January 25, 2008 (Canmore, Alta.) – We arrived in Canmore, Alberta at the end of last week after a great 10-day altitude camp at Silver Star Mountain, BC. Canmore’s cold temperatures were a bit of a shock to the system (down to –10F). Trained over the first couple of days, getting acquainted with the new venue. Watched the pursuit races on Tuesday and then prepared for Wednesday’s classic sprint.

Conditions were awesome with cold, solid tracks and sunny skies. My ski testing and warm up went well. Started bib #10 in the qualifying round and skied a solid run. A little confused to see a big time gap back from first (+13 sec) upon finishing. Just missed advancing to the heats by less than a second, 33rd place. Sounds like my skis may have been a little slow, holding me back just enough to miss out on more racing. Darn!

Spent the rest of the day watching the heats with the Kikkanimal Fan Club (i.e. My Mom and aunts Betsy and Liz).

Tough luck on this one, but I’ve got another shot on Saturday with the skate sprint!

Video highlights of the race available on SkiTrax.com here.

The Full Story

Following US Nationals in Michigan, I traveled to Silver Star Mountain, BC with my APU team for a 10-day altitude camp. Silver Star was amazing– tons of snow, freshly groomed trails everyday, and nice accommodations. It was the perfect setting to wind down from a big week of racing and build back into the World Cup schedule. The Norwegian team was also training in Silver Star and we crossed paths occasionally. After a solid camp, we jumped in the vans and drove the six hours to Canmore.

The snow was just tapering off as we arrived, giving way to clear skies. That meant it was going to get cold! I took a rest day Sunday and only stepped outside for a short 30 min run. It was chilly at about 5 F.

To avoid excess exposure to people and potential germs, the US Ski Team decided to rent a house for the national team athletes, complete with a Swiss chef named Marcel. It’s been a nice alternative to hotel living, and the food is delicious!

By Monday the Canmore Nordic Center was coming alive with World Cup hustle and bustle. Athletes, coaches and service staff were buzzing around testing skis and doing race prep accelerations. I had a good workout of easy skiing with a few 45 sec sprint bursts. My first taste of going hard on the cold snow and in the dry air!

Tuesday brought the first competitions, the pursuit races. I had decided earlier in the year that I would sit out the distance races here to be most prepared for the sprints. While I knew that was a smart decision, I couldn’t help but wish that I was racing. I did my sprint race prep workout earlier in the morning before the races started. I met up with Chandra Crawford at the end of my ski and we did a few pick-ups side by side. Then I changed into dry clothes and watched the races on TV from the warmth of the day lodge.

In the afternoon I had a run on my schedule so I decided to go on an adventure. My Mom and aunts had supposedly arrived in Canmore, so I took off to see if I could find their bed and breakfast. My run was only supposed to be 20 min, and at 15 minutes I was still on the way there. This was either going to be a brilliant plan (if they could give me a ride home) or a long walk back! Thankfully, just past the 18 minute mark, I saw my aunts silhouette in the window. It was great to see everyone and I did manage to get a ride home. Marcel prepared a great dinner of baked salmon and potatoes, and I finished off the evening watching Heroes episodes with Jeff.

Waking up Wednesday morning, I could tell it was race day. The little butterflies in my stomach made my oatmeal difficult to swallow and I did my typical routine of folding clothes to get ready for the race. With my bag all packed I headed off to the venue with the other US athletes.

Ski testing went smoothly. I began my warm-up on a pair of non-race skis allowing the waxers more time to dial in the kick wax. With about 30 minutes to go until race time, I had a chance to test out my race skis. I tested two pairs, but one pair was obviously much faster. After determining that I had enough kick, I passed the skis back to the waxers for a final touch-up of powder in the kick zone for speed. I tested the skis one more time, everything felt right, and headed to the start.

The wind was whipping through the stadium, and although it was warmer than some of the previous days, it was still quite chilly to strip off my warm-ups! I took my position in line (bib 10) and watched the racers start to fan out on course. Astrid Jacobsen (last year’s classic sprint World Champion) started in front of me. Once she headed out of the gate I had a quick 15 seconds until my turn.

I charged hard out of the start with a few strides before switching to double-pole. It was a long flat across the stadium towards the first climb. I double-poled until I felt the speed change and then added in a few kicks. The course then turned up for a short climb with a sharp-left hairpin turn at the top. I charged over the top with coach Justin yelling to really use the core. Before dropping into a tuck I put in a couple extra hard double-poles. It was a very short rest and I double-poled hard into the next steep.

I ran up the steep section with a quick tempo and charged around a tight 90 deg turn to the right. As I made my way toward the top of the course, my legs were starting to burn. I challenged myself to make quick, powerful kicks, driving my body up the track. Over the top I made a few double-pole kicks, then a few hard double-pole crunches, and then into a tight tuck. I switched to the inside track around the next turn and sailed toward a third hairpin.

Approaching the turn, I had to double-pole and then stride to carry momentum. I powered my way around the turn, made a few hard pushes, and then dropped into a tuck for a few meters. As the speed came down, I abandoned the tuck and began a frenzied double-pole. My motions were big and open at first, but as the terrain turned upward, I brought my hands in closer and made quick, powerful crunches. To keep my speed up, I switched to double-pole kick for several meters, bringing myself into the final 100m. With about 50m to go I switched back to double-pole and pounded as hard and as fast as I could. At last I slid my foot across the line and skidded to a halt trying to look at the scoreboard.

I was a little shocked to see myself in 10th place (out of 10), 13 seconds off the lead. It was surprising because I had felt really good on the course, my double-pole had felt stronger than usual, and in my last world cup classic sprint I was within three seconds of the lead. It was a disappointing, and I knew I might be in danger of not qualifying with a time like that.

As I headed out of the finish chute to grab my warm-ups, the hard effort in the cold dry air began to catch up with me. My legs were still a little wobbly and my throat burned with a metallic taste. I pulled my warm clothes on a little haphazardly, and headed back to the wax tables. As the top racers came in, I heard my name slip down the list. Eventually I ended up in 33rd place, less than one second out of advancing to the heats. Darn!!!

Before I reached the wax cabin, I ran into Jeff (my fiancé). He was all fired up about something! I kind of shrugged my shoulders at him, not knowing how to explain what had just happened. His first comment to me was “YOUR SKIS!” “What?” I thought, “my skis?” Apparently, my skis had looked visibly slow during the race. I was having to come out of my tuck to double-pole several meters before most of the field, and I had lost over three seconds to the racer behind me just from the top of the course to the low point (a tucking section). Several people had noticed it, and the US waxers scrambled to change the wax on the men’s skis that were about to start.

While I was still disappointed to not be moving on to the quarterfinals, it was at least good to know more about why I had finished slower than expected. I never think to blame my equipment for a less than ideal result, but in this case, it sounds like there was solid evidence that my skis had hindered my chance to advance to the heats. Unfortunately that is all part of ski racing, especially on classic days, and especially on the world cup, where the margin for error is so incredibly small. I know my wax team and I did everything possible to have the best skis, and we just had some bad luck.

With no more possibility of racing more in the day, I took off into the woods for a long cool-down ski. Along the way, I met up with my teammates, and enjoyed working the lactic acid out of my muscles. Then I changed into dry clothes and headed off to lunch with my coaches Erik and Frode. We discussed the positive things they had seen during the race and strategized on some key things to work on for the next race.

We made it back from lunch just in time for the quarterfinals to start. I watched the races from the sidelines, with the present members of my Kikkanimal Fan Club (i.e. My Mom and aunts Betsy and Liz). It was fun to be able to give them info on each of the racers and to try and predict what might happen in each heat. I poured my energy into cheering on my fellow North American Chandra Crawford as she skied her way into the top-12, and rooted for the US boys. Unfortunately they had some tough luck too, and didn’t advance to the semi’s.

Once the races were over and the stadium had cleared out, I went back on course with Erik and Frode. I needed to give my body the full workout it had been prepared for. We skied a couple hard laps around the sprint course, gunning the finishing stretch at full throttle. While I didn’t get to sprint for the win, at least I got a run at Erik and Frode!

Even though I wasn’t in the mix like I wanted to be, it was still an exciting day of sprint racing and I learned a lot. I may not have achieved my goal for the day, but I walk away satisfied that I gave my best effort. I know I am on track for where I want to be, and I will add this race to my bag of experience.

No need to be discouraged, in two days I will have another chance to sprint for victory! This time in freestyle, my favorite event.

I look forward to sharing more stories with you.

Cheers,
Kikkan 🙂