Ready Steady Go

The cold temperatures and returning to work after a couple weeks of vacation made last week a good candidate for scaling back the training and getting some real recovery in. I ran the CROCT trails with Mike on Monday, they are really fun when the snow is crunchy and abrasive. Traction was good and I stayed pretty warm in the woods. Wednesday was the coldest, with the temp hitting -4F and the windchill at -23. It was sunny though, so it really didn't feel bad at all. Nichole, Greta, and I got a few easy miles in that day. I'm holding steady at about 20 miles a week running, hopefully that is enough to make the transition to marathon training in the spring a smooth one.

Friday I met up with Andy Brown and Rob Edman and we carpooled up to Ironwood, MI for the Sisu Ski Fest. All three of us were planning on racing the 42k Classic race. The cold weather modified those plans a bit, the race was shortened to only 30k, and happily the start time was pushed back from 8:30 to 10:00am. This made a world of difference, and the -1F air temp at race start didn't feel cold at all since there was bright sunshine and very light wind. Ironwood was gorgeous with tons of natural snow, so I was really excited to get out and race.

It's easy to get excited about skiing when the trails look like this.

Andy set a fast pace from the start, and I took a pull up the big hills early in the race. I pushed harder than I should have for 5k into the race, but wanted to stride as far up the hills as I could, and I chose to kick wax for speed instead of grip, so I needed to work hard to get kick on some of the steeper pitches. By the time I rotated off the front the lead pack was down to 5 skiers. Unfortunately for me just as I was dropping back in the pack a group took off the front and I wasn't able to cover their break. I settled in to 4th and skied the rest of the race pretty much by myself, although I occasionally caught sight of the racers ahead and behind when the course had tight loops. 

37km in to a 31km race. Probably not accurate.

I felt like we were making very good time until I realized that the course markings were still for the original 42k race, and were therefore not accurate for the modified race course. From then on I did mental math whenever I saw a km marker to keep track of how much racing was left. It didn't occur to me until almost the end of the race to check my GPS watch, which would give me the race distance, not math required. We repeated a section of trail as part of the course, and when we got to that section the snow was noticeably faster where it had been skied in. I wasn't able to stride nearly as far up the hills the second time around, probably a combination of increased fatigue and kick wax wearing off on the abrasive snow. I was also weaving through the slower skate racers who were on their first lap. I had it in my mind that the repeated section of trail was short, so I started to get worried when the turnoff was not appearing. Then We came up to an intersection where a man on a snowmobile was watching the racers. I figured this had to be the turnoff and he confirmed it after asking if I was on my second lap. I made the turn and was back to slow, coarse snow. 

I quickly noticed that there didn't seem to be enough pole plants in the fresh snow or ski tracks around the tight corners to account for there being 3 skiers ahead of me. My suspicions were confirmed a few km later when an aid station worker told me I was in 2nd place.

One skiers worth of tracks

Based on the tracks I had a pretty good idea of who the skier ahead of me was. I didn't know how large of a gap he had, and I never caught sight of him, but I thought if I pushed hard I might be able to pull him back in. My pole plants were just a little bit longer than his and I was able to stride a couple of the hills that he had to run, so I figured I was gaining ground. I was also worried that the two other skiers, who I assumed had missed the turnoff, would quickly realize their mistake and work together to chase me down, further motivation to keep the effort high.

I finished and quickly confirmed that I was second. The two CXC skiers in first and second had missed the turnoff. They ended up doing an entire extra lap so had logged 43km by the time they made it to the finish (or Finnish, as the race sign says) in Ironwood. I got changed quickly and got back to the finish area for awards. It is very seldom that I get to stand on a podium in a ski race, so I was enjoying every minute of it. Here are more pictures of the race here

We made the trek back to Minnesota that evening and when I got home I quickly waxed up a pair of skate skis for the Pre-Loppet Sunday morning. Nate and I went to do a bit of cheering at the Zoom Ya Ya indoor marathon before heading up to Theodore Wirth Park for the race, which would be 2x7.5km loops. My legs felt decent on the warmup and I was kind of excited to see how back to back racing would go. Conditions were still thin on much of the course, so I wasn't on my fastest skis, but it still seemed quite speedy compared to the slow conditions the day before.

Start of the Pre-Loppet. I'm in the middle with the yellow hat.

I got off to a good start and settled in around 5th place. The early pace was fast though, so I pretty quickly let a small gap form to the group ahead of me. Two more skiers went by, and I tagged on with them for a little while, trying to stay calm and conserve energy. The course had a lot of good climbs, and I knew I would need to save something for the second lap. I pushed hard going into the long downhill on the back of the course and pulled in Jon, the U of M skier who beat me at the Ahvo Klassic a couple weeks before. I passed him at the top of the next big climb and went chasing after Nate, who had fallen off the lead pack. I reeled in Nate and got a bit of a gap, but him and Jon worked to reel me back in just as we were hitting the snowmaking loop on the second lap. I tried to stay relaxed in the front of the group, but it is easier to follow than to lead, so I was happy to swap out and settle on to the back after a bit.

Jon made an attack at the bottom of the sledding hill, the last big climb on the course, and Nate gave chase and pulled ahead of him at the top of the hill. Nate built a gap pretty quickly, and I was able to catch back up to Jon and draft him in to the finishing straight. I dug deep for the sprint and was pulling even with Jon, but ran out of time. I ended up 7th on the day, 5 seconds away from Nate in 5th, so I was pretty happy with that result after all the racing and driving of the previous day.

This weekend it's back to the Birkie trail for the Seeley Hills Classic, with an incredibly talented field this year and temps just below freezing it should be fun to get out and see how long I stay in the mix.