La Ronge Selection Races
Well, Been a while.
I'm currently on my drive home from La Ronge. After 2 days of races I am not going to forget any time soon. It started Friday with a 15km Freestyle Race. 15km Is a long distance to ski, especially when I'm used to racing at Wildwood golf course or Kinsmen Park, go for a ski there, you'll notice the lack of hills. La Ronge has plenty of hills. Now if you hate my explaining useless stuff pay no attention to this next bit. The 5km course is as follows. Big uphill out of stadium, large downhill. small steep uphill, followed by fairly flat until the 3km turn-off, then it's gradual uphill until you're about 2km done, at that point you head down, up, down, up, big down. these are the s-turns of the course and are quite fun but very technical and hard when you are tired. once at the bottom of the last long hill of the s-turns, you start to turn around to head back while heading up the 2nd longest climb of the course. one at the top it's flat, followed by small downhill and large gradual uphill. then it's flat again by this point you've gone 3.5 km. then it's a very long gradual downhill where you tuck and catch your breath, it's then more gradual downhill but slow enough to be skiing and not tucking. Then it's a 200m uphill that is very gradual but steep enough so make it hard to 1-skate. then it's another short flat section that goes into a long 2 part downhill that whips you into the stadium going just about your top speed. Then you sprint to the finish, or if your doing 15km. repeat 2 more times.
OK. If i lost any of you there, sorry. It's just a really fun but hard trail to ski. These were also all time-trail events so there isn't a mass start to the race so that strategy is a factor. Where you can sit behind people to make a move and then hope you have faster skis for the final downhill to get ahead of them. So it was 15km of go as hard as you can no knowing the position of the other athletes around you.
I ended up doing not too badly on the stake race, getting 5th. Today's morning race was a 5 km Classic race which was on the same course and that was difficult and I was once again 5th. In fact the first 7 people in both races finished in the same order. THis afternoon's race was a 1km (ish) skate sprint. Heading into the sprint i was pooped and warming up I felt like crap. But my opponents weren't really warming up at all. And with sprints you want to be already breathing heavy and really warmed up. So in the sprint i ended up getting 3rd, which is awesome.
How these selection races work is that the top 5 racers after all the 4 races get to go to the winter games. after each race you are awarded points based of the winning time. So right now I'm in 5th place for points, which isn't good. but I'm 5 points ahead of 6th. and only 2 behind 4th, and 5 behind 3rd. Also the next race is a 10km Classic race and that's a good race for me. So fingers crossed.
Other than that. Enjoy the pictures, be back soon. And, I still have the Beard as of Saturday afternoon at 4:32. That could change any moment so if you want to voice your opinion on my facial hair, leave a comment.
I'm currently on my drive home from La Ronge. After 2 days of races I am not going to forget any time soon. It started Friday with a 15km Freestyle Race. 15km Is a long distance to ski, especially when I'm used to racing at Wildwood golf course or Kinsmen Park, go for a ski there, you'll notice the lack of hills. La Ronge has plenty of hills. Now if you hate my explaining useless stuff pay no attention to this next bit. The 5km course is as follows. Big uphill out of stadium, large downhill. small steep uphill, followed by fairly flat until the 3km turn-off, then it's gradual uphill until you're about 2km done, at that point you head down, up, down, up, big down. these are the s-turns of the course and are quite fun but very technical and hard when you are tired. once at the bottom of the last long hill of the s-turns, you start to turn around to head back while heading up the 2nd longest climb of the course. one at the top it's flat, followed by small downhill and large gradual uphill. then it's flat again by this point you've gone 3.5 km. then it's a very long gradual downhill where you tuck and catch your breath, it's then more gradual downhill but slow enough to be skiing and not tucking. Then it's a 200m uphill that is very gradual but steep enough so make it hard to 1-skate. then it's another short flat section that goes into a long 2 part downhill that whips you into the stadium going just about your top speed. Then you sprint to the finish, or if your doing 15km. repeat 2 more times.
OK. If i lost any of you there, sorry. It's just a really fun but hard trail to ski. These were also all time-trail events so there isn't a mass start to the race so that strategy is a factor. Where you can sit behind people to make a move and then hope you have faster skis for the final downhill to get ahead of them. So it was 15km of go as hard as you can no knowing the position of the other athletes around you.
I ended up doing not too badly on the stake race, getting 5th. Today's morning race was a 5 km Classic race which was on the same course and that was difficult and I was once again 5th. In fact the first 7 people in both races finished in the same order. THis afternoon's race was a 1km (ish) skate sprint. Heading into the sprint i was pooped and warming up I felt like crap. But my opponents weren't really warming up at all. And with sprints you want to be already breathing heavy and really warmed up. So in the sprint i ended up getting 3rd, which is awesome.
How these selection races work is that the top 5 racers after all the 4 races get to go to the winter games. after each race you are awarded points based of the winning time. So right now I'm in 5th place for points, which isn't good. but I'm 5 points ahead of 6th. and only 2 behind 4th, and 5 behind 3rd. Also the next race is a 10km Classic race and that's a good race for me. So fingers crossed.
Other than that. Enjoy the pictures, be back soon. And, I still have the Beard as of Saturday afternoon at 4:32. That could change any moment so if you want to voice your opinion on my facial hair, leave a comment.
posted by Caesar Amadeus at 6:51 PM
3 comments
