replication stamina

Start of the 42 K

Last week was the Seeley Hills Classic ski race held in good'olSeeley, Wisconsin. I'm not much of a classic skier but I try to mix in a classic ski with my skate training. It breaks up the monotony of training and helps out tremendously with my cardio.

I find classic skiing hard and painful, in fact, today is the first day my thighs are not screaming at me. Classic skiing is a different technique that utilizes the same muscles in a sense but utilizes those muscle differently. On Monday after the race I struggled just to get up out of my office chair.

Friday night Adam and I drove up to Hayward and stayed at a cabin on Nelson Lake with my parents. We registered on Friday night at the Sawmill Saloon and participated in an over priced, filled your big toe pasta feed. The beer was good but the pasta left me desiring more.

Saturday brought cloudy skis and temps in the twenties. Like I said, I'm not much of a classic skier but I love to race. So it was different arriving to a race and not really rushing and hustling to get a spot at the start because I was not overly hyped about classic skiing a race.

At the start of the race I told my parents to grab a spot on the snowy knoll just after the start. Well, unannounced to me, the start didn't take us in that direction. So my parents didn't even get to the start, and the best part is I skied faster than I thought and my parents ended up missing the finish as well.

I really didn't care about my start position until I arrived at the start line. My lack of hustle got me a start in the far back of the pack. I mean I was way back. In fact, of the 300 skiers I would bet I started 273rd. None-the-less the gun sounded and we were off to a grueling 22k out and back race on the Birkie trail.

Right from the start I began picking skiers off one by one. I started so far back that no one was left to pass me and the only thing left for me to do was pass those 200 some skiers ahead of me. Most of the race I was passing skiers and skiing by myself. With about 3k from the turn around I met the leaders heading back to the finish. I figured I was about twenty minutes behind which impressed me some considering I was classic skiing.

By 15k I had lost my kick and was double polling most of the hills and flats and to make it even tougher, I could tell by the sharp pain on my arch that a blister was forming. It was a tough race but I had a blast skiing with fellow classic skiers who know what they are doing. Most of the race was spent watching the skiers around me and trying to emulate their techniques. Right or wrong it got me across the finish line at 1:29.31 with a 4:04 pace per k and an 83rd place. I'm happy with that.

After the race Adam met up with me at the trail head and we capped off the day with a ski down to mosquito brook road. Another 15k for a cool down and the day was complete. it was a fun weekend and it's always fun to go to races where you can rub shoulders with elite skiers and elite teams. The olive burger at the Sawmill Saloon that afternoon topped it all off.

We will see what the weekend brings. Looks like temps won't reach much above zero. Maybe a weekend spent in the gym will be safer on the body.

Cord under the boards,

Sturgie