February 3, 2008 (Canmore, Alta.) – It was an incredible week for North American ski racers. With many athletes having family and friends at the World cups in CAnmore (some of them topless with the word “KIKKAN” written with one letter each across their chests) the atmosphere with the extremely partisan crowd was fantastic. Because this is SkiTrax I’m going to assume a lot of our readers here are really into skiing and performance, so be forewarned that I’m now going to bore you with details of comparing what I did for the classic sprint versus the skate sprint.

For me personally, a certain clarity crystallized in my focus and I felt completely at-ease up until the day of the skate race. I was grateful for every gulp of fresh mountain air, hug on the street, and morsel of home-cooked food. I went into the races excited to test out the great energy I’d been building from tapering my training load and finishing all my interval sessions with my fastest and best effort last. I appealed to my achievement-driven mind and labeled the classic sprint a “Test of New and Improved Classic,” thereby focusing on it as an opportunity to ski my best ever and let the chips fall where they may with respect to results. That being said, I qualified in a sketchy 25th spot and nearly didn’t make the rounds!

As I’ve often experienced, that feeling of “squeaking by” made me rally all my focus and set my heart and mind on acing the very next heat because it would take everything I’ve got and perhaps a little more to get through. My quarterfinal reflected this determination and I was thrilled to blaze through into the semifinal. This 1.4 km race would offer the crucial Learning Experience of the day. Skiing behind eventual winner Petra Majdic of Slovenija was the ultimate technique lesson. However it didn’t come cheap and I paid for this lesson later when in the final 300 meters to the finish I demonstrated what athletes mean when they say “I blew up.”

With the benefit of careful post-race evaluation I’m resigned to the fact that this experience of depletion had a lot to do with my fuel choices. After the quarterfinal at 10:00 am I ingested only a small recovery drink with half a banana, and went on to drink coffee or water for the next 2.5 hours. With breakfast now a distant 5.5 hours previous, the energy demands were simply not being met. I remedied the situation for the skate sprint and was so energized I felt like I could have raced 6 rounds instead of just 3.

I was back in the swing of my racing routines and went about my skate sprint with many details new and improved. After the qualifier I managed to eat most of a peanut butter/jam sandwich with my recovery drink. I drank some sport drink and even snacked on a gel with my coffee between the heats. I felt great and energized. I jogged for 15 minutes right after the qualifier (as opposed to chatting in the finish area for a good 20 minutes first) and had a 15-minute race-suit-on leg massage. Then I hopped into my little strategically parked Prius and drove the four minutes down the hill from the Canmore Nordic Centre to my condo. There I had a 5-minute cold bath and put my legs up in front of the fireplace while listening to the hilariously great band “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.”

When I got back to the Nordic Centre to start my warm-up I felt completely refreshed and recharged, especially in the legs. I was able to take the lead and ski relaxed until the last turn when I made a move in the free-skate of the downhill. Automatically I clicked in to the focus I had cultivated for this section in the previous two weeks training: “a lock on the straightaway to the finish.” At that point in the race, no matter what had happened in the race up to this point, it was time to sprint to the finish line with every fiber of my being.

It was an amazing moment to share my first world cup victory with the home town crowd, where every familiar face took part in contributing to my success just by being there. I hope you take what you can from this and resolve to continue refining your own race strategies because as I learned last week, it can make a difference!

Race on,
Chandra