Jan 15 2017
A Nordic Weekend
Friday
It was brought to my attention that there is a speed skating club in Brno, and I started exchanging some emails with their trainer on sharing the work to sweep speed skating ovals on the Brno lake. So on Friday afternoon I left the office a bit earlier and joined them on the ice, in front of the “Lodni Sporty” rowing club. I changed clothes at my own rowing club (CVK Brno) and ran the 1km across the ice in running boots.
Their oval was a bit shorter than mine and with a bit tighter turns.
The turnout wasn’t too big. I was there. The trainer was there, and two girls aged 4 and 6. But it was fun. I did my loops and we even did a race with the two girls. Three loops. I came in last, unfortunately. 😀
The “trainer” turned out to be the father of one of the Masters rowers at our club. Before retirement, he had been the sports redactor of one of the main daily newspapers, and now he has started to help out Czech Speed Skating.
It was nice, but it was a bit claustrophobic doing all those loops on that tiny oval.
Saturday
So for Saturday, I chose the cross-country skis. This was the normal “Saturday 10AM run” with the rowing club, but we turned it into a classic cross country training.
I am much slower using classic technique, and I did a lot of back and forth ski running because I skied part of the training with my youngest son Robin. He was learning to ski, and made good progress. There were a few falls, of course, but he was determined to ski to the place we call “Rokle” and back. So he did about 4km where I did 9.5km in 1h15.
Strava log and (fun to watch) Strava Flybys.
I like to look at the flyby map. It shows how many people were out on the lake.
Here’s a picture of my son at lunch, after his successful first 4km run.
His cheeks were nice and red.
Sunday
XC skiing again, but this time using skating technique. My sons Dominik and Robin played ice hockey in front of the rowing club and Romana and I set out to ski towards the castle and back.
As you can see from the picture, with the temperatures slightly above zero, the ice quality is starting to degrade.
From the club, we used classic technique to get to the “Main Street”. From there it was skating all the way to the castle and back. It was pretty busy, as you can also see from the Flyby Strava chart.
It took us an hour to ski to the castle and back, but after three days of skating and skiing, that was just enough. Skiing is hard work.
It was a nice distraction from the erg, but now it’s time to go back to rowing specific training.
Feb 4 2017
A great week in the mountains
That was a great week. Romana organized the cross-country skiing training week in the Jesenik mountains. On Sunday, a bus picked us up in Brno, brought us to Ovčárna and from there we hiked 1.5 km to our mountain hut Barborka:
Just before sunset, we managed our first cross country run.
Here are a few pictures I shot:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
After that, I took a picture of the sun setting and we had a drink at another mountain hut:
On Monday morning, we did a XC ski run to Svycarna:
In the afternoon, we hit the training loops close to our hut:
On Tuesday, the sunny weather was gone. It was snowing hard. We decided to stay close to the hut and hit the training loops again:
After lunch, I ran to Svycarna and back in heavy snowfall:
On Wednesday the weather started to turn good and I took the three most experienced girls on a long tour, to the Cervenohorske Sedlo (“Red Mountain Saddle”, a mountain pass and hotel).
We were lucky. At Svycarna we met the snow groomer and we had freshly groomed trails all the way to the Saddle pass:
In the afternoon, we didn’t do a training, but we hiked back to the bus stop and visited the nearby village. Very nice woodenn mountain architecture:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
On Thursday, the beautiful weather had returned. We decided to ski up Praded mountain. The girls took the elevator to the top floor of the TV tower and enjoyed the view. I did a few more km by skiing to Kamzik and back.
I took many pictures when we climbed up to the TV tower on Praded mountain:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
In the afternoon, we were back on the training loops and did the 5k loop twice. By this time, I was already pretty tired, and my daughter Lenka skated away from me in the second loop and there was nothing I could do. Let’s say I let her win to boost her confidence, but to be honest I am not sure about it.
Actually, all the girls had by now made tremendous progress in their cross-country skiing. Romana taught them some technique, a few different styles, and they were all enjoying themselves.
On Friday morning, I took a very easy run to Svycarna, where we had coffee. On the way back, my son Dominik was getting the hang of the skating technique (on thawing, icy trails), and I did a sort of interval training, running up the hill until I caught up with Radka, the lady who was accompanying us, then going downhill back to Dominik who was struggling but not giving up, turning around, and repeat.
In the afternoon, we organized XC team races. Each team consisted of three athletes, and each of them would run 2 loops of 2km, 4km in total, 12km per team. During the coffee break at Svycarna, we had carefully arranged the teams in such a way that all had a chance to win. Here are the pictures from the race:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
My job was to measure the times. At the end, I did the 4k myself. My time was 15 minutes and 52 seconds.
This morning we packed and hiked back to the road. A two hour coach ride later we were back in Brno. From the sunny mountains to a smoggy Brno, with just the memories of a nice stay in the mountains:
Today: Rest.
Tomorro: Rest & Sauna.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: mountains, rowing, ski, training, XC