Notes
Well, Anders and I got our first race of the season done!
We raced the open 5k race at Elm Creek as a race tune-up for this weekend, a way to get our first race out of the way early, and in place of our L4 workout we had slotted for this week.
They hold these races every Wednesday night throughout the winter, and anybody can pay $10 and race any of them.
Conditions were really fast, and Anders fluoro-waxed our skis so they were nice and fast :)
The racing was really competitive and really fun, and I'm so glad we decided last night to jump into the races sort-of last minute.
Anders was second in a really competitive field, and I'm so proud of how well he raced both tactically and physically. He led the first 2.5k lap, and then after starting lap 2 and skiing across the first long flat, he finally just stood up and held his poles up in the air as a way to say "alright guys, I'm no longer pulling at the front of this train", and 4 guys skied by him. He was able to cover every move that was thrown during the second lap, and on the final climb just got out jump-skated by a competitor when his left glute gave in just enough to make jump-skating impossible. He killed it, and I SO enjoyed hearing his race re-cap on our cool-down. He skied the 5k in 11:28:24, which is a pretty damn fast 5k.
My race was also competitive, and thoroughly enjoyable. After about 1k it was pretty clear to me that I was going to be skiing most of the race without any women around me, and I was going to simply have to be competitive with the other men I was skiing with. About 20 minutes before the start of the race I saw 3 really fast female skiers start to warm-up. With a closer, sorta creep-ish look at them on a section of two-way trail, Anders and I realized it was Vivian Hett (previous national champion from NMU), and two of the current NMU skiers. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a very competitive skier, but 5k isn't my best distance, as 5k is essentially a sprint in the ski world. Anders and I chatted briefly about it, and pretty much decided that I was likely not going to be able to ski with those three women- try my best and see if I could hang, yes, but likely it wasn't a possibility. And about 200m into the race I learned that our predictions had been correct. What I learned in this 5k that I pretty much already knew is as somebody who didn't ski in college, I don't have the top-end speed that many college racers develop. Mine is improved immensely over the last year, and I'll certainly continue to work on it, but its not competitive just yet. The gun went off and the three NMU women took off at a gear that I just don't have. It's not that I don't have the fitness to support that gear, because I do, but I don't have the technique or the limb velocity on skis required for that gear, yet. I'll get there.
The 5k distance is an interesting distance for me on skis because I literally don't have the gear or technique to make it hurt as much as a ski "sprint" should. In other words my fitness isn't the limiting factor. Yes, my muscles were absolutely on fire by the last little bit of the race, and I know how to suffer, but I need a longer race to truly make the suffering the limiting factor. And the reality is that that's probably a good thing because all citizen races, for the most part, are at least 15 or 20k, so my abilities and strengths lend themselves to those distances. In the world of collegiate and higher level 5ks and 10ks, I probably can't compete, but I also don't ever see those fields or those races.
I raced the first 2.5k lap well, and as I said by about 1k into I knew that the other women in the race weren't my competition. The 3 NMU women were out of reach, and I had already passed 3 other women that had started slightly faster or farther up on the line than me, and hadn't seen them since. I climbed the donut climb well going into the second lap, and came out of it absolutely dead even with another male racer. We took off in the the flat section of the loop and skied the next 2k side by side. He put a little bit of space on me on the downhills going into to the bagel climb and the burner- he weighed more than me and was also a better, technical cornerer and descender (another 2 skills I need to work on that don't come up as much in longer, citizen races)
We climbed up the burner and again I was able to climb a bit ever and break even, and we came out of the climb about side by side. I put a couple meters into him over the flat at the top of the burner, but he pulled himself back to even over the course of about the half k, steady uphill leading back up to the chalet. It was a true and fantastic, perfect race scenario as we both tucked and went into the last downhill before the bagel climb which is the last part of the course that leads to the finish line. I willingly gave him the inside corner because he had descended faster than me on every hill so far, and I didn't want to be a jerk OR cause a crash (its a friendly, wednesday night 5k, afterall) and I also had almost fallen on a patch on the inside of the corner on the first lap and didn't want to risk that fall again going into the last minute of the race. As I expected, he descended and cornered faster than I did, and I came into the climb about 2 meters behind him. The first part of the climb is not as as steep, and I V2d well over the flatter part and was able to carry my downhill speed well. When we came to the bast of the final, steep, 20m of the climb, we were tied. At this moment I assessed the fatigue in my glutes and quads and hoped that I had some muscle reserves left to jump-skate up the final climb. To my delight, I gave an extra push on my right side and felt my muscles cooperate. I was able to give 8-10 jump skates on both sides, and V1 that climb just about as well as I ever have before. In those 10 or so skates I bet I put 5-7 meters between the two of us. When you have the ability and reserves to jump skate, and your competitor doesn't, its amazing how effective it can be. About 6-7 skates into my 10 I heard my competitor say "woah", and I gave a slight glance backwards and knew at that point that I had him beat. I cleared the remainder of the hill and gave a few good, V2 pushes over the final flat portion, and was able to ski into the chute solo.
While I wish I had the top-end speed and technique necessary to ski with the top 3 women, I know I skied my own race just about as well as I could have. I also know my fitness is there, and in our big races this season, hopefully that will shine.
Final, fantastic bonus from the evening: right before the start I saw Jenna Ruzich finishing her warm-up. I don't really know Jenna well, but I've seen her out a number of times this year and she is the woman I lost to when I was 2nd at the Rennet last year (25k skate race at Hyland that is coming up in 2 weeks). I pointed her out to Anders in the last 45 seconds before the race, and having already had our conversation about the NMU women, his comment to me when I pointed Jenna out was "Well, it looks like you found your race!"
Well, I crushed her. I skied 13:51 and she skied 14:08. And while the times are not all that different, in the ski word (and I suppose in the running world as well) 17 seconds is A LOT in a 5k.
That was a fun tidbit about the race last night that I didn't anticipate going into it, and it gives me some confidence heading into our first 2 big races of this season coming up this weekend and next weekend.