16/3/2008- Not so fast
I wasn't feeling particularly chipper going into today's ABR Season Closer, and it turned into a bit of a death march. I've noticed a strong correlation this season between how rested I feel, and how I perform. When I'm not rested, I just can't go hard and when I'm rested, I still don't ski super fast, but I have more fun and ski a little bit faster. Through no fault but my own, I didn't get the rest I should have this weekend and I felt it today. I drove over with Levi Illick, who took home the W in the high school race. We got registered and I tested skis, and decided to go with my cold but soft pair which proved to be a poor call since they really ended up lacking in stability today. Live and learn. I started pretty hard, with Nikolai skiing away from me and Frankie Dierking almost immediately. I was skiing above my head before going down hard on the first major drop in, managing to stay out of Frank's way. I never saw him again during the race as I started skiing a more reasonable pace. I caught some skiers here and there, but never really was able to get moving. After a couple more falls on tricky downhills, I managed to pull in a handful of guys in the last couple of k and sprint in for a strong finish, which left me pretty cashed. I did a short warmdown with Levi and Scotty N. and then changed and hooked myself up with a brat. I talked with Frank a bit after the race, and it turns out Frank's a fellow cyclist who lives down in Verona. Rockin' dude. After coming up empty on winning skis, Levi and I cruised back to Ashland where I crashed on my couch watching Buying the Cow. I wouldn't say it was the highest quality film I've ever seen, but I wasn't looking for a deep and meaningful film, I was looking to shut off my brain and eat some chips and salsa. Mission accomplished. Now that the racing season is over, I'm busy planning some epic weekends of laying around and trying to kick whatever this virus is. It better watch out. Time to go grocery shopping.

8/3/2008 February Recap and more!
I guess I've been pretty much horrible about updating ye olde website since my last update was over one month ago. I think it would be fair to say that a bit has transpired since my last update. I competed in my hometown race, the Book Across the Bay. I enjoyed a relaxing day leading up to the race. I got a decent start, but dropped my pole about 2k out while still bucking the headwind. I was able to circle back around and pick it up, but it cost me a few spots. Once we caught the tailwind, we were flying! Drafting was irrelevant. I felt better during this race than I have all year, but faded a bit towards the end, and was outsprinted for the line by one of the 4H-CANSKI team, Levi Illick. A bunch of folks came over afterwards and ate absurd amounts of food. After a low key training week, I was feeling pretty ready for the Birkie. I had a doctor appointment on Friday, during which I finally felt like Igot some good info to start figuring out what's going on with my foot, which has been bothering me for over a year. I also had some blood drawn, and heard back later in the day that I have some kind of mono-like virus, which is pretty sweet. After finishing out the work day I headed down to New Moon to meet up with Eric North, who was providing me with lodging for the night. Birkie morning dawned bright and early, but not that bright and early since we could walk to the start from Eric's house. I had some oatmeal and got dressed, and managed to be running kind of late. The walk over to the start proved to be a pretty solid warmup, but given my late arrival, I wasn't too disappointed that they moved the start back by about 10 minutes. I positioned myself pretty well about 2 rows back in the corral, and got ready for the mad dash. After a clean start, I got into a pretty solid rhythym. Things were actually not too clogged up where I was in the pack, and I was able to more or less ski my own pace. I moved up, following a couple of the top women in the Kortie. Based on my feelings from the last few races, my plan was to ski relatively conservatively until the last 5-10k, and go from there. Coming over the top of one of the first hills after the powerline, I lodged a pole firmly between my skis and went over hard, managing to lose my gu flask in the process. I only realized that it was gone as I skied past it at the bottom of the hill. Being only 5 k into the race, I looped back to get it, losing 50+ spots in the process. Once I got it, I remained calm, and just skied my own race. Some packs eventually started to form, and I hung on where I could. I was getting pretty warm, and when I saw Grant at OO, I took the opportunity to ditch my hat. I kept plugging along, and lost a few spots on one of the longer downhills, but started reeling people in gradually without really upping the pace. Right before the last food station, I was starting to feel pretty sluggish, and finally got a gu on my third try. The only bummer was that the person I got it from was literally the last person at the food stop, and my water bottle was frozen solid. I slammed it down anyway, but my mouth was pretty gummed up. A few k later I started feeling better as the espresso gu started kicking in. We hit the lake and the pack I had been skiing with pretty happily felt like the brakes had just gone on. After a couple of minutes, I decided I was going, and that I was going to try to go hard enough that no one could get a ride, but I wasn't entirely sure how much was really left in the tank. I took off and pretty quickly could tell that I wasn't draggin' anyone along for the ride. I started passing skiers at a pretty shocking pace. There were a couple of times when I wouldn't have minded tucking in for a quick breather, but as I would come up on each skier, I would find that I was going so much faster than them, that I would have had to literally put on the brakes, so I kept going, managing to keep it together long enough to crank up mainstreet and finish strong.

Photo from Skinnyski.com

Given the circumstances, I was pretty happy with my Birkie, which ended up putting me in 218th for men.
Birkie down, I headed to the River View Loppet in Brule for some sweet classic racing action last weekend. I had a decent race to finish 4th. I was able to put in another strong finish, which I was definitely happy about.
This weekend I had planned on the Bear Chase, but I've come down with a light cold, and given my general condition, I think it might be wise to hold off for the weekend, so I'm sitting here and typing this instead of driving to Houghton. I have to say I'm a wee bit jealous of everyone racing my favorite race of the year, but what's a guy to do?
I still haven't decided if I'm doing the ABR spring race next weekend. I suppose it will partly depend on how I feel, and I suppose that if I ever want to get healthy, I'm going to have to start taking some serious time off...
In all honesty, I'm actually kind of relieved to have some kind of fun disease. Its better being slow because of that than for some other unexplainable reason.
In other news, Nordic Nuts is returning to its roots as the name for the new 4H-CANSKI year round training group. That may bring around some changes here. We'll see. All I have to say is that I'm fired up.
I'm off to eat some carrots.

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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. :)