Craftsbury Marathon
· Feb 2, 06:52 PM
Well, Kris and Justin have already posted their version of events from Saturday, Eli doesn’t have a blog as far as I can tell, so I figure it’s time for me to throw my hat in the ring. Let’s start with the positives. The skiing was phenomenal – perfect tracks for 24.5 of the 25k loop (the top of the final hill got viciously windblown, something about which I was not happy on the second lap), waxing couldn’t have been easier, people turned out, my skis were great (and the many, many road crossings didn’t beat them up at all), and well, yeah, pretty much everything that wasn’t related to my performance was excellent. As for the race itself, well, I’ve had better.
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A Long, Cold Sprint
· Jan 9, 04:48 PM
US Nationals 2009 are done. Well, technically it’s only short distance nationals that are done, but nobody really gives long distance nationals at the end of March quite the same weight. Well, not yet anyways, I suppose that could change if they re-schedule some canceled races from this week for up there. Sprint relay in Fairbanks anyone?
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Nationals 10k skate (in brief)
· Jan 5, 10:47 PM
Historical perspective – a look back at my performances at past US Nationals:
2005 – Soldier Hollow, 10k Skate – 7th
2007 – Houghton, 15k Skate – 7th
2007 – Presque Isle, Pursuit – 7th
2008 – Houghton, 10k Skate – 7th
2009 – Anchorage, 10k Skate – 7th
I guess I’m nothing if not consistent. I think I should see what I can do about reserving the place next year. It will save me the effort of actually racing.
Today was cold. Well, not as cold as the weekend when they failed twice to hold the sprint. But they did shorten the race, went to an easier course (which avoided the big hills and the really cold holes) and sent us out at 15 second intervals. My race was a good effort (hard to be top 10 at Nationals on a bad day unless you’re Bird), but not quite stellar. I struggled with the cold out of the start, but got into it on the second lap. I’d be psyched to see lap times, but I don’t think they exist.
The schedule has been changed around. Instead of testing classic skis I’ll be racing – either a 10 or 15 classic. The jury is going to make a decision on the distance sometime tomorrow morning. I guess they’ll also probably have to make a call on whether or not to race, but we can’t be too concerned about that right now.
Whistler WC start spot on the line tomorrow. Time to go have one.
Sovereign Lakes - December Racing
· Dec 15, 09:16 PM
When I think about it this way, I’m going to have three meaningful race starts in all of December. They all came in a 7 day period on the same set of trails. That’s maybe not the best preparation for US Nationals, but there aren’t a lot of other options for high level competition in North America right now. I suppose I could go to Canmore for the Alberta Cups on Wednesday (a lot of the fast Canadians live there, so there might be some good racing), but I went home, just like every other American. Time to prepare for Nationals without any other racing getting in the way. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s talk about Silver Star and the races at Sovereign Lakes.
And it's November
· Nov 9, 04:59 PM
We’re a week in to November and for the last two weekends we’ve done classic roller ski time trials. It’s starting to feel like race season is around the corner. Last weekend was the mock sprint relay in Tetherow, and today was a 10k in North Rim (the pavement in the developments is nice, and the traffic is pretty much non-existant). In between I had a pretty easy week where I’ve been working on energy management with moderate success.
Learning
· Oct 19, 02:31 PM
I just did my first (and likely last – I guess that would make it my only) Tumalo uphill running test of the year. It was not good. 20:52, which is 1 second slower than last July and a full 57 seconds off the end of August. I did manage to go hard (187 max/180 average), but I didn’t go fast. This reminds me of my Moosilauke test last September, when I went out and averaged 185 for not quite 40 minutes while I stumbled my way up the mountain. Today I wasn’t stumbling, but there wasn’t a lot of quick moving going on – I was just tired and flat.
Pole, Pedal, Paddle (but no swim)
· May 18, 08:38 PM
I’m going to do the summary part first – all data is since May 1.
Hours and sessions
Skating: 17/6
Running: 5.2/5
Biking: 5.8/5 (1.8/2 on TT bike)
Paddling: 3.2/4
Alpine Skiing: .4 minutes/4 runs
Last intensity: 50km Canadian Nationals/March 23
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