Training for the Tour

For the last couple months I have been training for the Tour of Anchorage cross country ski race that happens in just over 2 weeks.  I plan to enter in the 50K skate skiing competition.  This means I should be doing a lot of skate skiing to get ready for the long race.  And initially back in December and early January I did get in a lot of skate skiing.  There was snow-covered ice on the local lakes and I could cross country ski right in town.  Then it got warm, and the snow line moved up to 1200 feet.

I turned to mountain biking and downhill skiing for exercise.  Last week I realized that I had not gone skate skiing for over 3 weeks.  Yikes!  So I decided to carry my cross country ski gear up to the snow.  So I started to carry both sets of skis up to the snow from the road, and then I'd use the downhill gear to skin up to where I could cross country ski.  Finding a suitable flat spot proved a challenge.  On Pyramid I found a fairly flat spot at 1800 feet and beat in a 3-400 meter long loop.  Serious gerbil track - round and round I go to get in my cross country skiing!

Last weekend I did find an excellent area that is HUGE to cross country ski in the big bowl on Sharatin Mountain (see post here), but it takes too long to get up there and back for a quick after work excursion.  So it looks like my gerbil track is it for the foreseeable future.  And the worst of it is that in Anchorage there is excellent snow and skiing.  My competition is getting in all the snow time they want.  I guess my advantage is that I am working for it!
Patrick