Bryant got a new Vaio portable with a built-in camera. He had some downloaded MPEGs of biathlon competitions and he displayed them on the TV at the cabin Saturday night. This is way cool - you can't see cross country ski competition on TV in the USA, but you can download the MPEGs and watch them on your computer - If you have the technology.
On Saturday, I drove over to ASC again to put in one final hour of skiing before the Gold Rush. After skiing, I spent an hour or so in their wax room. As I cleaned the bases, another skier came in to wax skis. It turned out to be SWIX wax technician/racer Andrew Gardner. We talked about waxing technique and he offered to put a final coat of a new SWIX high-flour wax (FC08, I think) on my old Rossignol skis after I put on a couple of coats of LF10. I learned a few new things about waxing by watching him work.
Now I had a decision to make: should I race on the most sophisticated wax job I had ever done (CH8 base, two coats of LF10, finished with FC08) on my beat up Rossis, or should race on a brand new pair of Atomic skis with a professionally prepared base and race wax (Rhode K72 high-flour)? The Atomics would be a big unknown for a big race - a very bad combination. Racing is never the time to try new equipment. But, the Rossis were in a sorry state. They were my first skis and they've suffered greatly at my hands (feet?).
Decisions, decisions...
Sunday (Race day): I got up at 5:40 am. I figured that I would have plenty of time to make and eat breakfast, pack up the car, drive over to Royal Gorge, and test skis before the race started. I ended up testing skis at 7:50 and only got to the start area with a couple of minutes to spare.
My crude glide test involved trying each pair of skis down a shallow slope to see how far they glide out into a flat section. The old Rossis went a couple of yards further down the flat than the new Atomics. Combine the glide test with the fact that I knew how to ski on the Rossis with my eyes closed (really. And in the dark, too) and the choice was clear: put the Atomics back in the bag and ski on the Rossis.
I'm sure the Atomics will be a fine ski for me next season. I may even get to use the spiffy wax job in a couple of weeks if the weather stays warm. It's not really surprising that the Atomics lost the glide contest - it's common knowledge that skis need to be waxed and skied dozens of times before they reach their full glide potential.
Here's my heart rate during the race. As usually, I started too hard and let my HR get to 168 in the first 15 minutes (Stage Coach hill).
Another big mistake was not fueling early enough. I should have been
hitting the carbs just before the start and continuing to eat another 100
kcal about every 20 or 30 minutes. Instead, I waited until the end of the
first lap (65 minute mark) to eat my first GU. This was probably a major
factor in slowing me down for the second lap (1:05, 1:25, 1:22 splits).
You can see that I averaged about 147 bpm for the last 2 laps. With
proper fueling, I should have been able to maintain a 155 average and turn
in a sub 3:30 finish. Of course, that would only have moved me up to 84th
place...
Here's a picture of me climbing the Maintenance Road hill on the first lap. I'm passing a Jr Rush skier. We're both pretty tired at this point. I'm trying to V2, but I have very little extension or forward lean.
In summary:
- Bob was 87th out of 94 finishers;
- 15 did not finish;
- 2 were disqualified (?);
- Bob finished 15th out of 17 in his age division.
- an inch of new snow on a packed base
- 0C to +5C - very soft
- rain - heavy at times
- in short: miserable
- 50 km (3 x 17k) long
- 811m total climb
