Monday, January 29, 2018

Olympic Lead Up!

It's been awhile and a lot has happened since my last post! After a lovely Christmas break in Seefeld, Austria, we packed up our bags and headed to the circus of the Tour de Ski. The Tour de Ski consists of seven different races in three different counties over nine days. The first stop of the Tour this year took place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Not only is Lenzerheide a beautiful area, but I also really love the courses there. They have a nice mix of hills and flow and I was looking forward to doing a skate sprint and getting in a couple distance racing opportunities. Our team had a strong day of qualifying in the sprint and I was feeling good and determined to make the final. I was thrilled to finish the day in second, my first podium of the year and to see Jessie place 5th, despite breaking two poles throughout the day. The next day was a 10km classic race and I woke up feeling tired, but I was happy to find some good racing feelings and have my best distance race ever placing 21st, made even better by having Sadie on the podium in 3rd! The next day was a 10km pursuit skate start race and even though I've struggled with skate distance skiing in the past, I tried to forget about that and hang on for dear life. It was a really fun race for me and Jessie finished the day in 3rd. Three podiums in three days for our team wasn't too shabby!
Finishing out Seefeld Christmas camp in style with Jessie and Liz

Tour de Ski opening ceremonies

2nd place in the Lenzerheide skate sprint! (Getty Images)
Unfortunately, I came down with a cold the morning of the classic sprint in Oberstdorf, so my Tour ended after the races in Lenzerheide. Oberstdorf happened to be getting some of the worst weather we had ever seen on the day of the sprint, so the race ended up being cancelled due to dangerous conditions. I was happy I wasn't missing a sprint, but it was a bummer that one race of the Tour de Ski had to be cancelled. I love the race course in Oberstdorf, so I'm hoping I get a chance to return next year! From Oberstdorf, the more sprint oriented crew who withdrew from the Tour headed to Ramsau, Austria for a week of recovery and training before the sprint weekend in Dresden, Germany. It was winter wonderland in Ramsau and I was able to go for some beautiful easy walks on skis while I was recovering from my cold.
View from my bedroom window in Ramsau

Above the clouds!

Road to recovery

The not so glamorous side of it all :)

Back to health!
After our week in Ramsau, we made the long trek up to Dresden, Germany for a weekend of city sprinting. Dresden was a new venue on the calendar and we were excited to see what it involved. It was a beautiful, old city and the track was set up in a park that overlooked the river and some pretty incredible buildings. This was the shortest and flattest sprint I have ever done, but that added to the excitement of sprint racing! Most sprints are around three minutes and this one was closer to two. Sometimes you get long hilly courses and sometimes they're pancake flat, but a race is a race and you do your best at any given course and venue. I was psyched to be on the podium again, placing third in the individual sprint, and then got to team up with Ida and get another third in the team sprint! I was really proud with how we both skied and Ida raced a killer last lap and tagged off to me in podium contention, so crossing the line in 3rd and having her waiting with a big hug was icing on the cake.
Dresden individual sprint podium (Getty Images)

Picturesque race course (Getty Images)

Team sprint 3rd with Ides! (Marcel Hilger photo)
After the team sprint in Dresden, we drove back to Ramsau for a few days of training before heading to Planica, Slovenia for a classic sprint and classic 10km. Planica is a beautiful venue set in the Julien Alps. I had only been there on bad snow years, so it was amazing to see it covered in snow with tons of easy tourist trails to ski on. The classic sprint day was really hard. I was happy to make the semis and place 9th on the day, but I was exhausted by the end. It was a really long gradual course and I finished the day with some new things to work on. A lot of our classic courses have really steep hills where you have to shuffle up them or sometimes run/bound or herringbone. The course in Planica was very long and gradual and I definitely have some work to do on my power striding. I haven't been that sore from a race or workout in a long time! The second day was a 10k classic and my body was tired, but I tried to pace the race well and was able to finish with decent energy. I was 31st and it was a bittersweet result because I was two seconds from the top 30 and hadn't felt great, but being 31st would have been a great distance race for me in the past, so while I wasn't thrilled with how I felt, I also wasn't disappointed in the result.
Planica classic sprint day (photo: Toko/Nordic Focus)

Easy skate ski with Jess

And that brings us back to Seefeld, where we're currently having our pre-olympic camp. I've spent the last two Christmases in Seefeld and I love it here, so I was happy to return. We are staying in some really comfortable apartments and it's nice to have a bit of a homier feel for a couple weeks before the Olympics. Seefeld is having a huge snow winter. I'm sure I experienced a couple big winters like this when I was younger, but I haven't seen snow like this in at least ten years. I thought they had good snow over Christmas and then they got two more meters of snow right before we showed up. We timed it nicely because it's been warm and sunny since we arrived. We just finished our final World Cup weekend before the Olympics and our team is feeling good. World Championships is in Seefeld next year, so in addition to getting in some racing before the games, we've been able to preview the courses for the big event next year!
Check out that snow!

Evening ski with Liz and Matt

Happy Birthday to Ides!

Saturday we had a skate sprint and the women's course was back to a pretty short and relatively flat course. I love skate sprinting on fast courses because it's high speed, exciting, and tactical. Our team had a strong qualifier with Sadie, Kikkan, Simi, and I qualifying in 5th, 18th, 5th, and 4th. I was in a quarter final with Maiken Casperson Falla who is one of the strongest sprinters in the world, so I knew if I could stick with her, I would have a good chance of moving through the heats with some fast times. After a bit of a bobbly start to my quarter, I was able to move myself into second by the finish and move onto the semis. I prioritized having a better start in my semi and it actually felt a lot better than my quarter final and we had another fast heat and I was into the final. Sadie also moved on in her quarter and semi and toed the line next to me in her first ever skate sprint final! In the final, I tried to have the same strategy as my other heats and hopped in behind Maiken and stuck to her like glue. There was a big downhill corned into the finish and we had an exciting three way sprint to the finish. I was sure I had crossed the line in 2nd, but about twenty minutes later I found out I had tied for 1st!! It was the most pleasant surprise and ended up being a dream day. I honestly didn't even remember lunging, but I'm sure glad I did. The next day Jessie won the 10km skate, Sadie had another top 10, and Erik and Simi raced to their best distance finishes ever placing 9th and 12th in the 15km skate. This team is on fire!
Tie for 1st! (Getty Images)

Photo finish

Chasing Maiken around the course (Jens Korner photo)

Podium shot (Jens Korner photo)

All smiles with my coach, Matt (Lumi Experiences photo)

Proud of this guy (Lumi Experiences photo)
We have another week in Seefeld before we head to PyeongChang for the Olympics. I cannot wait to attend my second Olympics and to see what this team can do. I've had a dream season so far and regardless of what happens at the Olympics, I know I couldn't be happier or more proud to be part of such an amazing team. I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and believed in me, the U.S. Ski Team, and our SMS T2 team. Our success is so much bigger than ourselves and we wouldn't be here without you, so THANK YOU x a million.
Dream big
And send it! :)