Results: http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php
Today I managed a 31st in the 15k (individual start) skate despite a little bit of a cold so I am fairly happy with that. Sea level racing is still proving to be quite a challenge as it felt like sprint speed at elevation the whole time…I think I could have managed 20th no problem if it had been at elevation…maybe even 10th or 15th…(let’s get Truckee to host US Nationals sometime!! Or at least some SuperTours????)…but anyway a solid day and even if it wasn’t quite where I hoped to end up, it is still a ton better than I’ve ever done in a middle-distance race at US Nationals (previous best was 68th I think a couple years ago. Last year I was 80th in the 10k skate and won the Skogsloppet a week later by about 50 seconds…just to give some perspective.)
Russell Kennedy didn’t have the best day, according to him, but I thought he was skiing well when I went by him on his first lap (my third lap)…it wasn’t easy to catch him!
It was quite a swoopy, fast, cranky, up-and-down course which almost made you feel like you were a pod-racer in star wars or something…hardly any flat, and it was sort of weird alaska snow that was super abrasive and seemed to make it tough to V2 on gradual uphills that would normally be no problem to V2 up in CA…today it took more of a high-tempo jump skate (V1) in a lot of places in order to keep forward speed high.
When I finished I was in 4th on the scoreboard since I was one of the earlier starters…then 6th for awhile, then 8th for awhile…finally ended up 31st. Would have been cool to get some more splits out there but it wasn’t really very possible with my early start position. But Martin (Benes) was able to tell me on my second lap that I had been 3rd fastest for the first lap up to that point, and Ben said that I was “having a good one!!!!” whatever that means…but it was enough for me to trust him that I wasn’t doing too badly and got me to keep pushing even when I was feeling pretty blown out.
Beth Reid tore it up again today with an awesome 8th place, and Joanne was 18th!! Pretty cool. Also, Ekaterina Vinogradova, a former Olympic Biathlete now living in Auburn CA and a member of ASC, came in about 5th…so CA had a decent showing in the women’s race to say the least!
Chelsea Holmes was about 42nd, Russell K. was roughly 80th I think. Russell and I both agree we want to do a lot more short, super hard/fast intervals at low elevation!!! It is really amazing how different it is racing at sea level vs. racing at 5 or 6 or 7 thousand feet. Really requires a different set of abilities / strengths. At elevation, you can just basically keep your technique together and not go backwards and you’ll end up doing great. At sea level, you can go sprint pace for a whole 15k and still end up 50th. You have to imagine going a lot faster, when you’re already going fast, and then do that!! It can seem ridiculous or not smart to do an all-out jump skate up a long hill at the mid-point of a 15k, because at elevation that would be counterproductive and probably put you under, but at sea level, at least when you’re racing the best in the country, you have to do that and trust that you’ll recover enough on the downhill to do it again on the next uphill! It’s quite a blast when you get it going.
Next up is the 30k classic mass start (20k for women, 10 or 15k for juniors I think). This will be a whole different kind of race…should be quite a scene! It will be really interesting to see how I can do in my first 30k of the season…I think it could be a really good type of race for me assuming I can get my classic skis kicking alright.
That’s all for now…
