We ran a mock double pole sprint relay near Cresthill this morning. Three teams of two: Gregg & Compton, Kuzzy & Valaas, Cook & his imaginary friend Shamiqua. We had two races & each person did four laps each race. The boys sprinted each other & Caitlin & I sprinted each other, we also had to watch out for Shamiqua. The races were very exciting and both came down to the final legs. All told it added up to about twelve minutes of double pole sprint. Twelve, that's not really very much. But it made my back sore.

After training most of the summer and all fall, I'm surprised that 12 minutes could make me sore. And I'm reminded how specific skiing is. The only way to really get good at skiing is to ski & the only way to train you muscles to race is by skiing at race pace. Now is the time to start getting the training up to speed. So we don't discover hidden weaknesses only after the season starts.