SuperTour- West Yellowstone, Montana
Skate sprint: First race of the year and my nerves were over the top. I felt anxious just thinking about getting on skis, let alone sprinting as fast as I could for 3 minutes. During the race I felt very unbalanced and unaggressive. I didn't make it into the heats and felt more disappointed than I should have. I learned this race that being extremely nervous can be paralyzing, and that you need to let bad races go quickly.
Skate 10k: I was nervous for this race, but not as nervous as I was for the sprint. I focused on pacing myself the first lap and felt that I did a pretty good job of not blowing up. I felt good about this race but only because my result was better than I expected. I learned that going out slower can help you in the long run.
Christmas Races- Jackson, Wyoming
Classic 5k: The first classic race of the year and I was very excited because I had worked hard the summer before to improve my classic technique. However this race did not go as planned. It was a difficult day for waxing and being on zeros (no-kick wax skis) was the better choice. I started the race feeling good but quickly realized between my messy technique and skis that were hard to kick, I was not going to be able to make it up the hills, no matter the effort I put in. I finished, but it was a straight up bad race almost to the point of hilarity. I felt I did a pretty good job of getting over it quickly and was soon ready for the next day. I learned that if your skis are slipping at all when you test them, get more wax!
Skate 7.5k: I was pumped for this race and really wanted to do well to make up for my blunder from the day before. I thought it would be perfect, being a skate, distance, mass start: my favorite. But, just like the day before, it didn't work out that well. I started aggressively, skiing with the front pack but felt that I was putting in way more effort than I should have been. About 1k in, I stupidly put my pole between my legs and went down, letting a stream of girls go by. From this point in the race on, I was just fighting to make up time, but I wasn't in the right kind of shape to do that and (although I didn't realize it at the time) I wasn't on the right skis either. I felt pretty disappointed after this race and a little nervous for my upcoming races in Houghton, Michigan. I learned that you shouldn't come into a race expecting to win, you have to let the race play out to a certain degree.
US Nationals- Houghton, Michigan
Skate 10k: I had been thinking about this race for months prior to its arrival. Although in the back of my mind I knew that my preparation for this race was not what it should have been (lack of snow), I was confident that this was going to be my day. Well, just like many races, for many athletes, it wasn't my day. Just for those of you who were not blessed enough to experience this crazy day in Houghton, let me just say that I have never been more proud to finish a race. It was around -5 degrees when we were racing with a wind chill of below -20 degrees, not to mention that it was a blizzard. After I finished this race, and was safe inside a warm place, I felt like hugging everyone else who had finished it as well. It was the kind of day that proves how tough nordic skiers are. Anyway, my result in this race was far from what I wanted, but I genuinely felt like I had given it my all and that was what mattered to me in the long run. I learned that sometimes your preparation just won't be good enough to give you the race you want, and you have to accept that. I also learned from my friend and teammate, Leah Lange, to never wear a headband when it is that cold outside. I don't want to have to learn the frostbite lesson myself ;)
Classic sprint: For the past few years I have thought that classic sprinting was my weakest event, so naturally I wasn't too excited for this race, but I did my best to get hyped despite the nasty conditions outside. I ended up surprising myself in the qualifying round and made it soundly into the heats. I was feeling pumped before my quarterfinal, but because of slow skis and bad tactical racing, I ended up getting last in my heat, which didn't make me too happy. I learned that even if you are not feeling too excited to race during your warm-up, it doesn't mean that you won't race well. And there is a small possibility that I can actually classic sprint.
Classic 5k: This was a mass start consisting of the 80-some best junior racers in the nation, so it was bound to be interesting. This race turned out to be my least favorite race of the season, not because my result wasn't great, but because I finished knowing that I could have given a lot more. It was a terrible feeling. The first kilometer of the race seemed to be going well. It was very difficult to pass people, given the tight group and powdery snow conditions, so I figured I would just keep my place in line for a little while longer until we got more spread out. The problem was, we never did spread out, so the majority of the race I was going level 2, but simply felt too lazy to pass the group of 6-ish girls ahead of me. I finished the race with the same slow pace I had started with, an empty heart, knowing that I had not accomplished my goal of making World Juniors, and the feeling that I was about to be hit with a nasty cold, which I was hit with later that day. I learned that if you go into a race knowing that you are not ready to give 100%, you probably shouldn't race.
1st JNQ- West Yellowstone, Montana
Skate 5k: There was only a week break in between the Houghton races and these races, which I mostly spent recovering from the cold I came down with. But by the time we packed our suitcases and moved into the hotel, I was excited and ready to race this race. I felt like I had something to prove and I was determined to get a good result. I went out hard, probably too hard, but was able to stagger my way to the finish line before crumpling over in pain. This was definitely one of the harder races of the year, but it was worth it because I gave it my all and got the kind of result I was looking for. However, after leaving the tundra of Michigan, I assumed that the rest of the country was sweltering with heat, so I wore gloves that were way too thin and ended up freezing my fingers during the race. I learned the "don't wear thin gloves when it's 20 degrees" lesson the hard way as I paced awkwardly in the warming hut, cringing in brutal pain as my fingers thawed.
Classic 10k: This race hands down wins hardest race of the year for me. I came into it knowing it would be hard, but it was even harder than I anticipated. My lack of classic skiing leading up to it meant that I seriously struggled on the uphills. I just felt like I didn't even know how to classic ski. There were about five times when I was a hair length away from quitting, but didn't. It was a brutal and highly unenjoyable race for me, but I was proud that I didn't give up. The lesson: Even if a race is going horribly, you should still finish it because you will feel way worse if you drop out, and know that other people are probably suffering just as much as you are.
SoHo SuperQ- Midway, Utah
Skate sprint: I came into this race feeling genuinely excited, though I wasn't quite sure why because usually I am not a huge fan of sprinting. During the past few weeks, Utah had lost the majority of it's snow and training had been a bit of a struggle so some creativity was imperative in order to keep training interesting. Besides a few bad days, I had managed to stay motivated through this time and felt like I was ready to race. The qualifier was not the best and I struggled to ski technically well through the already slushy snow. However the heats went better for me for a change. Each round I fought to move on, eventually making it to the A-finals, a new personal best for me at this race. I left the venue feeling happy and accomplished. I learned that regardless of how you feel in the qualifier, the heats are a whole new ball game and if you just relax a little, they can actually be really fun.
Classic 10k: It was a hot day outside and by the time the U18/U20 girls race came around, the tracks were already very soft and completely deteriorated in some places. I made the mistake of choosing to race on a softer pair of classic skis because I had never raced on my brand new klister skis before and I didn't want to risk having a slick ski like I had had in Jackson. This proved to be a poor choice because my skis were dragging the whole race and I had to work twice as hard on the flats and downhills just to keep up. But, besides having slow skis, I really enjoyed this race because my body felt good (maybe a little overheated), but good. I pushed myself all the way to the finish and ended up feeling pretty pleased with how the weekend went. I learned to not be afraid of trying new skis, even if you haven't raced on them before. Racing on the wrong pair of skis just because you are used to them will probably not work out that well.
No comments:
Post a Comment