January in Alaska

So today was the first race of the 2009 US National Championships, except it didn't happen!  I wasn't planning on racing the sprint, because I'm more of a distance specialist, but for all the sprinters it was a bit of a letdown.  The temperature has to be above -4F for an organizer to legally put on a race (according to the International Ski Federation guidelines), and during the warmest part of the day today it might have hovered around that temperature.  Otherwise, most of the city was in the negative double digits all day.  Right after 1pm they called off the race and rescheduled it for tomorrow.  Knowing it was going to be a cold training session for me, I had a leisurely morning, arriving at Kincaid Park just as all the racers were leaving.  Most had warmed-up assuming the race would go on as scheduled at 11:30AM and then proceeded to cool-down after it was postponed to 1PM.  Then before the 1PM start time many were well into their second warm-up of the day when the race was called off.  So most of my teammates warmed-up and cool-down twice and didn't race once today... but at least they were prepared!

I had a great easy ski around the beautiful trails, taking care to go easy so as to be gentle on my lungs.  The cold air can really damage them which could really mess up my week of racing, so I've been careful to dress really warm and cover my face when outside.  Besides the occasionally cold limb, digit or exposed patch of flesh, it was wonderful out on the trails.  They were surprisingly vacant for a championship week.  The sun was low on the horizon, illuminating the frost-encrusted trees, and the sky was a tie-dye of pink, orange, and yellow.  Alaska may be cold this time of year, but it's also beautiful...