour or so. They now work great and I wouldn't trade them, but they are "customized" for me (with some duct tape). I would advise against renting snowshoes unless you absolutely have to. Get some shoes, and practice, practice, practice.
2. As far as the practice goes, practice in different terrains and snow conditions. It is very different shoeing through deep powder than it is shoeing on an icy crust. And for you non Vermontters racing in the FIWAR (and I know that 88% of you are from out of state), keep in mind, there is a CRAPLOAD of snow up in the mountains. Even for the VTers in the race, those of you in the Champlain Valley may be thinking, bah, there's not much snow left after the rain this week, so the snowshoe leg will be a cake walk. Well, I am here to tell you that I did some course work earlier in the week up at Bolton, and there are still FEET of the white stuff. So go find some snow, even if it's big piles in the corner of parking lots, and practice climbing, descenting, and traversing steep slopes. Because after all this is an adventure race in VT, and we are probably gonna show you some elevation.
And that's about all I have to say about snowshoeing. We did pretty well in the snowshoe leg of last year's FIWAR, in fact it was my favorite part of the race. So have fun and be careful out there...
Next week, some advice on gear....
Grambo
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
On Postholing....
Whenever I tell someone a winter adventure race (like the FIWAR) includes postholing, they often ask, "What the $%&%# is postholing?" After doing some postholing, I often find myself thinking just "What the $%&%#!!!" In any case, for those who are novices at this, postholing is the act of hiking through snow, usually deep snow, without any sort of floatation device on your feet (snowshoes or skis). So basically, you hike along, and every so often you sink into the snow. Depending on the conditions and the snow depth, you may sink to your knees every 10 steps, or you may sink to your knees EVERY step, and occasionally sink to your waist. In one instance on Mansfield, in fact, Justin and I both managed to sink in to our NECKS in deep snow. Yikes.
So what kind of advice can I offer the novice adventure racer about postholing?? Well, not much, but a couple items to keep in mind....
1. Is it OK to follow in someone else's footprints?? Definitely!!! In fact, if you aren't one of the lead teams, you will probably be doing this. There is nothing shamefull or un-sporting about this, in fact, it is one of the few advantages of not being in the lead.
2. Going along with 1, though, is make sure you are paying attention to your navigation. Just because there are footprints to follow doesn't mean they are going the right way!! Keep your wits about you. And, because postholing can be hard work, you may have a tendancy to just put your head down and grind it out. Well, every couple minutes make sure to check your map and compass. This is a good time to use the orienteering technique of picking a landmark on your bearing (a tree, or rock, or whatever) and plowing towards it. This will allow you to not be constantly trying to look at your compass while sinking to your waist and falling over.
3. Learn to read the snow. This is not easy, so you should go out and practice, even if it means just wandering around the woods behind your house for a little while. Eventually you will be able to pick out different shapes/colors/textures in the snow which may indicate an extra deep hole, or a buried branch, or a stream. This sounds trivial, but some practice could make the difference. You can burn a TON of energy postholing if you aren't careful.
4. Since you will be burning a lot of energy, be sure to stay hydrated and fueled. You may want to chow down on something beforehand and pound some water so you don't run out of steam up to your waist in the snow.
An of course, above all, have fun. Postholing is not the most fun discipline in adventure racing, but it is a challenge that is very rewarding to overcome. Be careful out there...
Grambo
Whenever I tell someone a winter adventure race (like the FIWAR) includes postholing, they often ask, "What the $%&%# is postholing?" After doing some postholing, I often find myself thinking just "What the $%&%#!!!" In any case, for those who are novices at this, postholing is the act of hiking through snow, usually deep snow, without any sort of floatation device on your feet (snowshoes or skis). So basically, you hike along, and every so often you sink into the snow. Depending on the conditions and the snow depth, you may sink to your knees every 10 steps, or you may sink to your knees EVERY step, and occasionally sink to your waist. In one instance on Mansfield, in fact, Justin and I both managed to sink in to our NECKS in deep snow. Yikes.
So what kind of advice can I offer the novice adventure racer about postholing?? Well, not much, but a couple items to keep in mind....
1. Is it OK to follow in someone else's footprints?? Definitely!!! In fact, if you aren't one of the lead teams, you will probably be doing this. There is nothing shamefull or un-sporting about this, in fact, it is one of the few advantages of not being in the lead.
2. Going along with 1, though, is make sure you are paying attention to your navigation. Just because there are footprints to follow doesn't mean they are going the right way!! Keep your wits about you. And, because postholing can be hard work, you may have a tendancy to just put your head down and grind it out. Well, every couple minutes make sure to check your map and compass. This is a good time to use the orienteering technique of picking a landmark on your bearing (a tree, or rock, or whatever) and plowing towards it. This will allow you to not be constantly trying to look at your compass while sinking to your waist and falling over.
3. Learn to read the snow. This is not easy, so you should go out and practice, even if it means just wandering around the woods behind your house for a little while. Eventually you will be able to pick out different shapes/colors/textures in the snow which may indicate an extra deep hole, or a buried branch, or a stream. This sounds trivial, but some practice could make the difference. You can burn a TON of energy postholing if you aren't careful.
4. Since you will be burning a lot of energy, be sure to stay hydrated and fueled. You may want to chow down on something beforehand and pound some water so you don't run out of steam up to your waist in the snow.
An of course, above all, have fun. Postholing is not the most fun discipline in adventure racing, but it is a challenge that is very rewarding to overcome. Be careful out there...
Grambo
Monday, February 18, 2008
FIWAR Advice
So I was thinking it might be helpful for teams coming to race in this year's Frigid Infliction (less than 2 weeks away!!!) if TRWS offered some advice based on our racing of this race last winter. Please note, I am not offering any insight into this year's course design, just sharing some of my experiences and thoughts from last year. First off, the Cross Country Skiing....
I should note, we (team Runs With Scissors) are not big X-C skiiers. We all snowshoe quite a bit, and either downhill ski or snowboard, but none of us are "expert" on X-C skis. In fact, if it wasn't for this race last year, none of us probably would have X-C skiied at all!!! But we figured what the heck, we can snowshoe, and navigate, and probably manage to bungle our way through the ski section.
And to start with, sure. We did a couple practice outings to Little River State Park in Waterbury (great place for winter activities, by the way). Skiied back and forth, up and down, and felt like we were ready. And, the first part of the race started on reasonably flat, groomed trails. But, things went rapidly downhill (literally and figuratively) from there. In hindsight, though a couple things came to light:
1. Going uphill on X-C skis isn't too bad. I worked on this quite a bit, and didn't have much trouble come race day.
2. Off trail (non-groomed) skiing is fun, when it's flat.
3. Going downhill on X-C skis sucks. I am an OK downhill skiier, but those skills do not translate easily to X-C skis. Suprisingly to me, we lost the most time last year on the downhill sections.
Anyway, in the end we did OK, and had a great time in the race. But, I wish I had practiced my downhill X-C skiing more. I think everyone (in general) moves at a similiar speed uphill, but if you can go fast downhill, you can really make up some time (maybe we would have beat that cutoff last year if we could have blazed down those couple steep pitches)...
That's all for now, more later on other tidbits of advice for racing in a winter adventure race...and I'll wrap up with a pic of us at the first TA at the FIWAR '07, donning our snowshoes in the early morning hours:
Grambo
Monday, February 04, 2008
Ugggghhhhhh......
I never had a good feeling about the Super Bowl. Ask Grambo, he was there. There was some bad mojo in the air. High expectations, two weeks off, 4 previous rings, a perfect season...a whole host of things conspiring against the Pats. But, in the end, the Super Bowl is about who wants it more. The Giants, they wanted it more--punks. At least people will stop comparing the Pats to the Yankees. Gross.
I never had a good feeling about the Super Bowl. Ask Grambo, he was there. There was some bad mojo in the air. High expectations, two weeks off, 4 previous rings, a perfect season...a whole host of things conspiring against the Pats. But, in the end, the Super Bowl is about who wants it more. The Giants, they wanted it more--punks. At least people will stop comparing the Pats to the Yankees. Gross.
Friday, February 01, 2008
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