Alright, I may have spoken a bit early in that last blog post. It rained ALL MORNING the day of the prologue race. Gah! But the thing that got my attention more than the rain (this is saying something because I was SOAKED) was how hard the coaches and volunteers were working, despite being cold and wet. The races went off without any problems, and people still showed up psyched to ring cowbells and be part of the action. I was actually pretty concerned about our coaches picking up pneumonia or something but they bounced back really fast once we got inside.
So maybe the rain wasn’t such a bad thing…although I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a ton of sun in the future, the bad weather from the get-go really showed how dedicated to making the race happen everyone was.
Personally, I was really happy with my race. I wasn’t sure how the pacing had gone because I was trying hard not to blow it on the big climb, as 7,500ft of altitude is not very forgiving! But I felt like there was a lot of energy still kicking around and I was able to get 2nd place, behind Kikkan, with Sadie coming in 3rd. It’s so nice when your head is ready to race and your body decided that it, too, wants to tear itself apart just for the challenge and endorphin rush. On the men’s side, Erik Bjornsen won with Knute Johnsgaard (CAN) in second and Mark Iverson and Mike Sinnot tied for third.
Here’s the link to the SuperTour Finals website: http://supertourfinals-tahoe2013.com/ and you can find results, course maps, latest news, ect. on it.
The other night we went to dinner at the Horn family’s house, where the rest of our team is staying. It was so nice of them to have us over!
Gus made a friend
Not sure how visible it is in the photo, but Packer's been really into flying this mini-helicopter
When it was sunny one afternoon we ran down to the lake and Erika and I jumped in. Lake Tahoe is pretty chilly this time of year, just in case you were wondering. But I look forward to jumping in again when the sun comes back out!
Glassy water (photo from Newell)
So today’s race, the 10km mass start classic, was a pretty darn bad race for me. It wasn’t the worst of the season, but it was in the top-5 for sure. However, I’m actually not bothered by it! While in the middle of the season, a race like that would really shake my self-confidence and make me wonder if I’ve been doing all the right things with training and resting and picking skis…this is April. And I’m finally learning to put less pressure on myself, which frees me to just enjoy the day and the challenges of ski racing. So even though I bonked at about 4km (my body just didn’t have enough energy today at all) and my stomach cramped up so I was folding in half, I still had a great morning overall. Skiing in the sun with my friends, and getting to see people have great races, is all I really need this time of year. And for that matter, any time of year, but usually stress gets too high to fully appreciate it 🙂
A thought occured to me today…I haven’t skied in classic sprint rounds since last spring series! Goodness knows I haven’t qualified in World Cup classic sprints yet, so tomorrow will be a pretty sweet day if I can bust my way into and out of the quarterfinals (which would be pretty fun). We’ll have to see what my body has planned for me, but I’m hoping to get my striding mojo going!
