Eventful training in Rochester

I was able to get in a good solid weekend of training this past weekend in Rochester. One long, slow classic ski and one hard, threshold skate ski. I'll be gone the next several weekends, so it was nice to ski locally in the daylight, a pleasure that I don't often get to indulge in.

On Saturday, Chad, Jason and I went out to Harriet Hollister Spencer State Park for a three hour classic ski. It was pretty cold (single digits), which makes for great classic skiing. It also typically makes the kick-wax very straightforward. The wax of the day was Special Green. I think they call it "Special" because it lasts forever, seriously. Any cross country skier who sees the bottom of one of these guys is putting in some serious kilometers, I don't even think it's possible. I've had this since I was in high school, and sadly, that was a long time ago.
About two and a half hours in, while skiing down a trail called "Bear Trap" which used to be called "The Pit", Jason hit a bump and remodeled his ski's!

I don't think it's supposed to do that!

This trail has a long, storied history of causing stuff to break. When I was in high school, they used to put mats on trees at the bottom because they were worried about racers crashing into them (granted, the mats were very thin and when frozen, likely offered less padding than the actual tree bark) and nowadays, the high schoolers don't race down this trail. Anyways, Jason was ok and wasn't all that concerned about his 12 year-old ski finally going where all good skis go when their time is up. He did proclaim to have "Bomber kick" while skiing back to the parking lot with the broken ski.

This weekend, Jason and I are making the trip up to Lake Placid for two NorAm cup biathlon races. These are trial races for the Canadian national team and the US B team will be back from Europe, so it should be super competitive. I'm looking forward to it.

P.S. - according to blogger.com, this is my 100th blog post.

Lake Placid Super Tour weekend recap

I will start by stating that last weekend was an absolute blast, and I truly love ski racing and training. I just wanted to make that clear, as the rest of the post may not give everyone the impression that I'm actually enjoying all of this. I am. Now on to the rest of the story...

Chad, Jason, Sam (Chad's college buddy) and I split the kitchenette unit at the Jack Rabbit (which apparently is now called "Tmax-n-Topo", but I refuse to call it anything other than the Jack Rabbit).

I went into it thinking that I would struggle in Friday's classic race and do better in the skate race. That's why you race I guess - my classic race ended up being pretty good (at least compared to other classic races I've done) and my skate race was kind of a disaster. The classic race was held at the ski jumps in Lake Placid and was essentially five laps of a 2km course that was uphill for 1km and downhill for 1km. I actually felt very strong on the striding sections of the course. I lost some time in the turnaround section at the bottom of the course and had a pretty weak final lap, but for the first time I felt like I skied strong in a classic race and felt spent at the end. So, that was a positive sign for sure, and somewhat of a relief that maybe I'm finally making some progress with my classic technique.

Picture couresty of FasterSkier.com - this was taken at the bottom of the course, we made a right at the end of the bleachers and started making our way back up to the top of the hill again.

On to the skate race - the race was 3 laps of a 5km loop on the biathlon side of Mt. Van Hovenberg. I didn't feel great warming up and it only seemed to get worse, not sure what was wrong, just didn't have any energy and felt like I was spinning my wheels a little, meaning I felt like I was working really hard, but not getting anywhere. I knew about 90 seconds into the race that I was in trouble and the tough part about XC skiing is that there is nowhere to hide when you're having a bad day, so I spent the next 47:30 thinking about being anywhere other than where I was. Not to get too statistical, but my average heart rate for the race was identical both days (178), but on Saturday, I basically only had one gear and couldn't recover at all. It seemed like I was pegged the whole time, but going nowhere. Definitely very frustrating as I'd had that race circled on my calendar since September. I left the race not knowing what to think, but it was definitely one of those days where I didn't need to see the results sheet to know that it wasn't a good one.

Hopefully this next part doesn't get too philosophical - I've had a couple similar races over the last couple years that just don't seem to make sense to me - one day I feel great, super strong and the next I just don't have anything in the tank - perhaps it's lack of recovery, or bad nutrition, or a flukey bad day, or not enough sleep, or maybe I just need to train harder or maybe I need to not train as hard or maybe I'm getting sick (more on that later)? So, based on all those possibilities, it could be anything, so what do I make of it? Anyways, this is one of the challenges that I think endurance athletes have that I never had playing baseball. In baseball, there are a lot less variables that you actually have control over (there are a LOT of variables, don't misunderstand me, but the amount that an individual baseball player actually controls are really pretty limited) and if you're struggling with one aspect, the solution is pretty simple - you need to work harder at it, more swings, more time in the weight room, more long toss, more groundballs, etc, it usually always boils down to MORE of something. With skiing (or biking) I've found that it could mean you need to train more, but it could just as easily mean that you need to rest more, or that you need to change something in your diet, or you just need more sleep....it's easy to see how this can mess with one's head...once again, I need to remind myself to stop thinking meat, it can only hurt the ballclub.

Given all these questions and frustrations running through my brain, I decided to chalk it up to the "flukey bad day" reason listed above and forget about it. So, with all the racing done, the four of us headed to the LP Brewpub for some dinner and UBU.

On Sunday we headed out for morning ski to do a little preview of the Porter Mtn Loop which we'll be racing on in two weeks at the Loppet. It was absolutely awesome out, any remnants of my bad race from the previous day were fully flushed from my brain following this morning ski.

Jason took this snapshot of Chad, Sam and I at the top of Hi-Notch, which is an extension of the Porter Mtn loop.

Once I got home, unpacked everything and pretty much went to sleep. Monday afternoon I got hit with some type of stomach bug and was out of commission until about 9am this morning and I mean totally out, couldn't get off couch for a full day, haven't been that sick since college. It's possible my body was trying to fight something during the race on Saturday and then finally lost that battle, or it's possible that pushing hard while having an off-day broke my immune system down to the point where I picked something up, or it's possible that I just had a bad race and it had nothing to do with me getting sick. But, taking the same approach that I explained above, analyzing all the possibilities may be a fruitless endeavor, so I'm just going to go with the old slogan "When it's your day to get sick, it's your day to get sick." Quite philosophical, isn't it?

No races this weekend coming up, so hopefully I can shake the rest of this bug and get out for some good skiing to prep for some NorAm Cup races and the LP Loppet.

Pictures from Stowe and some huge races this weekend

Here are some pictures from the few days that Nancy and I spent in Stowe after my races over the holidays.

Nancy and my buddy Lucas both came to my last race, after which, we headed for Stowe (about 45min from where I was racing). The following day, Nancy and I went up to the Trapp Family Lodge, which, according to Cross Country Skier Magazine, is the oldest nordic ski facility in the US. The trails were absolutely amazing. After 3 straight days of racing, going on a nice easy ski and enjoying the beautiful scenery was exactly what I needed.

Here's Nancy making her way up to "The Cabin."
Success, Nancy after reaching the Cabin, which is on top of a very large hill (we were skiing uphill for almost an hour to get there).
This was taken on the way back to the lodge, nice backdrop! Over my left shoulder is the downhill resort at Stowe, but it was tough to get a picture through the trees.

Erica and Joe made the trip up from New Jersey to hang out with us for New Years and do some alpine skiing. This was taken at the Shed restaurant and Brewery in Stowe, where we had dinner on New Years Eve.
Nancy and I at dinner.

On Thursday of this week, I'm headed to Lake Placid for the SuperTour races there. The SuperTour is the XC ski race series for elite domestic ski racers. Basically, there is the US Ski Team that competes on the World Cup, and then everyone else that's aspiring to be at that level races on the SuperTour. Since US XC Nationals were in Rumford, Maine last week, many of the top domestic pros will be racing in LP this weekend. The Northeast hasn't hosted a SuperTour weekend in two years, so it's a great opportunity to get a real measuring stick against the top skiers in the country. In addition to the SuperTour, the races also serve as a college carnival for the eastern Division 1 colleges and as a Junior Olympic Qualifier for New York and New England. They are expecting over 500 skiers, many of whom are currently training full time. There will be several former Olympians and National Champions in the field and I'm sure a whole bunch of very fast up-and-coming young skiers. These are surely the biggest XC ski races that I've competed in. Friday will be a 10km classic and Saturday will be a 15km skate. I'm not sure what to expect, so it's difficult to set goals as far as placement goes, but I am pumped to race, especially for the skate race. It'll be an experience in any event. Full race report to follow.

Vermont update

I didn't have time to make any blog posts since before Christmas, so here's a very quick update. Nancy and I had a great Christmas in Rochester with our families. We managed to see almost everyone, and I managed to wax skis, pack and get in a couple final days of training before heading up to Vermont with Jason for three NorAm Cup biathlon races.

The race series also served as trials races for both the Canadian and US Junior national teams, so there were a lot of junior biathletes, including 9 from New York State. The races went very well all in all. My shooting was sporadic (1 good day, 1 average day and 1 total trainwreck), but considering how little time I spent preparing for the shooting aspect of these races, it wasn't too surprising. I felt pretty strong skiing, and seemed to ski faster as each race went on. This is a very encouraging sign as it shows that I'm able to recover well from racing several days in a row. I also felt so much more relaxed and confident in my own skiing and less concerned with others' skiing. I was able to go to a race with a pretty good field and be aggressive in following and passing fast skiers. Overall, it was a very positive series of races for me and I'm really pumped for the rest of my season.

(Photo courtesy of Sean Halligan)

I owe a huge thanks to the Bradley's, who once again opened up their home to Jason and I and made sure we were well fed. I also want to thank Sean Halligan, Art Stegen and Carl Klossner for the help zero-ing us on the range.

Following the races, Nancy and I met up with some other friends in Stowe, where we hung out until yesterday. I have some great pictures of this leg of the trip that I'll try to post later this week. We skied at the Trapp Family Lodge for a couple days and hung out and relaxed in Stowe. We got home last night and it's back to reality today. With the warm-up in the Northeast, it looks like my next races will be in Lake Placid next weekend for their SuperTour weekend, which will surely be the most competitive XC ski races that I've ever been in, so that will be exciting. Hopefully more pictures and a better recap of Stowe coming soon....