Monday, January 24, 2011

Soldotna Besh Cups

Jan. 24, 2011

      I would first like to thank all the volunteers out there on Saturday and Sunday at the Soldotna Besh Cup races. The races went off with very few if any mishaps which is uncommon for ski races. I guess it helps when the weather is perfectly ideal for the sprint races and apart from a little wind in the stadium, wonderful distance race weather. It has been a really long time since I have had a chance to race on my home trails and I was excited afterwards to have done so well. For me typically being on a professional racing circuit, Besh Cup races can generally be thought of as milder more relaxed races with little competition at the elite level. This was not the case this weekend. Most of the APU elite squad was home this weekend and most everyone decided to come down and throw down in Soldotna. With some of the best skiers in the country present, these races were every bit as intense as many of my Supertour races. Some of these racers have stood on the podium in national caliber races already this season.
     The sprint race was pretty exciting for me. Bill Holt has been talking about the new sprint course for a while and was very excited to see it put to the test. Being only 1k long, it was basically a full throttle no holds bar type of race. As fast as you can possibly go for roughly 2 minutes. Our typical sprints on the national circuit average about 3:45. Nonetheless though, my legs flooded with lactic burn as I awkwardly tried to sprint herringbone up the steep sugary climbs. The mens A final was a good group of athletes and made for a tough final heat. Mark Iverson was strong out of the start and i latched right on. The second steep climb proved to be the decisive climb over the day for most heats and was true to form in the final as well. Mark made a superior push over the top that gained the crucial 5 meters over me and allowed him the comfortable victory over me. I wanted the victory on my home trails, but Mark just had the extra umph that it took to win. I was glad to come in second, but the fire burned a little hotter for the next days race, a 10k skate.

     It was a bit chillier than the sprint day, but the conditions were hard and fast for the distance race. I had a good start position that was about a minute and a half behind Mark and would allow me to have splits off of him if i were to get any. Mark along with Patrick Johnson (who started right after me) are two very good skaters and I had to be on form if i was going to try and bring home a win. To break Patrick, I went out fairly strong and focused on quick relaxed movements. For the terrain, there is a lot of working sections and it can be very easy to bog down and lose speed. By 4k I had caught the two men starting in front of me and one of our APU jr coaches gave me a split that i was 5 seconds up on Mark. Nice, but there is still 6k to go. At about the 6k mark, my legs were starting to feel very heavy from going out so hard, but again I was focusing on keeping things moving quick. Mark is a strong skier and every second counts. The last couple of big climbs were excruciating. There is little rest on the course to clear lactate and by the last 2k, everything was hurting and making smooth movements was getting very difficult. I powered up over the last big climb and couldn't help but hunch over and tuck skate a little to gain even a little composure back. We finished with a long drag uphill that i was able to cover fairly well and hold the speed into the final downhill into the finish. Mark was standing there looking at his watch and I knew it from his look that it would be close. He said that it looked like it would be within seconds.
     The cool down was slow and and it took a while for me to get the looseness in my muscles again. I was going to be bummed if i came out a couple of seconds back from Mark. Mark and I talk a lot of crap to each other (in a friendly way) and i know I wouldn't hear the end of it if i couldn't beat him on my home trails. Thankfully though, the results came out and it was I that got the better of him by 11 seconds. My first win on my home trails in a long time and a good motivator for the second half of the season coming up. Congratulations to all the racers out there this weekend for a job well done. I was a joy to remember what it was like for me 13 years ago doing some of my first Besh Cup races. Good luck to all the young racers out there with the rest of the season!

Friday, January 14, 2011

End of Nationals and Lake Placid Races

Dec. 14th, 2011

     Ok so its definitely been a while since my last post. Believe it or not, we stay pretty occupied on the road. Out of the last two months, i have spent 6 days at home. Its starting to wear me down and I'm glad some time at home is in sight. Well picking up where i left off, we have had a 30k individual skate race, a skate sprint, and here at Lake Placid, a 10k classic.
     Lets begin with the 30k. I was a little upset over the 15k classic due to numerous reasons as i had stated in my last post, but i was rejuvenated when my sweet voiced girlfriend tells me, "Its just F**king skiing." It made me laugh to hear any profanity out of her voice because it just doesn't fit. Her words were right on though. It is only skiing and i do this because it is fun. It get more complicated at this level in some respects, but bottom line is that I'm out there to enjoy myself. These words echoed in my mind as i left the starting gate and it helped me relax into a rhythm pretty quick. As i headed out on my third lap (of 11) an Anchorage skier skiing for Dartmouth Eric Packer (having a great season so far) started out of the gates and i latched onto him. Having fresh clean skis, I had to work a bit that first lap with him to stay with him, but he settled into a great pace that i was more than happy to move with.
     Heading out onto my fifth lap, the ever so famous Andy Liebner left the gates and immediately passed Packer and myself down the long downhill section. To our surprise We caught back up to him halfway up through the climbs and from there we skied together for the next 5 laps. It was fun to ski with Andy again. I cant really remember the last time  i did outside of doing the team sprint at US Nationals when they were in Houghton, MI one year. Andy is one of the guys I got into this business with and its always a pleasure to hang out whenever i get the chance, even if its during the race. At any rate, in the end i finished in 14th place about 2 minutes out. Not fantastic for me, but still a solid finish.
     I don't have much to say about the skate sprint other than "holy crap that was fast". The course was hard and fast and was high speed from start to finish. I qualified 19th and headed into the Quarter finals. Similar to Rossland, BC though, we were all bunched together coming into the high speed downhill finish and everyones foot was within a ski length of first. Who happened to be the last foot across the line......Me. I still had a good time though and the high speed racing made for high adrenaline action!
     Overall, I qualify my performances here as mediocre. I had no races that were great and none that were terrible. Just some solid performances. I still have yet to find the US results i had before the Mt. Marathon incident, but considering i had only 6 weeks after Trans-Alps to prepare for the race season, I'm pretty happy with it.
     After so much racing and time on the road, there is always a breaking point. I'm pretty sure I found mine today during the 10k classic here in Lake Placid, NY. The skis were good, the course was tough, The muscles... taking a day off i guess. I skied well, but with very little power. The effect, a good looking racer, that doesnt finish well. I was a good minute and fifteen seconds out of the win in 22nd place. I was glad to see that i was not the only elite racer feeling the wear and tear though. I had the company of a few other podium racers back on the results list. I think it about time for a good rest period and let the body come back. Time to go home.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

First Two Races: Classic Sprint and 15k Classic

Dec. 5, 2011

Classic Sprint:

     The classic sprint went pretty well for ol' Brent. On a fast striders course, I was pretty comfortable and the Prelim went pretty well. They had done a lot of work on the course and was in pretty good shape considering we were on mostly dirt the day before. For a 1.4k, the prelim was pretty tight result-wise. Lars took the top spot with myself in 11th less that 4 seconds behind. The Quarterfinal placed me with Lars and a few other more "sprinter" type folks. Lars took the pace out hard and fast and we had a hard time keeping the pace through the first half. I pulled some time back through the second uphill and got myself in second position. The double pole section was long and in the end, i was simply a ski length too slow and ended up third in my heat. Thankfully, I made the LL (Lucky Loser) position and moved on as one of the two fastest third place finishers.
     This was my first time in the semifinals in a national championship. My previous attempts have come close, but something always seems to happen. But the semi final went really well. I had a really strong heat and it was tight all the way to the finish. The top three move on and unfortunately i finished fourth of the 4 of us that broke away. I was now relegated to the B final. This B final did not go well for two reasons; My time between finishing the second semi-final and the B final was only ten minutes. I did not have enough time to run my skis over to get touched up and cleaned up. The other reason was simply because I had nothing left in the tank. I burned the last of my sprint fuel in the Semi trying to qualify. I still had fun and the 12th place finish overall was a really solid sprint finish for me.


15K Classic

     After a couple days of rest, i was feeling pretty good this morning. We had 6 laps of a 2.5k loop today and the course was in my opinion a little meager as far as climbs. But it is what it is. We had some ski confusion this morning just before the race start and i ended  up a little tense afterwards. There were two pairs boards put out for me when i was told there would be only one. Having a relatively small wax staff for 25 athletes can create this once in a while. Waxing was a little tricky which made for quick turnaround from getting the skis, testing the skis, and getting to the start. I got my skis about 8 minutes to start and had just enough time to make one quick pass on the nearest uphill. The kick was adequate and because the coaches looked a little overwhelmed and I really didn't have time anyhow, I just jogged to the start. I felt good  and the first lap went pretty well. Clean skis are fast skis and therefore for most people today apart from being fresh in the body, the first lap was the fastest.
     I was a little frustrated through the middle of the race though, because this is when i realized that my boards were not breaking really well at high speeds. During the first third of the course we have one good sized uphill followed by a long downhill where you hold a tuck for a good minute and 15 seconds or so. I was losing a lot of ground through this section and i think it was due to the difference in snow used. The top side of the course was mostly man-made snow from the snow guns and the lower part was more trucked in snow. My skis were fine on the upper part of the course, but it was frustrating to be losing 10 seconds or so to other athletes purely off of ski setups. I heard many athletes had the opposite problem, having fast skis down low and slow skis up high. Oh well. I just get frustrated when the equipment makes the heavy difference and not the fitness of the athlete. I still managed to stay in the top twenty and was in the company of many other top athletes dealing with the same frustrations. Such is ski racing though. I am happy with the effort today nonetheless and look forward to tomorrows 30k. 12 laps of the same course and with a mass start should bring some wild surprises! Hope everyone is well.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

This is an introduction video. There are more athletes, but this is a good start. Enjoy

Saturday, January 1, 2011

XC SKI NATIONALS!!!.............Maybe

Jan 1, 2011

     Happy new year everybody! Start it off right and go out for a ski and drink hot chocolate afterwards. Well We made it here to Rumford, ME and the journey, well, let say things could have gone better. To begin, lets go to the Continental Airlines check in counter in Anchorage. The customer service there was downright appalling. We are skiers and we have ski bags. We ended up holding up many customers due to novice attendants at the counter and them just plain out being rude. Many of us have been through the ringer at least once before with our ski bags and are pretty good at keeping our cool. As skiers we are pretty good about knowing the baggage rules and skis do not count as extra baggage, but not according to these attendants. In the end the baggage fees ranged from $60-210, with myself being at the $100 category. The lady looks at me and says, "you better be checking the over-length baggage button, those are definitely longer than 157cm." Rather than fight it, because we have already pissed these people off apparently, I just paid the extra baggage fee and went through security.
     Now to the flight. I am 6' tall and am generally pretty uncomfortable when it comes to coach seating, but with this Continental airlplane, even with my butt all the was to the back, my knees were still touching the seat in front of me. This seating arrangement was noticeably more cramped than the traditional Alaska flight out of Anchorage. There was no moving because not only was i in the middle seat, but the plane was packed to the gills. Ok, so with that aside, I was happy with seeing each seat had its own video set mounted on the back of the seat in front. Maybe we will get a movie! Nope, and my screen controllers were broken, so i watched a preview for "The Gardians of Gahoole" for a good three hours. Best part was that i got the same seat from Seattle to Newark. I tried to take a deep breath and relax. Ive been through worse things.
     The puddle jumper from Newark to Portland, ME felt like a luxury flight and things were looking better. We made a slightly comical hour and a half trip from the airport to our spread out destinations around Rumford. We had some toll booth lady that asked if our coach intended to slide his credit card through her cleavage and I about lost it. The boys final destination was a large cabin a little over an hour from the venue.  The distance from the venue was the first thing in question. The few boys that arrived earlier were quick to fill us in on other important notes such as no TV and no Internet. Hmmm ok, but still tolerable, we have all been camping before. As we checked the place out, we find that for nine guys, we have one shower. Most of our drawers had blessings of mouse turds and there was a note on the fridge warning of the unsafe drinking water.  To top the whole matter off, the house is not insulated. We are here for a national championship and the last thing we need  are worries. We were quick to pack up and get the hell out the next morning ready to take anything else at that point.
      After a few calls, we arrived at a fairly nice place only 20 minutes from the venue, with a "pure artesian well" and internet. We are happy to have solved most of the issues in less than 24 hours. Keep in mind, through all of this, most of us had been up for quite some time with the redeye flight and driving so we were all a little on the stressed side. But nonetheless a not-quite-so-usual travel day for Brent.
     The course conditions are deteriorating pretty fast with the warm New England weather we are dealing with and if the weather does not improve, our races may be a little on the questionable side. As johnnyklister.com stated,"skiing conditions are variable, we have most good groomed dirt with a few snowy sections in there, but ya know, just try and avoid em'". It seems a little bleak, but as I have seen in the past, the races always seem to go off and the snow will always seem to make itself available. The volunteers are incredible in these parts and I have no doubt of their abilities. Should be a good nationals. Hope all is well at home.


Brent