STEVE
Well it's snowing out. It's been snowing here since last Friday night, I'm not exactly sure how much snow we've gotten but it's a lot. Anyway I'm stuck inside watching football and I thought that I would write a post just for Adam since he has been telling me to since October. So the plan this weekend was to go and do a classic race in Craftsbury, but Mother Nature had other plans. I still wanted to get in the hard effort so I went up to Prospect to do a time trial by myself, not exactly the most fun thing. Anyway after warming up I skied a 10k on the Williams course. The skiing was pretty slow and soft with all the new snow, and a few trails weren't completely groomed. Although Prospect's skiing has been pretty good this break (Prospect is notorious for its bad grooming and high prices. Matt Briggs recently posted his senior thesis on fasterskier which had to do with ski area pricing. It's pretty interesting if you have time to check it out, I would post a link but I don't feel like finding it) (editors note: You can find the article HERE). I started off at a good pace but in order to push myself harder I wanted to negative split the race. I tried to ski long and smooth for the first lap and I think I did a pretty job doing that. I checked my watch at the 5k mark, 19:05, and started my second lap focused on finishing under 38:10. I tried to make up time in some places where I held back during the first lap, and I was pretty sure I was. After the final climb and sprint to the finished my watch read 37:43. While it wasn't as much fun as the Craftsbury race would've been I got my negative split and more importantly the race effort.
Since being home the trainings been going well. I did the Bolton Opener a few weeks ago and had a solid race then. I did a pretty big week this week and will continue that into early next week before taking it easy before camp. I haven't been sick which is also very important. I also skied with Knut a few times over break; he said he's doing well, working hard in school in Norway. It also sounded like some people had some decent results this weekend. Adam also did a time trial by himself after not making it to Craftsbury either and sounded happy with the effort. Wolcott, Connor, and Hollis made it to Craftsbury, Wolcott sent me a text saying he lead for most of the race but didn't have the pop to take the W. Teo also looked like he had a solid race yesterday at the Mount Hor Hop. So hopefully everyone else is doing well, I'm looking forward to seeing and training with people again at camp! Keep up the good work everyone.
ADAM
Like Steve mentioned I had planned on racing the Craftsbury Classic. I woke up at 6:30 and gave myself 3 hours to get to the race, despite the Mapquest directions estimating 1:30. I wasn't gonna let the snow get in my way. Unfortunately when I looked out the window the plow was just going by. Just looking out into the darkness you would never guess it was snowing, but the headlights of the plow illuminated a huge storm as it blasted through about a foot and a half of fresh snow. I wouldn't even be able to shovel out of my driveway in time to make it, and my parents would have none of this business of me driving in these conditions. Too bad I had already paid the $17 race fee online. So after the morning workout (a fierce 2 hour shovelfest) I headed up to Sleepy Hollow for a 10k classic solo timetrial. Again like Steve mentioned, tons of fun. Conditions were soft and slow, and new snow was coming on faster than Petter Northug's sprint finishes. My skied kicked for nothing, and though it was a little colder than 32 it was a perfect chance to test out my Zero's. Though I've never raced on them, I lent them to Bednar last year and she raced to 7th and 11th place finishes. Today was the perfect test for them. My friend and UVM Biathlete Danika made it up to Sleepy and was able to take some video footage. I raced what I think was about 10k. The high school race earlier in the week was two laps of a 2.5k loop. I raced the loop four times, and just like Steve, I decided ahead of time that I wanted to negative split the laps. Each time I went by Danika I shouted out times, and we compiled them at the end. I was really pleased with the effort. Obviously pacing is much easier when you're by yourself: no other racers, no pressure so to speak, no distractions, etc...but I found I was able to just go harder and harder. It was a really reassuring feeling to be able to demand more of your body and then make it happen. In the end I did almost negative split every loop, and my plan to bring the pain for a big last lap played out to textbook perfection. My times for each loop:
9:20
9:25
9:05
8:48
Again it was pretty slow conditions, as the video shows, but when you're having a good day you know it, and I was glad that the effort went so well. Here's some short clips.
My car Big Red is under there somewhere...The tally as of 6:00 tonight is 33 inches with more still falling!
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