Today was our individual start 10km skate, and it was awesome! As usual, I was pumped about my skis and how fast the downhills were. But the uphills were where I really got excited. The snow was pretty chopped up and although I usually try to stay away from having “ideal race conditions” because I want to be able to race in anything, I couldn’t help but be happy about the deep snow. I like it when you have to ski light and quick up the hills and the infamous high school hill was just about perfect.
Right out of the stadium (Ian Harvey photo)
All the guys came in after their race saying how fast it was out there and how it went by quickly. So I decided to go out hard and if I blew up then too bad, but if not, I’d finish with nothing left in the tank. And that’s pretty much how the race went! Although I will admit to spending a lot of time thinking about which direction the lap lane went before I came through 🙂 By the end I couldn’t feel my legs and was having trouble getting enough air, but by now I’ve raced enough to get quite comfortable with that feeling. And the whole CXC team had a good day, which was sweet!
Tomorrow is the 20km mass start classic. I’m pretty excited – I’ve never done a 20km before! So it’ll be cool to see how pacing and tactics play out. Speaking of, it’s time for me to go come up with a game plan.
