The weather here in Wisconsin has made a great turnaround in the past couple weeks. We have gone from record snowfall to temperatures in the 40’s with sunshine for the past couple of days. Although the snowdrifts on the side of the road remain quite high, the roads have been great. The past 3 days I got in 121 miles, with fridays ride being a loop of the IM course. There is not much water, and very little gravel, so some early season training is definatley in order. My legs are still finding themselves after transitioning from skis to the bike, but a couple solid days and I am feeling much better. Unfortunately the next couple days look like a rain/snow mix with temperatures back to the 20’s/30’s. A great weekend of training goes a long ways for the mental attitude and motivation after being stuck inside on the trainer/ treadmill.

The American Birkebeiner http://www.birkie.com/ is the boston marathon of cross country skiing. A 51k point to point nordic ski race in the northwoods of wisconsin from Cable to Hayward that attracts more than 7,000 skiers from across the U.S. and world. The top finishers are often composed of World Cup and Olympic champions. This was my first year at the race, and it was a good year to race- as the snow conditions were the best in recent memory. Due to the large number of skiers, the race is split into a wave start, and I would be starting in wave 5 based on my qualification race at the Badger State Games a couple weeks ago. My one concern was the cold temps, -10deg when we woke up, then about 2deg at the start, but it wound up warming up nicely to 25deg by the time I finished. The start of the race went really well, I had a good line-up in the second row and got out really quick with another skier to take the lead in our wave. We worked together for the first 5k until we started hitting the back end of wave 4. The rest of the way would be a battle attempting to get through all of the skiers infront of us, as there is only so much room on the trail. I did manage to get through the crowds without any broken poles or skis, so that is always a bonus of any ski race. My goal time was 3hrs, and at the halfway mark, I was close to 8minutes ahead of my pace, and I was still feeling very comfortable. This time I also nailed my nutrition, thanks in no part to my bonk in the last race. Coming to the finish you are skiing right down Main street in Hayward where the crowds are unbelieveable and you feel like you are in the olympics. But only in Wisconsin will you find a cold Miller Genuine Draft waiting for you at the finish!! I ended up finishing in 2:45:17, and 363 overall out of 3219 finishers in the freestyle race. A great result considering the race traffic I had to work through. This result will put me into Wave 1 for future years so I will hopefully be able to improve on my finish next time.

The Winner of the Race was Ivan Babikov of Russia in a time of 2:07:08. Check out the finish video, and the sprint for second!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNsjv43mzzE

1st ever xc ski marathon: 2hrs 24min 35sec, 34th overall

 This past weekend was the badger state games ski race in Wausau WI. The snow this year has been overall excellent, and this weekend was no different in the north woods. This was my first foray into long-distance ski racing, but a fairly successful one none the less. My goal for the race was to get in some good training as well as upgrade my wave placement for the American Birkebeiner http://www.birkie.com/ . Being a rookie at this distance (on skis anyways), I had to of course make a couple of rookie mistakes 1) going out too hard, 2) not enough nutrition. My average heart rate for the first half of the race was 172, second half was 143. Ouch!! Let’s just say you can’t hold it at redline for a 26 mile race, even though I know this, still tried to make some physiological miracles. This, with a combination of lack of nutrition- a meltdown occured at mile 14, at which point I fell off what I think at the time was a second grupetto #5-12 or so. I didn’t take in any nutrition the first half of the race, and in skiing when you can be burning over 1000kcal per hour, this is a necessity. I still managed to regroup by pounding some gatorade and powergel. I will find out this week if I get an upgraded wave placement for the birkie.

Along with the annual tradition of eating turkey and pumpkin pie, is the annual Sheboygan Gobbler Gallop 10k and 2 mile road race. This Thanksgiving was no different, as my Dad and I headed to the Sheboygan lakefront for our annual tradition. I have done this race every year but once since I was 6! The one interesting thing with the Thanksgiving day run is the weather, which has ranged anywhere from a chilly 10 degrees and snow to a balmy 60degress. This year did not disappoint, with Sheboygan getting our first significant snowfall (2.5″) the night before the race. This left the roads a little slick, and a little slush in the corners, but nothing of too much concern. I was again hoping for a PR as my running has been improving every year, so a 35minute race was my goal. As of recently I had been in a small battle with my left leg, a strained quad from intervals, and a strained hamstring from squatting. But none the less I still felt I could make a PR. The first 3 miles would be tough, straight into a strong headwind off of the lake, but I was sitting with a group of 4 runners chasing a lone leader about 15 seconds up. The draft position was definatley an advantage. The pace was a bit quick for me at 5:15-5:25/ mile, but I thought I would get towed by the group for as long as possible and then fall back to my own pace. I ended up rubber-banding off the back of the group at about mile 2.5 and was sitting about 15 seconds back at the turn-around. With the group still in sight I would just hope someone else would also fall off the pace and I could catch them in the end. I also saw another 2 runners within 30 seconds back that could be a threat. But for the last half of the race I would run in no man’s land on my own. I slowed down quite a bit the last 1.25mile, as my legs were feeling the fast early pace. In the end though, I hung on for 5thoverall/ 2nd age group in a 35:41, not quite as fast as I hoped, but not to shabby. But the best part about the race: it makes you feel less guilty having a second piece of pie after dinner! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

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