Weekend Recap

Justyna Kowalczyk winning the 3okm freestyle event on Saturday at the World Championships.

(Photo credit: fasterskier.com)

Yesterday was the last women's event at World Championships in Liberec, CZE, the 30km freestyle race.  At this time in my career it is likely my favorite event- skating has historically been my stronger technique and longer distances are my forte. World Champs was a goal of mine this season, one which I, sadly, did not achieve.  While I've moved passed that disappointment and am looking forward, being absent from that 30km was still a little agonizing. I woke up early Saturday morning, checking the FIS website to see how the race had played out. Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland won (shown above), ending the championships with an impressive two golds and one bronze medal.  The photo above really made an impression on me. I was fortunate enough to get to race with (or against, I supposed) Kowalczyk in the World Cups in Whistler, and her grit and determination is inspiring.  She comes from a small ski nation, not one of the Nordic "powerhouses" and is pretty much a one person team, yet she's become a force.  I'll undoubtedly be watching the race in its entirety online on universalsports.com, and you should too if you want to know exactly how it played out (note: for the first time this season you can watch all world cup races for free at that website). 

On Saturday I logged a hard effort of my own, though it was thousands of miles from Czech. Normally it almost wouldn't be worth noting, but considering how few races I've done in the past few weeks, it felt like a big deal.  It was a low-key APU team time trial at the Hillside Trails in Anchorage...mass start of both men and women on a two lap course (5km/lap for a total of 10km).  It was a hard course, pretty much either up or down (as the trails are built into the hill right next to our mini local alpine area).  Because of the number and length of the climbs relative to the amount of moderate/flat sections it would have barely been a legal course by International Ski Federation (FIS) standards.  Meaning, it was basically a good hard course, a definite indicator of fitness. To make things just a little more challenging, it snowed all day Saturday, and we didn't start until 4pm, so we had a good six inches of fresh powder to plow through (and it continued to come down as we raced).

As is the case with almost any endeavor, when you don't do something frequently you get rusty. Whether it's just that you think you're rusty or you actually are, there can be some nervousness involved when you jump back in.  Well, I was admittedly a little jittery.  Racing becomes automatic when you do it every week, back-to-back days, weekend after weekend.  Since it's just what you do, you just do it.  But I had all day on Saturday to think about our little, insignificant time trial, and I realized how nice it is when racing is just so normal that you don't even think about being nervous.  Nonetheless, 4PM finally came around, and feelingly slightly like a dog let off a chain, I went!

The good news is, the nerves were for nothing.  Pushing the "reset" button was a good idea after all.  My body felt good at race pace for the first time in months, and on a few of the long climbs I had glimpses of the amazing effortless floating feeling that I get when I race well. More than anything being out there was a great confidence booster.  I'd decided just the night before to race at the upcoming Canadian National Championships in Ontario (coming up in less than two weeks), and this time trial indicated that getting on that plane will be a good decision.

Teammate Kate Fitzgerald on a snowy ski...no it wasn't the day of the time trial (the trail pictured here is way too "groomed" for it to have been our TT course, but it was just as snowy on Saturday).

By this morning the snow had stopped, and Anchorage was covered in a beautiful coat of powder.  Sunday is my overdistance day (OD)- a long distance ski, measured in time rather than kilometers.  It's also probably my favorite day of the week to train because, no matter the time of year, the mornings are always quiet and sleepy.  In the summer the roads are less crowded, making rollerskiing and biking much more peaceful, and in the winter, the trails are often vacant.  This morning I didn't see a soul until nearly 1.5 hours into my 2.5 hour ski.  Kincaid Park was empty and still, the sun was rising, the snow crystals were glimmering in the early rays of light, and the trees were laden with snow.

For the second time this weekend I broke trail through newly fallen snow- this time on my overdistance ski this morning at Kincaid Park.

This long ski was the cap of a nearly perfect weekend (perhaps a nearly perfect week, in fact). I skied almost every trail at Kincaid during my OD and none of them twice.  These kinds of workouts make me feel so lucky to have such incredible training opportunities where I live, and on top of that, I get to enjoy incredible views while I ski the endless kilometers of ski trails in our vast parks.  I took the Coastal Trail for a portion of my ski this morning, enjoying the gorgeous scenery of Turnagain Arm, the mud flats and sea ice right next to the trail, and Fire Island in the distance (photo above taken from the Coastal Trail).