Today was a skate sprint in Presque Isle, Maine (site of the Junior Nationals to be held this March…an awesome venue but WAY THE HECK UP NORTH to say the least…). The past few days have been pretty terrible for me as far as getting any sleep, rest, or training in…so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had to pull an all-nighter the night before I left for the east coast, since I am going to be traveling all winter to races all over the country and therefore had to completely move out of my apartment and get everything in storage, including my car…and there just wasn’t much time between coming back from Bozeman and then doing a concert, skate clinic, and race on Fri./Sat./Sun.


Anyway, after 3 flights and an 8-hour drive north to Presque Isle, I gave it my best and was happy to qualify 2nd fastest in the prelim round. Eastern Cups tend to be quite a bit more competitive than the Far West races so that was a good result for me all things considered. I could definitely feel that I had just come down from 6,000 feet…the sea-level lactate bath was quite something…something I hadn’t felt in quite awhile. Anyway despite some mistakes / places I could have skied a little faster in the prelim I was happy to be 2nd (2 seconds from 1st.)

After the prelim I felt pretty done for the day though, and it really took some serious mustering to get up for each heat. I was able to advance from my quarterfinal reasonably easily despite a whole bunch of Middlebury college guys trying to gang up on me with blocking and slowing down and stop-and-go and different tactics. I finally just yelled at the guy who was in my way near the end, loud enough that I think he moved over a little just by reflex (Garrott Kuzzy did that to me in the Nationals Team Sprint a couple years ago.) I “won” my quarterfinal just ahead of Chase Marston who I guess won everything at JO’s last year.

In the Semi I was worried about whether I could advance or not, despite having the 2nd fastest prelim time, I tend to struggle in the heats because in the heats it’s more about how fast you can accelerate over 20 meters or 50 or 100 meters, and how good you are tactically at positioning etc., and how good a final-200m sprinter you are…all things I need to work on. So, I pushed hard from the start, got in front at the first turn, tuck skated hard down the downhill to keep ahead of everyone despite the draft, cranked it around a sharp hairpin corner into an uphill, and then absolutely gunned it all the way up the main climb. I think this was my main mistake of the day. I didn’t realize it while I was racing but looking at Steph’s video afterwards, it looked like I had about a 4 or 5 second lead on everyone except for the one guy behind me!!! (This was at the .5km or so, with about 200m of that first .5k being downhill, so it was kind of a horrendous amount of time to put on everyone in that short a distance of actual uphill or flat skiing.) I paid for it big time as my legs got so full of lactate I could barely stay standing up on my skis. I skied the second half of the course as best I could but I was kind of toasted…or I should say, my legs were, I was fine!! But my legs just wouldn’t respond…managed to stay in the lead until the last 200m and finished 3rd, right together with the other 2 guys, and therefore advanced to the A-final.

My legs never really cleared out before the A-final due to the big move I made on the hill in the Semi…if I could do it again I definitely wouldn’t have pushed so hard there, and probably hit the A-final fresher. Despite this, I think I still was in there for a good result had it not been for the fact that the organizers decided to give lane choice according to how skiers finished their last heat, rather than the traditional method of going by your qualifying position. So I was relegated to the FAR left lane which means going about an extra 20 meters in the first 150m before the sharp turn at the end of the stadium…I did my best to try and not be dead last out of the stadium but couldn’t quite manage it. I tried to stay calm and draft in hopes of moving up later on the course, however there was nowhere to pass in the first .5km, and I was completely boxed in on the big hill, and had to watch the top 3 skiers ski away while being stuck behind everyone in last / 6th. By the time we got to the section of the course that was wide enough for passing, everyone was really spread out. I didn’t have what it took to make up the 6 seconds or so to the top guys at that point. I was however able to pick off one guy and hold him off to the end - which I was happy about since it was the same guy who clearly had a way stronger kick than me in the semi-final that I was in.

So, 5th overall for the day, despite it being my first day at sea-level (in a 1.2k sprint no less) and going on hardly any sleep the past couple days. Plus I got some great experience (tactically, strategically) racing in a bunch of heats. It was the first time I’ve ever made it past the quarterfinals in an Eastern Cup race. So while I know that on a really good day if I were rested maybe I could have had a shot at winning, but I’m still happy with today all things considered. And it was just the type of training I need to be doing to get ready for US Nationals in Anchorage, January 2nd-8th! Also, the USSA points are based solely off of the prelim, so I might get some decent points for being 2nd, we’ll see.

Tomorrow is a mass-start 10k classic, which I am really looking forward to! A 10k, while still quite a fast and furious race, should put me at less of a disadvantage than a sprint as far as me coming from elevation and not being used to sea level hammering yet. The good thing about today was that although I was exhausted in between heats, while I was actually skiing I never felt limited by fatigue or overall fitness, just too loaded with lactate at times to move the way I wanted to..but this should be less of an issue tomorrow, at least until the last 1 or 2k!

I’ve also worked a lot with Glenn and Jeff and Ben on my classic uphill technique which has been a big weakness for me for the past 10 years so it will be fun to race head to head with some good skiers and see how I can do.

Time for bed! Stay tuned for some video clips (hopefully, if I can get them transferred from Steph’s phone.)

Over and out…

Ian