Busy, Busy and More Busy. And Some Ski Racing.

I apologize for taking so long to post an update to this blog. The past few weeks have been busy at times and completely overwhelming at others. The last time I posted, I was in West Yellowstone training after the first SuperTour races of the season... I stayed up there for five or six days, spending some quality time on snow and getting to know my new fleet of skis. It wasn't too long before I had to hit the road, no need to lose my mind in the second week of the season...

I headed back to Park City for a few days. Slept a few nights in my own bed. Trained on my own courses and got some much needed rest. I found out that the next races in Bozeman might be cancelled due to lack of snow and then, much like the Yellowstone series, found out that they got just enough snow to make it happen... and with very little time to spare. So we packed up and headed back to Montana.

The course in Bozeman was pretty sweet. It was not the most difficult I have skied but there were some sizable hills and the course flowed well... couple that with altitude and you have the perfect combination for me. I started the 15k skate race fairly conservatively and focused on skiing smoothly. I was receiving information from coaches that I was leading the race right away. I continued to ski steady for the next three of four laps and on the final time around, I really ramped up the pace. I managed to put a solid 30-40 seconds on the field on the last lap. When I crossed the line I actually thought I had won. I was very happy with my effort.... But come to find out a few minutes later, Garrot Kuzzy, who had started late in the field, was crushing my time on the first few laps. He put quite a bit of time into me early in the race and though I managed to get quite a big chunk of it back on my final lap, he still got me by a solid 20 seconds...

Team Rossignol - Not afraid of the color Orange...

After a solid effort in Bozeman, we travelled back to Park City. Knowing that I was in solid shape, there was no reason to risk anything in training before the next race, which was less than a week away on the Olympic trails in Midway, UT. And while training in those days went well, pretty much everything else in my life was doing its best to pull me in the opposite direction... I thought I was dealing with the stress as well as I could but come race day, last Sunday, I found that it was not to be... When I started the race my legs felt heavy. The early pace that should have been comfortable, felt brutal. I was not recovering on the downhill and I was not able to hold my place in the pack. It wasn't long before frustration took over and things got even worse. There is no way to ski fast when frustrated, at least for me... I finished the race in a less than stellar 12th place. The only good things about the effort were that i did not give up and that in terms of time-back from the winner, i did not get completely blown out of the water... Bottom line, I neglected to notice how much outside stressors were impacting me before the start of the race... Needless to say, I will be looking for more from myself at US Nationals next month.

Racing at SoHo. Too many people in front of me, not enough behind...

For the next two weeks I'll be home in Park City, taking care of the million things that I have been neglecting this past month and attempting to relocate the form that took me to 2nd place a week and a half ago...

Update #1 - 7 Days into the Race Season.

Seven days in to the race season, one race out of the way...

A typical lead in to the first race of the season, which is always in West Yellowstone, MT, involves a minimum of a week on-snow, testing skis and re-adjusting to skiing on snow... This year there was no snow, at least until 4 days before said ski race... My first race was on Saturday. The snow fell on Tuesday. I packed my car and headed up to Montana, arriving late on Wednesday. On Thursday I skied once and waited for my friend and sponsor, Nathan Schultz of Boulder Nordic Sport, to arrive with my race skis - skis i really needed to test before the first ski race... He finally did arrive late on Thursday night. I grabbed my skis and headed back to the hotel, where my service man, Clarke, and I spent a solid three hours preparing the skis for the next day...

Friday was day one on the new skis. We tested them, weeded a few out and decided on two pair that would be best for Saturday's 15k race... Saturday we raced... The race was fine, but not stellar. I finished 10th, which I would generally not be happy about but 50 seconds out seemed like a manageable gap given the lead in to the event... I didn't feel overly coordinated on snow and that made it impossible to really speed into the race... which is nothing more than a consequence of only having two days on snow prior to the race...

Just a portion of the skis I need to figure out...

After the race I had planned to head back to Park City but there is no snow... and I need to ski! I need to test skis and I need to spend time on snow... I'm not far from where I need to be in order to fight for wins... but that difference can only be made up by staying on snow... So here I am in West Yellowstone, by myself.

Town is not exactly busy this time of year...

I have nothing but time on my hands... which means I should be updating this blog a lot but I don't have internet! which is convenient... I have to poach it from a hotel across town.

I will be in Yellowstone until this weekend. After that i will likely head back to Park City for a few days before driving to Bozeman for the next SuperTour...

Screenshot from The Shining, aka The view from my hotel room: The only thing missing from my hotel the kid on the HotWheels tricycle... I'm the only one left.

REAL LIFE

September 2, 2007

The basic principal of training is a simple matter of stress and recovery. We train ourselves as hard as possible, recover from it and subsequently become stronger... Ideal is the case when the entirety of that stress comes from sport specific stimuli alone. But alas, real life always seems want to have a say in my plans.

For the past few days I have been moving. Our lease was up and we (my girlfriend and I) wanted to find a new place to live. When the end of the month came, there was nothing left to do but leave... Easier said than done. A solid ten hours over two days of carrying furniture, boxes, you name it, up and down several flights of stairs is not exactly restful.

Thursday alone involved 2.5 hours of rollerskiing, several hours of hiking with the PE class I work with and a good 5+ hours of ‘weighted stair walking’.

By the time Saturday rolled around, I felt as though I had been run over by a truck. There was no more room for training this week.

I’ve never been a fan of changing my training plan midway through a week but sometimes there is nothing else that can be done. It is often difficult to have the confidence to simply not train but that is in fact the only way out of feeling tired.

Today I am resting, catching up on some emails that I have missed over a few days and trying my hand at furniture arrangement. Thus far the evidence suggests that I am a far better cross-country skier than interior decorator...

July 15, 2007
For the majority of my athletic career I have been told the value of stretching, easing into the training season and the general care for one’s body aside from the usual stress and recovery cycles of my sport… I have never really listened to those warnings. With great luck, I have avoided injury and illness for many years… That was until I resumed my training this spring. I didn’t bother easing into running or rollerskiing, I just jumped right in with several two-hour workouts; couple that with a brand new weight lifting plan that left me hardly able to walk after the first session and I was just asking for problems.

When I went out for my second run of the week on Wednesday, my knee was really sore. I chose to end the session early to avoid aggravating it too much. The following morning I went rollerskiing. My elbow, unused to the impact of asphalt after a winter on snow, started to act up halfway through the workout.

When I got home I called my coach right away. He quickly informed me that I am just getting old and that I finally ought to start listening to his advice…

I backed off a bit and eased back into normal training over the past week. My joints have been adjusting and I should be back on track in no time…

One of these days I’m going to figure out what stretching is all about.