Racing Season

I'm falling behind on the posting schedule, and haven't at all gotten around to putting pictures along with these posts, my bad I guess.  I intend for that to start happening at some point, but it turns out I'm not very good about taking pictures, so that will have to be something for me to work on.  Since the Bearskin post ski racing season has come and quite possibly gone.  I raced City of Lakes Loppet, Minnesota Finlandia, and the American Birkebeiner this year, and still have the option to do the Pepsi Challenge if I want a bit more racing action.
City of Lakes:  With the lack of snow this year this race became earned the nickname "City of Lakes Loopet" from my friend.  It was not ideal racing conditions, but the race directors made the right decisions to have the best race possible I think.  By the time the elite racers went off at 12:30 the course was either mashed potatoes or rough ice, and my choice of stiff skis may have been the wrong one for the day.  I got to wear a super awesome leaders bib, and definitely did not live up to the honor finishing 40th.  I skied most of the race with a couple one armed Russians, which was fun.  There was an IPC race at Wirth earlier in the week and the Russian team decided to stay and race the loppet that weekend.  It was great to ski with international athletes, and to see how fast they can go despite the disadvantage they are at.  I'm gonna have my work cut out for me to try for another Hoigaards challenge win if Matt or Brian decide to race, but it wouldn't be fun if it was easy.
Mora:  Was cancelled this year due to lack of snow on the course and lack of ice on knife lake.  I wasn't looking forward to that race much anyway.  The last time I was out of shape and tried to ski 45k on that lake was the worst race of my life.  Instead I got out and got a fun 75k gravel ride in with some Northfield folks.  I took a good spill into the ditch and bruised my hip pretty good, but it seemed fine to ride and run with, so I was  not worried about it for the Finlandia next weekend.
Finlandia:  With a tough city of lakes race under the belt and no skiing in the two weeks intervening I was very indecisive about what race I was going to sign up for.  Last year it looked like the long race (36k this year) would be my best chance of getting an ax, but my brother was signed up for that race, and I didn't want to take the chance of depriving him of an age group award.  Plus the pursuit race is just too much fun to pass up, and there were very few entrants, so I figured I had a shot in that race as well.  I didn't even glide wax my classic skis ahead of time, probably a mistake, but one that wouldn't matter in the end.  The Buessler family were wonderful hosts, cooking and providing us with nice beds to sleep on.  Race morning I was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces, Travis and Amy, Blake and Rachel, Allie, Devon, John Munger, Owen Baird and Phil Rogers, who beat me out for the ax last year.  Then I noticed Bjorn towing a couple pairs of skis and knew I was in trouble.  With him in the pursuit race my chances of a win were pretty negligible, but I figured my chances of a fast classic leg to ski my way to 2nd might be good.  Turns out that glide waxing helps skis go faster, and training helps a bunch too, neither of which I had going for me this race.  I was gapped by Bjorn and Phil in the classic leg and settled in with Travis who was skiing the classic race.  When I got to the exchange Phil was out of sight already.  I got on the skates and took off, and they were rockets!  It felt so good to go fast that I really cranked up the effort.  I caught Travis and Owen pretty quickly and sailed by.  Then after about 5k I started to see flashes of another skier ahead.  I kept the pedal down even though it was starting to hurt and had Phil solidly in my sights by 9k.  I pulled him in and put on a good surge to try to shake him, but after a couple hills he was still hanging on.  This is the point last year where I settled in and ended up losing the race, this year I was determined to leave nothing out there, so I kept pushing and eventually got a gap.  I ran scared from there all the way to the end.  Bjorn was long finished by the time I came across, but I added to my Bemidji woolen mills coat collection and felt a bit more confident going into the next weeks race.  Cary suffered through the long race in an admirable fashion.  Not bad considering he hadn't been on skis since November.  He did earn his age group award but didn't pick it up because we weren't sure what the age categories were.  Emily won the classic race, so we did have one ax come home in our car this year.  Sunday I went down to visit my friend Amy in Rochester and see her new baby girl Ruth.  She is a good sized kid with a full head of hair, but not in a too exciting phase of her life at the moment.
Birkebeiner:  Another week of no skiing got me ready to head up to Hayward where the trail reports sounded really good.  I actually tested skis for the first time, but am afraid I made the wrong decision.  I decided to go with my brother's new Atomic skis, which are a bit stiff for me and cut into the snow a bit on the flats.  They climbed quite well though and handled great on the descents too.  I got in a nice ski on some of the world cup trails Friday and felt much better than the year before when I was still sick.  This year I had a bit of a sore throat, but the lungs and head felt clear so I wasn't worried about it at all.  I picked up some HF Start green which did great during the race.  I stay in a cabin with the Johnson family and friends and it is always a fun time.  The race morning was a pleasant 10F and snow conditions looked quite good.  I started a few rows back, still uncertain about my fitness over this kind of a race.  The gun went off, the flags went up, and a skier a couple rows ahead of me went down.  I didn't have time to dodge, so he ended up on my skis and spun me around.  I got back underway quickly, but had to weave my way through a lot of skiers to get back to where I wanted to be.  I worked my way up steadily until about 8km, then the climbing really started to take it's toll and I knew I had to dial it back a touch or I would be in a bad way later in the race.  I traded leads with a couple other skiers and started to build up a pack.  We caught up to Evan Slocum and another skier soon after, and the group of 8 of us or so worked together for quite a while.  I tried to make a gap at the 22km hill since I was climbing well, but couldn't get away and they pulled me back in at about 25km.  Then I settled into the back of the pack to take a gel and recover a bit.  We went by the classic lead pack, with Murray Carter, a Finlandia regular, in first followed by Norwegian superstar Vegard Ulvang, and surprisingly Travis in 3rd!  He wondered as I went by what he was doing there, but looked in good form.  He blew up a few km later I guess but still ended up 19th.  My parents were volunteering at the Gravel Pit this year, so I looked for them as we went through, and saw my mom cheering, but she had no water for me so I skied on.  Caitlin Gregg and Holly Brooks caught us before the next station, so I tagged on with them and finally dropped most of the guys I was skiing with.  Then I tried to take a feed at Mosquito brook and lost contact, a terrible tactical move on my part.  They slowly extended the gap and I didn't pass anyone else until catching a few stragglers on the lake.  The lake really hurt, but I could see others were worse off than me, and I wanted to get done so I kept pushing.  Amy and Johanna were cheering on the street into town, it was a great boost to finish strong.  I ended up in 103, a few spots back from last year, but still good enough to maintain my elite wave for next year, when I might actually try to train again.  It was a great day for cheering, but by the time I was recovered enough to go back out most of the people I know had already come in (everyone is getting fast these days).  I did see Emily come in, and Rachel Elbing, who I saw at the expo Friday where she said she wasn't racing, guess someone changed her mind.  Tom Bisel also finished his first Birkie and he looked like he would be feeling the effort for a few days.  I just beat out Nate Porath to be the first Northfielder to finish.  There are so many people I know at the Birkie that I just love hanging out and seeing people from all over and talking about skiing and life in general.  Byron had a good race and missed the Elite wave by 10 min or so, Dave just beat out Allie in the classic race, Jeff held his wave 1 spot, and Cary tried to use someones number, but failed his bluff check at registration so he couldn't race.  That night I was pretty exhausted, but had bounced back pretty well by the next morning and was ready to do a bit more skiing before heading back home.
Another great Birkie, I can't wait for next year.  It is a bit sad that I am really now just catching Birkie fever and the season is over.  This is a good place to be getting ready for next year though, as opposed to last year when I was pretty much burned out on skiing and life by the time the season ended.  Now on to running season, canoe season, and all the fun that warm weather brings with it.  Just to kick off the end of ski season a big storm is currently dumping on Northfield as I write this.

With the strength of two Bearskins

So my friend Jallie just asked me to write up a summary of my week at Bearskin lodge, and as I turned to my handy repository of summarized happenings I realized I had not put up a post about my sweet week at skiing paradise.  So I'll write it up here and send it along Jallie's way for whatever nefarious ends she intends for this information.

One of the greatest parts about entering competitions is that once in a while you can win stuff (maybe more often if you are good at what you are competing at, or good at cherrypicking weak fields).  This year I won a trip to Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail.  At first this was actually a bit stressful since taking a week off work, with a possible trip to Germany in the works, and fitting another trip into a busy ski racing season did not look that feasible.  Then the Germany trip got pushed back, most of the ski season got cancelled, and the calendar opened up to go stay at this wonderful resort.  When I booked my stay there was still some slim possibility of ski racing looming on the horizon, so I planned to arrive on Sunday night after racing the Vinterfest on Saturday.  When the Vinterfest got cancelled Saturday instead turned into soup and egg bake preparation day so that more time on the trip could be spent skiing, reading, and playing games and less on preparing meals.

It was an odd feeling packing my skis in the car when there was no evidence of snow around me anywhere, but I had good trail reports to bolster my confidence that I would be skiing soon.  I got up to Bearskin and decided to get the lay of the land before checking in.  It was a breath of fresh air after a brown winter to see snow drifts and deep classic tracks.  I skated around to Golden Eagle lodge and back then went to check in to my cabin.
The cabin was beautiful, with a large dining room table for eating and poring over trail maps to plan the next day's excursion.  The staff did a great job getting the cabin prepared, the path to the cabin was freshly shoveled, and there was a good pile of wood stacked up for lighting the fireplace.  The fireplace and multiple heating units made temperature control and clothing drying a piece of cake.  The kitchen was well furnished, the beds were comfy, and there was a recliner that was great for lounging around and reading.  There was a nice porch that would be great for looking over the lake in the summer, but was mostly used for ski storage on this trip.  The ski trail went right by the back of the cabin, so I could just look out the window to see how the grooming and snow conditions were.  There was a thermometer in the window for checking temp, a small but important detail for skiing when there is no TV or internet to get a weather report.  After getting unpacked and settled in it was nice to just relax and read with no distractions for the rest of the evening.
The next morning I pulled out the classic skis and headed over to the bear cub world cup trails.  Most of the central gunflint trails around Bearskin are fairly flat or rolling hills, and while there are a few bigger hills up near Golden Eagle they still are not all that technical.  The bear cup trail is the exception.  There are very few flats on this trail, which suits me well since double pole is my least favorite classic stride.  The snow cover was very good, and the tracks were full depth and well layed out.  There is a very fun descent called "Death's Door" coming down off the loop that I had to snowplow on a bit even.  Then I headed over to some of the easier classic trails that connect to the Banadad trail that goes through the BWCA. The Banadad trail is very neat, sometimes the pine trees overhang the trail so much that you can't see the sky, and they are so dense it's like a wall of trees around you, a little bit claustrophobic almost.  I also came across a nice little Yurt out there that would be very fun to stay at I think.
I had made a variety of soups for lunch before coming up so that I could have the most time possible to ski while I was here, but the comfy cabin made it hard to leave at times.  After lunch and a bit of relaxing I headed back over to Golden Eagle to skate some of the big hills on the North end of the trail system.  There is one hill that is so steep it's almost impossible to V1 up even, the single stick skate came in handy, and one of the hills on the red pine trail has a 1km section that is all uphill, and it gets increasingly steeper as you go up.  Since all of these trails were designed for classic skiing only, so skating can feel a bit cramped at times if you are trying to avoid skiing over the classic track, except summer home road, which is a road in the summer as the name implies, so it makes a nice wide ski trail.  It had been quite a while since I've gotten in 2 skis in a day, so it was really nice to get back, eat supper, and just relax the rest of the evening with no distractions at all.
The next day I got a nice classic ski in in the morning before my friends Dave and Emily showed up that afternoon.  That night it snowed about 5", so the skiing the next morning was a slow trudge through fresh snow.  It was an amazing ski with nothing but a few animal tracks breaking up the smooth white blanket covering everything.  In some places the snow even covered the trees so well that you had to search to see any colors at all besides the white snow and grey sky.  On our way back the sun poked through the clouds and the entire landscape glittered.
By the time we went back out for a skate ski after lunch almost the entire trail system had already been groomed.  A very impressive feat considering the small grooming crew available.  We put in a long ski and the sun was down completely by the time we got back to the cabin.  Good thing the last couple km of trails are lighted.
By Wednesday the trail had firmed up a bit and classic tracks were set over most of the trail system.  My plan was to try skiing 100km.  Dave classic skied 45km with me in the morning and skated 15km in the afternoon before leaving.  This left me with about 40km to ski after he left.  I did the Bear cub and all the trails at Golden Eagle for about 33km, then stopped back at the cabin to throw some lasagna in the oven and grab a headlamp before heading out on Summer home road to get my final 7km in.  Skiing the wide open trails at night was very relaxing, even with over 90km under my belt, but sadly there were no stars out.  The cloudy skies are probably the only thing that kept it from being a perfect trip, the trails were great, and the terrain and scenery along the gunflint trail are simply amazing.  I was sad to leave the cabin at the end of the week, trading in this world of snow and silence for phones, traffic, and brown grass did not seem like a good exchange.   

Riding, Relays, and Routines

With the Mora Vasaloppet getting cancelled this weekend it was a great opportunity for me to go try a new ski race somewhere up north, but I didn't.  Instead I stayed home and did my dishes and laundry, both projects long overdue.  There was some excitement to be had though, here's a rundown.
Sunday Gravel Ride - Played hookey from church to head out on a gravel ride Sunday morning.  I had planned to go with earlier in the week, and tried to get other EMVC riders onboard.  It's good I did, because I was thinking of skipping Sunday morning until Jim told me he was going, so I figured I better too.  I quick swapped the tires on my ever versitile Gary Fischer hybrid and hit the road.  It was a chilly start, especially since my riding tights do not have a bit of wind stopper to them, but a well positioned glove part way through the ride eventually fixed the problem.  There were hills a plenty to get the heart rate up and a nice pace with few breaks kept things moving well.  There was one unexpected stop when I got my wheel caught in a rut and suddenly found myself sailing for the ditch with the bike still firmly attached to my feet.  A bruised and slightly lacerated hip was the only bad result.  It made for a bit of a stiff start off whenever I stopped pedaling, but a couple days later it is already feeling much better.
P90X - I have been hearing about this workout program that a few people have been doing and I was kinda getting tired of that horrible lady, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I typically only use my muscles in a few very specific ways, so this muscle confusion thing is leaving me sore for sure.  I'm excited to build a bit of general strength though, always useful for preventing injury and engaging in random physical activities.
World Cup Relay - Saturday was not the best day for the USST in Nove Mesto.  After some amazing performances in weeks past not a single US athlete made it into the points.  Kikkan sat the race out, Holly had to drop partway through, Sadie is getting ready for U23's, and nobody on the mens side has been consistently in the points at all this season.  Sunday turned things around though, at least for the women, with a historic 5th place in the relay.  I love this event because it is a true team event and covers both disciplines.  While the Norwegian women continue to be unstoppable the US showed that it is within striking distance of a podium position.  Brooks led off and lost time to only a few teams.  Sargent raced an amazing race and while she did lose some significant time to Johaug, who can blame her for that, she held her position well and kept the team in the running.  The same can be said for Liz on the third leg.  Jesse Diggins continues to impress and is quickly learning tactics.  She started even with Olympic champion Charlotte Kalla and held on to her for the entire 5k, even taking the lead for a while.  She ended up losing the finishing sprint to Kalla, but still posted the fastest time of the day.
Finlandia is this weekend, my second attempt at racing for the season.  A few warm days has erased all the snow from south facing hills on the east end of the course, so it will be 2-3 laps of the hilly west side this year.  This could make things interesting for the Pursuit.  I haven't decided for sure which race I plan to do this year, may depend on if I can see the start list when I get up there, but am hoping for a podium in any case since not many big names show up at this race on a good year, much less on a short course year.

City of Lakes Loopet

With the snow and temps being what they have been this winter few people expected that CoLL would run on it's full course this year, but when the melting snow flooded onto the lakes the week before the race the plan to finish in uptown was given up on, and the entire event was moved to the snowmaking loop at Theodore Wirth.  Since I won the Hoigaard's challenge last year I got to don a leaders bib and line up in the second row for the start.  This is the closest to the front I would get however.  My poor condition technique is below average to start with, and the lack of on snow training has not helped this year.  I settled in and skiied with some very fast Russians... who had 1 arm.  There was unprecedented attendance by foreign skiers due to the IPC races earlier in the week. I ended up 39th overall, so not a complete disaster, but for sure not what I would consider a good race.  If Matt or Brian decide to do the entire Hoigaard's challenge I'm sure I won't be holding on to the leaders bib next year.  Despite the conditions it was a fun day, and it was good to catch up to many ski friends I've seen too little of this winter.

Meanwhile in Russia Devon Kershaw takes his first individual victory after a couple straight 3rd place finishes, and by the end of the weekend had moved into 3rd in the overall world cup standings.  I really am wishing I had chosen him over Harvey for my team this year now.  Jessica Diggins continues to impress with a trip to the sprint finals on Thursday after posting the fastest qualifier and leading for the majority of her quarter and semi heats (probably not the best move tactically, but it always worked in those Nor-Am races.)  Then she took down a number of very good racers in the 10k mass start and was the first non-Scandinavian finisher in 5th.  She followed that up with a 12th in the Skiathlon the next day after taking a fall near the start of the race that put her at the back of the pack.  Not quite the amazing comeback that Frode Estil pulled off in 2006 Olympics, but impressive nonetheless for the 20 year old.

Big Talker

I got to be part of a panel discussion on skiing, and especially skiing in years with low snow, at Fit to be Tri'd.  It was myself, Nate Porath, and Ken Drivdal that were the panelists, but really it was more just a chance to get together and chat about skiing.  Snow conditions have continued to be not great, so I am putting my advice to work, cross training as much as possible and skiing when I can get to good snow.

Racing from the couch

The past few years I've entered a fantasy nordic ski contest that the magazine Ski Trax puts on.  I've steadily gotten better at picking teams that compete well under their strange scoring system, and after finishing 12th last year (prizes go to the top 10) this year I seem to have picked a winning team.  With over 1/2 of the season done I'm sitting in 1st place, but not by much.  The greatest part is that there are 2 North American skiers on my team.  Kikkan Randall has been on top of the sprint standings all years, and Alex Harvey's flashes of brilliance have brought him close to the podium several times this year.  My wildcard pick Vibeke Skofterud has picked up a great collection of 2nds and 3rds so far this season, possibly even a better wild card pick than Johaug was last year.  Hattestad was my mens wildcard again because he can always put up some good results and earn a lot of points, but as a pure sprinter he lacks the consistency to put him in the top 15 overall.  There was a seperate competition for the Tour de Ski, and I led that the whole way through except for at two points, the break where the leader gets a prize, and the finish where the top 10 get a prize and I slipped back to 16th, so despite leading almost the whole time I wound up empty handed.  A bit disappointing, but the excitement is worth almost as much as a prize anyway.

Making my mark on the New Year

This not skiing season has put me in a kind of bad funk.  When it is 40 and raining I'm in no mood to ski, especially when the ground is ugly brown here in Northfield.  Even a little bit of snow would help with the attitude adjustment I think.  Anyway, this is what greeted me on New Years Eve.  I skipped going up to ski with friends because it just didn't seem like skiing weather.  Then I decided since I wasn't going skiing there was really no reason to leave my house for any reason.  This is an affliction that has been hitting me more and more often on weekends, a bit of  a problem really.  About 11:00 that evening I finally decided enough was enough.  I got my gear together and decided to run in the new year.  Running has been spotty with the cold and ice, but I decided to just get out and go, and it was worth it.  I was running in a kind of snow/slush that at least left everything looking whitish, and when I got out in the arb with the howling wind and darkness I remembered how great nature is.  I saw the fireworks that St. Olaf was setting off in protest of the ball dropping tradition (which was established when fireworks were banned), and when I went out running the next day my footsteps had been frozen in ice.  So for a few days I would have a reminder that I had gotten out and put my mark on the new year.