The season is finito. Alll done. We spend 11 months of the year working towards our yearly goals, racing, traveling and then it feels like everything just stops. When the infamous, "last race" of the season is complete there is as sense of okay.... now what? Rest. Spring rest is different from a normal rest day. It's the first time in many, many months that there will be more than 1 or 2 rest days in a row. Try 2 weeks, at least. There might be a little spring skiing in there, or an attempt to get the running legs back, but for the most part we sleep in, try not to stay up too late (sometimes it hard with this different type of 'freedom'- knowing you don't have to get up in the AM and put in a solid workout), eat the occasional fast food, catch up with friends and getting out of town. So that's where I am, sitting at my parent's kitchen table watching the fresh snow melt. Spring tricks us often with these snow teasers, and part of me feels bad that I'm not excited that it's accumulating. I think aweee crap, snow, leave us alone! These thoughts tells me I'm in need of this rest period. For the first time ever, I will be following the trend of going somewhere warm in the spring. It seems to be the thing to do for winter athletes. I'll be heading to Florida with two of my girlfriends and I just want to lay on the beach. I'm so pumped to start the summer with a tan that doesn't turn white half way up my legs and arms. I'll save the shorts and tee-shirts tans for later...
I guess I'm about two sets of races behind. The last two of the season were Nationals in Canmore, Alberta and SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho. We headed off to Nationals and things didn't go exactly as planned. After a small medical blunder I ended up only racing the sprints and the 30km. I was bummed I missed out on the 5km skate, but I was happy to be racing by the end of the week. The classic sprints were O-kay. Not having done a whole lot during the week left me a little stale, so it took me half of the qualifier to get into it. However, when the race is only 3 minutes long, there isn't any time to waste. I qualified 18th. Blahhh. But anything can happen right!? Well, it did. I got slightly tangled up in my quarter final and came around 3rd in the heat. My bib wasn't high enough to qualify me for a lucky loser spot, so I was the "unlucky" loser that day. Oh well. Teammate Andrea made it to the B-final and some of the guys were up there as well. That's the thing I like about being on a wicked team. Even if I have a bad day, my sorrow don't last too long since usually there is somebody else's result to get excited about!
The 30km skate was my first ever. I've done a classic 30 but not a skate. I was pumped it was skate since I felt I had a better chance to stay with the lead pack longer than in classic. Everyone went out at a good pace and things were looking good. We got to the first long flat section of the course at about 5 km and everyone slowly spread out. I skied the whole race with one other girl and we pulled eachother along. We were slowly catching the group of 3 ahead of us but could only get one girl in the end. On the last 3km I began to die. It was a different die-hard than the normal "my legs are burning so bad. " In a 30km it's like an internal death. haha this sounds so horrible. It's really not, it's just racing. My energy stores are being depleted to a different extent compared to a 10km or even 15km race. My body had one pace and I could only work with that. Overall it was a great race. I didn't mess up my feeds and learned a few things about pacing and skiing relaxed and steady. You have to be brave too. It's one of those times where if you go out too hard, you will pay for it later. But at the same time, if you go the pace you like and get detached... you may never see them again until the finish line.
Andrea Dupont and I in the 30km
Nordic Centre in Canmore, Alberta
Taking a feed in the 30km
My Aunt Sue came out to cheer me on!
My parents came out for the week and helped a big bundle with waxing and race support for our team. It was great having them there. My Mom and I went for a few slow skis when I wasn't racing and that helped keep my mind off the DNS (Did Not Start-I get this on the results page instead of a time and place) that would follow. My Dad slaved in the wax room with Eric, Timo and Lisa to give us, as always, fast skis. Good thing he's a morning person! My Dad has always been one for getting up super early to wax skis for which ever team I'm on. No complaints. Thanks Dad!
Half the team hung out in Canmore for a week before heading to SuperTour Finals from there. It was along 15 hour drive, but nothing a little book-on-tape and good tunes and company can't fix. Sun Valley was cool place, higher in altitude as well. We did 4 races in the mini-tour, including a hill climb on the final day. My first ever. By hill climb I mean, go to a downhill resort and race UP a ski run. Finish at the top of the lift, fall over, done... Here are some picture of beautiful Sun Valley:
Sunny Day for a drive.
A view from the top Dollar Mountain after the hill climb.
A view of the run we went up. It's hard to capture just how steep it was. We got to ski back down after the race!
YAYYY we did it!!
Emily, myself and Alysson after the sprints. It was sooo warm, complete with sunburns.
The ski area was wide open with virtually no trees. All courses under 3.5km were visible.
That's all for now, the new team will named shortly and then we will be back into training on May 1st.
Later!
