Early Winter Recap
NorAm #1 – Sovereign Lake, BC
On December 1st I did my first skate ski of the season in Silver Star, BC. I was pumped to be out there with great skiing conditions. My motivation was high and I put in some solid training hours over the next 4 days then followed it up with a good showing in a 15km classic TT on the 5th. The 6th was a rest day and on the 7th our team geared up for the first race weekend of the season.
The weekend’s racing was not what I had hoped for, but there were some good signs. I had a great qualifier in the classic sprint on Saturday, finishing 12th (5th Canadian). Unfortunately my energy ran out fast my quarterfinal and I finished the day in a disappointing 21st place. Sunday’s 15km classic individual start didn’t go as planned either. I actually skied a little slower than I did in our team’s TT on Monday. Still, I pushed myself to the limit and finished 12th (6th Canadian), so it wasn’t a terrible result.
Opening day of my season (Photo Credit - Jesse Winter)
NorAm #2 – Rossland, BC
After a long drive in sketchy conditions our team arrived in Rossland on December 12th and I was happy to be off the mountain (Silver Star) and back to a lower altitude. I’ve always enjoyed visiting Rossland. The ski trails are fun and the town itself is everything you’d imagine a small ski town to be: charming, cozy and colourful. It’s my definition of a winter wonderland.
This year we went for an adventure ski at Paulsen Ski Club and we were all blown away with the trail system there. It’s mostly classic skiing and many trails are single-track through forests of thick tall trees covered in an abundance of snow. If I find myself back in Rossland during the winter months I will most certainly be skiing there again.
After coming down from altitude my body was feeling really good which is why I was so shocked and confused by my result in Saturday’s skate sprint qualifier. I finished 20th. Yikes. Time to regroup. I got out to a slow start in my quarterfinal, then was boxed out and pushed into 6th place. Enough of this I thought and I started making more aggressive moves. A few minutes later I skied in to the line alone in 1st place leaving the other 5 guys behind on the ground after narrowly avoiding a big crash. This was the break I needed.
Skiing to the finish alone in my quarterfinal.
I felt relaxed in my semifinal and got off to a quick start, leading for the majority of the race. After finishing 2nd in the heat I was on to the A-Final. What a turn around! Again I had a good start and was right in the mix. I faded a little over the first climb and almost lost contact, but managed to fight hard and stay in contention for the podium. Coming down the home stretch I saw the finish line staring at me with the 2nd and 3rd placed skiers just ahead of me on my left. Podium I thought as I gave everything I had left. I stretched out my leg at the line, looked left and saw Brent and Kevin with their legs stretched out too. No podium. It was a wooden medal for me. It was a tough pill to swallow, finishing 4th when it was so close, but on the positive side this was my best sprint result EVER in Senior Men.
4th place finish in the Sprint with teammate Harry Seaton in 5th
Sunday’s 15km Skate Mass Start went well too. I pushed myself to the limit again and finished 7th place. To be honest, I was expecting to be able to stay with the lead pack longer, however I did all I could on the given day and that’s all I can ask of myself.
Christmas Break
So, there you have it. My pre-Christmas races were a mixed-bag and I’m determined to improve in January. The Christmas break was good as always; spending time with family, friends and my girlfriend. With a longer than usual break from the racing circuit this year I was able to do a bigger training load and a couple races. I competed in the annual Boxing Day Classic at Lappe to burn off all those Christmas day treats. The race went pretty terribly for me, but it was still a good effort. On January 6th myself along with some teammates raced a classic prologue as part of the first Ontario Cup race of the season. I paced the race well and was happy to notch a win before heading back to the NorAm circuit.
It always feels good to win a race at your home club. On the podium with teammates Andy Shields and Chris Hamilton. (Photo Credit - Paul Inkila)
NorAm #3 – Callaghan Valley (Whistler), BC
After all the build up, the race series started up again in Whistler Olympic Park. My training had gone according to plan and I was feeling ready to go. Somehow, in the final few days leading up to the races I started to feel off. My body felt heavy and fatigued, not the way peaking should work… My race prep intensity on Tuesday still went well enough so I figured it was nothing. 4km into the 30km Pursuit on Thursday I realized it wasn’t nothing. My body wasn’t functioning normally. My arms had no power, then my legs got heavy fast and I was left struggling to hang on to a charging lead pack. At 8km I blew up. I stopped skiing and started shuffling unable to do anything. Fortunately Chris Hamilton caught me and I found some energy to follow the tails of his skis. I pulled it together and felt ok for the final 3.75km lap of the classic leg, then fell apart again as I started the skate leg. It took all my willpower to follow Chris and Andy around the course for 3 of 4 laps. On the bell lap they both gave a little extra and I was left on my own to ski it in to the finish. Despite feeling sub-par I managed to finish 12th. Not at all the result I had been working so hard for, but I suppose it could have been worse.
I have a few theories about what may have gone wrong and trust me, I’ve thought about it a lot. Either way, I had to get my body feeling better. I did all I could to rest and recover before the sprint on Saturday, yet when I woke up in the morning before the sprints I felt rough. I considered not starting, but after my surprise 4th place in the sprints in Rossland, I couldn’t bring myself to skip out.
I stood on the line thinking, “whatever happens, happens. Give it your best.” I still felt exhausted climbing out of the stadium on the sprint course and crossed the line expecting a bad result. To my surprise, I qualified 8th! Racing sure can be confusing sometimes. By the afternoon I felt better and skied well through the heats making it into the A-Final. I tried an early move in the Final swinging wide up the first climb to pass a few guys. It worked out well until I tried to move back into the faster, more skied in lane, got tangled up with another skier and crashed onto my side in the snow. I did my best to catch back up but the deficit was too much. I was only able to pass one skier who was the victim of another crash before crossing the finish line in 5th place. Of course I’m a little disappointed I didn’t have the opportunity to challenge for a medal. Nevertheless, after my bad showing in the pursuit, a 5th place in the sprint was what I needed to bounce back.
Mixing it up in the heats. (Photo Credit - Jesse Winter)
Sunday morning I felt great warming up. Although I wasn’t skiing super fast out there, I had a solid day and felt the best I have so far this season in a distance race. I finished the 15km Classic Individual Start in 7th place.
Finding some good feelings in 15km Classic. (Photo Credit - Jesse Winter)
To date, this season has gone differently than I would have thought. My distance racing has been sort of blah; some decent performances but nothing remarkable yet. On the other hand, my sprinting has improved plenty. My qualifier in Silver Star was solid and my heat skiing in Rossland and Whistler was way better than previous years. I wouldn’t have guessed my top results would be in sprints, that’s for sure.
Next on the docket is NorAm #4 in Canmore, AB. I’m hanging out in a condo in Canmore as I write this and avoiding the -27 degree weather outside. I’ve managed to contract my first cold of the 2011-12 season so I’m laying low at the moment. Hopefully I’ll be over it shortly and ready for more racing action this weekend. And yes, I will keep this blog updated more frequently throughout the rest of the season.
Cheers!
Michael
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