Racing Into It

Yesterday was our second race of the week, a 10/15K skate race. It was on a great course, plenty of short climbs and comparable recovery, but almost no flat skiing to be had. For Erik and Sadie it was the second of three qualifying races for their U23/World Junior team placement. Initially I was not planning on racing this one; Scott and I had made a plan of just racing the sprints which book-ended the week. But, after a mediocre finish in last Saturday's sprint I realized that a) I'm not really in racing shape following our mistakes of November and December, and b) I love to race. Why not?

We all knew that the course would see a lot of people blow up by the last lap, and wanted to start conservatively, building into the race as it progressed. Erik and I both skied our first lap in almost identical splits, and both of us probably started TOO slow. Erik was able to pick it up over the next two laps and finished a very respectable 37th. I kept trying to push my pace throughout the race and felt like I structured things well, but I just wasn't skiing FAST. That had better change soon.

Sadie also had a respectable race, finishing 19th in the women's 10K. Both she and Erik are racing in tomorrow's classic race - Sadie in a 20K mass start and Erik in the 10K junior interval start. I will be nursing my cold which appeared two nights ago, and helping Scott and Ben test skis.

As an aside, please refer to the following photo for proper cold treatments, as per MOD regulations: