The week leading up to the carnival was pretty crazy. The life of having nothing to do everyday but ski wasn't all too bad. (check out the team blog for more posts on the week) While everywhere we went had plenty of snow, originally Placid was looking a little iffy, so there were some changes made in the original plan. The classic race on Friday ended up being a 6k on a course just below the jumps. This course was actually three loops of a 2k course. This consisted of a winding section in the stadium, which led into about a k of uphill and then a long downhill back into the stadium.
The night before the race I went over the tiny loop over and over in my head. I knew that I could either have a solid race or I would max out too fast and end up crawling up the last sections of the hill. I went into the race with the plan to ski smooth and easy up the first long hill and then book it up the next two sections before the downhill.
This plan ended up working out pretty well. I was pretty happy with my results, though I'm always hoping to move up. I feel really solid in my classic skiing right now and am really looking forward to the classic races this season.
The skate race wasn't so successful. I came out of it feeling really good about my race, but looking at the results I was pretty disappointed. Before the results I felt like I had skied hard through every section and raced smart. After looking at them I began to look back on the couple of places where I relaxed a little and lost time.
It's only the first race of the season and you learn every race. While it's not the best feeling to be so let down by the results I definitely feel optimistic knowing that the seconds I lost can easily be regained. It's also helpful to have such a positive outlook on my classic skiing. I'm not going to write off every skate race, but I'm definitely really hopeful for the classic ones.
15k classic is next on the schedule...welcome to carnival season.
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