Sm;)es and Pain Faces
I let my teeth shine this week, whether I was smiling or showing my pain face. This week started off with skate speeds, usually one of my favorite workouts. Excited for the workout, I was pretty bummed to feel flat and slow during the whole workout. I kept my focus during the workout, but I was not stoked with how my week started off. I surprised myself the next day during our classic intervals with high energy and power. In the afternoon Lauren, Gabe and I helped coach the younger Bill Koch League skiers. I had such a blast ripping around on skis with young skiers. It was very refreshing to take a break from serious training and just have fun skiing and playing games with the kids. It reminds me of when I fell in love with the sport.Quickly, the weekend was fast approaching. Thursday I went on a short run and did some body care (stretching and rolling out). It was so warm I just ran in a long sleeve shirt! Friday morning we all hopped into the vans and headed off to Lake Placid, NY, where the Olympics were held in 1980. I have been to Lake Placid the last 4 years for the U.S. Ski Team training camp in September (one of my favorite camps), and I absolutely love it there! Since the snow has been pretty thin, the races were moved to jumping complex because they have snow making there. It was really cool and weird to race on the rollerski track that I have done so many laps on in the summer on rollerski. On Saturday we had a skate sprint on a hard course that consisted of all uphill and then all downhill. I had a pretty good prelim, ending up in 10th overall. However, my quarterfinal didn’t go as I had hoped. I flooded with lactic acid pretty early on and then I so skillfully ate it on a straight downhill when I was trying to tuck skate really hard. My fall was actually pretty funny, I am glad I can laugh about it.
Sunday morning took all of us by surprised. When we arrived at the race venue, we immediately shredded layers of clothing down to a long sleeve. Quickly, everyone was searching through their bags to see if they had packed a t-shirt to race in. Sunday’s race was a 10km classic race on a 2.5km loop that was mainly all uphill and then all down hill. I was very pleased with my race given the course and the distance. I was most proud of holding my technique together when I got tired. On my last lap, Katharine had caught me at the high point and from there, we charged through the rolling section and into the downhill, head to head, pushing one another to the finish. I had a blast racing in no gloves, no headband, and just a t-shirt in the sunshine. I ended up 13th overall, leaving me satisfied with my weekend. I enjoyed catching up with my former CSU teammates and coaches and cheering the men on. After the drive home, I whipped out a short strength session and then headed home ready for bed.
- Chase teaching the J2 girls how to clean skis quickly.
Smile on!-JKern