To be honest this hit of enthusiasm has come from a run I did today. I’m in an easy week of training, recovering from five weeks of solid training. The run itself wasn’t that easy being a 25km run up Mt Feathertop and back down to the valley floor. It was just such an amazingly scenic and slightly nostalgic run, I thought I might share a little.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a member of the Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club. When I was young, around 10 or 12 years old, every weekend leading up to winter the whole club would gather somewhere and train together. One of my most memorable sessions was hiking Feathertop with my dad and the rest of BNSC. One session, it took me over 4 hours for the round trip where as today I snuck under 3, even with a few photo breaks. I’ve come into some nice running form lately and have really been enjoying the long runs in the mountains. I clocked a 34:14 min in a 10km a little while ago, so it was also nice to see I can run with a bit of speed too.

While I was overseas this year, my home area got hit with bad bush fires and as it seems almost every year now, I look for updates from family and the media on how the fire is progressing and if anyone is in danger. (sadly some people did loose their lives). Today I ran through a lot of the fire-damaged area and in the last few years the area has been burnt a lot. People often quickly forget how long the damage from the fires last. Seeing it first hand has again really reminded me   how bad and frequent the fires can be. Parts of it still haven’t seen any growth, others a minty-green tinge is shining through the black. It was an awesome session with a very rewarding view at the end. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Snow gums that have turned red after the fires.

The view into the Ovens Valley.

On top.

All that remains from all the early snow falls we had in May.

Coming from a green un-burnt section, into more fire-affected area.

Above the tree line.

Burnt matchsticks.

“Hot spots” random parts of the bush burnt while others survive.

There has been some great work done on the trail but a little more needs to be done.

The start of the trail as the sun crests the mountains.

Train hard. Rest easy. Live for the moment.

The last week of the trip was an amazing highlight. Alaska is a breathtaking place and easily an area on Earth I could happily spend a lot of time in, exploring the mountains and valleys. There are quite a few things that draw me to that part of the World!

Checking out the Alaskan mountains with Star the dog.

Looking down along the ridge I’d just climbed and Anchorage in the distance.

Amazing views.

As always, United Airways cooked up a fair bit of fail, our flight was delayed an hour and a half in LA because of “issues with the cargo”. What had happened was United had decided to add one more cargo container after we had pushed back from the doors. Their excuse was that if they had not done it, they would have received a late fine for not delivering the cargo… Clearly all the passengers they made late didn’t matter….

I love how simple acts of kindness can go long way. On the main flight from LA to Sydney, I offered my blanket to an older lady who was travelling with her elderly mother and was clearly cold. After that she just produced chocolate and candy from her bag offering it to me. She even kept one of my meals, which I had missed because I was asleep. It was an extremely pleasant flight!

The Flight to Melbourne from Sydney was just as exciting with United. As we landed and then proceeded to taxi to the terminal, we obviously missed the mark while parking the plane and ran into the landing bridge that we were meant to use to exit. The end result was a huge hole in the wing and our exit and proceeding baggage collection being delayed around 3 hours. Not fun!

The puncture in the wing was about the size of a basketball.

Exiting the plane by stairs, you can see the damage on the opposite wing.

Anyway the last few days at home have been magical, running and hiking in the mountains around home in some pleasant 20 degree heat!

Hiking on Buffalo with the whole family.

Been a long time since the four of us were together!

Top of Snake Ridge running with Dad and Andrew.

As always you can’t spend 6 months aboard without saying some massive “thank you’s!”

Firstly and very importantly, there have been some very very special and kind families that have welcomed me into their homes to stay for many many weeks and months! They have been extremely generous and I’m very grateful to have been so lucky  to have been able to stay. I hope I can return the offer!

To my Sponsors

Birkebeiner Nordic Ski Club, Innovative Practical Marketing Solutions, Falls Creek and The University of Ballarat, without your support I could never have made it over to race, or been able to race for so long! Thank you!

To my Coach and Director, August Teague and Finn Marsland. Thanks for another amazing, successful year. I can’t wait for the next 12 months! Thanks!

Thanks to the other support members of the team, the waxers, managers and physios. It’s been great working with you!

Finally to all my friends and family who send me messages and keep me going, you’re the best and a massive thank you to you all!

Train hard. Rest easy. Live for the moment.

The old blog musings.

I’m lying in my bed on a sunny Californian morning recovering and slightly dreading having to stand up on my legs and test if they will hold me! Yesterday marked the final race of the Spring Super Tour with a brutal 6km hill climb.

To wind the clocks back a little to prove I’m not a complete softy I’ll explain a little more. Thursday the 4^th of April started it all off with a 3.3 km Prologue. 3.3km of racing I know it doesn’t sounds that bad but the tough thing is that it’s done at a sprint speed with the fastest guys (and girls) hammering it out it in less than 8 minutes, add on to that a brutal A climb, fresh wet slow snow and elevation of over 2200m (as high as the highest point in AUS) and you have a perfect suffer fest storm! To be honest I loved it and posted a great result of 30^th over all and 8^th U23 athletes so for a while there I was thinking Spring Series could actually be really good! Clearly the race gods decided I needed to be brought back down to earth and lined up the 15km mass start the next day to be exactly that!

Prologue, coming up the start of the A climb. Photo credit Mark Nadell.

Because of a bad spring the race organisers moved the races up higher to chase quality snow. This meant we were racing on very narrow trails and when you send 90 men down a narrow trail only carnage can result. I was ranked terribly because I don’t have a USA racing license and so was out the back. The course was fairly flat and fast to start off with. The only changes were a series of almost 180 degree turns before  hitting the same brutal A climb as the prologue before descending back to the stadium and starting the loop again. A 5 km loop, 3 times round. The weather was the exact opposite of the day before, hot and sunny.

I knew that it would be crazy and so I was keen to try and avoid any crashes or broken poles. The gun went and with it the snapping of poles, not mine but everyone around me it seemed, I watched one athlete break 2 poles in the space of 20 meters. I survived the first switchback corner and started moving up the field. As the second corner approached I decided to be aggressive and try and take a group of skiers on the outside. It was all going perfectly to plan until the guy next to me got spat wide in the turn and couldn’t hang onto his line. He then basically hip and shouldered me off the track, down a 2-foot drop and I ended up hugging a tree. Not the sly “jump the pack” move I was hoping for.

I got up and check nothing was broken, I was just a little winded but remarkably injury and broken equipment free.  I got back on the course and put the foot down hoping to recover some ground, I managed to get back in sight of the pack I was originally with but didn’t quite have the energy to close the gap.  I still made solid ground picking off a bunch of skiers as a small group formed with me in it. On the last lap myself and another athlete dropped the pack on the A climb pushing hard but as we crested the hill he accidentally stood on my pole in the narrow tracks and it caused me to stumble breaking my other pole. I limped across the line with two broken poles and the frustration of having to concede an average at best race when I was actually feeling great and hoping for a whole lot more.

The next day was a 1.5km classic sprint and I just hoped my bad luck was behind me and it would be clean fast racing. It all went really smoothly and fast and I came across the line satisfied with how it went. However it seemed I didn’t really get out of 1st gear because on paper I had no speed and was a long way down the result list.

Sprinting. Photo credit Mark Nadell.

Thankfully we had a rest day the next day and a chance to relax, sleep in and recharge the batteries before the final, brutal hill climb.

The race start was pursuit style, so our collective race times created our position and start times. Because of my lackluster performances I was ranked 55 and 8:48 minutes back. I started with 4 other guys and we created a pack, moving hard at the start. For the first 3km racers did a lap of a meadow and then hit two solid hills before one last flat section and then the 3 km of climbing as we followed a series of switchbacks up a downhill run to the top of the mountain. Just to keep us on our toes there was basically gale force winds all morning. It was so strong that the downhill gates they were using to mark the course were pushed flat to the ground.

I made sure I sat at the back of the pack with as we raced through the meadow, letting them take the brunt of the wind. I was not feeling fresh and I was starting to get worried that I was going to get dropped, as we hit the first two foot hills! As we hit the hills I was hurting a lot and they started to gap me, I managed to hang on and just stay in contact. As we skied the last flat before the main climb I started to come good and as we hit the hill I was feeling in much better shape, I settled for a while sitting behind the others but as they slowed I decided to go, dropping them. For the rest of the climb I moved up behind athletes, sat behind, settled and then went again. This approach seemed to work really well and I managed to have a really decent climb for someone my size!

Gives a little perspective of the wind in the hill climb. Photo credit Mark Nadell.

We have now two days off before the 50km national distance race. It’s predicted to be extremely hot so it’s going to be a brutal slush fest by the sounds of thing.

Till then I’m going out to enjoy the Californian sun!

Enjoying Lake Tahoe with Lauren (L), Gus (C) and Callum (R).

So this is what I originally had hoped to post but realistically I got preoccupied and forgot. I’m actually now sitting in a café in Anchorage, Alaska.  So as I mentioned in the original blog we had the 50km race to come, which is the last of the season. As predicted it was BRUTAL! Five laps of a 10km loop in crazy slush! The temp hovered around 13 degrees C which I know sounds cool, however  in those temps cross-country skiers basically suffer heat stroke! Normally a 50km takes 2:10 for the fast guys, on the day the snow was so slow that it took everyone one an extra 20 odd minutes even though the course realistically wasn’t that tough. It was just one of those days when you have to push just as hard on the downhill as the up hills. I had an ok day, nothing special just happy to finish and be done with racing for a few weeks.

The 50km was also a bit of a laugh for some athletes and I though I’d add a little color and steeze to the race. Photo credit Mark Nadell.

I then spent my last day and a half enjoying Tahoe and it’s amazing surroundings before packing my bags and heading North! I had an offer to stay up in Alaska for a week that I couldn’t resist. That plus some amazing hikes in the Mountains has made this last week of my trip absolutely amazing!

Phil getting some hang time in the backyard…

I have heard back home there has already been to snow flurries up top so a winter down under is close at hand. I’m hoping I can squeeze in a week of warm surfing before the snow settles but realistically bring on winter, I can’t wait!

For more awesome photos of the races check out all of Mark Nadells photos at http://macbethgraphics.smugmug.com/NORDIC-RACING/Supertour-Tahoe-2013

Home on April the 22nd, 6 months and 2 days since I walked on Australian soil.

Train hard, rest easy, live for the moment.

The first week I arrived in Tahoe was an unstructured training week, which basically meant I could do what ever I felt like. The idea behind the week is if I’m tired it’s a chance for me to recharge the batteries and relax or if I’ve been craving some random form of exercise I can get my fill! The week was awesome catching up with some friends from around the area and doing some light training. Easily the highlight of the week was a powder day of downhilling with some local guys. It’s been a while since I was really pushed downhill skiing and being with these guys I was easily the weakest skier so it was really exhilarating charging a few lines which I thought were borderline crazy!

Alpine Meadows with Gus and Drew.

Sussing out the Beaver Bowl.

Johannes, Drew and Myself loving life on top of the World!

Drew looking for the perfect place to drop

After a week of taking it easy I was really keen to start training hard again and I was hit with two solid 20+ hour weeks which was a bit of a shock to the body! However with the arrival of Callum from Scandinavia and a few other American skiers the training group has been great and session made easy!

The Spring skiing here has been amazing with glorious Californian sun and great snow. With the warmth has also brought out a few more of the locals and the first bear sightings have been made out on Royal Gorge so hopefully Callum and I get lucky and see one, we are both super keen to catch a glimpse (from a nice little distance).

I feel perhaps photos again may best describe how much fun it is over here, so for now.

Gus on top of the World

Callum with local legend Patrick McElravey.
Photo credit Lauren Fritz.

Callum earning himself a 6 pack of beer for skiing in undies for 20 minutes…
Photo credit Lauren Fritz

Lauren Fritz, Myself and Cal with Royal Gorge in the background.
Photo credit Lauren Fritz.

Train hard. Rest Easy. Live for the moment.

So winding the clocks back four weeks you would have found me training in Davos, Switzerland with the whole Aus team. Davos was a great chance for me to chill out and recharge the batteries, before gearing up for the Swiss champs and selection races for the Davos World Cup.

The Davos 15km Skate was my second chance to race a World Cup, but with three men qualified and only one spot open, it was always going to be a tough challenge. Since flying to Europe, I haven’t been in amazing form. I’d say one race was decent (the 30km in Liberec). But apart from that, I’ve been as a whole, disappointed.

So with the hope of turning my European season around, I went into the 15km Skate at Swiss champs with high hopes.

Possibly with all the pressure I put on myself, I completely choked and skied a shocking race. The next day was a 15km Classic, which in the past has been my favorite event. Knowing I had no chance of starting the 15km skate in Davos, I relaxed a lot more and found my groove, skiing a respectable race, moving up in the weekend standings a lot.

Swiss Champs 15km Skate. Photo credit Finn Marsland.

Swiss Champs 15km skate. Photo credit Finn Marsland

Swiss Champs 15km classic. Not a bad back drop for a race. Photo credit Finn Marsland

Swiss Champs 15km classic. Amazing tracks Photo credit Finn Marsland.

Back in Davos, my focus turned from the Davos World Cup to the World Champs in Val De Fiemme Italy, in 10 days time. For me, Davos turned into a great little training block and with full coaching staff, along with the addition of team physio Andi Stoffel joining our ranks, it felt like I got the most out of that week.

Setting up shop in Davos. some of the amazing support crew!

We headed down to Italy the day after the distance World Cup race in Davos and found our hotel in a fairytale village, just 15 minutes from the stadium, in a town called Milina.

Looking down on Milina.

The next day we headed to the trails and checked out the venue and Phil, Vandy and myself all prepared for the 10km preselection race the next day. Since the 2009 World Champs, to qualify for the 15km Individual race you have to either have your FIS points under a certain mark or come top ten in the race.

This year, perhaps due to the up-coming Olympics or just a greater interest in cross-country skiing, the start list had doubled in size and around 75 men lined up to try and steal one of the ten spots. Historically Australians have gone really well in this race and so I was really keen to crack the top 10.

I was ranked roughly in the top 20, so I knew I had to have a great ski to hit the mark. Again, like the Swiss Champs, I skied a very average 10k. I actually haven’t done that short a distance in over a year. So perhaps I just forgot how short it was and didn’t go all out to empty the tank properly.

The 10km Skate. Photo credit Rob Whitney.

The 10km Skate. Photo credit Rob Whitney.

After talking with the Boss (Coach August), it was decided I would skip the Sprint and focus on the 30km Skiathlon, giving myself a full rest day, then a prep day to really get going! Mass start races are always carnage and the start at of the 30k was no exception! There were 96 starters and clearly a lot of eager athletes because as soon as the gun went, people were going all over the place trying to overtake, creating chaos as broken poles went everywhere and people ran into the back of each other.

Out of the start, I wasn’t feeling that fired and it wasn’t until around the 7km mark that I started to really ski into the race and feel good. As each lap went by, I felt much more energized and really tried to make up on the lost time I’d let slip by in the first few laps. However by this stage, I’d lost a lot of time to the leading pack and was on the verge of getting lapped out. I came in and changed onto the skate skis and again our Wax Crew had nailed the wax and I was on rockets! A lot of teams struggled for the whole week finding the right wax – teams with ridiculously huge budgets, so for our tiny team to hit the wax, day after day, with quite a few athletes in each race, is a huge credit to them and great for the team!

Climbing up out of the stadium, the Boss was on the hill and knowing the position of the leaders, all he said to me was “you’ve gotta go PK, ya gotta go!” This little bit of not too cryptic code meant the leaders were close and I had to drop the hammer and just go all out until I blew, or got lapped out. On the start of my second lap it came to an end, when I was lapped out. But frustratingly I still had quite a bit of time before the lead pack came through, so perhaps I could have notched up one more lap, who knows.

The 30km Skiathlon. Photo credit Georgia Merritt.

The 30km Skiathlon. Photo credit Georgia Merritt.

The plan originally was to have a Mens relay team. But sadly Vandy started to get a cold, so that idea was quickly scrapped and I just focused on the last and most exciting race for the championships – the 50km Classic. Just like in cycling, the hill climbs are broken up into categories and Val De Fiemme produced one of the hardest courses I have ever seen with 3 “A” category climbs, not to mention a handful of smaller climbs in an 8.3 km lap, with the only rest coming from two gnarly down hills. To make things more interesting, it was like spring skiing in Australia, with the temperature for race day expected to be 16 degrees C. So dehydration and cramps were going to be even more of an issue than usual.

I had never done a 50km race before, so I was super excited to give it a crack and make sure I went out of my first championships with a bang! Again lapping was a concern. Philpot and I made a bet that if I made it past 4.3 laps, he had to keep his moustache which he has been sporting for the last two weeks until the end of the trip when he gets back to Aus.

The day dawned with perfect skies and just as hot as predicted. Cal and I both raced in running T-shirts. It was so hot that athletes were sticking snow down their lycra to try and keep their core temperatures down.

The field size was a little more modest with only 72 athletes starting. The start was a lot cleaner, with skiers knowing they had 50km to make a move.  However almost instantly, the Swiss team made a strategic move against the Norwegians and sent an athlete off the front, attacking only after a kilometer or so. This meant the pack instantly increased its pace trying to hunt down the breakaway.  I was feeling great (thanks to the last few days preparation with the Boss) and I comfortably skied with the pack for most of the first lap. Eventually the field broke up and a bunch of smaller chasing packs formed. I got in one towards the back and felt strong skiing at the front. Since the 2010 Olympics a new rule has been brought in letting athletes change their skis 3 times during the race. Because the race lasts for over 2 hours the conditions can change dramatically and this is to try and help account for that. My skis were skiing a little slippery, so I decided to come in on the first lap and switch. With added grip the skis were offering I was still feeling great and I set a hard pace in the pack. And if any one is wondering yes Phil will be sporting a mustache  for another 6 week.

Skiing in the sun checking out the 50km course.

Now never let anyone say that cross-country is a soft sport! On one of the gnarly downhills, it was so fast that over the rise you got airborne.  As Cal landed and came around the next corner, his skis slipped out from under him and he whipped down hard on the snow, where a Ukrainian skier collided with his spine. Cal had to pull out after another lap with terrible back pain. It was later discovered he had slightly impinged one of his discs in the collision. But after Andi worked on him for a while, he was pain free.

A massive “Thank you” needs to be sent out to all of our waxing and management staff along with coaches and physios. All week we had amazing skis and everything organized perfectly for us not to mention being super relaxed and ready to race so thanks to everyone involved!

The 2013 World Championships Athletes. Photo credit August Teague.

I have now flown back to America and the final chapter of my trip. 6 weeks here in the states before finally arriving on Aus soil on the 22^nd of April! Tahoe really does feel like coming home and being back in the States is awesome. I’m on a week of unstructured training, which is great. This if for me just to recover from jet lag but more importantly to get me recharged and ready to train hard again. As seems with tradition, when I arrived in Tahoe it snowed the next day and its been pumping down which is great! We have one last set of races here in Tahoe called the Spring Series, which should be a lot of fun.

Train hard. Rest Easy, Live for the moment.

So winding the clocks back a little to the start of the competitions on Monday week. Australia brought its largest ever junior/U23 team to this event, 10 athletes and 3 coaches. The juniors had their first hit out on Monday and then on Tuesday it was our turn to hit up the sprint. In the last 24 hours before the race they had decided to increase the length of the course again to 1.6km instead of the 1.3km it originally was. This added an extra hill and false flat to the course causing a whole lot more pain to the race and really changing the tactics. I had really liked the previous course and was a little annoyed there had been the change. In the end there was nothing I could do so I just reworked my race plan and went to business! It was a decent race but to be honest I’m still confused about how I should feel I went. I had a PB with the FIS points for the race which is great but I was really hoping to be a lot higher up on the result sheet. In the end I’m fairly content with it and with the warm up race for me over I looked to the skate 15km to really hammer! As I mentioned in an earlier blog a lot of my goals were around this race and the 30km a day after. The race was easily one of my worst for the season so it was extremely disappointing. I have been up at altitude all season and I basically forgot what it feels like to be at a lower elevation and I didn’t ski it at all well. It’s the second 15km skate that I have stuffed up in a row so it’s fairly annoying!

To be honest I was so disheartened by how I had skied that I strongly considered pulling out of the 30km Skiathlon (racers ski the first 15km classic then switch to skate for the second 15km) the next day and it wasn’t until I had a Skype call to my folks who both told me to harden up and race until I realised that I needed to race just to prove to myself I wasn’t in horrible form!

So knowing I was going to race I spent the rest of the day preparing as much as possible to race the 30km Skiathlon. The night going into the race I was again a little frustrated with the organisers, they had brought in the “lapping rule” which means that if the lead pack catches you, you are removed from the race. With all the lack of snow on the course the organisers had set out was a 2.5km loop. Basically with the caliber of the field that was at this event if you dropped any further than 5 minutes behind the lead you’d get lapped. In other words 25 seconds per lap.

I was the only U23 athlete to start for Australia, both Phillip and Alex Almoukov (who took a break from biathlon to join us for a week) when they heard the rule change burst into laughter knowing what brutal struggle I was in for and relief for themselves! I had a quiet chuckle knowing it was going to be a suffer fest. I guess it’s fairly obvious considering I’m a cross-country skier but I actually really enjoy the races where it just hurts from start to finish and you suffer! I knew looking at the times from the previous races I’d really need to lift my game if I wanted to stay in it for more than the classic.

Because I was the only athlete starting I was extremely lucky to have 3 coaches helping me out dialing the wax for the skis and just psyching me up! As a result the skis were rockets and I knew the race would be great! I was disappointingly lapped out but so were another 20 odd athletes so it just shows how hard it was. Realistically I skied the best I had all week so it was promising to feel energetic and dynamic skiing again!

I have possibly done enough talking now so I’ll just let pictures do the rest.

Running in the early morning in Liberec.

Looking across the stadium to the sprint hill.

Lining up to start im number 8 and Alex is number 9. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

The 15km. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

The 15km. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

Getting a feed from Coach Finn in the 30km. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

30km. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

Deep in the hurt box in the skate leg of the 30km. Photo Credit: AUS Ski Team.

Perfect trails and sun in Davos.

Home sweet home in Davos.

I’m now in Davos Switzerland and loving life in the sun!

Until next time.

Train hard. Rest easy. Live for the moment.

Finn, Wolly the Wombat and I checking out the sprint course.

Sadly from the US nationals I had a cold and so had to rest for a few days to make sure I got rid of it before U23’s. I’m now happy to say I’ve been training properly for a week. But because of my rest days earlier in the week, I had to sit out and watch the World Cup instead of joining in! It was a frustrating choice, but it had to be made. There is still a lot of the season ahead and a lot of my goals are actually based around these U23 World Championships. To potentially risk the goals, racing sick, was clearly not an option. So I cheered on the team and now can charge into the U23’s with 100% health

I have had some rather interesting experiences here in Czech, which makes me feel it’s a little dodgy and hence the title of the Blog. I was doing specific strength the other day, which basically just involves me polling up a hill numerous times. Now I was coming down the hill after a set and my water belt was beside the track marking where I start each time. As I’m coming down I see a man ski up, pick up my bag, look and see what’s inside (which was a bunch of waxes) and then proceed to ski off and strap it around his waist. Needless to say, I skied after him and asked for it back. He didn’t say a thing, just skied off after giving it to me.

Another classic moment happened yesterday when Phil and I were in an Army Disposal shop looking for a pocketknife. The salesman didn’t speak any English and knew we were fairly curios looking at all the old Soviet equipment lying about. So from under the counter he just pulls out an old stick hand grenade and passes it to me. I think the look on my face must of said it all because the salesmen just laughed and took it back off me.

This is but one of the funny little moments that has made the “Sketchy” experience. Others include getting yelled off a bus for not speaking Czech and knowing where we were going to get off.

In the bus heading back from the tracks.

I have met up with Phil again, who has been over here for a few weeks. Together we have been able to laugh our way through it all and have been enjoying ourselves. It’s not often you cross-country near or in cities. So the ability to go shopping or sight seeing is rather novel and fun.

Some pretty amazing trails up on top!

Phillip and I skiing on the race course.

The junior team has now arrived and the realization that I’m starting the first of three races, in my last ever U23 World Championships has set in. Almost all the teams have arrived and the hotel we are staying in is packed full of all the different countries. It’s been great catching up with people we have met along the racing road.

Skiing roughly 40 minutes out of Liberec where there is decent snow.

We have a rest day tomorrow and then preparation for the classic sprint on Saturday. For now it’s feet up and time to read a book.

Train hard. Rest easy. Live for the moment!

The next day, still buzzing from last night’s fireworks we headed to the trails and did our race prep for the classic 1.3km sprint. Warming up I was feeling great and my skis were rockets so I was really keen to throw down for the event. It’s my first proper classic sprint since pinching a disc in my back in Australia, so I was really keen to see how my form was! I have to admit I’ve been sprinting like a goat on ice lately so I knew I’d be asking a lot to have a great race, but I was still keen to go for it and see how I went.

Prepping for the race I was still feeling good but that firework feeling I’d had the day before was gone. Coming out of the block I was feeling ok and I tried to drop the hammer. Well I think the hammer fell and hit the goat because by the end of the race I wasn’t even scrambling on ice, I was spent but with little to show for it. Clearly with a change in technique I still had not had a change in my sprinting form.

A chilly morning run with Callum Watson.

I wasn’t too surprised I didn’t race like a rocket. This year I have entirely turned into a distance skier. So knowing in two days time, the 15km skate individual would be my revenge, I was content just to prepare for that. Between each race we had a rest day and I’ll admit I’m not keen on this style at all. I seemed to get very tired very quickly, even though I had only done one race.

Most mornings we hit -20 C which makes for some chilly morning running!

The day of the 15km skate came, and again, like the sprint before it, I went out of the start gate hard. I tried to drop the hammer early on, knowing a good friend of mine was starting just 15 seconds behind, but again nothing. I skied the whole race hard and in a semi respectable time. But it still really wasn’t good enough for a distance skier. I just never got out of third gear. It was a very tough race to even keep going and finish, I was just so out of it.

After a big talk to the Boss August, it was decided that I would take the day off before the 30km classic mass start and try and find my spark again. Normally we go to the tracks before each race and do pick ups but because I was so flat it was decided I’d just put my feet up and chill!

With my talk with August we decided I would go into this race and try a few new things, nothing crazy, but if I found myself flat again then I needed to try and do tactics I’d normally never do to just try and get me racing harder. The other major focus was to stay relaxed in the race, especially the start. I was ranked way out the back in 91^st place. So often it’s easy to go out like a raging bull, (which I sadly have done far too many times before) to try and get to the front of the pack  and then blowing up, instead of slowly moving up the field. So for once I nailed the timing of my warm up and went into the starting pen ready but also feeling a little flat.

The gun went and the pack surged out of the stadium, all 120+ of us.  Again I have a terrible reputation for being a erratic skier in a pack jumping around the place trying to find the fastest skier to sit on instead of just calmly moving up. The boss had really reminded me to relax and be smooth and for once I did it and surprise, surprise it worked! I found myself moving steadily up the field. The first major hill came and I skied it well. But more to my surprise, I felt great and recovered quickly after it. For the rest of the race I just kept feeling better and better and managed to ski into one of my best mass start races. I finished a respectable 40^th but more amusingly my time behind the winner for the 30km race was less than my time behind for the 15km race. Goes to show how bad an “off day” of racing can be.

30km Classic Mass start, Photo by Ben Grasseschi.

A massive thank you to The Boss, Big M and Ben for all the hard work and waxing, all week i’ve had amazing grip and super fast skis. Not to mention all the support and cheering on the tracks! Thanks again Far West Nordic.

I’m off to Europe tomorrow to prepare for the U23 World Championships. The whole U23 and U20 team is already in Liberec preparing so I’ll be the last to join up before the event starts in late January. Feel free to check out the official page at http://www.liberec2013.cz/en/

It’s been a crazy few months here and I’ll miss the US a lot. Racing here now feels like home and I’m already looking forward to returning to Tahoe for the Spring Series in March. It’s going to be a lot of fun! For now I’m off to pack bags.

Train hard. Rest easy. Live for the moment.

Enjoy.

Race preparation. Photo credit Robert Whitney.

Photo credit Robert Whitney.

Base of the second climb. Photo credit Robert Whitney.

Coming around the corner to the second climb. Photo credit Robert Whitney.

Phil taking advantage of the free marshmallows in the centre of Canmore.

Canmore Stadium.

Canmore Stadium.

Canmore Stadium.

Canmore sky, during a pre breakfast jog.

Canmore Stadium. Sprint finals in progress.

One day we walked into our wax cabin and the walls were covered in posters from the local schools.

Last day in Canmore, went running with Phil.

Relaxing after the weekend of racing.

The final run in Canmore with Phil.

Pre race day. Photo credit Robert Whitney.

So as usual I need to wind back the clocks a week. I arrived Sunday night, very late back into Canmore from Silverstar, flopping into bed at 1:00am.  I crawled out the next morning after a small sleep-in and that’s when all the preparations for Saturdays sprint World Cup began. For the rest of the week everything was really focused on those 3 minutes of racing. In the past few races I will admit I have let nerves effect me too much so I know that the coaches were a little worried that race would eat me up before I even got to the start line. However between the boys quality words of wisdom and the coaches keeping me focused on the task at hand, I found I this race was probably the least stressful of the trip so far. I just new exactly what to expect and to be honest I was just excited to be racing a World Cup!

On Thursday I watched Callum race the 15km Classic Mass Start. This really helped me settle into the idea I was about to race. Cal had a really solid race, which also just created a sweet buzz in the team and a lot of positive energy which made Saturdays preparation a lot easier.

Saturday dawned clear but very cold, for the whole week it had been a reasonable -6 but on Saturday the mercury dropped to -12. Meaning that 3 minutes at 12 o’clock was going to hurt that much more!

The warm up went sweet and as I walked to the starting pen August met me there with my race skis and last few words of wisdom. To be honest out of my whole racing career I actually remember this race the least. There are only 4 points from start to finish that I can remember, for the rest of the whole race I was so focused on just skiing as hard as I possibly could I have no recollection at all.

Realistically on paper I didn’t have a great race coming 70^th however I didn’t sign the list (come last) and I skied the course faster that I’d ever done it in practice. There is definitely a lot I need to do with my sprinting. For being such a big guy I really don’t use any of it to my advantage.

Pre race training.

Pre race training.

Pre race training.

Canmore Stadium.

Running along the river in Canmore.

The next day was the 30km Ski-athlon and Callum again was the only Australian athlete representing and boy did he do it well! He skied a personal best result of 47^th and at one point was looking like he’d crack the top 40 but sadly got out sprinted to the line by the pack he was skiing with!

Over this racing period the team has had an awesome shift and vibe. The whole team has either been producing PB’s or results that we haven’t seen in years so it’s really exciting to have progress and a step in the right direction! It’s a massive credit to the team’s coaching and management staff that this early on in the season the whole team is already stepping it up and pushing the bar even higher! A massive thank you to the whole crew!

The team has now split up again for a few weeks. August, Callum and I have driven the 23.5 hours back to California, Phillip and Esther are staying in Canada another week before flying to Europe and Finn has headed home for a month before heading back to Europe.  For this Christmas period Callum and I are planning a massive training block before heading to US Nationals and then to Europe. Hopefully the good vibes and momentum we have got going continues!

The photos I have are all from the pre race the day before the World Cup. Photos are coming form the day but might take a little while.

Train hard, Rest easy, Live for the moment.