Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Nordic Meisters 09, Week 1

The weekly torture has begun again: Nordic Meisters. And by torture, I mean torture. OK, it's not really that bad, but I'm just not a good ski racer. I can get from point A to point B eventually, but it's not pretty. In order to change up the torture, I've made a radical decision this year: I've gone to skating. In every other year, I've raced classic. My theory is that classic is closer to running, and, therefore, I'd have more success. Plus, I learned to classic ski when I was a kid, but didn't learn to skate until college. So, overall in my lifetime of nordic skiing about 75% is classic. However, the real key to classic skiing is the kick wax. Kick waxing is a pain in the ass. Hence, the skating choice. So, really, my choice was fueled by laziness. That shouldn't be a surprise. Of course, the problem with skating is that anytime you see a hill, your heart explodes. And, did I mention I'm not that good at it?

All that being said, I sort of surprised myself today. As the results show, if I had two asses they both would have been handed to me, but I skied kind of not that bad. Sort of. From a technique standpoint, it was a bit of a flailfest. I'm not smooth and I'm not efficient. Then again, I don't ski enough to get smooth and efficient, so I didn't expect to be. That being said, I do hope to get better as the winter goes on. From a fitness standpoint, my heart never exploded...completely. I felt pretty good. Best of all, my body parts felt good. The foam rolling from last night must have really worked on my cranky leg. Of course, were I more efficient I would have felt better. And, since I do nothing with them, I was starting to feel my arms by the end. But, all in all, it was a good day on the snow. Admittedly, I wasn't really looking forward to it going in, but while warming up I actually got into it. And, the racing part was kind of fun...in that painful not fun at all way. We'll see what happens next week.

4 comments:

middle.professor said...

Nice race! I'd be toasting champagne with that time! That kid on top - Teo Jackson - is wicked fast. He was in the 25K Rangeley loppett last year.

sn0m8n said...

Thanks, but you can't really go by the time. The snow was really fast. I'd be even better if I could V2 with any consistency.

mindy said...

When do you add the gun?

sn0m8n said...

I'm not allowed to carry a firearm in 34 states.