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.