What’s up fans?! As many of you may know, I got sick during an especially fast streak for me at the Tour de Ski. It was definitely a bummer, but I want to talk through how that whole thing went down, and why decisions like the ones I made are really key for longevity in sport. I know this will fall on some deaf ears if juniors read this, because I know if I were reading this at the ripe age of 16 I would’ve scoffed a little bit. Although, I will say this specific case study doesn’t exactly represent a hard decision in terms of illness. My goal is for my message to convey the nuances and uncertainty that can go into the general decisions when sick.

Racing fast before going down! (4th in the Davos sprint)

So, in this case I woke up the morning of the Davos sprint with pretty dry sinuses, which doesn’t sound like much but, that, for me, is a pretty big red flag in terms of getting sick. My body and energy felt pretty good though, and because it was a tour, I decided I should try racing and see if the symptoms would get better or worse through the day. In hindsight, I agree with that decision because it was my best world cup race ever! The dry mouth symptoms hung around, especially when I was nervous and racing (breathing hard), but my body was feeling better than it was in the morning, so it was going well. I was pretty wiped that night after doing my first full sprint day in a few years (I’ve done it in workouts and summer time trials, but not in a real race since probably nationals in 2020). The next morning I woke up and didn’t feel like getting out of bed, which is a feeling that would make sense in a tour and after a race, but this was different. After a while on my phone I stood up and really could tell I wasn't feeling good. A good way for me to put it in perspective is imagining racing that very second, and if that doesn't feel favorable, I probably shouldn't race. I’m sure everyone has a different way of doing it, but I feel like that always gives me a good answer. So then you text your coaches for confirmation and also tell the team so they know the situation and not to get too close to you.

Could’ve been this biking next to the porta-potty that did it…

Then you just do nothing and watch the race you were supposed to be in and get bummed. Oh and you’re fully alone all day eating in your hotel room and not really going outside much. Makes you not want to admit you’re sick!

Eli Brown and Karel Kruuser, the waxers of Ben and my skis. Wearing our bibs from the races that we DNS’d

But the reason you do is because if you race or even train while your body feels bad, it can really really draw out the symptoms. My horror story of that is from during the olympic year. I got sick like a week before the tour, and I hadn’t officially qualified for the team yet, so I felt like I had to race the tour. I also got back into easy training like a day or two after I started feeling sick, so as not to lose fitness. This is something that’s taken me a long time to be comfortable with, because realistically you’re not losing fitness in that ~week you’re sick, especially because your body is still working to get healthy. In my case it made it so that I got more sick (like aches and light fever) the day before the tour started, and I STILL felt like I needed to race to make the olympics. So I did. And it actually didn’t go terribly. My goal was to just get through the first 2 races and hopefully be recovered by then. And I actually did start to feel a little better in the middle races, but the last races in val di fiemme were some of the worst-feeling activities in my life. After that I didn’t really feel normal until June or July. Racing and training, especially when I was using my aerobic capacity heavily, felt terrible. My muscles and daily energy were fine, I just felt like I had no capacity. I got blood tests and saw doctors and stuff and none of that saw anything weird. It just took tons of time and a spring of chilling in terms of training to finally start to come around. Remembering that will always get me to pull the plug on training, especially intense stuff, when my body doesn’t feel right.

Post “feeling-like-actual-death-in-the-tour-2022”

Also, this time, I continued to feel sick, so obviously it was the right choice. And, more than anything I was happy to have been racing fast. I know if I’m smart about the illness recovery, I can get back to that place relatively quickly. If I’m dumb, I may have to wait for mid-summer. Being smart is always easier said than done, but in this case, Ben Ogden and I took ourselves to Spain to be smart. :)

We’ve been outside a lot, and doing some easy biking around the city were in. Went surfing. Started running once symptoms were feeling pretty cleared out.

And now we’re feeling good enough to return to our team’s camp and start more normal training.

If everything continues to go well, we’ll race next weekend in Germany. Probably still keep that on the “less-racing” side of things. It was definitely still hard to see the finale of the tour, because I was doing well and like to think I would’ve continued to do well. To be candid, another part of that is that even with a 4th place and ending the tour after 4 stages, I made exactly $0 and half world cup points for each race I did. Each stage only pays the podium, and it’s the final rank that really pays out $ and points, so that aspect was for sure pretty annoying! Whatever, I’ll be fine, that’s just a little rant about the tour structure.

If you liked this, then you should check out Ben's most recent vlog! The last half of it is us talking, podcast-style, about illness from the perspective of us post-tour. It’s some good stuff!