Alberta Cup Races

My first two races of the season are now in the books, having the Alberta Cups 1 and 2 this past weekend here in Canmore. They started off on Saturday with classic sprints, which did not go quite as I had hoped. I ended up leaving too much time between my warm up and the start of my qualifier, so by the time it was my turn to go the effects of my warm up had worn off quite a bit. So that was a good lesson learned. And then in heats in the afternoon, as there were only 3 of us in my semi final, we all advanced to the A final. This final started out very well, but I did not ski it as intelligently as I know I should have. I sprinted up to the top of the course in a comfortable 2nd place, but as we all came down the hill to the finish I learned a nasty lesson in drafting. So while it wasn't a great day for me, I learned some good lessons that I will be able to take into my upcoming races.

Sunday brought with it some very cold temperatures, so in the morning it was unclear whether or not the races would still take place or not. However, at 9:30am after delaying the races by 1 hour already, the race organizers decided that it was not cold enough to cancel the races, so I got to compete in my first distance race in the Open men category. It was a 4 lap race of 2km (8km race) and it was a skate mass start. This race was a huge improvement from Saturday's sprints. I felt great for the whole time, and I managed to finish 1.5 seconds behind the leader of Junior Men, and I ended up 10th in Open Men. Great day of racing!

Tomorrow morning I will be heading to Silver Star BC with the team for a week of training and then the first NorAm (North American) races of the year next weekend. With a 15km skate interval start and 1.1 km skate sprints, it should be another great weekend of racing!

Happy skiing!