Mora Arse Kicking

Ahh...Mora. Saturday in MPLS was in the teens and 20s (and the snow
was melting), and the weather forecast made it sound like Sunday's
Mora weather would be similar. The various wax companies were
recommending medium cold waxes, so I waxed pair with LF 5 (mix of LF4
and LF6) and another with Cera 040 over HF6.

Sat night brough about 1.5" of new snow that went ungroomed for the
race. In the warmup, I couldn't tell any difference between the two
pairs, so I went with the 040 pair. I had to choose a little earlier
than normal, because Julie was taking the car to do a feed for
Fischer.

I got out of the start like a 1000 lb pig. I clicked poles with Chip
Tabor and waited until he got in front of me. Then I ended up behind
some guy doing these HUGE, slow open field strides. Pass the popcorn,
I've been here before. On the straight away out of the start, I
started going through the unskied (1.5") snow and hoped I wouldn't hit
one of the dirt spots just below the surface.

At the split, it was painfully obvious I was a few hundred feet off
the pack. I kicked it down hard nailing each stroke, but my hard
skiing wasn't bringing in the pack. One guy went by and caught the
pack, but I was just barely keeping sight of them.

This painful chasing went on for a good 5-6 km, and once I caught on,
the group kept gapping me. At about the halfway point, it felt like I
could hang at the back of the pack and only occasionally get gapped.
These were some of the same guys who handed me my ass last weekend:
Chip Tabor, Max Morgren, John Geise (Chad's brother) Grant Nelson, and
Jay Richards. John and Jay I didn't know before the race. I must say
my choice of pure fluoro skis was making my life hard since the temp
never warmed before the start as I expected. Man, I was really
fighting the glide at 13-14 F.

So there I was, sucking wheel, skis, ass, whatever. Not a single pull
all day. With about 10 km left to go, the group seemed to be skiing a
little easier, although Max and John nailed it with maybe 6 km left to
go, and I thought they split the pack. Those two were strong all day.
I chased a while then stepped aside and let Grant go after them, then
Chip took over, and about the time Chip caught them, they slowed up.

Then things got stupid. With about 4 km left to go, no one wanted to
ski, so I (yes, the guy who was barely hanging on all day) took over
at the front for about 2 km. My skis felt great about now since the
temps warmed up and the snow looked very well skied, but the headwind
was powerful. I tried to step aside, but no one would take over.
Finally, Max stepped on my pole and I just quit skiing. "Sorry" and
the group went by. At the back, Jay Richard and I started arguing
about not being last.

Jockey, jockey, and some more jockeying, and we hit the lake. We were
three abreast into a strong wind and I slid back behing John and Max
while (I think) the other line was Grant, Chip and Jay. Well John was
almost dead and Max came unglued right on the last hill, so the other
line of guys was gone. That hill is always a surprise. Sometimes you
can jump step it and sometimes the legs lock. Well I was behind Max
who leg locked, and I was kicking myself for not just leading out the
whole works and trying to force the guys to pass. I wouldn't have
taken 1st or 2nd, but maybe 4th.

I tried to pick off John on main street, but I ran out of room. John
ended up collapsing on the line and they picked him up and hauled him
off. It was weird. I actually felt good, real good, but I just didn't
have a sprint or power gear. With all the jockeying at the end and my
skis getting faster, I felt like I finally got a chance to recover and
I wish the race was another 5 km or so.

Jay Wenner

Two comments:

1. I got exhausted from reading this post. Felt like I was in the pack.
But...

2. I really identify with that 1000lb. pig.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"Sly D. Skeez" wrote in message
om...
Ahh...Mora. Saturday in MPLS was in the teens and 20s (and the snow
was melting), and the weather forecast made it sound like Sunday's
Mora weather would be similar. The various wax companies were
recommending medium cold waxes, so I waxed pair with LF 5 (mix of LF4
and LF6) and another with Cera 040 over HF6.

Sat night brough about 1.5" of new snow that went ungroomed for the
race. In the warmup, I couldn't tell any difference between the two
pairs, so I went with the 040 pair. I had to choose a little earlier
than normal, because Julie was taking the car to do a feed for
Fischer.

I got out of the start like a 1000 lb pig. I clicked poles with Chip
Tabor and waited until he got in front of me. Then I ended up behind
some guy doing these HUGE, slow open field strides. Pass the popcorn,
I've been here before. On the straight away out of the start, I
started going through the unskied (1.5") snow and hoped I wouldn't hit
one of the dirt spots just below the surface.

At the split, it was painfully obvious I was a few hundred feet off
the pack. I kicked it down hard nailing each stroke, but my hard
skiing wasn't bringing in the pack. One guy went by and caught the
pack, but I was just barely keeping sight of them.

This painful chasing went on for a good 5-6 km, and once I caught on,
the group kept gapping me. At about the halfway point, it felt like I
could hang at the back of the pack and only occasionally get gapped.
These were some of the same guys who handed me my ass last weekend:
Chip Tabor, Max Morgren, John Geise (Chad's brother) Grant Nelson, and
Jay Richards. John and Jay I didn't know before the race. I must say
my choice of pure fluoro skis was making my life hard since the temp
never warmed before the start as I expected. Man, I was really
fighting the glide at 13-14 F.

So there I was, sucking wheel, skis, ass, whatever. Not a single pull
all day. With about 10 km left to go, the group seemed to be skiing a
little easier, although Max and John nailed it with maybe 6 km left to
go, and I thought they split the pack. Those two were strong all day.
I chased a while then stepped aside and let Grant go after them, then
Chip took over, and about the time Chip caught them, they slowed up.

Then things got stupid. With about 4 km left to go, no one wanted to
ski, so I (yes, the guy who was barely hanging on all day) took over
at the front for about 2 km. My skis felt great about now since the
temps warmed up and the snow looked very well skied, but the headwind
was powerful. I tried to step aside, but no one would take over.
Finally, Max stepped on my pole and I just quit skiing. "Sorry" and
the group went by. At the back, Jay Richard and I started arguing
about not being last.

Jockey, jockey, and some more jockeying, and we hit the lake. We were
three abreast into a strong wind and I slid back behing John and Max
while (I think) the other line was Grant, Chip and Jay. Well John was
almost dead and Max came unglued right on the last hill, so the other
line of guys was gone. That hill is always a surprise. Sometimes you
can jump step it and sometimes the legs lock. Well I was behind Max
who leg locked, and I was kicking myself for not just leading out the
whole works and trying to force the guys to pass. I wouldn't have
taken 1st or 2nd, but maybe 4th.

I tried to pick off John on main street, but I ran out of room. John
ended up collapsing on the line and they picked him up and hauled him
off. It was weird. I actually felt good, real good, but I just didn't
have a sprint or power gear. With all the jockeying at the end and my
skis getting faster, I felt like I finally got a chance to recover and
I wish the race was another 5 km or so.

Jay Wenner

Yeah, good load of work, Jay! --It did have that grinding, grinding feel to
it.

Gary Jacobson wrote:

Two comments:

1. I got exhausted from reading this post. Felt like I was in the pack.
But...

2. I really identify with that 1000lb. pig.

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
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Great race Jay. When you went past me, it felt like a semi going past -
and I was in the tracks. The temps never came up anywhere near what
NWS had been predicting even as late as 2:00 AM that morning. The only
place I had bad glide was on the last 10K where the spindrift snow was
flooding the tracks.

You do raise a question about wax - what did other people use that
worked (and they'll talk about)? Most of our group had waxed FastWax
Tan over Blue, topcoated with Rex TK-72. I was able to glide (or
outglide)with everyone in our group. Also, Swix VR30 was spot on for
kick wax.

Marsh Jones
New Brighton


Sly D. Skeez wrote:
Ahh...Mora. Saturday in MPLS was in the teens and 20s (and the snow
was melting), and the weather forecast made it sound like Sunday's
Mora weather would be similar. The various wax companies were
recommending medium cold waxes, so I waxed pair with LF 5 (mix of LF4
and LF6) and another with Cera 040 over HF6.

Sat night brough about 1.5" of new snow that went ungroomed for the
race. In the warmup, I couldn't tell any difference between the two
pairs, so I went with the 040 pair. I had to choose a little earlier
than normal, because Julie was taking the car to do a feed for
Fischer.

I got out of the start like a 1000 lb pig. I clicked poles with Chip
Tabor and waited until he got in front of me. Then I ended up behind
some guy doing these HUGE, slow open field strides. Pass the popcorn,
I've been here before. On the straight away out of the start, I
started going through the unskied (1.5") snow and hoped I wouldn't hit
one of the dirt spots just below the surface.

At the split, it was painfully obvious I was a few hundred feet off
the pack. I kicked it down hard nailing each stroke, but my hard
skiing wasn't bringing in the pack. One guy went by and caught the
pack, but I was just barely keeping sight of them.

This painful chasing went on for a good 5-6 km, and once I caught on,
the group kept gapping me. At about the halfway point, it felt like I
could hang at the back of the pack and only occasionally get gapped.
These were some of the same guys who handed me my ass last weekend:
Chip Tabor, Max Morgren, John Geise (Chad's brother) Grant Nelson, and
Jay Richards. John and Jay I didn't know before the race. I must say
my choice of pure fluoro skis was making my life hard since the temp
never warmed before the start as I expected. Man, I was really
fighting the glide at 13-14 F.

So there I was, sucking wheel, skis, ass, whatever. Not a single pull
all day. With about 10 km left to go, the group seemed to be skiing a
little easier, although Max and John nailed it with maybe 6 km left to
go, and I thought they split the pack. Those two were strong all day.
I chased a while then stepped aside and let Grant go after them, then
Chip took over, and about the time Chip caught them, they slowed up.

Then things got stupid. With about 4 km left to go, no one wanted to
ski, so I (yes, the guy who was barely hanging on all day) took over
at the front for about 2 km. My skis felt great about now since the
temps warmed up and the snow looked very well skied, but the headwind
was powerful. I tried to step aside, but no one would take over.
Finally, Max stepped on my pole and I just quit skiing. "Sorry" and
the group went by. At the back, Jay Richard and I started arguing
about not being last.

Jockey, jockey, and some more jockeying, and we hit the lake. We were
three abreast into a strong wind and I slid back behing John and Max
while (I think) the other line was Grant, Chip and Jay. Well John was
almost dead and Max came unglued right on the last hill, so the other
line of guys was gone. That hill is always a surprise. Sometimes you
can jump step it and sometimes the legs lock. Well I was behind Max
who leg locked, and I was kicking myself for not just leading out the
whole works and trying to force the guys to pass. I wouldn't have
taken 1st or 2nd, but maybe 4th.

I tried to pick off John on main street, but I ran out of room. John
ended up collapsing on the line and they picked him up and hauled him
off. It was weird. I actually felt good, real good, but I just didn't
have a sprint or power gear. With all the jockeying at the end and my
skis getting faster, I felt like I finally got a chance to recover and
I wish the race was another 5 km or so.

Jay Wenner

That was an entertaining report!
Eric "Shmo" Chandler
Duluth, MN

I had 2 layers of LF6 over 5 layers of CH6 (just got the skis ground a
few days earlier...). I had Tom Novak at Finn Sisu put a fine grind on
my Fischer Skate Plus skis. I had him do that because I don't have a
cold weather ski and my Peltonens are not made for fresh snow and cold
temps. Anyway, I had decent skis all day. The pack ahead of me
contained a few guys who had slightly faster skis. My skis seemed to
be faster toward the end of the race. I'd guess I V-2d 85% of the
race. Props to Julie Joy Wenner for giving me a feed from the Fischer
table. BTW, Jay Wenner didn't mention it but he finished 5th.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT


Marsh Jones wrote in message news:g_WVb.13808$QA2.24432@attbi_s52...

You do raise a question about wax - what did other people use that
worked (and they'll talk about)? Most of our group had waxed FastWax
Tan over Blue, topcoated with Rex TK-72. I was able to glide (or
outglide)with everyone in our group. Also, Swix VR30 was spot on for
kick wax.

I went with the Fastwax rec on Wed, two layers Extreme white over a
layer of blue. Skis were fantastic, just the fat guy on them kept
sinking into the trail when he tried to push at all.

chris
ne iowa

I did the classic 42K and used the same wax setup as Wenner,
LF6-HF6-FC040 (only because I talked to him Saturday at Como while we
were testing waxes and sking very easy, Jay usually has a very good
handle on waxing and can articulate reasons why) however for classic
it was very good in the tracks....probably because 89 people before me
had skied it down and taken some of the sharpness off the snow.

In the cafeteria after the race I asked a friend (Greg shall remain
nameless) what he used as he waxed two of the top 4 women in the 35k
and other fast skiers. If I remember right he said he used Rex blue
base-Rex low fluor blue-HF6 and TK-72, I might be wrong about the HF6
as it might have been a Rex version of a high fluor blue. I was still
in a bit of a stupor.

Marsh is right, it is a kick to do the classic in these races (Mora,
COLL) where you go out early and see how far you can get before the
train of top skaters come blazing by

Two races in a row where I also got a feed from Julie Joy. To misquote
Tegeder "It's not how fast you go, it is how many spouses of the real
fast people you know"

There is another interesting thread on the newsgroup this week about
conditions and waxing results at the Lake Placid race.

John O'Connell






(Jay Tegeder) wrote in message . com...
I had 2 layers of LF6 over 5 layers of CH6 (just got the skis ground a
few days earlier...). I had Tom Novak at Finn Sisu put a fine grind on
my Fischer Skate Plus skis. I had him do that because I don't have a
cold weather ski and my Peltonens are not made for fresh snow and cold
temps. Anyway, I had decent skis all day. The pack ahead of me
contained a few guys who had slightly faster skis. My skis seemed to
be faster toward the end of the race. I'd guess I V-2d 85% of the
race. Props to Julie Joy Wenner for giving me a feed from the Fischer
table. BTW, Jay Wenner didn't mention it but he finished 5th.

Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT


Marsh Jones wrote in message news:g_WVb.13808$QA2.24432@attbi_s52...

You do raise a question about wax - what did other people use that
worked (and they'll talk about)? Most of our group had waxed FastWax
Tan over Blue, topcoated with Rex TK-72. I was able to glide (or
outglide)with everyone in our group. Also, Swix VR30 was spot on for
kick wax.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record:
1) On Saturday (Pre-Birkie), I used Start Green and had good skis.
They were definitely faster than the Nordlite-fluro (i.e., HF Blue) I
tried on the other pair.

2) On Sunday (Mora), my wife also picked a pair with Start Green, over
a pair with Toko LF Blue. She was 3rd in the 35k and seemed quite
happy with the choice.

Grant Nelson (35k winner) used FastWax Tan. I was a bit worried that
his wax would be too soft and too fluorinated given the
cooler-than-predicted temperatures. Evidently, it worked out Ok for
him!

Cheers,
Brian

In article g_WVb.13808$QA2.24432@attbi_s52, Marsh Jones wrote:
You do raise a question about wax - what did other people use that
worked (and they'll talk about)? Most of our group had waxed FastWax
Tan over Blue, topcoated with Rex TK-72. I was able to glide (or
outglide)with everyone in our group. Also, Swix VR30 was spot on for
kick wax.