With such a short course and a fairly large crowd, we did a NASCAR start. We self seeded, then did a neutral lap around the course. As the "pace skiers" approached the start/finish line, they ramped up the pace to race pace. By then, we were well strung out. No pile ups, no broken poles, no blood stains in the snow. Even though I did eight warmup laps before the race, my body was unprepared for the shock going from 20% to 110%.
My goal was to not get lapped. I'm normally about 20% back from the leaders in these sprint races. We were doing five race pace laps, so that meant the leaders would be coming up behind me for the finish as I began my final lap.
I found it hard to not flail. The speed was so high most of the time that poling didn't contribute much to the effort. I found others to draft for the couple middle laps, but then realized I was losing places by doing this. The last lap I stepped out of my comfort zone and passed several skiers (not just lapped skiers). This was good for another 5bpm jump in HR. Been a long time since I've brought myself to the hurl threshold. Weston is good for that. As Marv Wang commented in the finishing chute, intervals on the bike seem so much easier after a Weston sprint race.
I finished in 19th place. My Garmin time for the 5.3km race, including the neutral lap, was 15:04. It was the third time I skied in five days. Woo-hoo! All on machine made snow, of course. Glad I didn't invest much into rollerskiing this fall. With no snow in the mountains and rain on the way, I don't know when I'll ski again.
3 comments:
When its really fast like that, you need to learn to slow down your tempo and ski 'big' - get your hands way up and take powerful strides, maximizing your glide in a v2 alt with plenty of time to recover while gliding. Its a very effective technique on a fast course like Weston. Although if its really deep sugar then its tough.
Is it bad that I find enjoyment when your HR is in the 170's?
I take it the ankle feels ok skiing?
Luke -yep, that is why tall guys like victor killed me last night. He can take huge strides.
Alex - ankle is still not right. Lot of pain at end of ski last night. At least with the pins pulled, I don't get bloody socks anymore. I think a defect in technique exacerbates old injury. I tend to cant left ski inward. Need to work on that. Also my old boots seem to be much better, so there is that aspect to work too.
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