The weekend was successful on the whole. Due to my current laziness I'm going to do things a little differently for this blog update. Here are my training log entries from this weekend:
Day 1, Saturday, December 4th.
1 km Skate Sprint
CPL: 92-93
End result: 7th
Good sleep, couldn't sleep cause of the anticipation. Ear still plugged and uncomfortable. Still some congestion. Activation core/spiro then up to race site. Warm-up with 2 x 1 min getting hard. Some starts getting used to hitting tempo. Qualifier went well, skied it like I had hoped. Not overly powerful or snappy, but able to maintain free skate and hold form to the line. 4th. Huge rest in the aft, back for 4pm heats. Gut off, in the washroom a whole bunch. Short warm-up with one hard effort. First heat made gut feel better. Controlled my quarter. Rested when I could, passed when I needed to. Semi was good, but got boxed in a few times. Got gapped coming into the finish. Not able to get back on and settled for 4th. Thought my day was over (like indicated at coach's meeting), but turned out there was a B-final. Managed to get back into the right headspace FTW. Happy on the whole, but think I could have made A-final.
Day 2, Sunday, December 5th
9 km Classic Individual Start
CPL: 87-88
End result: 22nd
Deathly tired going to bed last night, still deathly tired upon waking despite huge sleep. Ear still plugged and slightly congested. Carcass drag of a warm-up, body ravaged from long sprint day. Feeling better with a 4 min z3 effort. Race 3 loops of 3km. Skied controlled and smooth but lacked some jam on the last lap. Skied slightly too hard at end of 2nd lap. Race was much better than expected. 1:57 off over 25 min.
My training diary entries on sprint days are almost always longer than distance days, unless something particularly exciting/unusual happens on a distance day, ie. a good result. And here are some pics from the skate sprint day, courtesy of Michaela's dad, John Lynn.
Qualifying during sunrise.
Quarter final action, feeling in control. (in third) Ended up winning this heat.
Look at that forward lean!
Unable to bridge the gap coming into the stadium in the semi-final (#204). Settled for 4th and went on to win the B-final.
Tomorrow I head back to Whistler for a few days of training before travelling to Silver Star, BC for the first highly contested NorAm races. I will race a classic sprint and a skate distance race next weekend in The Star.
It is always a great feeling to finish the first race weekend and get the butterflies out. Stay tuned for next weekend's races!
T
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