Anchorage!

There have been rumors that Anchorage was going to host Nationals this winter and it looks like we got it!

http://www.fasterskier.com/news5401.html

Another spring day...

Lars and I had planned a sweet backcountry day of sea kayaking out of Whittier then a little crust and tele-skiing. It ended up too windy in Whittier so they wouldn't rent us boats so we had to do this instead...

Photos from the weekend

This past weekend I had the annual Ski with Olympians day up at Hilltop and then spent Sunday playing in the April snow.

And Done

Sunday was the end of the year. Usually before the last race of the season there is a playful nature to the whole thing but before the 50k it felt like we could have been getting ready for the Olympic 50k. Everyone was pretty hammered still from the 30k on Friday night and the 50k course was even harder to go along with the obvious extra hour of racing. The course was tough, real tough, but it isn't anything harder than you would see on a World Cup but racing in the US we tend to see some pretty weak courses which is why this one was such a shock to so many. Unfortunately for me though, once again there just wasn't quite enough left in the tank to do much. I was able to keep with the chase pack that was Koos, Newell and Lars thru maybe 20k but then I just started to run out of gas.

The highlight of the day was my coach Frode skiing in his last race before going back to Norway this spring after racing and coaching here for the last 13 years and kicking ass! He ended up 3rd overall and since he has his green card he is a US National Champion! I have learned a whole lot from him over the years like how to race tough which he did and left US racing in style!

Next up for me is a little break although I might delay it until the skiing is gone from the trails in town which should be a week or two away and start planning for next season. Thanks for reading this year!

Ouch!

We just got back from the 30k after stopping by Taco King for the best post race meal out there.

It was a doozy. Tough course and started it out with slick skis. So I tried to double pole as much as I could and keep in contact with the front group but on the main climb of the course they would pull away each time and I slowly fell back. After the 3rd of 4 classic laps I had closed back to within maybe 10 seconds but we hit the big climb again and I never saw the pack again. Luckily for me Noah Hoffman and I were able to ski together for the skate leg. He is a tough and talented junior who I stayed with in Aspen this year. We traded off leading out there and managed to pick off a few guy and with a few k's to go on some flatter sections I took off and he couldn't quite keep up I think I ended up 9th and him 10th, the 5th and 6th Americans I believe. Good day and tough racing. Looking forward to a wicked tough 50k on Sunday and a day off in between.

James

Whistler part 2

I've been back home for a few days and are getting ready to head up to Fairbanks for Long Distance Nationals and a midweek 10k. First, the 15k from Whistler.

That was nuts. Seven people broke skis during the race! That just doesn't happen. The conditions were a big element that day as well with it snowing big, wet flakes on top of a granular base that broke down easily. This meant that down the course there was a hard glassy lane where the new snow had packed down and just off that was really soft. Every so often there would be ruts up to 6-8 inches deep where the hard layer had been broken thru and combined with the heavy falling snow making the visibility less that ideal. Then on some of the more technical downhills there were craters on the corners where people had augered in. Bottom line.... you had to be on your toes.

Since this was a learning week more that anything I started out the first of the three 5k loops harder than usual so I could see if I could get away with that since there was a big downhill after a bit opening climb. Turns out it was kind of a mistake. I felt good on the first lap and could see that I had picked up some time on the guys in front of me but there was a pretty flat rolling section where a lot of time could be gained or lost if you didn't carry your speed well. Those sections aren't usually my natural strong point but I skied that section pretty well on the first lap unfortunately the next time thru was pretty rough. Turns out I started a little too hard and after one lap of 2 big climbs and the flat section in between without many places to recover I went a little under. I managed to hold it together pretty well and still kept George Grey (one of Canada's top guys) who started 15 seconds behind me behind me. On the final lap things started to click again but I had lost way too much time on the second lap to do much in the results but I did finally figure out how to ski some of the the more technical sections of the course and pace the hills better. So I learned something.

Other than checking out the courses and getting a feel for how they ski, the big thing to take away from Whistler is be prepared for anything. With the conditions constantly changing there you just have to be ready to put your head down and suffer.

Off to Fairbanks.

Whistler

We got down here after a surprisingly long travel day due to the 30 stoplights we got to hit coming thru Vancouver on our way from Seattle to Whistler. Once we got thru there it wasn't too much better since they are in the process of widening the road. I also heard they are putting in a train from Vancouver to Whistler which would be a sweet addition to the area. But driving has been the theme of the week. Almost 30 minutes each way and we are staying about as close as you can. Given that they had a blank slate I'm not too sure why they chose an area not too close to anywhere?

On to the racing... I had heard that the snow here is a little funky and waxing can be pretty tricky. I can confirm that it is. The sprint relay on the first day was a good introduction to some faster racing after 5 weeks with nothing under 30k and a good introduction to waxing here as well. It was gray and just over freezing most of the day until our prelim round when it started to snow. We had great skis in the first round and had no problems making it thru to the finals. By the time the finals started 30 minutes after the rounds the kick wax was completely different. Even though we were able to re-wax the skis just weren't that good and we did quite poorly but we figured that it was our least important race of the year, so we slept okay.

There is a bit of luck and guesswork here since the condition on the test track is totally different from the race course combined with the near constantly changing conditions. Also it seems the ski and application of the wax makes a huge difference. One of my teammates Jeff Ellis had sweet skis on the relay day with the same wax combination. That said, Erik and Casey have done a sweet job of testing many combinations and getting us some really good skis. Yesterday in the 10k my skis along with the rest of our guys were as good or better than anyone and the APU girls had the best skis in the field. It is just tricky.

Getting to yesterdays race was a little more complicated that I had planned. My ride to the race (Kevin) is staying with another team and his car was all of a sudden too full for both Annie and I to squeeze in so at 9:30 the night before the race I emailed one of the Canadian teams staying here and we were able to get a ride with them. I called Kevin in the morning and told him I was just going to go alpine skiing and I didn't need a ride, he believed me. He believed me so much that he tried to scratch me from the race and when I got down to the race most of the races thought I was going alpine skiing too.

Like the relay day, wax once again was changing all the time so we had to make a call on race wax about 10 minutes before the start, just enough time for a quick test and a little adjustment and off to the start. Out of the start on the first of 3 laps my skis rocked! I was skiing relaxed and smooth and quick and all those things that you want to do up to the top of the course (4 or 5 minutes) before dropping back down for the flat and s-turn sections of the course. I never heard it while I was out there but after the race I heard I was in 2nd on the first lap. After that I started to fade a bit. The skis got a little slicker and I started to feel the effects of the relay some soreness and stiffness started to creep in... and I ended up losing about 15 seconds on the last lap... Other than the lost time on the last lap pretty good classic race for me and it bodes well for today's 15k skate. Until then... Some venue photos...