Winter is wonderful
So on Friday it was finally time. I completed the 30 k ski race that I had signed up for in April. I finished in 3h15m, which I think is ok considering how much I had actually trained for it. It was fun enough that I'm going to do it again next years, and then I should be able to go under 3 hours. Some lessons learned: I need to practise what it's like to do physical work for such a long time without a break. Now my blood sugar started to go down after 2 hours, but when I took the (traditional) blueberry soup it made my blood sugar go up through the roof, so the last few kilometres I felt like throwing up. (and I actually did throw up when I had finished). Also my longest training run had been 16 k, and that was evident. As of now the first 15 k were fun, but the last 10 k were dreadful, and not only because of my blood sugar. The terrain is quite flat so you are mostly just using your poles (stakning) and my arm muscles ached a lot after 20 k, so I need to build some arm muscles for next year.
As I said my goal for next year is to finish under 3 hours, and that means that when I'm training I need to have a speed of 10 k in 50 minutes, this year I've had a steady 10 k in 1 hour.
It was me, my sister and nephew who skied. (They finished in 2h43m) and after that we continued from Mora up to our mountain house. Despite realising that something was seriously wrong with the electricity, we had no power in the kitchen and heating only in the main room, it was great to be back. It is a bit crowded with the whole family there, my brother-in-law and nieces came later in the evening, but the nature all makes up for it. On Saturday I even got the chance to do some alpine skiing, they had a special offer with free rides in the ski lifts on Saturday evening and I borrowed my sister's skis and went to the slopes with the kids. The slopes were perfect, and I just felt so happy. There is no freedom like skiing by yourself.
On Sunday I took one last 5 k round on cross country, the weather was really nice, and then I drove my mother's car back to Falun. The others are staying up there for the whole week, it's school holidays in Sweden, but me I have to work with the holiday acitivites in the mine. Overall though I'm very happy with the weekend, and I even got some slalom out of the trip.
I still can't decide if I'm going to go up there for Easter or not though, it's going to be crowded with everyone, but I really love the mountains and I don't go there enough.
As I said my goal for next year is to finish under 3 hours, and that means that when I'm training I need to have a speed of 10 k in 50 minutes, this year I've had a steady 10 k in 1 hour.
It was me, my sister and nephew who skied. (They finished in 2h43m) and after that we continued from Mora up to our mountain house. Despite realising that something was seriously wrong with the electricity, we had no power in the kitchen and heating only in the main room, it was great to be back. It is a bit crowded with the whole family there, my brother-in-law and nieces came later in the evening, but the nature all makes up for it. On Saturday I even got the chance to do some alpine skiing, they had a special offer with free rides in the ski lifts on Saturday evening and I borrowed my sister's skis and went to the slopes with the kids. The slopes were perfect, and I just felt so happy. There is no freedom like skiing by yourself.
On Sunday I took one last 5 k round on cross country, the weather was really nice, and then I drove my mother's car back to Falun. The others are staying up there for the whole week, it's school holidays in Sweden, but me I have to work with the holiday acitivites in the mine. Overall though I'm very happy with the weekend, and I even got some slalom out of the trip.
I still can't decide if I'm going to go up there for Easter or not though, it's going to be crowded with everyone, but I really love the mountains and I don't go there enough.