Au Revoir and Merci Beaucoup

We have all experienced times when, instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces, we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. On the rare occasions that it happens, we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like….. moments like these are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times…the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Such experiences are not are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur, yet these could have been the best moments of life.
-Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi

This is the final installment of my In The Arena blog. It has been an incredible experience and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to serve a greater good while pursuing my athletic goals. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

As I type, I am in the midst of packing up my life in Park City in order to move it out to San Francisco. I will begin working towards a MFA this coming fall at the Academy of Art University and joining my girlfriend, Crystal, in the bay area. At the moment I have no plans to continue competing, though I wouldn't be surprised to find myself pinning a number on before the year's end in any multitude of sports.

I really just want to thank Amory Rowe, the In The Arena board members, donors and supporters of the organization, as well as Jeff Schwalbe and Ecker Hill Middle School.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon. If you need to track me down in the future, you can find me at simons(dot)zack(at)gmail(dot)com.

May 23

I just arrived to ecker hill middle school this morning to 3 inches if
snow on the ground... On may 23!

The kids are getting used to the drill but that does t mean they are
excited about it. We are in the middle
of a track and field segment and that means we'll be runnin the
hurdles inside today. Wedenes day is the mile run, hopefully the
weather clears up or that means a lot of laps in the gym!

In other news, I have decided to call it a career. The time has come
for me to move forward and I can't wait. I will be joining my
girlfriend Crystal in Berkeley, CA and am
planning to begin grad school in September.

Sprinter.

I am back in Utah after a wonderful month in California. The day before I left California I sat by a lake with my dog and Crystal under warm skies and 80 degree temperatures. Pretty much the ideal weather for this time of year... The day after I arrived home to Utah I woke up to snow blowing against my windows...

I had travelled from Spring and back to Sprinter, the dreaded Utah shoulder season.

Utah is notorious for fooling its inhabitants into thinking that summer is nearby with temperatures reaching the high 70's and slapping them back to reality with 12 inches of snow the next day.

That is exactly what is going on here right now. its not really spring and its not really winter. its sprinter... and its terrible.

this weekend was the utah state crit championship, held on a day that could have been mid june. and tomorrow it will snow...

and for those of us who want to ride fast this summer, we will be out riding in the snow in Mid May.

California might have been a better choice for spring time cycling. I miss those rolling green hills already.

Rolling.

I've relocated to Berkeley, CA for the month of April. I'm here riding
my bike, making up for lost time with my special ladyfriend and
getting some work done away from the snowy mountains of Park City.
There are some great roads to ride in the East Bay area....

Bump in the road...

I've had a great week here in the Engadin valley of Switzerland. The
weather has been fantasic, the company is always great and the valley
is gorgeous as ever.

I've been feeling great since the week of the Birkie. After some bad
luck that kept me from completing the race and grabbing the kind of
result I know I was capable of that day, I have been anxious to have
another shot.

Well my shot was coming at one of the most competitive races in the
world , unfortunately I woke up the morning k the race as sick as a
dog. I could hardly breathe, my sinuses ached and my throat was raw.

An unfortunate turn of events. I do feel fortunate however that this
is the first time I've been sick in Europe and also the first time in
almost a decade that I have been sick twice in the same season.

Just a bump in the road... And I can feel the motivation building for
the coming season. I'm hungry for more race wins and I feel like I
have something prove.

I can't wait to prove it.

Birkie 2010

This year's Birkie started out great. I had fantastic skis and my body
was all there. It could not have been better. I felt like I was
stalking the pack rather than skiing in it, always a great sign.
Unfortunately that ended when I got dragged to the ground by someone
behind me. One of my poles snapped and my ski split in two. I got up
and limped along hoping to get some new gear but the thrill of the
hunt faded after 10 km on broken equipment. I hopped a ride to the
finish at the 30km mark and was able to see my Steinbock teammate grab
third place!

Such is sport. Live to fight another day. I'm off to the Engadin
Marathon on Friday for another stab at the world's largest skate race!

Fight For it. BMT Victory 2010.

As I wrote in my last post, one of my favorite things about racing are the last kilometers... I love to be right in the thick of it, fighting for position– banging elbows. The more of a dog fight the race becomes, the more I enjoy what I'm doing.

If you don't believe me, here is proof... A photo from the Boulder Mt Tour, taken within a Km of the finish.

Having the time of my life - 2010 Boulder Mt Tour (photo by Mike Turzian)

What is missing from this photo is AJ. He is just out of the frame, leading me out as he did for several Km's before this picture was taken. He hit it as hard as he could to keep the pace high and get me to the finish lanes in the front of the pack. And as with any good lead out, he practically keeled over when the dash for the finish began– though he did hold on for a solid 5th place.

But thats not the point, the point is that we raced as a team and won as a team. And there is a lot to be said about that...

-ZSi

Governor's Cup Weekend

I just got home from a quick weekend trip to Winter Park, CO, for a 30km Skate race called the Governors Cup, held at Devils Thumb Resort.

It was a good trip overall. I stayed at the Beaver Village Hotel with former teammate and now coach of Denver University, Dave Stewart. The skiing was awesome over there, as always. It seems that every time I ski at Devils Thumb, its perfect. Blue ski, tons of trails, great grooming... this time around was no different.

It was a pretty typical race weekend for me. I arrived Thursday night and went for a short run. On Friday I tested my skis and waxed them for the race. Saturday, race.

The race went OK, though certainly not my best ever performance. Glenn Randall, NCAA Champ, was on hand. Glenn has been known to ski quite well at altitude, likely because he trains at 10,000ft! When we started, he was content to lead. He pushed the pace early and near the 5k mark, I was starting to feel it. One thing I know about racing near 9000ft is that you don't want to go under early. So I backed off, hoping to ski the fastest race I could and catch him if he blew up late in the race...

Well, when we came through the lap at 15k, he was no where in sight and I didn't have it to speed up. Looking around, I saw former teammate - now sponsor - Natron a bit behind me and I slowed up hoping to pull him a bit. It worked but he couldn't quite hang on at the end of the lap and was beaten by another well known Coloradan, Michael Brothers. I cruised in to 2nd.

Natron and I both have experience cycling and it seems everytime we race together, we find ways to bring new tactics into skiing. I enjoy that.

It was a bit of a strange day for me. I didn't feel much snap in my body and had a tough time really putting it down when I needed to. In the past week I did some really big workouts to prepare for these upcoming marathons and I think I was just a bit behind the eight ball for this race... I think the training was good, it was the recovery that wasn't happening... Anyone can train hard, the key is recovering from it quickly...

I have another 30k coming up next weekend in Idaho, the famed Boulder Mtn Tour, where I will be defending my title...

I intent to do a lot of resting this week to create some speed. I know my fitness is there, I just need to get it out from under the training load I've been piling on!

Waiting and Working and Training....

Well this is a first for me... It mid-January and my race season is about to start in earnest. Typically, this time of year I am in a mid season training block, scrambling to recover from the many early season races that populate the North American race schedule and simultaneously trying to get in some long workouts that will allow me to race 50kms weekend after weekend.

This year has been a bit different as funds have been tight in the ski world and upon the conclusion that I was to have no mathematical chance at making the 2010 Olympic Team. I have focused heavily on marathons this season and soon I will find out whether my plan has paid off.

These past weeks have been tough in many respects. Many of my friends are preparing for World Cups and waiting to hear about Olympic selection. At times I really wish I was in their camp. But I've gone a different route and I feel confident in my decision. Especially after many long hours on the bike this summer, I feel well prepared for the long events ahead.

Additionally, I've had a heavy load on my back in preparation for the upcoming Outdoor Retailer Show, here in Utah. I will be on hand to help out my ski sponsor, Rossignol, as well as to promote my own team, Steinbock Racing. In the past four days I put in something like 50 hours redesigning our Program Overview.... I'm an all or nothing kind of guy and this was definitely an "all" situation. I'm excited to present it later this week.

This coming Saturday I will race the University of Utah Invitational, at Soldier Hollow, which will be my last tune up before I head out to some bigger events... The following weekend I will be in Winter Park, CO, for the Governor's Cup– which from what I understand is the longest running ski race in Colorado. After that I head up to Sun Valley to defend my Boulder Mountain Tour title. The following weekend is a 10km classic race and the Owl Creek Chase in Aspen, CO. The weekend after that is the Minnesota Finlandia, a 50k, on Saturday and a sprint race in Madison, WI, on Sunday... And the weekend after that is the American Birkebeiner. The next two weeks are up in the air, I may head over to do the Engadin Marathon again or maybe ski the Yellowstone Rendezvous. The week after the Rendezvous is the Great Race in Truckee, California.

And this is where things get blurry.... After the Great Race I may head to the coast (of California) to ride my bike for a few days and hit the San Dimas Stage Race. That would be abruptly followed by the Califonia Gold Rush, another ski race... And then back to the coast for some more riding and likely the Redlands Classic and Sea Otter Road Races...

And then likely back to Park City for May and June to finish out the school year with my crew at Ecker Hill Middle School.

I can't wait for the races to start. I love to be in the mix– banging elbows, as they say– and fighting for position in the last kilometers of a race.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on how things unfold...

Some biking, some skiing, lots of training.

The last few weeks have flown by here in Park City. I accomplished some great workouts, a lot of extracurriculars and survived the holidays.

Yesterday I skied another race here in Park City. It was a good one, on my home course - an extremely flat 5km, that I have been around several thousand times, literally. There were a few more fast skiers around than usual, my brother is in town and he is a Biathlete with the US Devo Team, as well as a couple of guys from the US Nordic Combined team and several from the University of Utah.

When I was warming up for the race my pole started to make a funny crackling sound. It was coming from the grip and when I checked to see if my pole was still glued on, it was not. It was spinning loosely in the handle. I hoped it wouldn't be an issue but the first pole plant of the race, my pole came off. I had to wait for the 50 or so skiers in the front wave to pass before I could see my pole, javelined into the snow. I grabbed it and jammed it back into my grip and got going again... I had to ski through all those people to get back into the front group. It took me 2k or so to get back up there. When I caught up, I was already going pretty hard so I figured I'd just keep the pressure on. I blew the front group up pretty quickly and it was down to three of us with my brother dangling a bit off the back. I slowed up a bit to give him a chance to get back on. I skied most the rest of the race with the Nordic Combined guys, who were going really well. I felt super comfortable and was looking for the best place to make some sort of move that would stick. I waited for my standard spot - a long gradual hill with essentially no recovery afterwards. I put the hammer down and left them, taking the win by a good 20 or 30 seconds in the last 2k.

It was a solid effort considering this week has been fairly unusual in terms of a lead up to competition. This is what my week looked like:

Mon: 4x10 min L3 w Bill Demong pm: 3x15min @ tempo on a trainer
Tue: 2.5 hr Classic pm: 1.25 hrs riding on rollers
Wed: 2.5 hrs on a trainer w 3x20 @ tempo pm: 1.5 hr skate
Thur: Ramp test, cycling followed by 2hrs of skating
Fri: 2 hrs skating w 3x3 min L3 pm: .75 hrs on rollers
Sat: Race 15k skate

Cycling has not hurt my fitness, though hard cycling workouts make my legs feel sluggish for ski races. As bigger ski races approach, I won't be able to do these types of workouts in the days before. Skiing is good for skiing and biking is good for biking...

The next couple weeks are a bit more of the same. Lots of training. My first big race will around the 25th of this month in Marquette, MI. The Noquemanon Marathon, a 50km classic race. I'm looking forward to that.

Happy Holidays!