I was going to say Tuesday night fights, but, there was no fighting to be had. Andy gave us a talk about playing nice before the race, and I didn't see any foul play out there. It was almost disappointing. Weston was fast and icy, and although I started near the front, my shins couldn't hack it, and I had to slow down before anything exploded. Anna and I had lined up in the third row, which is too far up, but since we can go like heck out the start, it makes it cleaner to just let people pass us half a km later. I don't think people mind passing us, too much anyway, I try not to be an ass about it but you never know.
Heading into the flats on lap one, my left shin was hurting like a banshee, and I couldn't balance at all. I had to back off to keep my shin from clear falling off my leg, it hasn't hurt yet this season but something about skiing in icy conditions, particularly on flats, seems to aggravate my lower legs. I think I just need better balance. By the time we'd gotten to the infield I'd lost the front group, and I skied alone for most of the rest of that lap until Bridge Hunter caught me just before Mt. Weston. I almost let him go, but realized damage control was done, so put in a surge to catch back up on the flats as Victor caught up to me. I knew I couldn't let Victor go, because hes a perfect draft, so I followed these two guys back down to the lights and through the infield. We were a happy little group through the second lap, at times it looked like the chase group might make contact but Victor and Bridge were trading leads and keeping the pace up. I tried to lead a couple times, but the pace obviously slower with me in front, so one of the guys would take back over. I still couldn't ski very smoothly, but tried to V2-alt on my right since the left leg was the one bothering me, and kept up through most of the third lap until our last pass through the infield, where I got sorta-dropped and held that position, 2 seconds back, through the line.
I've missed racing at Weston, if nothing else it really forces you to focus on being smooth, which is obviously something I'm missing. I also enjoy skiing just ahead of the chase group instead of in it or behind it, because it makes things very peaceful. In the chase group, there are a lot more desperate moves to get up there, and the skiing is far more aggressive. Weston racing really is its own breed of race... oh for some hills!
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See - this is the reason that I SHOULDN'T race at Weston. You think it is flat, and I think there are WAY too many hills for a newbie like me ;-). Jess helped me with some tips, but I still need A LOT of uphill work.
It was really fun to be out there cheering people I knew though! Nice job!
What causes those shin muscles to hurt in skating? I used to have huge issues with it when I would jump into rollerskiing all of a sudden in November, and it would sort of work itself out on rollers within a week or so, and then it would happen again on snow, like a crippling pain in my shin muscles, and again it would work itself out, but I've noticed it a few random times skiing since then, and it really concerned me, most notably warming up for the skate race at Trapps. Granted, they stopped hurting by my start and my awful performance had nothing to do with shins, but still. Its wierd.
I believe the shin tension comes from being unable to relax your foot much during the glide phase. Once you're used to the particular conditions (i.e. rollerskiing on pavement, skiing on soft snow, skiing on ice) it gets better, at least in my experience, but you always have to re-learn the finer points of holding an edge on ice a bit.
Also -- if the ankle cuff on your boots is just a tad too tight (i.e, thicker socks, but the same ankle strap length) you won't realize it until your lower legs lactate up and mysteriously don't recover. If I had a nickel for every time I've done this...
Good to know, good to know.
Agreed, it absolutely has to do with relaxing your lower legs. That usually comes around to being able to balance in a relaxed way, but having your boot cuff too tight definitely affects things. I did unstrap my boot just before the race to put my garmin in my suit, so its quite likely that I velcroed it back on too tightly, especially since only one leg was bothering me.
I have also noticed the boot strap thing, like when I wear a thicker pair of socks or an extra layer under my suit or something. I'm guessing my issues are just that I'm not totally used to my new boots yet, or maybe it was the fact that I hadn't skied on my warm grind skis all winter and wasn't used to them.
Cathy, if you ever want a followup on uphill technique, just let me know and we'll set a time. Thanks for the cheering, I especially liked it when there was a whole line of you biker folks in jerseys cheering for me... or maybe I just imagined that :)
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