On the bus to the Oulu airport right now, realizing it’s been a long time since I made this drive in the other direction! It’s been about 2 weeks here, in a pretty isolated environment because of exposure to lots of new people. I’m excited to get back to the world cup team for our pre-world champs camp in (sunny, warm) Davos. We’ll have to continue isolation there to protect our teammates—which is a bummer— but I feel good about it with the biggest races looming. In hindsight, I think this U23 world champs felt a little flat because of so much time here: in cold weather that made quality training harder to accomplish. It was a really beautiful place with good skiing, I think I just missed a little edge in my preparation for these races.

Putting in some intensity/technique work with Jan (daily skier photo)

The first race for me was the classic sprint, but due to cold temps on the scheduled day, the race was pushed back a day. This kinda sucked because we had prepared the day before, and then had to wait most of the morning to find out whether we were racing. I’d like to say this didn’t impact my performance at all, and I think mentally I did a good job rolling with it, but physically I think I ended up missing something. That race went really badly for me result-wise, and I just didn’t feel very strong out on course. It was definitely a test of my confidence and ability to re-focus for the next day. I had to just tell myself over and over that tomorrow was a new day and I could turn things around, because I didn’t really trust that I was feeling that good. By the next day I was excited and more confident, hoping I’d feel better in the race. It was cold again, but not as bad as the day before. (The proof is that I warmed up fully outside, instead of partially inside like I did before the sprint).

Cool to race in a Protect our Winters bib! This week was a good time to address the difference between weather and climate… (just because it’s -10ºF doesn’t mean we’re safe from the crisis) (lurocreative.kuvat.fi)

In the skate race, I wanted to pace consistently, as the slow snow made each 3.75k lap a pretty consistent grind. That meant starting a little harder than normal, and just holding it. I did a good job at the beginning, staying within a few seconds of the leaders, right where I wanted to be. However, around halfway, when I usually begin to tell myself to start “turning the screw” (increasing effort), I wasn’t able to make any more speed, and started losing seconds over the gradual tops of all the hills. It was a weird race because I didn’t really feel like myself for this “crunch time”. On a good day, that second half is where I’d be able to close gaps and pour on the rest of my energy, but I already didn’t have much left to give. It ended up meaning I got passed by the race leader who started 30” behind me, and I just couldn’t hold on. I finished 9th, 53 seconds back to a guy I beat in the 15k skate in Falun. This definitely bummed me out, because I did everything I could, and gave everything I had, and just didn’t race like I know I can. I can find positives in (A) Knowing I pushed myself to my limit even when I wasn’t having that fast of a race, and (B) Working to find seconds where I could in the corners and gradual downhills. At the end of the day, I just had to look to the relay and to World Championships in Germany.

The next day I felt like it couldn’t be too much worse, and if anything the races were making me more ready to race a 5k in the mixed relay. I was glad to get the relay opportunity, because I knew our team had medal chances! A squad like Hailey Swirbul, me, Hunter Wonders, and Sophia Laukli is a squad you want to be on.

Hailey had a strong first leg, and came in dead even with team Norway, with the other teams falling off behind them. When I saw this happening, I knew I had to work together with Norway’s second leg, Jon Rolf Hope, and not let him get away! At the start, I took lead, but he was chilling in my draft, and went around pretty quickly and boosted the pace big time. I drifted back about 5-10 meters, and started to get really nervous about losing him. My kick was good, though, so I was able to bound back to his heels up the big sprint hill. I drifted back a couple more times on the gradual uphill double poling, and closed the gap up the striding hills again. In the finishing 1km, I ended up losing about 5 seconds, unfortunately tagging Hunter a little bit off of a great ride. He did a really good job holding off the strong chase pack, and not losing much time to Norway. In the end, Sophia fought in the chase pack, and ended up a close 5th. We were a little bummed just being so close to medals, but everyone skied a really solid leg and it made for exciting cheering!

Debriefing with Jan (lurocreative.kuvat.fi)

Dissipating some race tension by jumping in a frozen lake then coming back to a hot sauna!

I’m really thankful for a successfully organized event of this size in these times. For a lot of the people here, this is the only shot at big races they got this season, and it was the last year as a junior for a lot of them. This venue really came through and did a lot of work to make it happen, and that’s really impressive. Kiitos Vuokatti.