Nationals Classic Sprint

I was going to write a race report, but the photos from our rest day are far more interesting than an account of a 1.4km qualifier. Maybe I'll get there.

We had a rest day Thursday, so that afternoon Jess and I went on an adventure. It wasn't much of an adventure, all we did was drive down Turnagain arm, but, it was certainly better than sitting around in the hotel room all day again - we both tend to get a little stir-crazy if we are cooped inside too much, so we planned on doing some sort of driving tour somewhere back when we were in West Yellowstone. The weather was pretty nice near Anchorage - cloudy sky with many levels, not what I'd call overcast, but definitely not sunny, although the sun poked through from time to time, creating some truly dramatic light. This might just be a hotel, but things were just glowing from the always-sideways light here.



So we stole the truck, and headed south towards Girdwood. We didn't really have a plan, we were just sort of tootling along and occasionally stopping to take pictures. Who knows what we actually were seeing, but what was amazing was that as soon as we were into the arm itself, the weather was super different - raining, this time. It was too bad, because I bet it would have been beautiful in good weather.

This is from a parking lot that was marked "Chugach national forest". We found poop. Sheep?




Then we kept driving south, and ended up at Girdwood, where Alyeska, the downhill resort, sprawls. We found an interesting road to drive up (although it was pretty icy, and Jess was nervous), that ended at a mine, but the road to the mine was too icy, and we didn't think we'd get back up it, so we turned around. There was also a sign for the iditarod trail, which we later wikipedia'ed to find out that this is the historic Iditarod, rather than the current one that they race on. The historic one went all the way from Seward to Nome, now it starts in Anchorage. Pretty narrow for a dogsled, eh?



Nice, Jess, get that sign right at eye level...

The sun popped out on our way back north - I find myself taking lots of pictures of the sun, here. I think I've developed an obsession. 11am is too late for sunrise.



On the way back we stopped at Potter Marsh, which had some cool boardwalks. Didn't see any wildlife, just some strange tracks in the snow that looked like there were made by some animal with long slide-y things on its feet, that angle outwards...





I can't speak for Jess, but I know I felt a little mentally refreshed to do something (however trite and un-environmental and pointless it may be) other than race-related stuff, resting, or work.

Friday it had cooled down a little and the tracks had really set up nicely, so it was just beautiful skiing. I had bomber kick and great glide, and to make things even more fun, I think I remembered how to classic ski. I haven't remembered how to have a high tempo while classic skiing, but I felt really good about actually kicking and gliding after all that running that I did during the 20k. I ended up 53rd, so well out of the heats (I guess 8 seconds is "well out"), so Jess and I hung around and watched the heats - sometimes you just have to be a superfan for those eastern skiers!

Nationals 20k Classic

We woke up to fresh snow and a moose eating the bushes outside of our hotel balcony. I guess he wasn't that big as far as mooses go, but I thought he was a big dude.


The venue looked like this, just below freezing and snowing buckets. God knows the place needs some new snow, but I deliberately left my hairies at home, so I was a wee bit nervous.

The 20k classic race today was pretty tough - the courses here have a lot of hills, and not much double poling, which is my forte. It started snowing around 6am, and by the time I finished my race there were six inches of new snow! I really liked our wax, given the conditions - not perfect, but darn good. It was a little bit grabby on the first two laps, but my skis are stiff enough that my glide was excellent - I love catching up to people on the downhills!

The field was a little smaller than usual, because the juniors were taken out of the race to do a 5km - I had a ghost in front of me in the starting grid, so I got off to an excellent start, which in this field, is not necessarily a good thing for me. I didn't WANT to be going that fast once we started climbing! I let myself slide backwards for a while, until I found a pace that was more comfortable, but the deep snow made the herringbone parts pretty hard. The three laps were difficult mentally, and on the first lap I found myself in a very negative slump - thinking about how I was just slogging around through the deep snow, with skis that were grabbing, and everyone was passing me. Of course once you start thinking that, it comes true, but finally I snapped out of it, by telling myself over and over "I love hills!" My brain is pretty dumb, so it believed me, and I started having a lot more fun by the time I got through the second lap. The course was speeding up, despite the snow, which meant that my skis were just about perfect now - fast on the downhills, and just the right amount of kick on the uphills. I was also constantly telling myself to stand up, because I find that when I get tired, I tend to hunch over, and then I can't kick as well, so this was a good mantra to keep my core involved and my kick working.

By the time I finished the third lap, I was super glad to see the finish. I'd been trading back and forth with a couple different girls, right in that 38-45th place group, and despite feeling a little more positive about ski racing and life in general, I wasn't feeling all that competitive, and couldn't seem to kick myself into gear. I thought I'd be able to catch the University of Utah girl, since she was skiing much the same as me - double pole like hell, and then walk/jog (definitely not run) herringbone the uphills. I tried not to walk when people could see me, but herringboning was causing sharp pains in my ankle, so it was an awkward motion for sure. Jess had passed me on the first lap, but she was fading on the third lap, and I thought I'd get her... I just didn't have enough real estate in the end, but I was closing fast! That was a long race, and the snow just soaked through every piece of my clothing, my hat was so wet that I could wring it out! Skiing in a heavy snow is always a good time... Anyway, not a great race, but it was fun to have it be a mass start - this was a definite character-building day!

The rest of these shots are from our rest day on Tuesday, I have no idea who could be wearing the husky mascot, but it was just sitting there in the lodge... We started skiing around 10:30am, pretty dark out, but at least we got to watch the sunrise again.




Jess, you are a goof.

Nationals 10k skate race

This is our new rig. The van got a flat, and the only thing they had that was big enough was a truck the size of Texas. Both Janice and I are getting a kick out of driving something this big.

This was a pretty good race for me - I have been doing better at skate races recently, so I had some high expectations that I was trying to tamp down - "you know what to do" is what I tell myself before a race to calm down. My brain doesn't have to overthink things, my body knows what to do and my brain knows the course well enough, there is no need to stress over it. That mantra generally worked pretty well, and I was relaxed on the line, telling myself to start conservatively. This course seems really hilly to me, and some of those little guys are quite steep, so I didn't want to start too fast and blow up. "Relaxed but not sloppy" were the words of my day.

They pulled the blanket off my shoulders at 30 to go, and I threaded my poles over the starting gate. The clock showed 5 seconds to go, 3 seconds to go and I was off! My Peltonens were fast, Janice had waved her magic wand over them and they felt like rockets now, and I V2ed right to the base of the first steep hill. That was when I was met with a surprise - despite the rock-hard warmup tracks, this hill was 6 inches deep in sugar slush. Just like Mt. Weston, I thought I'd escaped that crap by coming here! Trying to find the hardest packed line, I eventually made it up the hill, seeing a girl in yellow ahead of me who was on her second lap - time to start chasing! My skis ate up the downhills like the beasts they are, and I had closed the gap by the time we crossed the road. She was skiing pretty well for her second lap, and on the hill past the biathlon range she got a split that she was in 38th. So this is how fast I have to ski on my second lap to be 38th... I passed her on one of the few V2able sections, and thanks to my quick skis, I had a small gap by the time we passed the icebox and started climbing the big hill.

Coming up the steep turn on the hill, I saw a pack ahead of me - mostly people on their second laps, but my 30-second girl was just ahead of them. I tried to stay pretty light on my feet around that corner, it was deep sugar slush, but not as bad as that first hill, but I could feel myself bogging down anyway. We hit the flatter hill and the Michigan Tech girl came around me and just took off - I didn't think I could go that fast without blowing up, so I let her go. By the bottom of the downhill (which had some nice recovery, I liked that part), I'd caught up to the back of the little pack, which was breaking up. First up were two other Michigan Tech girls, and then a UAA skier, who stuck with me up to the top of the hill, although I put a gap on by the bottom. It feels so good to pass people, and its so much fun to have other people out there to interact with.

Coming into the stadium, I finally caught my 30-second girl. I was feeling pretty good at this point - definitely like I'd worked hard, but not all that close to blowing up. I got in front of my 30-second girl before the steep little hill on the sprint course, and then just tried to stay relaxed and comfortable up the hill - it was already deeper than the first lap. My skis put a gap on her coming back down, but on the hill by the biathlon range her coach shouted to her that she was tied with her sister, and that she could track people. She took off, and I did my best to stay with her. We got out of sight of her coach, and she slowed down again. Ahha, I understand that move! I took the lead again, opening up a gap on the downhills, enough of one that she didn't close it until after the steep little turn up the big hill. She was clearly a better climber, but I was doing what I could to make my fast skis work for me and work the transitions, so when she passed me on the more gradual part of the climb, I stuck with her, wheezing my way along. Did I mention I think this is a hard course? My left shin was starting to feel really cramped up at this point, so I just made even more of an effort to be relaxed - not easy when you're yanking your ski tips out of deep sugar slush.

I took back the lead after the last real uphill, and kept it, although she was hot on my heels up the last bit of hill, but I wasn't going to cede the best line around the corner and it was too much extra distance for her to go around, thankfully she didn't track me. I got a nice gap from the downhills into the stadium, and then just started hammering as much as I could - my finish stretch split was the 21st-fastest, which is kind of cool. Definitely a hard race, and not my favorite types of conditions, but it was a good one, and I thought I played it well. I was probably helped more than I realize by my 30-second girl being a stronger climber, because she made me climb out of my comfort zone. The end result was 52nd, 7 seconds out of that top-fifty goal. If only it had been harder packed conditions I might have been able to push harder because my shin wouldn't have been hurting, but I thought I did well to stay relaxed, but not sloppy. Good race, and I hope I have another good one in me for Wednesday's classic!

Full results are here - I did pretty well compared to some of the usual eastern girls, although maybe they just had bad races.

Today, we'll test some skis and waxes, and then Jess and I are headed out for a drive along Turnagain arm, just to see more of Alaska than the tourist shops downtown and Kincaid park.

This is our place. Pretty roomy! (there are two bedrooms off the hallway that aren't pictured.

Sprint day

It was balmy Saturday morning, 5 degrees! The women started at 10, and it was definitely still a little dark. Good times. I got in a good warmup, but once I took my jacket and vest off I knew I needed another layer, I was chilled by the time I started. I'd also warmed up in boot covers, and when I took them off, my boots felt too loose, but I didn't have time to change that. I felt clumsy up the first hill, skis slamming into the snow, trying to swing my arms up faster and just failing at it. Then I freaked out on the downhill - I'm not sure whats up with me and downhills lately, they're scaring me and I can't seem to relax - I started out stepping, on the line I wanted to follow, and then freaked out, and slid the rest, basically killed my momentum and my legs felt locked straight. I tried to power around the rest, but I just felt stiff and awkward, not at all fluid or loose like I'd felt yesterday. My legs were pretty flooded with lactic acid by the time I hit the finish, I couldn't get moving very fast, and then the lung burning began when I finished - that is a long, hard sprint course, and I probably should have paced myself a bit better. Damn. I wasn't smiling at the end, it didn't feel good, or fluid, or fast. I am disappointed with that race, still searching for something positive to bring from it, but its the first of four, so I'm putting it behind me as best I can.

Janice took this picture - bright sun during the qualifiers, eh?


This was the view when I started my warmup.

The sun rose as I did my cooldown, I'm glad I had my camera!

XC Skiing Nationals

I'm in Anchorage with the NENSA group this week - Janice is leading it, and Jess, Heidi Henkel, and I are the athletes. We're staying in some place with a kitchen, so for a brand-new "eating PRO on the GO" series, check out the recipes page - I'll try to keep it updated. We're waxing in the bunker with a bunch of other teams (ventilation, what?), I hope to minimize my time in there when people start burning in the fluoros, but we're sharing a corner with Stratton and the Craftsbury Green Team. Gives us a sense of a little more camaraderie, I suppose, to have more than just three of us.

The courses are in good shape, today we figured out the sprint course (awesome and technical, but long, like 1.4km. ugh.) and the 5k, which is one lap of the two-lap 10k skate on Monday. The 5k has some amazing downhills, I'm super glad I saw them, but it also has some rather intimidating uphills. Why do those always go hand in hand? Anyway, hopefully there are enough transitions for me to make up for lugging my gdonkadonk up the hairpin hill.

Skis were fast today, which is always fun. I feel good, and it was super hard to not start racing around - as Dhont (my highschool coach) used to say - "don't leave your race on the trails!" If you want to follow the races (not sure how live they'll be), or get updates or whatever, here is the website for the championships: http://www.anchoragenordicski.com/nationals10/index.html. Now its time to go wax some skis!

9:00am and its still dark, with a "dense fog advisory", causes hoar frost on everything - pretty, if you can get over the cold dampness.

Our waxing area, Janice's test skis and some rocket-fast Peltonens lined up to go.

The bunker.

Traveling with skis...

Air travel is not taken lightly when you’ve got eight pair of skis as a companion – like bikes, they are fragile, and the airlines like to charge an arm and a leg for that sort of thing. So, there’s sort of an art to packing up these flimsy boards so as to give them the most protection where they need it.

Although I don’t really notice much of a difference between the NIS plate bindings and regular bindings when skiing, the NIS plates win by a loooong stretch when it comes to traveling. It took a couple times to loosen them up enough to get them off easily, but now I can pop the bindings on and off in about 10 seconds a ski. This means that I can pack the skis flat on top of each other, and you can fit a helluva lot more skis into a bag than those with conventional bindings. Another bonus – if you pack the bindings in a small bag in the ski bag, it makes for easy access if your ski bag is too heavy and you have to take something out.

So, the packing process usually takes about 45 minutes, start to finish, but that’s mostly because I tend to get distracted (lets not talk about the travel waxing, pole cutting, basket switching, and other equipment-related shenanigans that were going on last night – to top it off, somebody never cleaned her classic skis after the last race, thank god it was a cold one!). It starts with a big ol’ pile of equipment, taking over most of the living room floor. After checking the weather forecast, I ended up deciding to leave the skate slush skis at home, since all the skate races are in the beginning of the week (when the weather is hopefully more accurate), and leaving the harries at home, since worst case scenario I can always turn my powder skis into harries… lets hope I didn’t just jinx myself.

Yes, our living room has been completely taken over by skis, bikes, and other bits of exercise equipment. Welcome to my life.

Then the bindings come off, and the skis get taped together. So do the poles. Side story on poles… I broke a pole in Presque Isle (link), and so Alpina sent me a new shaft, in the form of this year’s poles. Little miss genius mis-measured the pole length, and cut them too sort – YES, I took the grips into account, I think it was just sloppy measuring. Anyway, they’re now about 1.5 inches too short, although given that I’ve been skating on poles that are slightly too long for the past nine years or so, now they’re a more appropriate length. But, I wasn’t about to fly to nationals expecting to race on a pair of poles shorter (or longer, for that matter) than what I was used to. So, I am bringing my old Swix Star poles, too, in case I don’t like how the shorter poles feel. Anyway, the other fun bit was being unable to find any cutting implements at home, and Ed and his truck are in VT with other possible cutting implements, and I knew he’d be upset if I used his good breadknife on carbon fiber. I eventually found a pack of sawzall blades, and you’d be surprised how hard it is to use a sawzall blade without the sawzall. Or maybe not.

After taping the skis and poles into neat little bundles, I make a big ol’ pile o’ clothes on the floor, basically everything I’m going to need for the week. To Jess’ future chagrin, its almost all ski clothing, and there isn’t much by way of changes – but I hear there is laundry at the hotel.



This was a small ski baby, it weighed in at 36lbs. Well under the limit...

Wrap up the skis with your clothes, paying special attention to the tips and tails. I tend to put a double layer of socks over the tails of my skis, and gloves over the tips, with some hats, and long sleeved shirts tie everything on there pretty well. I use pants to tie the whole bundle together, so that you end up with one bundle of skis, rather than a haphazard mishmash of easier-to-break equipment. Although, in all honesty, what is a pair of socks going to do against the abuses of the baggage handlers?

Holidays

I took a quick trip to Rochester for Christmas, carpooling with my brother. Its funny how when you don't drive a car for two years, you can really make your sister nervous with your driving. Christophe flew in to NYC, to see his girlfriend for a couple days before taking the Fung Wah up to Boston. I met him at South Station with my customary greeting of Chinese pork buns, and we took off westward-bound. Visits home never seem long enough, it was great to just be all together the four (five, if we count Tira) of us, and modern medicines are absolutely amazing - Tira could easily be mistaken for a puppy when shes outside. Only one episode of chasing live deer, luckily, although she does sleep for the rest of the day after a long, snifferful walk like that. Now I'm back in Boston, cramming in a couple days of work before I head off to Anchorage for XC nationals. Maybe there will be a Tuesday night race to break up the monotony of Weston's circle of ice.


Sometimes, for lack of a weight, you do lunges with a small table on your head.