This is probably a bit late in terms of a season review; the ‘season’ – race season – has been over for just under a month. That’s indicative, though, of how this season has gone – a bit haphazard, unplanned, and hoping that things will work out. In the end, they did; they always do. My general impression is of a satisfying season – a season where the rewards more than justified the opportunity cost. That’s a big deal, as that’s the key decision factor influencing whether or not to keep ‘doing this’. That, and the physical number of minutes in a day relative to minutes spent at work. More on that later.
Summer
I had a good summer of training;
my work wasn’t THAT busy during the summer, and I love the late light,
allowing rollerskis to start late and finish later. I developed
a much stronger affinity for the Ottawa-Gatineau bikepath networks than
I had before, allowing me to save on travel time by rollerskiing straight
from home. For the most part, commitment and motivation were right
there; the frustrations of a race season are far off in the summer,
and the endorphins and emotions of a fun season past are still fresh.
I tried to work on my running speed, but that wasn’t highly effective. I do think my strength was high during the summer. I spent a lot of time on the rollerskis, and was happy with the way my skate and classic technique were put together, for the most part. Double-poling didn’t feel super-sharp, but the legs felt useful in skating, and I was happy with my classic body position. Sprint training felt good; I found some nice places for sprint rollerski intervals, and felt pretty sharp. I wouldn’t say my volume training was anything stellar, but I was able to do some long zone 1 sessions when required, without (too much) complaining – though the 2006 Rideau Lakes Tour is a notable exception.
Fall
The fall was a bit more of
a challenge. I was working (a lot), and though my job was flexible
enough to make the important team training sessions, the lack of quality
recovery (couch time as opposed to desk chair) started to wear a bit.
We started hard interval sessions on Penguins, and I did a few sessions
with the guys. I got dropped – hard – and got pretty disheartened.
Perhaps as a cop-out, I asked John to see if we could put together a
sprint-specific interval on Penguins. We tried something – a
mix of full-out sprint and zone 3 – and I loved it. I really
enjoyed the zone 5 work this involved, and I think the lactic acid adaptations
it involved were big helps during race season. On the other hand,
those other guys – Ed and Gavin particularly - just kept getting stronger
on the straight zone 4 intervals, and compared to them I was falling
farther behind. I began to worry the season would be a total distance
bust, as my lack of volume caught up to me a bit more.
The fall training camp in Montmorency highlighted a technique concern – I have an abnormally loose right hip. It has a tendency to over-rotate in both classic striding and all the skate techniques. In classic, this results in a funny leg-swing during the backwards extension, and a loss of stride cycle efficiency. In skate, it means I have problems keeping weight on that side of the body. This whole thing is coupled with what Andy had called a ‘slipped disc’ in my lower back – he gave me a self treatment, which seemed to work when my back was really hurting, to the point where it didn’t hurt as much and me, like an amateur, quit doing the exercises. Well now, at the end of the winter, my left hip feels like it’s grinding sometimes, and my back is super-tweaked from some hockey and other non-conventional activities. I need to re-commit to back strength and on-going rehabilitation.
Winter
As we moved into what started
as a snowless winter, I changed jobs and moved over to the Department
of Finance. We did one pre-Christmas time trial (I believe), on
the little parkway snow we had before it melted. I felt surprisingly
good; I skied behind a super-strong Karl that race, and started out
fast, dropping the others, before fading in the second half of a 10k.
To me, this meant that things were on track; no distance base, but strong
high-end aerobic capacity for short periods. The early races in
Montmorency were ok; felt quite good, but the results weren’t quite
there. Then we lost our snow, and rollerskiing in January sucks.
I did manage to find some weekends on snow, but it was a bit of slog.
The beginning of the racing
season brought a bunch of mental frustration: I had to get back into
taking care of equipment, broken poles, busted bindings, waxing.
I had to think about travel a lot more frequently, and this meant Friday
afternoons off, trying to squeeze away for a weekend. I didn’t
feel comfortable at the new workplace to ask for work time off for workouts,
so I missed the mid-week intervals. In mid-January, I flew out
to Canmore for two classic sprint races that most of the big guns were
at. The racing was awesome; I sucked. I wasn’t in the
race on either day. My big problem was the classic start; though
fast on rollerskis, I couldn’t figure out the timing to stick the
grip into the snow and kick right when the gun went. I ended up
half-doing the weight transfer and slipping, giving up two strides to
the other guys. I really need to figure that out.
I skied at night a lot.
Intervals are tough at night, and so are sprints; not so much training
at that time of night, as I’m used to that, but it’s more just physically
being able to see when you’re going fast. Some workouts were
stellar; others were wasted.
Eastern Canadians were good:
I was very happy with the classic race, which meant a good double-pole
effort, in practice. My back was sore, but I gutted it out.
The 30k brought a pleasant surprise. I was strong enough throughout
not to die, and though didn’t finish super-high up, was quite happy
for a longer-distance race. Keski a couple of weeks later was
a bust; helped at the front a bit at the start, enough to burn the legs
off for a few kilometres, enough to lose the guys that made a good train,
and enough to pick up an annoying Estonian who wouldn’t lead.
A real good bonk at the end sucked too. After Keski came our XC Ottawa
race. I always do this; organize, and then race. For whatever
reason, I felt tough that day, and gritted out the classic portion chasing
Chris and Karl. The chase pack (Ed, Mamen, Sven) caught me in
the skate leg, and I sat and waited for the finish sprint. I didn’t
set it up very well; Sven came by early and made a good push, and Mamen
couldn’t respond, and I was stuck behind him, unable to get by.
I was patient though, waited for the finish flat, and burned past Mamen.
I didn’t think I could catch Sven given his gap, but I was able to
scoot by him at the end. I know it’s a little race, but I was
really happy with the finish push, and that was satisfying.
Then came National Champs.
The sprint relay was only a semi-final – we didn’t advance – but
I thought I blew up too quickly. I did go hard, but recovery wasn’t
as fast as I wanted. On the other hand, that’s a hard race and
recovery in those is always a challenge. One nice thing about
the week was getting some serious couch time, and a solid 9 hours of
sleep a night; by mid-week, I was starting to feel quite rested and
ready for racing. The first distance day was a skate day.
I felt quite good; able to step through the soft course nice on the
offset, and able to push hard on the flats without burying the needle.
I was happy the result too, but man – it was a Deep Field!!
The classic race was also decent – able to maintain a consistent red-line
without burying it anywhere. The sprint day was a disaster –
another classic sprint, another near miss (32nd finish in
the qualifying round). Not sure how to evaluate that, coming after
an amazing sprint at Nationals. The course conditions were very
tricky, and changed during the race so that it was hard for me to know
how to ski. My start was poor. Regardless, not a good sprint
day, and I was pretty low after that one. But the distance day
brought it all back up; the Nationals 50 was, I’d say, my best race
of the season. A super-fun day, I felt great, the skis were nice,
and I held on (by the skin of my teeth) to a group that was just cruising.
Again, I was able to maintain a consistent high aerobic level without
picking up excessive lactic acid.
So when the season’s done,
my sprint races were busts, and I had some good longer-distance races.
The opposite of where I thought my season was going after the fall and
after my early results. How do I figure that happened? Hard
to tell – perhaps more rested than some of the other guys. I
think the stronger legs (I did a bunch of plyo strength in the summer/fall)
may have contributed more to the distance racing than to the sprint
explosiveness. I think the Penguin intervals, though sprint-specific
and anaerobic in nature, may in fact have helped me hit and find a nice
aerobic red-line.
Mentally, it’s pretty safe
to say that this season was tough. Really tough to get into the
groove when the snow started to fly – usually that’s when I’m
most excited, but this year it felt like there was too much stuff to
think about – too many skis to wax (or unwaxed skis to re-prep from
last year) – too much travel because of our low snow situation –
etc. Perhaps that means the will to compete is starting to wane.
Next year:
But I think I’ll start another
season off, and see how it goes. Based on my last year of training,
here are some things for next year that I’d like to focus on:
- Double-poling: I have to bring that back up. In previous years, I’ve felt that this has been a real advantage for me; this year, it felt just slightly above average. I think I have a good upper-body strength base to be able to make it a strength once again, particularly in sprints. I think a lot of it is technique and power phase application, and I’ll work on that. In particular, need more time double-pole rollerskiing; didn’t do enough of that.
- Volume training: I need to do some nice longer volume sessions. I’m excited about those for some reason, this spring. I’ve missed out on volume the past few years, so it’ll be an effort to pick it up again, but I really enjoy that stuff. Not too much (work is still a significant constraint), but I’d like to work on volume during the weekends.
- Interval training: I’d like to mix up the straight zone 4 intervals with the zone 3-5 alternates I was doing this past year. I think they both have benefits, and I think there are ways to be creative about doing this – both at Mooney’s Bay in the summer and in the Park in the winter.
- Core and injury prevention: This needs to be a focus; I’m not getting any younger. The number of little annoyances I have in my joints seems to keep growing; back; one sore hip now; knees, though that’s an old problem; elbows; and I’ve sprained a couple of ankles recently. I need to do what Andy tells me for my back, and do some maintenance work for everything else; that means a stretching routine and some specific core and stability strength work.
- Classic sprint start: This was a frustration this season, and I need to figure it out. But I think I’m ok on rollerskis; it’s the switch to wax I have a problem with. I don’t think explosive speed is the problem; my skate starts are ok. It’s just a timing issue.
- Rest: Of course. When is that not an issue? Just keep doing the best I can with this one.
So those are some training
ideas for next season. We’ll see how well I follow through.
In short, this was another fun season past; we’ll see how motivated
I am throughout this summer and fall. Skiing takes up a lot of
time, and there’s lots of other fun stuff to do.
See you on the trails!
"OWL Rafting - The Mighty Ottawa River"