West - Sprint and 15
· Nov 26, 11:51 AM
West Yellowstone has come and gone, by far my shortest ever trip to lovely south-western Montana. This trip is more notable for what I didn’t do (ski into the park or around Windy Ridge, send any postcards, have a tired sixth day at altitude – today would be that sixth day and I’m already in Bozeman – etc.) than what I did. What I did do was show up, try to learn my skis, race a couple of times and then get out and head back (well, I’m on my way back) to Bend.
So, the skate sprint. I haven’t been doing much of anything when it comes to high end speed or sprint specific training, but I thought I might be able to sneak into the rounds, because they made the course a two lap race, which gave me 3+ minutes to try and qualify instead of just under two. I skied three pairs of skate skis this week, two different pairs of ZR1s and a pair of Q0.3s. I didn’t try my Carbonlites because they have the factory warm grind on them, which wasn’t really running in the fresh snow that was subjected to below zero air temps at night. I ended up on a pair of this year’s 610s (or 61Qs if you believe the tip stamp) that were good.
The race itself was over very fast and I definitely didn’t find top gear (which is often a problem for me in sprint qualifying). It was one of those efforts where I had no idea if I’d be in the mix or not, and it turns out I was just out of it. All told that was not a bad outcome, as I got the afternoon to relax, but still the benefit of throwing on a bib was worth it – even if it was only for 3 minutes.
Saturday was a little better. The plan was to come in to West a little short on race fitness, with the idea being to build to the 15k skates in Bozeman and Soldier Hollow before really hitting Nationals hard and punching my ticket to the World Cups. The race course was changed to 4x~4k, with one solid climb on every lap. This is harder than the standard 2×6.5k with the same solitary climb that West usually features. I felt strong and in control the first two laps, and then ran out of steam a little on the last two. I would have been thrilled to be 20-30 seconds faster given the effort, but now I just know that I have a little more work to do.
It was also one of those rare races where I didn’t see anyone out there. I was sandwiched between Chambo and Simons on the start list and we all finished with 7-8 seconds of each other, and there are apparently no places on the course where you can see 25 seconds down the trail. I saw 3 or 4 guys on different laps, but we weren’t moving the same speed. I’d have liked the chance to catch a ride, but the idea is to be going fast enough that that’s not necessary.
Marshall’s getting antsy to get some air before we get on the plane to fly home, so I’m going to be out of here.
Commenting is closed for this article.