2015 Birkie

Saturday was the grand finale of the nordic ski season, the American Birkebeiner. It is a 51k race in Northern Wisconsin that draws around 4000 of the best skiers from around the country, and often some top foreign skiers as well. I had a great race and it was very exciting, but Tuesday something even more exciting happened. The US women had an outstanding day at the World Championships in Sweden taking 2 of the 3 podium spots, the first world championships podiums ever for US women in distance events. What made it even more exciting is that both of them are Minnesotans, Jessie Diggins in 2nd is from Afton, we rollerski by her parents house every Sunday when we are out there. Caitlin Gregg lives in Minneapolis, her and her husband Brian race for LNR, and she has come to ski with Vakava and run with our TNC running crew in Northfield. Her and her husband both train incredibly hard and they are fun people and great assets to the Minneapolis community where they live. To see Caitlin make a world championships podium is absolutely incredible!

Jessie Diggins, Swede Charlotte Kalla, and Caitlin Gregg - 10k World Championships Podium

For those skiers who aren't over in Sweden the Birkie is the event to be at. There was a strong international field at the race this year, with the top American skier coming in 5th. Brian Gregg was the second American finisher in 8th. One thing I enjoy about skiing is that I was in the same race lined up right behind these top athletes at the start, and while I was nowhere close to these guys at the finish I did have my best ever finish place wise, coming in 33rd. My previous best skate finish was 58th, so this was a big step up. The trip up to Hayward was pretty relaxed. Fastwax put up their wax recommendations on Tuesday, so I got my ski waxing done early and didn't have that stress to deal with. The recommendation was right on and my skis were just as fast as anyone else's in the group I was with, so thanks to Fastwax for the speedy skis.

In the pack - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

One of my goals this year has been to get out faster so I don't have to fight my way through traffic early in the race. I have been marginally successful and it has helped a lot to spend some time with the lead pack in most races and just getting a feel for skiing near the front of the race. That didn't happen at all last weekend however, I took too long finding the new bag drop location and ended up in the back row. I kept my cool though and followed the Reich brothers as they weaved their way up through the crowd in the first couple km. I ran into Nate going onto the powerline and skied with hime for a bit before trying to surge ahead to the next pack as things were starting to spread out.

Covering ground - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

I tagged onto the back of that pack briefly before being shaken off the back. I skied several km with Josh Korn before leaving him and skiing alone most of the way to OO. I caught a struggling Zach Handler and he latched on just a little before a large pack of at least 10 skiers caught up to us. My legs were pretty fried at this point, so I tucked in. I tried to stay about 3-4 skiers back in the pack to keep an eye on the front while taking full effect of the draft. Zach recovered and did a lot of work at the front to keep the pace up. Even so our group size was holding pretty steady. Passing OO I saw Nate's cheering crew out in their cow suits and they gave me a good cheer as I went through.

Birkie Cheering Herd!

My parents have volunteered at the Gravel Pit aid station the last several years, so it's always fun to look for them there. My dad couldn't make it this year because of his injury, but my mom still went up and I even got her to wear my cow suit. The suit was a huge hit and it made her really easy to pick out as I cruised through the aid station.

A couple of Awesome Volunteers!

I started to feel pretty well recovered by about 37km, so I put in a surge and took a hard pull to try splitting up the group a bit. I gave up the lead just before the large climb at 42km, affectionately known as Bitch Hill. When I drifted to the back of the pack it was down to just 5 skiers. At this point all of us worked together to keep the pace high, stay away from any chasers, and start reeling in skiers ahead of us who were fading. I was getting pretty tired crossing lake Hayward just a couple km from the finish and I skied over the pole of the skier ahead of me. This brought him to a stop and I crashed into him and fell. I'm just glad I didn't take him down with me, but it meant I lost contact with the group I was in. I used the adrenaline shock of falling to quickly pull one of them back in, but the other 3 got away and while I was closing on them in the final meters I ran out of time.

One of the best parts of Birkie weekend is getting to hang out with all the other skiers who are in town for the race. I had a great evening catching up with skiing friends new and old. The next morning it looked nice and sunny when I woke up, and nobody else in the cabin was up yet, so I decided to head out for an easy ski. The trail was in rough shape after thousands of skiers had traversed it the day before, but the morning was gorgeous. Only when I got back to the cabin was I informed that it was -18F outside. It seemed a bit chilly, but nowhere near that cold since there was no wind. It was a great way to say goodbye to the Birkie trail and wrap up a fun weekend.

Morning after ice beard

Birkie Fever Keep Me Warm

Last weekend was supposed to be the Minnesota Finlandia, but it was cancelled due to lack of snow. I briefly considered heading over to Wisconsin for the Hinder Binder, but with a Saturday morning forecast of 4F for a high with 30mph gusts of wind my excitement for racing was a bit chilled. So instead of skiing around in spandex in -30F wind chills I slept in and then made chocolate chip waffles for breakfast. It didn't turn out to be too bad of a morning.

I did head out in the afternoon and ski for just a little bit, then went to watch Nichole's cousin Leighton race at Carleton. I hadn't been to a track meet in a while, and it was fun to get to watch a sporting event for a change instead of participating. I only ran 6k last week, and won't run at all this week probably, because I'm resting up for the grand finale of the ski season, the American Birkebeiner!!

The weather and course conditions both sound pretty decent for this year's Birkie, and I know there are a lot of skiers anxious about their racing fitness since there haven't really been any full length marathon races this season. I'm excited to get out there and see where I stack up in the skate race. I felt pretty comfortable sitting in the lead pack for much of the classic race last year, and while I know I won't be that high up in the skate race I'm hoping to use that confidence to move up considerably from years past. My best finish so far is 58th, so a top 50 is the goal this year.

The entire weekend promises to be a lot of fun. I love the Birkie because there are so many wonderful people there, it is in a fun small town in Wisconsin, and everyone hangs around the finish just celebrating winter and skiing and the end of a season. So tune in next week to see how it went, or if you are super curious check out the Birkie website for a course map, live skier tracking, race footage, and more!

Merry Go Round

The winter of abbreviated races continues. The Mora Vasaloppet did not have enough snow to run on it's normal course last weekend. Actually there was really no snow at all, the Vasaloppet has an ice grinder they ran around Mora lake to chew up the ice into a snow like consistency. The ice grinder has saved their race a few times, and this year it allowed them to build a pretty fun course. Having the race right in town on Mora lake instead of on the much larger Knife lake meant more loops and shorter races, but it made everything super convenient. Instead of busing out to a lake in the middle of nowhere we could park right in town, walk to bib pickup, to the race start, and to the party tent afterwards. I think this was a great move by the organizers, and I would be fully in favor of a race that started and finished in Mora in the future. Point to point races are exciting, but it is hard to beat the convenience of having all your warmups and everything waiting right where you left them and not needing to deal with the hassle of bag drop.

The race itself went by very quickly. The 58k was shortened to 17k, 5 laps around the lake. Matt took the race out hard and things strung out very quickly. I was not able to hold on after we turned the corner out of the wind and settled into 7th place. There was a group of 2 skiers a bit ahead of me, but every time I would get close they would put in a surge to keep me from catching on, so I skied almost the entire race alone. I was able to mentally keep up a good pace by keeping the two guys ahead in sight, and held on to 7th place.

Focused on Racing - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

Since the race location and distances were changed Erik and Elspeth came up with the idea of doing multiple races to get a longer day of skiing in. They pitched this idea to one of the race organizers, and the Vasaloppet board actually took them up on it and added an extra race category recognizing people who did 2 or 3 races. I was hoping to place well in the 17k, so I did not do the classic race before it, but I did enter the 10k race after. So I had a quick 15 minute turnaround from finishing one race to starting the next. I got some blueberry soup and a couple cookies for quick energy and kept moving around so my muscles didn't get too cooled off.

Gliding it out - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

The 35k race went out at a more sane pace, but I didn't quite have the punch to go with the lead group when they split off. It would have been fun to ski with the leaders because Vakava was well represented, with Nate and Paul being 2 of the 4 skiers. Hans and I were in the second group though, so Vakava had the front of the race well stacked. I was the strongest skier in my group, so I tried to make others do the work into the wind and took most of my pulls on the tail wind sections. On the final lap I put in a hard surge around a corner with about 3/4 of a km to go and just kept it floored all the way in. I wasn't able to get much of a gap, but it was enough to keep anyone from getting right in my draft, so I held on for 5th place.

Leading the Chase Pack - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

The age group prizes at Mora are cool looking dala horses hand made in Sweden. I have many friends with a large collection of horses, but I just won my first one last year. I was third in my age group this year, so thought I would be getting a horse, but they changed from 5 year to 10 year age groups, and to make it more cruel the age group I was in was 25-34, so I would have needed to place 4th in the 17k to get a horse. Oh well, that is good motivation to train and race hard for another year to hopefully add to my stable.

Sprint Finish - Photo: Bruce Adelsman Skinnyski.com

The Minnesota Finlandia was supposed to be this weekend, but Bemidji is short on snow, so it sounds like that event is not going to happen. A group of people might be headed over to Wisconsin for the Hinder Binder instead, so I could get to try out another new race this year. I might also take a weekend off of racing to rest up for the Birkie, which is only a week and a half away.

A dizzying array of races

This last week really flew by, I feel like I barely saw my house. I was home Monday night, then Tuesday I went up to the cities to go running and check out the Dayblock taproom. Wednesday was ski practice, and Thursday I was home but spent most of the evening waxing skis. Then Friday it was back to the cities for the first of three days of racing for the City of Lakes Loppet Ski Festival.

Last year the Loppet introduced a new race called the Minne-Tour, which includes sprints on Friday night, a classic ski marathon on Saturday, and a skate ski marathon on Sunday. Last year I really struggled at these races. This year the lack of snow shortened the two marathons to 15k and 12k, making for a less exhausting weekend.

The weather Friday was great for being outside, upper 20's and light wind. Sprinting is not my forte, but I went out hard and settled in to the middle of the pack. It was good practice skiing fast and cornering in close proximity to other skiers, skills that would come in handy later in the weekend. I did not advance out of my quarter final, but they added a consolation round this year, so I got to race twice, which was fun. Vakava was well represented at the sprints, but none of us made it to the semi finals. Sprints are not really the type of events Vakava is geared towards.

Saturday was the Hoigaard's Classic. The race format was 5 laps of a 3k loop. The temperature was right around freezing, and the snow was icy transformed corn snow, not very good conditions for getting kick. Nate and I opted for purple klister. For those who don't know klister has a similar consistency and stickyness to superglue, but it doesn't dry. It is a painful mess to work with because the way to apply it is to put dabs of it on your kick zone, soften it up to a liquid using a heat gun, then use your thumb to spread this hot, sticky mess into a hopefully thin and uniform layer on your ski base. It also can be tricky to make fast skis in klister conditions because if you choose too cold of a wax it doesn't grip the snow at all, and if you choose too warm of a wax it doesn't release the snow and ice chunks build up on the bottom of your ski. I had only skied on klister once before and had never used it in a race, so I was a bit apprehensive. I was also racing on my new Madshus classic skis for the first time, so a lot of unknowns. During warmups everything seemed fantastic though, and my skis were awesome the whole race.

I got off to a decent start and got in a track right behind Nate heading up the first hill. I was content to relax there for a bit, there was not much room to move around anyway, and I didn't want to go out too hard, because the course is very hilly with very little rest. When we got to the long climb on the course however there was a lane open so I moved over and had open snow to stride my way up into about 5th place. When I reached the top of the hill I could tell this may have been a bit too ambitious of a move and I settled in a bit. The leaders absolutely exploded when we hit the timed "enduro" section of the course and the race blew apart pretty quickly. I found myself skiing with Chris Harvey, and the two of us worked off each other the rest of the race. The pace slowed a bit each lap as the tracks were broken down, the snow on the downhills became deeper, and we started having to weave through skiers we were lapping. I wasn't able to hold on to Chris the last lap and ended up in 13th place. This is my best ever loppet finish, so I was pretty pleased.

Nate and I stopped at Hyland on the way home Saturday to loosen up the legs and get used to skating a bit, since we wouldn't have a chance to warm up on the course the next morning because of other races going on. The snow was ankle deep mashed potatoes, really slow and hard to ski through. If this was what was in store the next day it would be a tough race.

The next day it was back to the same 3k loop, this time only 4 laps and skate skiing, so I expected it to be very fast. In addition there were a few speedy skiers who had not raced the day before, so they would be coming in to the race fresh. I was expecting the course to be in bad shape from all the skiers ahead of me (the elite wave was the last to start) and I expected a lot of traffic and fighting for position, and I was excited to find that neither was the case. The course was in decent shape, the snow actually set up well, and the elite wave spread out quickly so I could move pretty freely on the course.

I started a bit further back and slowly moved my way up through the pack for the first lap. I had Nate and Bjorn in sight in front of me, but just couldn't muster the effort to pull them in, so I chased them for the next couple laps. By the time we got out on the second lap and had a feeling for what the course held in store things settled down just a bit.

I managed to catch Nate and Bjorn on the sledding hill climb on the 3rd lap, and got pulled across the windy stadium. I couldn't quite hold on to them over the next couple short, steep climbs however and the gap opened back up. Every lap on the first climb Ahvo was there yelling at me to catch up to Nate, and every lap I worked to close the gap going uphill, but on the last lap I was just running out of steam. Nate and Bjorn were only a few seconds ahead, but I didn't have the energy to close the gap back down. Then up one of the steep hills right before the finish I made a bad lane selection and got stuck behind some skiers I was lapping. It slowed me only a few seconds, but made catching the group in front of me too large of a task. I ended up in 15th for the day, my best Loppet skate finish ever. It is strange to think that in a way, because I felt like I could have skied better and placed higher, but it is a good sign when a mediocre race is still my best ever finish.

I did end up beating Nate in the overall series by about 45 seconds, but lost to Bjorn by 1 second. Any number of decisions over the two races could have made that second of difference, but it was fun to finish so close. As a fun added bonus I got to ski with a celebrity! The other guy in the picture with Nate and I is Henry Reich who is the creator of awesome Youtube channels MinutePhyics and MinuteEarth. I wish I had realized this at the time, instead of after the race while I was looking at race pictures and watching a Youtube video he was on. It did make for a great double take moment though.

Despite the races being short I was plenty tired by the end of the weekend, short races just mean the pressure is on to go that much harder. Now I'm looking forward to another double race weekend of going around in circle at the Mora Vasaloppet.