If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm I skied a stupid race. Was tucked in behind my friend Andy Milne at the 5K mark. Decided I could move up to the next skier who had gapped up. Killed myself for 10K, then got dropped by both of them. I recovered in the second half of the race for a decent result, but I was 5 minutes behind Andy and I feel I should be able to ski with him. But hes done the race before and RESPECTED the course while I was disrespectful and cocky. I paid the price for that kind of thinking. The Lake Placid Loppet is small race with only 400 competitors in 4 events, but it was even smaller this year with the two week postponement caused by frigid temperatures. The start of the 50K freestyle was the most mellow mass start Ive ever been in. No one was in a rush to attack such a demanding course. My wife Barb Bradlee took second in her age group in the 25K skate with an excellent time of 1:45. At the sumptuous banquet after the race (a LOT better than Craftsbury!) there was a rich raffle. Ive been coaching Barb on her raffling technique. I grabbed a nice backpack. Then Barb won a Fischer race suit and matching hat. (Which will be for sale soon as it is a good fit for a medium size man). Saturday night Barb and I went to the movies and saw Miracle on Ice about the 1980 Olympic hockey team. Very fun to see it in Lake Placid. All in all Id highly recommend this race. Tough but fun trails and a very well-run event with great food and great prizes. By the way, Pat Weaver won the Loppet. Before the race he told me he thought Craftsbury last week week was the toughest classic race hed ever done with the slow snow and big hills. (And hes been to Olympics and World Champs, etc.). Rob Bradlee |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
--- Rob Bradlee wrote: Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm Note also the fine result of RSN frequent poster Ken Roberts. Darn impressive to ski a 3 hr LP Loppet for his first 50K skate. Finally got to meet him and his wife Sharon. Rob |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
I did the race too, quite bit further back than Rob. I went a bit too
hard early, and my second lap was about 12 or 15 minutes slower than the first. Plus I was so exhausted by that time I fell twice on pretty slow corners which was a drag. Results are online at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm Ken Roberts did the 50 skate for the first time and did quite well. Definitely a smaller field this year. The conditions were great -- easy snow for technique but pretty fast, with stable temps all race, or even slightly falling, with light snow. Really a pleasure to ski in, though waxing for the classic race looked problematic. It's also really nice they have pushed the start times back from the 8am/9am in the past. And, as usual the kids in the feed zones were great. Also, if anyone knows someone who skis on 180cm Firscher RCS skate skis with Profil bindings of about 2001 vintageand was at the race, as well as the 30th American Birkie as well, that person took the wrong pair of skis -- a friend of mine (and Rob's) Brett Rutledge, who has the same skis a little longer. Contact me via email at jt "at" jt10000.com or call the Van Hoevenberg office for what to do. JT |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
Looks like Doug Diehl was second overall in the 25k classic. Good show
(or place)! Gene Rob Bradlee wrote: Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
It's a freakin' death march...........can't wait til next year! Congrats to
all LP survivors. Mike........ "Rob Bradlee" wrote in message o.com... Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm I skied a stupid race. Was tucked in behind my friend Andy Milne at the 5K mark. Decided I could move up to the next skier who had gapped up. Killed myself for 10K, then got dropped by both of them. I recovered in the second half of the race for a decent result, but I was 5 minutes behind Andy and I feel I should be able to ski with him. But hes done the race before and RESPECTED the course while I was disrespectful and cocky. I paid the price for that kind of thinking. The Lake Placid Loppet is small race with only 400 competitors in 4 events, but it was even smaller this year with the two week postponement caused by frigid temperatures. The start of the 50K freestyle was the most mellow mass start Ive ever been in. No one was in a rush to attack such a demanding course. My wife Barb Bradlee took second in her age group in the 25K skate with an excellent time of 1:45. At the sumptuous banquet after the race (a LOT better than Craftsbury!) there was a rich raffle. Ive been coaching Barb on her raffling technique. I grabbed a nice backpack. Then Barb won a Fischer race suit and matching hat. (Which will be for sale soon as it is a good fit for a medium size man). Saturday night Barb and I went to the movies and saw Miracle on Ice about the 1980 Olympic hockey team. Very fun to see it in Lake Placid. All in all Id highly recommend this race. Tough but fun trails and a very well-run event with great food and great prizes. By the way, Pat Weaver won the Loppet. Before the race he told me he thought Craftsbury last week week was the toughest classic race hed ever done with the slow snow and big hills. (And hes been to Olympics and World Champs, etc.). Rob Bradlee |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
I had a very fun day of skiing in my first skate marathon (and third skate
race of my life). Since I knew I wasn't going to win anything, I started at the back and did the first 25 km as a pleasant tour. I waved to and thanked all the volunteers that I passed -- chatted with the other racers -- and made sure I skied slow enough up all the hills. I was thinking how happy I was not to be a real racer and just enjoying skiing on a nice day with other good skiers, including the chance to follow some athletic women. It was also fun to be passing lots and lots of Classic skiers who had started earlier. After the first 25 km lap, I looked at my watch and saw that my time was much faster than I expected. So I kept skiing the same way thru the big hills. With less than 5 km to go, I picked up the pace, and immediately dropped the guy who had been with me for the last hour. But then another guy caught me on a downhill (I try to be careful on these, but I had fallen a couple of times anyway). I offered to let him pass me, but he said "No, you're faster on the uphills". What a delightful compliment, I thought -- but maybe it was a "psych", because then I started going harder up the hills, and soon I was starting to hurt. I figured I had lost him, but then on the last gentle uphill to the finish I looked back and saw him charging at me. Not being a real racer, I sprinted for the line and held on to beat him. Mike Wynn wrote It's a freakin' death march...can't wait til next year! Congrats to all LP survivors. I was in a different race?? I accomplished my goal of making it up all the hills using offset V1 skate, without herringbone or stopping to rest. Had enough fun to want to do it again, and even got some competitive thrill at the end. Surprise Bonus: my 50K time was only 10% slower than guys like Mike Wynn and Rob Bradlee. Ken |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report - Rob's slow skis
What Rob isn't telling the group (ever the good sport) is that he had really
slow skis for sections of the Loppet. I wasn't there, but I've had the private report. It sounds like her did everything right, except for using his best pair of skis with my Z40 grind. I was sorry to have to tell him that it was most likely the grind. I haven't heard from Mike Wynn and don't know whether he used his Z40s or what his experience was, but I can confidently say that the Z40 saw its limitations on Saturday throughout New England. There is always a risk associated with advertising temperature ranges associated with grinds. A grind like the Z40 is designed to operate at the interface between the ski and the snow, not on the snow crystals themselves. For this reason the real determining factor is the extent of the fluid layer at the interface, not the temperature. Z40 runs really well at a moisture deficit (not enough moisture at the interface to be ideal) or a moisture balance (just "right"). As soon as you get into moisture surplus the grind is insufficient. The confusing thing is that there are times - like the 5/10K skate at Nationals in Rumford - where the tamps are pretty high and the snow is by all reports "wet", but the moisture layer at the interface is close to ideal because of the consistency of the snowpack and its ability to reabsorb moisture. The interesting thing about the snow we received in this last storm on New England and New York is that it appears very dry, but carries a huge amount of moisture which has almost nowhere to go. So even at colder temps, and in snow that seems loose and dry, the moisture level at the interface with the ski is too high for a structure like a Z40. This is especially true where the snow is new and unworked. When it's been skied or groomed a bunch the glaze on the top surface can form sort of a "shell" that contains underlaying moisture and keeps it from moving up through the snowpack. Nick Brown (my assistant and co-conspirator on the grinder) tested a bunch of structures at UVM carnival at Trapps on Saturday and found a modified Z40 with structure added by a german tractor box with a very fine tight cross pattern to be extremely fast. I was running test skis at Grafton (southern VT) on Saturday and found two somewhat experimental structures that I'm working on to pick up from Z40 at the moisture balance/surplus to be very good. Z40 alone was really sucky in both cases. Anyway, I appreciate the good feedback and public recognition that Z40 has received from folks like Rob and others. But we've all got to hear the bad with the good in order to understand the limitations of any product. The good news for me on Saturday was a call from Eli Brown (Fischer race director) from the finish of the Boulder Mountain Tour to tell me that Z40 had won the race, thanks to Nathan Schultz and a pair of Eli's personal race service skis that Nathan used. I'm extermely pleased with the Z40 - it's a world-class grind for what it does. As I told Chris Hall (USST service chief) at Nationals, I'll be really happy when I can come up with something as good on the slightly wetter side. Chris said "me too!" Zach http://www.engineeredtuning.net/ "Rob Bradlee" wrote in message o.com... Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm I skied a stupid race. Was tucked in behind my friend Andy Milne at the 5K mark. Decided I could move up to the next skier who had gapped up. Killed myself for 10K, then got dropped by both of them. I recovered in the second half of the race for a decent result, but I was 5 minutes behind Andy and I feel I should be able to ski with him. But hes done the race before and RESPECTED the course while I was disrespectful and cocky. I paid the price for that kind of thinking. The Lake Placid Loppet is small race with only 400 competitors in 4 events, but it was even smaller this year with the two week postponement caused by frigid temperatures. The start of the 50K freestyle was the most mellow mass start Ive ever been in. No one was in a rush to attack such a demanding course. My wife Barb Bradlee took second in her age group in the 25K skate with an excellent time of 1:45. At the sumptuous banquet after the race (a LOT better than Craftsbury!) there was a rich raffle. Ive been coaching Barb on her raffling technique. I grabbed a nice backpack. Then Barb won a Fischer race suit and matching hat. (Which will be for sale soon as it is a good fit for a medium size man). Saturday night Barb and I went to the movies and saw Miracle on Ice about the 1980 Olympic hockey team. Very fun to see it in Lake Placid. All in all Id highly recommend this race. Tough but fun trails and a very well-run event with great food and great prizes. By the way, Pat Weaver won the Loppet. Before the race he told me he thought Craftsbury last week week was the toughest classic race hed ever done with the slow snow and big hills. (And hes been to Olympics and World Champs, etc.). Rob Bradlee |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report - Rob's slow skis
--- Zachary Caldwell wrote: What Rob isn't telling the group (ever the good sport) is that he had really slow skis for sections of the Loppet. I wasn't there, but I've had the private report. It sounds like her did everything right, except for using his best pair of skis with my Z40 grind. I was sorry to have to tell Well, this is what comes from having a day job, coaching at night, and not enough time to wax. If I was doing things right I would have waxed up my other skis with a different grind and done some experimenting. But I only had time to wax on Wed. and Thursday... of structures at UVM carnival at Trapps on Saturday and found a modified Z40 with structure added by a german tractor box with a very fine tight cross pattern to be extremely fast. I was running test skis at Grafton German Tractor Box? Now you know you have to explain what the heck that is (and where everyone can buy one :). And web sites with photos! Rob P.S. Just to be clear - the Z40 ran beautifully for all but 10K of the course. In the second half when the trail was well-skied in I was cruising past folks on the downhills. ===== Rob Bradlee Java, C++, Perl, XML, OOAD, Linux, and Unix Training |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report - Rob's slow skis
I skied R2.3, Zach......I was unable to tell any glide difference between
R2.3 and Z40 in morning testing but the snowpack was pretty darn wet. I went with the R grind for that reason but it sqaulled a half inch or so right after the race start and made me wish I'd skied the Z40. The new snow made the skate lane pathetically slow and the group I was in (Rob included) did a LOT of dp and marathon in the classic track! I think many had brutal glide in the skate lane for the first lap and even tho it was skied in for second lap I still spent every meter of flat or downhill in the classic tracks! Given that Rob's skies were slow, I guess I made the right ski choice but I'm not sure there was a magic bullet for those conditions. R2.3 seems to me like it should have been the ''default'' grind but my skis didn't really seem any faster or slower than anyone I spent any time skiing with. It was a tough go! I sufffered from quadriceps cramps on the second lap so bad at times I was sure I'd need a medi-vac chopper. Was reduced to a crawl up the hills but still stumbled in for a time pretty typical of myself. Why don't you bring the truck up next year and give the ''death march'' a go yourself?!........ Mike....... "Zachary Caldwell" wrote in message ... What Rob isn't telling the group (ever the good sport) is that he had really slow skis for sections of the Loppet. I wasn't there, but I've had the private report. It sounds like her did everything right, except for using his best pair of skis with my Z40 grind. I was sorry to have to tell him that it was most likely the grind. I haven't heard from Mike Wynn and don't know whether he used his Z40s or what his experience was, but I can confidently say that the Z40 saw its limitations on Saturday throughout New England. There is always a risk associated with advertising temperature ranges associated with grinds. A grind like the Z40 is designed to operate at the interface between the ski and the snow, not on the snow crystals themselves. For this reason the real determining factor is the extent of the fluid layer at the interface, not the temperature. Z40 runs really well at a moisture deficit (not enough moisture at the interface to be ideal) or a moisture balance (just "right"). As soon as you get into moisture surplus the grind is insufficient. The confusing thing is that there are times - like the 5/10K skate at Nationals in Rumford - where the tamps are pretty high and the snow is by all reports "wet", but the moisture layer at the interface is close to ideal because of the consistency of the snowpack and its ability to reabsorb moisture. The interesting thing about the snow we received in this last storm on New England and New York is that it appears very dry, but carries a huge amount of moisture which has almost nowhere to go. So even at colder temps, and in snow that seems loose and dry, the moisture level at the interface with the ski is too high for a structure like a Z40. This is especially true where the snow is new and unworked. When it's been skied or groomed a bunch the glaze on the top surface can form sort of a "shell" that contains underlaying moisture and keeps it from moving up through the snowpack. Nick Brown (my assistant and co-conspirator on the grinder) tested a bunch of structures at UVM carnival at Trapps on Saturday and found a modified Z40 with structure added by a german tractor box with a very fine tight cross pattern to be extremely fast. I was running test skis at Grafton (southern VT) on Saturday and found two somewhat experimental structures that I'm working on to pick up from Z40 at the moisture balance/surplus to be very good. Z40 alone was really sucky in both cases. Anyway, I appreciate the good feedback and public recognition that Z40 has received from folks like Rob and others. But we've all got to hear the bad with the good in order to understand the limitations of any product. The good news for me on Saturday was a call from Eli Brown (Fischer race director) from the finish of the Boulder Mountain Tour to tell me that Z40 had won the race, thanks to Nathan Schultz and a pair of Eli's personal race service skis that Nathan used. I'm extermely pleased with the Z40 - it's a world-class grind for what it does. As I told Chris Hall (USST service chief) at Nationals, I'll be really happy when I can come up with something as good on the slightly wetter side. Chris said "me too!" Zach http://www.engineeredtuning.net/ "Rob Bradlee" wrote in message o.com... Did the Lake Placid Loppet Saturday. Its a really tough race with lots of vertical and STEEP uphills, but also a really fun trail. Results at http://www.orda.org/04.loppet.50kF.htm I skied a stupid race. Was tucked in behind my friend Andy Milne at the 5K mark. Decided I could move up to the next skier who had gapped up. Killed myself for 10K, then got dropped by both of them. I recovered in the second half of the race for a decent result, but I was 5 minutes behind Andy and I feel I should be able to ski with him. But hes done the race before and RESPECTED the course while I was disrespectful and cocky. I paid the price for that kind of thinking. The Lake Placid Loppet is small race with only 400 competitors in 4 events, but it was even smaller this year with the two week postponement caused by frigid temperatures. The start of the 50K freestyle was the most mellow mass start Ive ever been in. No one was in a rush to attack such a demanding course. My wife Barb Bradlee took second in her age group in the 25K skate with an excellent time of 1:45. At the sumptuous banquet after the race (a LOT better than Craftsbury!) there was a rich raffle. Ive been coaching Barb on her raffling technique. I grabbed a nice backpack. Then Barb won a Fischer race suit and matching hat. (Which will be for sale soon as it is a good fit for a medium size man). Saturday night Barb and I went to the movies and saw Miracle on Ice about the 1980 Olympic hockey team. Very fun to see it in Lake Placid. All in all Id highly recommend this race. Tough but fun trails and a very well-run event with great food and great prizes. By the way, Pat Weaver won the Loppet. Before the race he told me he thought Craftsbury last week week was the toughest classic race hed ever done with the slow snow and big hills. (And hes been to Olympics and World Champs, etc.). Rob Bradlee |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Lake Placid Report
Ha!,,,,,don't get me wrong, Ken! I'm an infrequent poster on this group but
I do a fare share of lurking and learning. Most comments I make here are with tongue in cheek. I don't feel competent enough in any aspect of the sport to contribute much otherwise! That said, I absolutely LOVE the Loppet. However, we may have been in a different race because it always seems like a freakin' death march to me! Congrats on a fine first try and I'll expect to see you in our group next year. Mike......... "Ken Roberts" wrote in message ... I had a very fun day of skiing in my first skate marathon (and third skate race of my life). Since I knew I wasn't going to win anything, I started at the back and did the first 25 km as a pleasant tour. I waved to and thanked all the volunteers that I passed -- chatted with the other racers -- and made sure I skied slow enough up all the hills. I was thinking how happy I was not to be a real racer and just enjoying skiing on a nice day with other good skiers, including the chance to follow some athletic women. It was also fun to be passing lots and lots of Classic skiers who had started earlier. After the first 25 km lap, I looked at my watch and saw that my time was much faster than I expected. So I kept skiing the same way thru the big hills. With less than 5 km to go, I picked up the pace, and immediately dropped the guy who had been with me for the last hour. But then another guy caught me on a downhill (I try to be careful on these, but I had fallen a couple of times anyway). I offered to let him pass me, but he said "No, you're faster on the uphills". What a delightful compliment, I thought -- but maybe it was a "psych", because then I started going harder up the hills, and soon I was starting to hurt. I figured I had lost him, but then on the last gentle uphill to the finish I looked back and saw him charging at me. Not being a real racer, I sprinted for the line and held on to beat him. Mike Wynn wrote It's a freakin' death march...can't wait til next year! Congrats to all LP survivors. I was in a different race?? I accomplished my goal of making it up all the hills using offset V1 skate, without herringbone or stopping to rest. Had enough fun to want to do it again, and even got some competitive thrill at the end. Surprise Bonus: my 50K time was only 10% slower than guys like Mike Wynn and Rob Bradlee. Ken |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Lake Placid Loppet postponed until Feb.7th | BigK2 | Nordic Skiing | 6 | January 24th 04 03:24 AM |
Lake Placid Loppet (NY) this Saturday - changes? | Ken Roberts | Nordic Skiing | 25 | January 23rd 04 12:43 PM |
Lake Placid stonegrinding | Dan Teed | Nordic Skiing | 0 | January 20th 04 01:48 PM |
r.s.n. face-to-face: two JT's at Lake Placid | Ken Roberts | Nordic Skiing | 2 | December 30th 03 03:00 PM |
Lake Placid 10" of Snow. Van Ho is rolled! | xcski@sovernet | Nordic Skiing | 0 | December 7th 03 09:56 AM |