Pole, Pedal, Paddle (but no swim)
· May 18, 08:38 PM
I was going to summarize my PPP training on Friday night and make bold predictions about the race, but I ended up spending an hour and a half running around making final adjustments to my rear wheel, and by the time I was done with that it was way past bed time. So 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
Maybe not ideal prep, but I was feeling alright going in. I’d adjusted pretty well to being back in training mode and my legs were bouncing back from the long ski the week before. I was really excited for the possibility of a nasty skate leg in serious slop (my skis and I were ready), and last year I held my own in the bike and run. I just had that little swimming problem that kept me off the podium. I also did a little boot surgery to make sure my ski to ski transition was smoother. On to the race…
Yesterday was hot. Not warm, hot. By the time the event was finishing up temps were 95, maybe more and there wasn’t a lot of shade to be found on the course. Swimming was looking like a very nice option. I almost stopped during the portion of the run that went along the river, but then I would have had to DNF by virtue of not wanting to continue. So I didn’t do that.
We got up to the mountain a little after 8 and the place was a madhouse. We didn’t exactly run out of time to do everything, but there wasn’t a lot extra to be wasted. Got the bike and XC skis set up and did the alpine training run. No problems. They salted the alpine and XC courses, so the slop of the last week was nowhere to be seen. It was icy and fast. Very fast. I had a solid alpine leg and much better transition than last year and got out onto XC skis in 3rd, right behind Marshall and Dan. Marshall and I got away a little on the sketchy downhill (ice on slush skis is a little interesting) and then we got to the bottom and started climbing. I went to the front and promptly dropped anchor. I was struggling with the heat a bit, and really couldn’t find any race gears. Dan skied back to us and I think Josh and Zach were gaining too. I managed to find a little bit of power for the final climb and opened up a gap coming off the snow into the exchange. It couldn’t have been much more than 5 seconds, but it was enough to spit me out first onto the bike.
Like last year I stayed even/ahead of Marshall until the downhill began in earnest. Then, like last year, I watched him disappear. I even sort of tried to draft, but it didn’t matter. He just rode away. I suffered alone (as I suppose is supposed to happen in non-drafting events) for the rest of the bike. I didn’t have lively legs, but I was able to coax a decent effort out of them. Most of the drivers that passed us were wise to the drafting possibilities they offered and passed me wide and fast. Honestly, I was hoping for a little more love. I couldn’t push the 55×11 much above 44 (43.7 seemed to be the point where pedaling stopped being effective), but I don’t know that I had the legs to mash a 56 or 58. I came off the bike in 2nd with a small gap over 3rd, though this time Weyland and not Violet was the one stalking me.
I was pretty hopeful at this point. Last year Dan caught me about halfway through the run and I stayed with him/ahead of him to the boat where I was faster until the little swimming accident. I figured I’d try the same tactic. He caught me in pretty short order and I went with him for maybe a mile or so. Then my body pretty much just shut down. I’d taken on a lot of Gatorade on the bike to try and deal with the heat, and had a bit of a sloshy stomach. That combined with the heat left me pretty much in a bad way, where the run turned into more of a stumble than a run, and the race pretty much evaporated. I couldn’t find anything to give during the run, no matter how hard I looked. Violet went by and offered a ride, but I was having none of that. The only thing that really went right was getting a whole water bottle from Lea and dumping the entire thing on my head and back. That was sweet.
I hit the water in 4th, a couple minutes out of third and probably 45 seconds to a minute up on 5th. I was in no-man’s land. I had a shake first turn (upstream to downstream) but otherwise the paddling was very smooth. The surf ski was excellent, and having a rudder to aid in steering was a huge plus. There was not enough course for me to move back to the podium, but really at that point I was just happy to not have to fight for 4th.
Not a great day for me all told. I didn’t have huge expectations, especially since intensity hadn’t been on the menu at all, but I was a definitely disappointed with how the run went. I was just nowhere close to good enough. Ah well, I guess that’s why I’m a ski racer.
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Happy Birthday on Sunday, Brayt. Send some of that good hot weather back here.
— Eric and Jessie May 23, 11:20 AM #