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.