After flying over and arriving in Germany ready to finally race again. We drove up and I was happy to see a lot of snow and great temps for skiing. I have never raced a day and half after arriving in Europe so It was going to be interesting to see how the body would react. Plus I have taken 5 weeks off of racing due to my injury. Waking up on Saturday morning I was excited to race (classic 15km) and was ready to get some good distance results.
I started the race fairly good I was 4th for a while then moved to 6th-8th after 8km and then my body felt the none racing and I started to loose my speed. In the end I was 13th. I was one minute off the lead which I was not excited about, but I know if I was in my normal shape the top of the podium would be possible. Sunday came rolling along quite fast. The jet lag has been pretty good; Saturday’s sleep was a little disrupted and broken up.
(photo credit Kevin Sandau)
The Skate sprint was up next and I was really pumped ready to rock it out. My body was not quite where my mind was, i seem to be missing some snap. I believe not racing for a long time and doing a lot of volume has taken the snap down a few notches. The qualifier was not what I was capable of, so I went into the heats ready to turn the day around. I had a good start and was positioned well. After a large large climb I was sitting in third getting ready to go back down and use the sling shot effect. As planned 2nd and my self blew by 1st and we started heading up a small hill then to the finish. I had one of the guys to my right not sure what he was going to do but all off a sudden my skis slide sideways and I end up scrubbing some speed . He tried to pass on the right but there was no room for him, not sure what his plan was but him hitting my skis cost me a lot of speed. I was still in second trying to build the speed back and then a fellow Canadian cruised by me, I tried to get back in the game but it was too late. The day ended up quicker then expected. Looking back it was a medium weekend; the racing will definitely help me for the following weekend in Italy. Where I plan on stepping it!
Wish me luck, till next time.
Wish me luck, till next time.
