10 Skate - A few days late
· Jan 4, 09:17 AM
Today was mostly relief for me. After an early season (December) which didn’t go at all according to plan, I’m pretty excited to have gone out and race and come away with a solid result. It might be premature to call today’s race a confirmation of a season’s worth of training, but it’s nice to know I’m capable of skiing better than I did in Bozeman and at Soldier Hollow. I’m ready to put away the doubt that was creeping in and go out and put together a real good race on Thursday. I used to be something of a classic specialist, time to see if I can revive those days.
Now, for the race itself. We had a couple inches of light fluff overnight, which groomed down to almost nothing. It kept snowing throughout the day, which made for a somewhat greasy and fast travel lane, and very sticky and slow snow to both sides. I almost ate it on a downhill on the second lap when my left ski drifted into the falling snow and just about came to a stop. On the whole the course was in good shape. Nothing skis real hard here, but there’s not much in the way of rest either. Lots of grinding, but honestly, it was a little easier than expected (which means my race strategy might have been a little off). I raced on my 610/Q0.3, which is a grind Zach has had some luck with in falling snow in the Callaghan Valley. Skis were good, thanks to Hallsey and Roger!
I started off very nervous. I managed to fill my legs with lactate by the bottom of the first descent and skied most of the first lap with heavy legs without breathing very hard. I wanted to start fast, but I didn’t really hit the relaxed part very well. The first lap was over before it started, and I was getting splits that I was 9th, so I figured there was no point in messing around – the second lap was time to get after it. I managed to relax a bit and ski big and smooth from 4-6k, and then I tried to hammer the climbs.
I was pretty pleased with my second lap. I moved into 7th, then a tie for 6th with about a k and a half to go, but I could see that Lars had pulled back 15-20 seconds of the 30 I started with, so that was really tie for 7th or 8th. I was able to actually push pretty well into the finish, but the finish straight itself has to be the most miserable I’ve ever encountered. It’s a long, long, gradual uphill that comes after a pretty decent climb and goes into a miserable headwind. The forecast today was for gusts up to 40mph. I don’t think we had that out there, but finishing was unpleasant. In the classic race I think kick double poling will be the norm, and striding will be an option.
I finished 7th (on the good side of the 7-8-9 cluster), and was 5th American. I was 8th through 5k and skied the 9th fastest second lap, so despite my sensations, it looks like I paced it pretty solid. Maybe a little more relaxed out of the start would have let me put together a better finish without giving anything away early, so that will be the plan for Thursday. Leif was the only one to really light it up on his second lap – given how hard the finish was it’s reasonable to think he pretty much negative split it – everybody else gave away a bit of time (except John Bauer, who went from 50th at 4k to finish 11th). This is the third time in the last four years I’ve been 7th in the short distance skate race at Nationals. The exception was being 50th (or so) a couple years ago in Soldier Hollow. It’s not a bad place to be, but I’m ready to move up. A top 5 or podium would be much nicer.
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Gradual uphill sprint into a headwind? Like you need to V2 but standing up stops you? That is the textbook condition for “waltz V1”.
For those of you who don’t have the Koch video, that’s three steps per pole plant with a V1 timing. The awkwardness of the third step can be mitigated (or attenuated) by an arm swing.
— Tom Jan 12, 12:52 PM #