The 10k Classic today was one of the stranger races. I think at one point I was skiing with my right foot in the track because it was starting to ice and my left ski out because that's the only place it would kick. It is also the first race in which I have ever stopped to tie my shoe. Or tighten my boot laces. Whatever. I hadn't had time to preview the course but I had heard there were some tight s-turns and once I started I realized how squirrly the tracks were and then I thought that I should have tightened my boots. And then there was a long straight downhill. So I did. I would consider that good time management skills while tucking. ?
I finally had my first SuperTour win of the season! And it was in the fabulous Methow valley, which I love. And the sun was shining. And birds were singing. And helicopters were hovering in midair over the venue. The day couldn't have been better.
Look a little bit closer... Koos is actually hovering in midair. Yes. Exactly as though he himself was a helicopter. Amazing. Remind me to do a better jump skate next race so I can have a sweet picture like this of my feet.
Today was perfect for my BootBuddies, a gadget designed to protect your boot sole & keep the snow out. Especially on sprint days when we're taking our skis off and on so many times it's nice to have the BootBuddy in and not have to worry about digging the snow out of my boots every time I put on my skis.
Today was the last race of the 2010 US National Championships. I did my typical ski-faster-every-race (3:39.0, 3:38.4, 3:31.7, 3:29.3). Miss Kikkan & I were the only women to ski the course in under 3.5 minutes today.
I was disappointed to have such a slow qualifying time. Grr. And I'd been doing such a good job with that so far this year. The starter in front of me did scratch so I didn't have anyone to chase, which I think makes it more difficult to get a good prelim time. At least for me.
The rounds were wonderfully fun, however, I felt like a ski racer.
The start line of the women's 20k. On the left of the photo is a gap. Yep, that's where I was supposed to be. Apparently everyone else operates on a be-at-the-line-five-min-to-start. I'm more on the two minute schedule. If you don't feel a little panic, you're too early.
If you look closely Liz is in the middle with her foot up having someone chip the snow out of her boot. I really wish there was a solution to that problem... hmmm. (I'm still not on the line yet.)
This is how today went: Won my quarterfinal... Sadie Bjornsen. Laura Valaas. (although obviously Sadie and I aren't exactly challenging each other for the line.)
We had our first rollerski race on Saturday. Even though it was super low key I realized that it had been forever since I'd put on a race bib. All this training sometimes gets in the way of racing! I set a PR by three seconds. Which is a very small PR, but still my fastest time over this course so far! I would also like to point out that there were more girls racing than boys. I'm liking the gender equality that I'm seeing these days in skiing.
I took my second Canadian National title today! With style too, I think it was 44 seconds to second place. Maybe I should become Canadian.
I have to credit my coaches for the good skis today. I put them on and almost didn't ski more than 5 strides because they felt so good. I did feel obliged to ski up a hill on them before declaring them race ready. It was a funny day for skis though... every uphill it took me several strides to figure out how to kick because it was so tricky. So I herring-boned most of the uphills (like every one else) but it seemed like everyone had a super tough time kicking. It was a matter of finding the kick you did have & my skis were good enough that there was kick to find.
Two long days of inter- & intra-continental travel followed by a 30k race on Saturday has left me feeling like a train wreck today.
It wasn't supposed to be that hard of a race yesterday. More of a just-for-fun kind of thing. I can't even remember the last time I started a non-FIS race so I was set on enjoying a nice, chill ski. I was really going to do a nice L3 pace workout and then take it into L4 on the last lap depending on how I felt. And then this one guy was trying to catch me. And I didn't want to be caught. I kept looking back and he'd be a little bit closer every time on the 2nd and 3rd laps (the race was 3x10k). So I had to ski hard. Once a race is started it doesn't matter if it's a World Champs race or a local loppet-- the point is still the same: beat as many people as possible. It's easy to feel like a World Champs race matters but I was very glad to find that it mattered to me very much whether I could manage to beat this guy. As long as you still care, it's still worthwhile to be a ski racer. Anyway, he finally caught me at about 2k to go. Clearly he didn't have a clue who I was because he made the mistake of not throwing down and dropping me right away. And we all know what happens if you let a sprinter stay with you to within 100m of the finish line.
The skate sprint went relatively well today, nothing spectacular but at least no one asked me if I fell. I could feel my tempo bog down in the hills and I think that would have been the difference for me between qualifying & not qualifying. Still... to put things in perspective, I would say this was my best skate sprint qualifier. ever. So I have that going for me.
I didn't fall but kikkan & newell did, which was sad. Newell in the quarterfinal and kikkan in the A-final. It was so painful to watch kikkan fall. She was sitting in third coming into the stadium and you could tell she had more energy than the girl in front of her (Petra was way out in front already) and was going to make a move into second. And then she fell. But still... sixth place is pretty spectacular. Koos also skied spectacularly, 6th in the qualifier and then very aggressively into 8th. Nice.
I'm opting to race the 10k classic tomorrow. This will be my first distance race in a World Cup and I am hoping for my first ever DFL. Not really, but I have never been DFL before (even that one time when I jumped in a pro-1-2 cyclocross race after finding a bike I could borrow about half an hour prior to start...). Last is definitely a possibility for tomorrow, I'm seeded third to last, but I figure that it's better to be last than not to race. World Cup start rights are a finite commodity so tomorrow I race, not to win, but simply because I have the opportunity.
Laura Valaas, Caitlin Compton, Nicole DeYoung
Laura Valaas
Laura Valaas
Laura Valaas
Caitlin Compton, Rhonda Jewett, Laura Valaas, Katie Ronsse, A-final
Torin Koos
Torin Koos
Laura Valaas, semifinal
Laura Valaas
Laura Valaas, Kikkan Randall, & Ida Sargent
Laura Valaas & Kikkan Randall & Nordic Fruit Pink Lady Apples
The start line of the women's 20k.
And we're off, skiing into the darkness.
Laura Valaas
Kikkan Randall coming in for the win.
Laura Valaas
Racing is hard.
Giving Caitlin Compton a hug-- congrats on the medal!
Morgan Arritola
Getting some last minute words of advice from Burky: "ski fast"
Kate Fitzegerald
Katie Ronsse
The start.
Kassandra Rice, Laura Valaas, Becca Rorabaugh
Kassandra Rice, Laura Valaas, Becca Rorabaugh
The start line.
Laura Valaas
Katie Ronsse winning the B Final!
Christina Gillis
Kikkan Randall winning the skate sprint
Laura Valaas
Important decisions are being made here.
Becca Rorabaugh collapsing after her impressive sprint and dramatic lunge (taking third overall).
Sadie Bjornsen. Laura Valaas.
Katie Ronsse, Holly Brooks, Laura Valaas, Ida Sargent, Sadie Bjornsen, Jamie Bronga.
Holly Brooks. Laura Valaas.
Kassandra Rice
Katie Ronsse
Holly Brooks, Laura Valaas, Becca Rorabaugh.
Laura Valaas
Becca Rorabaugh
Laura Valaas
Valaas, Williams, Swanson
