When fate shovels poo in your face

I guess it's better here than at Trials in Canmore...

This weekend ended up being a disaster.  I was feeling great going into the sprint race.  I was skiing well and fast and was ready to unleash.

Here is what my race morning looked like for Sprint day taken straight out of my race plan book:

6:15 Wake up

6:30 b-fast (bring oatmeal to race site too)

7:30 depart

8:00 arrive

- ditch stuff in lodge

- test skis

- give skis to Amy/Erik

- get bib

 

8:30 warm-up 30 minutes

20 min even pace LBP-20 w/2 x 2 min JIB (Juergalyzer inhalation breathing (resistance to prime respiratory system))

2 x 2 min z4

2 x 45s HARD

 

9:00 in lodge to change into race suit, BREATHE RIGHT + GEL

9:07 get skis

9:12 at start

9:18:30 START

The only problem with this plan is that my race start was actually at 9:03:30.  Somehow both Pate and I had interpreted that race start time was 9:15 and so we both botched our start times.  Pate was the lucky one to see me in the lodge struggling to get my race suit and bib #14 on as racer #10 zoomed past the building, so he managed to figure out he had 15 minutes less than he originally thought he had.  

I still managed to ski the course, just my sprint was a little longer than most due to the extra sprinting around to get skis, ditching warm-ups by the day lodge and skiing down to the start area as #13 went by (15 s starts!).  I got behind the wand at the 4 s mark after when they say "go", so technically if I had been there 1 second earlier I could have posted a legitimate qualifier without time added on.  After them figuring out what to do with me, they sent me to another lane next to the wand and said I could go from there.  But with nearly 15 seconds tacked onto my time (like 12 or 13 probably, I could hear Kevin Hochtl start right behind me).  I can't remember parts of my qualifier.  I just know I was skiing like crap and was so wound up emotionally that I skied like a hack.  

Needless to say, I did not move on and my day was done.  Such a shame as I had an awesome warm-up, had a dialed race plan and had some incredible boards (apparently with the wrong grind though).  Kate Brennan would call this “Amateur Hour”.

I decided that since that day was a write-off I would try to get registered for the 15 km skate the next day.  I wasn't planning on doing this race as I was counting on having a long and hard day of heats the day before.  The lady in the race office was kind enough to put me in and give me a chance for redemption in possibly one of my worst events.  

I was actually pretty pumped to try this race out.  I love my new Alpina set-up cause it doesn't cut off circulation to my feet unlike the Salomon S-labs.  My new skis feel awesome too and I know my shape is fairly decent now and I was feeling fine at the high altitude (due to our camp earlier in the month and the intermittent hypoxic training I have been doing maybe).  

The night before the 15 km, Pate cooked up a measly dinner of pasta.  While stuffing my face with pasta I was reminiscing on a past "tortellini experience" at an Edmonton Nordic practice from a few years back (Curtis probably remembers).  Coincidentally later that evening I started to have another "tortellini experience" that had me up for most of the night going to the washroom in a cold sweat.  

Thing's hadn't improved much by the next morning so that put the icing on the cake to this disastrous weekend.  

Lessons learned.  No more missing starts cause from now on I'm triple checking and cross checking my start time.  And no more tortellini and cheap pasta sauce on race night...  On Saturday I was the numb-nuts.  But with some special words of encouragement from a few close friends I am now coming to grips with the mistake and moving on – so thanks to you who lifted my spirits up, you know who you are.  It’s important not to dwell on this and to move on. 

Time to regroup and get my act together.