Well The start of the actual race season is upon us here. Alaska has been blessed some some great early season snow up in Hatcher Pass and over the last few weeks, here in town. The best part is that we didnt only just get enough to ski, we got dumped on! The skiing has been fantastic in town and has allowed for some great training. The early snow has also allowed for some really quality time trials. We have had 2 really solid distance TT's so far and 1 sprint TT in soft snow.
Our first classic TT was up in Hatchers on a cold morning (8 degrees). The course has a lot of climbing and the conditions were fairly nice with a little bit of snowfall overnight. As usual for Hatchers, I was the first go on course followed 30 seconds later by my arch nemesis and training partner Mark. Although it was colder than anyone had planned, i was surprised by how well the body was moving for the first TT. I was able to gauge where Mark was in comparison on a few sections of the course, but was otherwise just trying to go as hard as i could to find time anywhere i could. In the end after 12ish kilometers of racing, Mark had the better of me by 5 seconds (and close to 2 minutes up on third). I was pleased with the first TT race of the season and was more motivated to get the season underway.
Last week we had a double TT with a classic sprint TT and a skate 10k. The sprint TT went well enough and although i was 5 seconds from the winner of the prelim, the rounds went well. My speed is still coming back and improving each week.
The Skate TT went a little better. The course was a two lap huge climb course. Boding in my favor, i enjoyed the hard climb and definitely went into the red zone. I was unravelling pretty bad over the last kilometer, but managed a win by 3 seconds over Mark. We were 45 seconds up on third. We have some good skiers on our team and Mark and I are looking well. This really gets us fired up for the season coming up.
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