After the races in Davos last weekend I really didn’t feel like writing a blog. I was disappointed in my objective results in a weaker field (no scandinavians), and I thought I’d be able to do better after a good time trial the previous weekend. Basically, I didn’t do as well as I thought I would or could, and had a few days where that really weighed on me. I’m writing about it now because I think I cleared that mental hurdle really well, with a lot of help from my coaches and teammates. It will also help me to write my thoughts down here.

I was bummed after Saturday because I felt like I just didn’t have the top speed to hang onto the guys in my quarterfinal. (Didn’t really factor in the fall I had to jump over but I still felt too slow).

(dailyskier.com pic) Tired and 5th in my heat!

Doing everything I can do feel better Sunday

I was actually happy with my race Sunday until I saw results. I thought I paced really well and adjusted my technique to ski a grinding altitude course. Again I was just slower than I assumed I’d be and that was hard to deal with. After those races I definitely reached out a lot to my people, and heard a lot of the same things, mostly things which I already knew, but needed to hear from other people. A few days later I was able to talk myself into those mindsets, that allowed me to focus on future races and the things I can do better. A few of the statements are: it’s a long season and I might just need time to work into it; I haven’t raced high-level races before nationals in a long time; and, that I just have to be patient because I know I can race well. It also gave me the kick I needed to play around with some new technique stuff, including shortening my poles a little. After that really productive technique session, I felt better and started getting excited for Dresden. We spent a lot of time in Davos!

The drive to Dresden was boring, I forgot to download any movies or anything, so all I had were some podcasts and music for 7 hours. Couldn’t even sleep much! We got there and walked around the old town and saw the course, such cool stuff.

The sprint day was good, we only got 10 minutes on course to test skis before the race (to preserve the snow for the whole day). Which was plenty to practice the corners a couple times and do some speeds on skis. Lots of people warmed up on roller skis, but I didn’t have any so I just ran with some exercises to get my arms and legs warmed up. I actually felt more warmed up than a lot of other lazy on-ski warmups.

I didn’t qualify, missed it by a second or so. I wasn’t too bummed about it, I thought I skied as well as I could’ve, but just lacked the big, fast gear than I needed for really fast, flat, sea level skiing.

Pre race testing…such a cool course (dailyskier.com)

Even though I didn’t race much I’m so glad I went to Dresden! It was an experience unlike any other I’ve had so far and I had a ton of fun. Also big shoutout to FIS and the local organizers for making a really secure bubble for us (on Saturday every single athlete, coach, and tech tested negative!).

Looking forward to 10 days in Seefeld, Austria, doing some training and chilling in preparation for the Tour de Ski! I’m really excited to try that, and I’ll take it race by race to see if I want to keep going (8 races in 10 days may be a bit much). We’ll see!