Cross-country skiing in Sweden

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My training has fallen behind a little bit lately. First, I took my dog to a dog agility competition over a weekend, losing out on two days of my own training (good training for the dog though). That would have been ok by itself, but right afterwards, we had an ice storm in Texas, and I could not drive anywhere for a few days restricting my training to the treadmill at home. I don't like running several days in a row due to risk of overuse injuries, but considering the circumstances, I did two days of quite decent workouts on the treadmill anyway. Then, my legs told me to take a rest from running and I was out of training options. On a Thursday, I was due to fly to Sweden for cross-country skiing, but I could not reach the airport because of the icy roads, so I had to postpone the flight one day. On the Friday, I actually took the long flight, travelling for three days! This was no training time of course.

On the following Monday, I got myself to the ski track, and it was good. After all the forced rest, I was energetic and did 20 miles the first day. I did this journey last year as well, and I am in so much better shape this year, mainly because of the strength training I have added to my program. One, or two days a week, I have been lifting weights, and worked the weight and rowing machines at our local gym, and the results show. In comparison to the first day of skiing last year, this year was a breeze.

I have three weeks of cross-country skiing, finishing with participation in Vasaloppet, 90km (60 miles), the world's largest cross country skiing event. It has been going for over 100 years and been on my bucket list since I was young, but I just never got around to do it. This is probably my last chance, it is very hard, and I am not sure I can complete, but I will try. Last year I did the half distance race, and it was fine, but it took me over 4 hours. The training did me a lot of good, I was noticeably stronger when I came back.

It is hard training, my average heart rate the first day was 150, maxing out at 200 and I was over 50 minutes in the anaerobic zone the first day. My Strava fitness score is skyrocketing!

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