13/1/08 Eye of the Llama
You gotta want it. However you want to say it, I got the start line of the Seeley Classic on Saturday with a serious lack of desire. I'd tested out some different kick waxes, and ended up with Swix KR40 covered with Rode Multigrade. It was kicking pretty well, but my skis were definitely not fast, but fast skis were the least of my problems. I got a passable start and after passing a few folks, things settled down a few K in and I got in a pretty good groove. There were a few skiers that I could pretty easily open gaps on during the uphills, only to have them roar past me on the downhills. I pushed hard to the turn around point at the high point, but the voices in my head were ready for a vacation. I continued skiing hard, but a couple k south of the high point I took a pretty solid digger that ended up giving me some pretty solid road rash on my leg. The crash proved to be the final straw as I saw Todd Nesvold and some other folks come by. I backed off the pace a couple of notches and a few skiers like Yuriy Gusev came by. I made a half-hearted attempt to stick with them, but without the desire to hurt, it wasn't going to happen. I skied into the next water stop and took a drink, caught some sweet air off the little lip that Pete Caron was maintaining on the road crossing, and skied off to the side of the trail to take a leak. As I was answering the call, Terry Tansey and co. came by. I continued on my way and decided that my goal would be to ski technically well without worrying about speed until the southern turn around at gravel pit, at which point I would think about turning the screws a notch and trying to pass a few people. I worked on my striding technique a lot, focusing on keeping my head up and skiing relaxed, and had a nice ski to the turn around. Without a 100% effort on my double pole or super fast skis, I was getting passed pretty consistently on the generally downhill stretch heading south. By the turn around, I wasn't feeling a whole lot more motivated, but figured I could probably kick it up a notch or two and try to reel some people in. I skied pretty hard, but tried to keep relaxed. I passed a handful of people and ran into Scott Nesvold on his warm down after a successful effort in the 22k. I slowed down for a couple minutes and we chatted a bit before I finished off the last couple k on my own. I finished in 38th place in a time of 2:34, a result that would have had me pretty stoked a few years ago. I can't really say why I didn't bring the eye of the tiger today, but I didn't. I don't know if it has ever really happened to me before. Normally I'm ready to go hurt, even if my form is less than stellar. After an abbreviated cool down and chatting with Todd a bit about cross bikes, I headed down into Seeley, where I grabbed a table with Nikolai Anikin and Anders Osthus at the Sawmill, and ate some soup while I waited for my sawmill burger. Just as those gents were taking off the Zifkos joined me as I ate my burger. Wes had a great race taking 3rd in the high school 5k despite a back row start. James Gilbertson also had a good day in 9th place, while his brother skied solid 22k. After I finished my burger I headed down to visit the boys at New Moon, and check out some new classic skis. I rolled out of Hayward just around closing time, and got back to Ashland in time to catch the rest of the Packers game at the Hudsons. I'm taking a planned rest day today, and I've been kicking around the house, watching some movies on TV and working on skis a bit. Plans for next weekend are up in the air. I may head up for the Pepsi challenge, or cruise up to Chassell with CANSKI. Well, I need to run to NAPA before they close. I'm out.

8/1/08 24T 2008 I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you.
24T rocked this past weekend on all fronts. I got back into town from Houghton mid-Friday afternoon and repacked, reorganized, finished getting my skis ready and managed to get out of town about 6 p.m. I made it down to Telemark after only lock up the tires once for a deer and met Ben and Cindy at the condo. That's right folks, condo. Since we graduated to the "six pack" division this year, we thought the extra room afforded by a condo would be nice. Tyler "Dr. Rumack" Lulichthyologist showed up just as I was finishing moving my large amount of stuff in. We grabbed some dinner at Baby King Haakon's and got Tyler's skis waxed up. Around this time Eric North cruised over and we got down to the business of decorating our magical team uniforms. After getting in touch with our inner fashion designers, it was time for some quality shuteye. After missing my alarm going off on Saturday morning, I awoke to Kelly McKnight walking in the door ready to rock. After stuffing down some granola, we cruised down to the lodge for the usual pre-race meeting. After the meeting, and finding out that there was a case of PBR on the line for the first person to complete the first lap, we confirmed our strategy of sending Ben out first, since he's wicked fast. Ben cruised through, but was unable to match Enzo's blistering pace and was unable to bring home the case of PBR. This probably worked to our advantage, as we might have been tempted to consume it during the race. After Ben finished a couple of laps, he tagged off to me and I quickly caught up to Craig Kalschuer and Tim Trudeau who were skiing the 6 and 12 hour solo categories, respectively. We chatted for a bit until I lost them by mistake at the end of the climb up to the aid station. From there I skied comfortably hard for the rest of my lap and tagged off to Eric. I cruised back to the condo, and grabbed some chow. I was feeling a bit sleepy, so I layed down for a bit, but I don't think I actually slept. Despite the six person team, I was up again all too soon. I headed down to the start finish area and checked on the results, which had our team in first place. I was just hanging out enjoying the music, when I heard Ben yelling for me. Somehow I missed him coming through the transition. I busted to get out on course, and we only ended up losing ~3 minutes because of my spacey behavior. I passed a bunch of people out on the course and had a superb time. I tagged off to Eric and headed back to the condo for some delicious ramen. Shortly Eric was back and we headed over to his place to cook up a couple of frozen pizzas. This turned out to be one of my better ideas as they were quite tasty. We got back just in time to grab a couple of slices and for me to suit up for my next set of laps, which were my first night laps. I had a good ski even though my batteries lost juice rapidly, leaving me with pretty minimal light for all of the downhills on my second lap. I cruised in with a couple of decent laps and headed for the barn. I got back and ate some more pizza and we caught a bit of NFL football. All I really remember is cheering for Pittsburgh. Pretty quickly I was headed out for my long pull of ~1 hour, which turned out to be four laps for me. It was about this time the Tyler started sending each of us off with "I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you" a nice Airplane reference. I had a nice ski, with pretty consistent laps times, though for last two laps I started to feel a bit tired and my foot started to be a problem. I checked the results before heading back to the condo, and we were sitting in first a couple of laps up. I went back, ate some Bowl Apetit pasta with chesse and hit the sack. I tossed and turned for much of what was supposed to be my "long" break, but I think I managed to sleep a little bit. Soon enough, I was up for my last two night laps, which turned out to be my slowest of the event. I didn't feel particularly bad, or good for these laps, just sluggish. By the end of these laps, our team was looking good, a solid three laps up. I went home, ate a bunch, and crashed hard. I'm pretty sure I got way more sleep during this break, even though it was about half as long. By the time I got up for my next lap, the sun had risen and we had a nice solid lead that was hanging around 4 laps. I skied hard for one last lap and felt really good and turned in a nice time. Eric, Tyler and Cindy all skied like the rockstars they are to get Kelly out before 10 a.m. for a victory lap. As Kelly came back through the stadium, we handed him an ice cold Rhode's Scholar Stout to sip as he crossed the finish line. When all was said and done we combined for 76 laps, which put us atop the podium in the 6 person division. We had a rock solid team that skied really consistent laps the whole time and didn't make any mistakes or horribly miss any handoffs. That's how you do it. I had a great time and it was a super fun group of people to ski with. There's probably more than could be said, but I'll leave you with a few shout-outs: Chris Rubesch-Skied faster than me in Houghton, and won the 12 hour solo. Serious toughness. CK-Tight boy. Beeksmas: Night owl insanity. Nordic Nuts: Way to represent! Pictures here
3/1/08 Nationals 15k Classic
Houghton has been treating me well. I raced again today on the trails here at Michigan Tech. In a complete reversal of the situation on Tuesday, I started 14th on the day. I got up to the trails while it was still dark at 8 a.m. and checked out my skis and started getting a handle on wax. I ended up going on my old ARCs with some Rode blue, but didn't really have great skis for the race. Part of that could have been not skiing the transitions well, but I seemed to be losing ground on most of the downhills. I skied a solid first lap and was able to stick with some of the people that passed me for at least a little while. To my complete surprise I didn't fall off the back of some of guys even when the hills got really steep. If anything I think I was losing a fair bit of ground on the flat sections, which could be partly attributed to the skis, and partly attributed to my lack of double poling power.Anywho, the second lap was much like the first, except that I was mostly trying to stick with guys who were on their first lap. I was pretty happy with how it all went, and I was able to hang pretty well. I got passed by a couple of trains that kind of took me out of my rhythym, but felt like I got back in the game and finished pretty hard. I certainly feel tired right now. My effort was good for 239/242, so I beat one more person than on Tuesday. :) Given more focused preparation and the like I think I could probably move up some. My top end fitness is definitely not at its best right now. All in all I have to say I'm pretty happy with how the week has gone. I've accomplished my goals and had a blast. Now I just have to get ready for 24T. I'm planning on trying to do some live updates during the event, so check back. Before I finish, props to Adam for a smokin' race! Ok, time to go eat.

1/1/08 Nationals 10k Skate
Race one of nationals is in the books and I would call it a moderate success. I got up to Houghton on Sunday night after a pretty uneventful drive up from Ashland. After a pretty relaxed pace morning, I got my skis brushed off and headed out for a ski. I tested a few pairs of skis, and as I suspected, the Salomons I picked up from Garrott Kuzzy were pretty fast, though my other new Salomons weren't out of the game. After I got through picking my skis I headed out for a couple of laps on the course, which was in great shape, and holding up well to a fair amount of traffic. After skiing a couple of laps I headed on back, took a shower, had some lunch and kicked it with coach Cogger for a while. After a quick trip to Dunham's to check on some supplies for 24T, I got my two pairs of Salomons waxed up. I went with Solda Violet, with a bit of S30 mixed in one one pair, and a layer of Powerjet 2 on the top. After a nice pasta dinner, I headed down to the KBC with Dave Siegfried and co. We met a few other folks there and had a nice time, including some discussion of the sweet nature of the pain inflicted by cyclocross racing. As a concession to racing today, I only had one liftbridge brown, which seemed particularly good this time. Back at the ski house, I watched "The Girl Next Door" with the boys instead of getting to bed early. I've seen parts of that movie about 6 times now, but I'm still not sure I've seen the whole thing. I've seen the beggining, the end, and most of the middle, but I definitely saw new parts last night and wasn't sure where we were when I walked in. I might have to rent it sometime just to put it to rest. As far as rest, when you aren't racing until afternoon, I think getting to bed around midnight is more than adequate. I didn't set an alarm this morning and ended up rolling out of bed around 8:30. I had a relaxed "pre-race" breakfast of oatmeal, checked my email, and confirmed my start time of 3:10 this afternoon. Then I cruised up to the race venue and watched a few of the ladies race and picked up my bib. Around 11:30, headed home, stretched, had some lunch, and cruised the internet. I really had trouble filling up the day. I finally got bored and headed over to the start area around 1 p.m. I tested skis and picked the same pair I did yesterday. I think Garrott left some good juju on those skis when he sold them to me, because they are rockets. He had a pretty solid day today in 4th, right behind Kris Freeman. I skied easy for a really long time (probably too long, but I was getting seriously bored waiting for the race) and then cranked it up a little bit and was pretty happy with my warmup. I checked in to the corral a bit early and joined the masses running laps. Finally 3:10 rolled around and I got out on the course. I was glad to pick up a couple of good rides from a couple of guys coming through for their second lap. I was skiing pretty well and was able to pull both of them in and pass them. I had a pretty solid ski for the rest of the lap mostly skiing with Ryan Wright. Both of the guys passed me back as they surged for their finish. Just as I came into the stadium, my stomach cramped up pretty badly and I kind of staggered through into a solid headwind and my one minute guy, Kevin Kuzio went past me. I recovered on the next downhill and skied well up the next couple of hills, but wasn't able to hold on very well. I had good skis, but I lost a bit of concentration on one of the downhills and he just kind of skied way from me. The course definitely slowed down on the second lap as the snow was coming down harder than ever and there wasn't much traffic left on the course. I got refocused and hit the rest of the course hard and pushed in for a time of 34:06, good for 251/253 skiers. I definitely accomplished my goal of not being dead last by 5 minutes, but of course I'd like to be 10 skiers up. I did learn some things today that should help me time my warm up a little better on Thursday, and I think conditions should be pretty good, so it should be a fun race. Ignoring results, I felt really good about how I skied today, and really had a fun time doing it. Mission accomplished. Oh, I think this might be time for some shout outs: Garrot Kuzzy- thanks for the skis!, Swank-Nice race, remember Metro's, All the MTU playas especially coach Cogger, and Adam. That's all I've got right now. Time to go eat a house.

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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. :)