Nordic Nuts-Home

12/26/07 First Place!
and last place too, at the same time! Me, myself and I did a time trial effort back on Christmas Eve at Wolverine. For maximum effect, I went through my pre-race ritual as closely as I could. I ate oatmeal, tested skis, did a full warm-up and even gave myself a start time. To give myself some basis for comparison, I used the course from the 10k Big Snow Country Opener last weekend. In one concession to it only being a race against myself, I used my new classic skis even though my old ones were way faster so I could get in a race on my new skis with minimal consequences. I ended up with a time of about 42 minutes, which would put me pretty solidly midpack in the race last weekend. There may have been some differences in course conditions, but if anything I would expect the snow last weekend to have been colder and slower. So other than having another solid race pace effort in, I don't know that I've learned much. All of my races this year have felt very similar. I feel strong and I feel like I'm going fast and pushing hard, but at the end of the day, the clock tells a different story. I can redline on the hills and recover pretty well and I feel like I'm going pretty fast when I'm redlined. With a week left until nationals I have no brilliant ideas. I've taken the last couple of days completely off, and I'll do some easy skis with some quickness thrown in, but there isn't much I can do to change my fitness at this point. The 24T team is rounding into shape, and I have to say I'm pumped. I'm off to meet T. Lulich and friends. Out.

12/17/07 Not So Fast
It has been an interesting past few weeks. I got in a pretty solid amount of training and it was feeling pretty solid if a little drained. Based on how I was riding this summer, and how I was feeling in training, I was feeling pretty good going into the Christmas Classic this past weekend. I got up there Friday night and watched Gattaca. After finding out that we were skating on Saturday, I got up early and got my skis ready. I was a bit surprised to find that my new Salomons were running much faster than the World Cups in the cold weather. I finished my warmup and got to the start on time, which was a definite improvement over my first couple of races last year. I felt solid at the start and for the first couple of k until the course went up hill. I was skiing ok on the uphills, but not feeling super snappy. I kept on the gas until the finish and ended up with a marginal results. Sunday was much the same. I had great skis on my old school ARCs. I pushed hard all day, but came up a few steps short for a good result. Confidence down a notch. Since then I've been feeling pretty tanked. I took Monday completely off and skied really easy today. I'm battling what feels like it could be a cold. No good. Hopefully I can squeak in a bit of training over the end of this week to crank up the high end of things a little bit. Out.

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©2005 Paul Belknap All rights reserved.
Why do I do this? Check out About
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My disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are mine and mine alone and they do not reflect the position of Gonzaga University, if they did, you would be hearing as much about their nordic ski team as their men's basketball team. :)


Home	racing	Links	snow report	etc.
12/26/07 First Place! and last place too, at the same time! Me, myself and I did a time trial effort back on Christmas Eve at Wolverine. For maximum effect, I went through my pre-race ritual as closely as I could. I ate oatmeal, tested skis, did a full warm-up and even gave myself a start time. To give myself some basis for comparison, I used the course from the 10k Big Snow Country Opener last weekend. In one concession to it only being a race against myself, I used my new classic skis even though my old ones were way faster so I could get in a race on my new skis with minimal consequences. I ended up with a time of about 42 minutes, which would put me pretty solidly midpack in the race last weekend. There may have been some differences in course conditions, but if anything I would expect the snow last weekend to have been colder and slower. So other than having another solid race pace effort in, I don't know that I've learned much. All of my races this year have felt very similar. I feel strong and I feel like I'm going fast and pushing hard, but at the end of the day, the clock tells a different story. I can redline on the hills and recover pretty well and I feel like I'm going pretty fast when I'm redlined. With a week left until nationals I have no brilliant ideas. I've taken the last couple of days completely off, and I'll do some easy skis with some quickness thrown in, but there isn't much I can do to change my fitness at this point. The 24T team is rounding into shape, and I have to say I'm pumped. I'm off to meet T. Lulich and friends. Out.
12/17/07 Not So Fast It has been an interesting past few weeks. I got in a pretty solid amount of training and it was feeling pretty solid if a little drained. Based on how I was riding this summer, and how I was feeling in training, I was feeling pretty good going into the Christmas Classic this past weekend. I got up there Friday night and watched Gattaca. After finding out that we were skating on Saturday, I got up early and got my skis ready. I was a bit surprised to find that my new Salomons were running much faster than the World Cups in the cold weather. I finished my warmup and got to the start on time, which was a definite improvement over my first couple of races last year. I felt solid at the start and for the first couple of k until the course went up hill. I was skiing ok on the uphills, but not feeling super snappy. I kept on the gas until the finish and ended up with a marginal results. Sunday was much the same. I had great skis on my old school ARCs. I pushed hard all day, but came up a few steps short for a good result. Confidence down a notch. Since then I've been feeling pretty tanked. I took Monday completely off and skied really easy today. I'm battling what feels like it could be a cold. No good. Hopefully I can squeak in a bit of training over the end of this week to crank up the high end of things a little bit. Out.
Archives
December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006		August 2006 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07	April 07 July 07 September 07 October 07 November 07
©2005 Paul Belknap All rights reserved. Why do I do this? Check out About Contact Me My disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are mine and mine alone and they do not reflect the position of Gonzaga University, if they did, you would be hearing as much about their nordic ski team as their men's basketball team. :)