Period 1 racing in the books, Nationals on deck.
The classic 10 km, individual start, Canmore, Alberta
Hello All!
What a last 6 weeks it has been. Since my last email in the airport on my way to Canada for period 1 of the race season, I have raced 7 races, trained another 55 hours (all on snow now!), spent a month on the road and skied in some of the most amazing places I have ever skied. If you ever have the chance to ski in Silver Star, BC, do not pass it up! Or race in Canmore, do it!
The results started coming in with me solidly in the mix of competition, especially given my first sprints, 10km’s and 15km’s in 7 years. My fitness is high and I am skiing strongly; I went from in-active USSA/FIS points to knocking on the door of the A seed and I believe my best races are yet to come! It is, however, very hard to close that 5% time-back to the winners of the North American Super Tour where the leading US skiers have trained close to 800 hours a year for the last 3 or 4 years and I am just now getting back into it. But the fact that I’m getting ready to ski on their heels has them impressed. In fact, one of the coolest parts of being back on the race circuit is hearing from so many people how excited they are that I’m back and how confident they are in my plan, approach, attitude, goals and more. Nordic is a wonderful community.
Eating a mid-race biscotti during the skate 15 km individual start in Silver Star, BC. (photo cred: Alex Muromcew)
A major highlight of Period 1 was racing in Sun Valley where my old team, JHSC, was there cheering for me and racing as well. It is so cool to have coached these skiers for the last 5 years and then have them telling me what to do with my nerves and see them cheering when I am out on course. I can’t think of a cooler turning of the tables.
The past 10 days have been heavily recovery focused with US Nationals starting in one week. For details on US Nationals, visit their website.
Live streaming of US Nationals and the Birkie events is available through XCOUNTRYLIVE, however, this year they are charging viewers for each event… I am not sure how much, I couldn’t seem to find that. And they are not streaming any other events this year.
The rest of my season is coming together, I will try to keep the updates coming after each venue.
Once again, I can’t thank you all enough for your support, encouragement and more.
Happy Holidays!! Hope to see all of you at some point throughout the season. Happy 2020!
-Scott