Not long into skiing we came across a few well known MTB riders Paul Van De Ploeg and Evan Franzke. They were out enjoying the fresh snow and by the sounds of it had been doing some training in the hills around Mt Beauty during the week. After shooting the shit I left them to clown around and we headed out for some fun.
We had a great ski on friday notching a little under 3 hours, which Tam handled well given it was her first ski for the Aussie season. Tam has been studying frantically this year as well as full time work and has not had much time for exercise and was happily lapping up this down time.
I was happy enough with how I was feeling and the ski's felt great and I gave it a few little nudges and could see that the running has been paying off. The weather turned with a storm front passing through the resort so we elected to call it a day.
We headed back to Bright for a quick beer at the brewery and some dinner. It was going to be a early night with us needing to be up early for the drive back up to Falls so I could enter the race.
Saturday saw us leave in the dark to get on the road so we could grab some breakfast at the Bakery in Mt Beauty. After a quick bite we did the drive up which I am starting to not mind so much as I have been doing it for the last couple of seasons. At least the views are spectacular, especially when you can see Mt Bogong.
We arrived in plenty of time to sign on for the race. I was surprised with the turn out as I was unsure how many would turn up for the first race of the season.
It was a pretty simple race format, 10 km mass start classic technique with four laps of a 2.5 km course. My race plan was simple.... get it done and as fast as I could. I new it was going to be a fast race given that there had been a national training camp for juniors, seniors and the shadow 2010 olympic teams in the week prior to the race. Most of those skiers would be staying on for the weekend to enjoy the new snow.
So I skied up to the nordic bowl and got my kit organised and headed out for a warm up lap or two of the course. It was a fairly friendly course with some climbing, descending and nicely set tracks on dry snow.
Race start time approached and I realised I was truely out classed by those who lined up around me, both in ability and size (I reckon I had 40 kilograms on most of the biggest skiers) but I was there and giving it a crack.
I was cooked in the first 500 mts of the start as the speed of the start was on and I couldnt match the horse power. I soon realised the importance of core and upper body strength. The double polling soon tired me out (need to work a lot more on this!) but I was having fun and just kept chipping away at chasing as well as I could. Tam was great out there cheering me on and taking these photos.
On lap 3 I was passed by the front runners and man they were flying, and it was great to watch these guys motor past me. The key thing with cross country is technique and these guys were making it look so simple and effortless even though they were hurting.
So after 54 odd minutes I came through the finish shoot and I was happy with how I went and have seen that there is plenty of work that needs to be done. I found a new form of pain, but it was all good and can see that this was the first of many steps of heading towards the end of season goal, the Kangaroo Hoppet.
This week sees me get back on the dirt as the weather stumped me last week and I will be heading back to falls next week for the High Plains Tour and some general distance training on the skis.
Happy Trails!
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