Cast: CSU athletes, coaches, parents, and Harvard hanger-on-ers :)
Highlights:
Day One Eli and I tour the course. Was there more snow or gravel on the course? Eli said it well: biggest race of his life, least amount of snow he’s ever raced on. You think Weston with the goose poop in the spring is bad? This was gnarly.
On our training days in between races we went snow hunting to Rangeley, Maine. The day was particularly exciting because Jamie has a successful first skate ski of the season.
Watching the APU skiers race. WOW they are fast and inspiring.
In the 10k classic, Cate beat an APU girl by a minute. True story: Cate caught one of the APU girls on the hill Alex was cheering on and Alex goes “Cate you’re skiing really well. You’re beating this APU girl!” and Cate turns to her and goes “Alex, that’s rude.” Oh Cate. So polite, she apologizes to the APU girl at the end of the race for her coach’s lack of sensitivity. Cate would also like to add that she said thank you to everyone she tracked. I, on the other hand, screamed “Hup” in the gruffest tone possible to everyone I passed and didn’t look back.
Rob challenges Cate and Hannah to a game of pool. Cate and I are on the same team, but both get to go every time Rob goes (so basically we get twice as many shots). Robs wins when Cate sinks the 8 ball (by accident, she would like me to add... I sure hope she wasn’t intentionally sabotaging me).
Cate, Hannah, and Alex make pancakes for lunch every day. YUM. The first day, Hannah flips them and they are perfect, the second day Cate flips them and the first few are burned, deep fried, and eventually golden brown. Day three (by Cate) they are all golden brown. I’m proud of her culinary improvements.
Jamie and Rob get a call from NASA wondering why they are making rockets in the barn without a license (that was Rob’s joke, but Cate doesn’t get it).
Lessons Learned (you can stop reading now if you want):
So, coming into the classic sprint on Sunday, I had one goal: do everything right. Now, that seems a little vague, but really I wanted to redeem myself from my classic sprint race at the Rumford Eastern Cup last year when several things went wrong, including missing my start, skiing half my race without a pole, freaking out about my wax minutes before my start and asking a teammate to haphazardly add way to much kick. This then grabbed the snow and made me fall on my face several times during the 1.4k race. This year the sprint was the same course as last year. For a change, and my personal dignity, I really wanted everything to go smoothly.
I thought I was doing everything smoothly too. I felt really relaxed before my race, tested my wax in plenty of time, grabbed my skis and sauntered down to the start line with four minutes to spare. Approaching the start area, however, I started to hear Rob shouting, “Hannah, you’re missing your start! Come on! Let’s go!”
“Rob,” I said, “This isn’t funny. I have at least four minutes”
“Hannah I’m serious. Let’s go”
I ended up missing my start by about 25 seconds. Turns out my start time was at 11:23. I had thought it was at 11:26.
Missing my start pissed me off enough to power me around the sprint course. So, aside from my missed start I felt like I skied a strong race. I had improved in being more relaxed about my race - Rob commented later on how calm I was getting my skis and poles on even as the announcer was frantically calling my bib number.
I guess the lesson from this is that mental preparation for ski racing requires a relaxed, but still focused demeanor. Freaking out about a race like I had last year doesn’t work. Being too chill doesn’t either. Don’t stress, but be alert enough to double check your start time.
So this was kind of a goofy format to write a blog post in. I need a few lines to thank the coaches because this week would not have been a success without the coaching and wax support from them. There were tireless efforts to test for the perfect kick wax, and our skis flew and had super kick while everyone else was slipping and dragging. Thanks to all the parents who also helped to make this trip possible. Rob just suggested that I add a really sappy line about our parents providing the love and support that form the basis for all of our success as skiers and people. He’s right.
No comments:
Post a Comment