AM - 12 miles.
PM - Outdoor Retailer / Gore-Tex "Wasatch vs the World" SkiMo race. Fun but humbling. Four lap semi-technical course. I was able to borrow some demo race skis from the Dynafit guys at the last minute, and used my regular AT boots. I was strong on the portions that were based on pure fitness (I guarantee no one ran up the bootpack as fast as I did), but I lost a ridiculous amount of time on the technical parts and transitions (and 5-10 minutes due to a faulty binding on the demo skis). There's a huge learning curve in this sport. It will take lots of practice to start bridging the gap. I'm looking forward to some longer races (ie. Powderkeg) that theoretically suit me better.
In any case Andrea and I are excited about giving SkiMo a shot. We are definitely diving head first into the shark tank right now - but by next year we think we can be competitive (especially as a co-ed team).
Today's race profile. My ideal ski race is 10,000+ feet of climbing with four transitions - not these sprint criteriums!
PS - I think this kind of training/racing is going to be a great boost for my running. Hard efforts, high altitude, and less pounding on the legs. Just figured that was worth mentioning since this page is rapidly turning into Fast Skiing Blog.
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