Saturday 8 December 2012

Ski-O. Attempt 3

Today's ski-o race took us to Sjusjøen near Lillehammer in Norway. We arrived yesterday afternoon and headed straight out for our second session of the day. I was building on my first sessions of ski drills and had an emphasis on poling with each skate stroke. My natural tendency is to be one sided as my balance isn't yet good enough to get a long glide on the ski's. I was doing pretty well and nailing some climbs, when I got a little cocky on a descent. As I came to the junction I made the right hand turn without a snow plough but caught my ski in the classic tracks, and as I was still heading to the left, hit the snow twisting my finger (of all things!). A bit of TLC needed, but no shortage of ice for the swelling!

The first race of the weekend was the sprint, 4km around the semi open fell. A look at the start list showed I had a middle start of the girls (must be last start of the unranked skiers!). HJ didn't want to hang around in the cold too long, so we arrived at the event 30 mins before my start (do I need to emphasize the stress??). I ran off and missed the route to the start and was wandering around a campsite for 5 mins hoping to find some ski-orienteers.


Heart rate and GPS route of course. Max HR zone from just after start to finish (and a few small sections where it dropped to 185).


Naturally by the time I got to the start and had started the course, my head was far from the right place. I skiied off and messed up the first, by not sticking to my plan and getting distracted. On the way to 4 I was caught by some faster girls who had already overtaken me, but I followed them at a turning and then realised I was wrong. Relocating quickly I then found the control while they skiied around some more. They finally caught me again by 6. 6-8 was a straight line and I was lucky to realise when I hit the main track that I needed to get 7. Fortunately I was only 50m away, so a quick shortcut dealt with that control. After that I got in to the flow a bit and despite not having good glide on the hills, managed to pick up some speed.

I finished in a long 43 mins, and skiied straight back to the cabin along the ridge with a glorious sunset which made the mountains look to be on fire.

I beat 8 people in the womens race and 2 men (who skiied the same course), so I'm pleased despite making at least 3 mins of mistakes.

Time to rest, recover and eat before a middle distance tomorrow (and keep my fingers crossed for WRE points!).