December 2, 2021

RRR (Ruka Race Report)

December 2, 2021

It was cold.

Jogging it out the night before the start of the season. Zanden.

The classic sprint went alright for me. Nothing crazy bad or good. Would’ve liked to be faster obviously but the good news is I have some rocket teammates that I can learn from for the future. When those boys’ names (Luke, Ben , JC) were showing up in the results at the finish, I was hyped! Especially hyped to watch them in the heats, because I knew they could really mix it up. JC went through and almost made the finals, and Ben and Luke were really close. Only gonna be a matter of time before they’re looking at podiums.

The next day (15km classic) was more my speed, and I was a lot more nervous for it for that reason. I was still able to chill out and remember it’s the first distance World Cup of the season, and was able to still start chill. I stayed up on the fast corner on the south part of the course (couple people around me didn’t), and was able to finish hard, so I was happy with it. And I was happy with staying strong and relaxed technically, and not being too far out of the front of the race was good for the Sunday pursuit.

Taking a little break after my finish, watching the race

Venue in the background by the jumps. We stay in the apartments on the right side of the picture

Sprint boys doing some apartment strength

I felt even more ready for racing on Sunday, as I usually do in the early season, but it was super cold, and the race directors kind of tempered expectations on whether the race would happen or not. The women ended up being delayed by 40 minutes, and then again by a few hours, so they warmed up 3 times. Rough! We got to go at our race time, but didn’t know for sure until 30 minutes before the start. Some drama at the actual start with Norway and a couple other big names not starting. Apparently the timing crew didn’t know about this until they didn’t show up, so they had to delay and restart the clocks a couple minutes later. Good going with the flow practice.

This race last year was so much fun for me, because they use the 2.5km course that has good rest and hard work, and the 6-lap 15km just flew by. This year was the same. I started right with the British guys, and Andrew Musgrave was having a good one, and pushed the pace the whole time, which helped pull me and others around me through the field. Got a little rest over the top of the course on the last lap, and blasted it in to 11th! Pretty stoked with that result (5th fastest of the day too!) but the best thing was just enjoying the tactics and fun of pack racing.

Ready for more of that this season!

Lil late on this post, so Lillehammer is already tomorrow! Starts with a skate sprint, then 15km Saturday, relay Sunday. They’re using the biathlon courses because there’s not enough snow for the regular courses. Kind of a bummer to not ski the iconic courses here, but the backup courses are really fun! Time to go again!

Gus Schumacher

November 25, 2021

Ruka...time to go!

Gus Schumacher

November 25, 2021

I left Anchorage on November 17th, and if everything goes well I won’t be back until late March or early April. It’s a big winter ahead, but I know I put in good work this summer, and I’m excited to see how it’ll go!!

Last sunrise over the Chugach. Cold last days at home!

Leaving seattle, 8 hours since leaving my house.

Keeping the blood flowing a little on the place with the Lyric massage gun

24 hours into the travel, bus ride to Ruka. Watched skyfall

First ski tests of the season with Karel. Day 2

Hunter and Luke on a cold day. A little sunlight though!

One of the biggest differences this year from last year is the big crew of younger guys we have over here. Last year was awesome, but it’s so much fun to have the guys here that I’ve trained and gone to camps with since I was really young. We’ve got a really good energy and team atmosphere, and I’m so excited to see how we can put that chemistry to use.

Ben and JC doing some classic intervals. Low point of the sprint course looking up towards the finish.

Repping my new headgear sponsor on my second interval day. Did some short skate L4.

This summer, NeverSecond reached out to help me with sports nutrition, and if you read https://fasterskier.com/2021/09/dialing-in-performance-fueling-gus-schumacher-explores-continuous-glucose-monitoring/ , you can kinda learn more about how I changed my fueling during my training. Our collaboration went really well, and this fall we started up an actual partnership, and I’m very excited to continue working on and improving my performance nutrition. NeverSecond makes great carbohydrate products, and they’re 30% off through 11/29 if you use code BlackFriday30 at checkout. Give it a shot!!

We had a great team race prep workout today on a super busy sprint course. Tons of energy out there and I can’t wait to get this season started!!!

Another black friday deal. don’t miss it!!!

Gus Schumacher

October 27, 2021

Turning 21 and feeling old: My introduction to regular PT

Gus Schumacher

October 27, 2021

My whole career in skiing, since I joined AWS at around 10 years old, has been pretty smooth, if I'm being totally honest. Not too many big problems, which I am very grateful for (especially now, looking back).

Skiing is a tough sport, and to do well, you need to be tough. I am very grateful to have that skill, as well as having access to Jan’s ability to encourage that skill in his athletes. However, toughness can be a problem when applied to everything, including injuries and sickness. As I get older, I've gotten much better at noticing when an injury is developing, and stopping whatever is bothering it, however inconvenient and annoying that can be. Sometimes this has meant walking the rest of the way home when my calves get tight, or stopping a speed workout because my shoulder was getting sore (and missing the next skate sprint TT)…(last week). Even better, I’ve started to prioritize “prehab”: all of the things that I can do to prevent those nagging injuries from popping up again. For me this means foam rolling, mobility, and some stretching, and I’ve even taken the step to approximately weekly meeting with a PT this summer.

The PT that I’m working with is Zuzana Rogers from Runner’s Edge. They’ve been doing home visits so far, but are moving into their own space soon. It’s been super convenient for me to have her come on an easy day and check in or we go through what’s been bothering me and how to help. This summer she’s helped me with a sore ankle from spring skiing, getting my calves strong and balanced enough for running, and getting a stiff shoulder working well again with some back mobilization. Without her, all this stuff would’ve taken me way longer to figure out, and I gotta train, man!! Working with a PT has been one of the biggest steps forward I’ve made this summer, because all that recovery work goes a long way in making training more effective.

As I continue training a lot, I know these problems are only going to grow and develop, so I’m doing my best at starting the fix to a problem right when I notice it’s even becoming a problem. It’s fun to feel so much control over this stuff, because overuse injuries are preventable (100% cure pro tip: do less).

…but I can’t do less, so I do PT and emphasize big sleep and recovery!

Massive thanks to Zuzana for all the help this summer! It’s not the first time she’s helped out big time, and it definitely won’t be the last. Hit her up!

https://runnersedge.physio

Gus Schumacher

October 21, 2021

Abilica Vid + first impressions

Gus Schumacher

October 21, 2021

Starting this off by saying that this summer I got an Abilica rollerski treadmill through my great sponsor, Enjoy Winter. They have been massively helpful with all my gear, but I’m especially thankful for this amazing training tool.

This was the second time I’ve ever skied on a rollerski treadmill, and never a classic-only one, so it took a little getting used to. The hardest part was fast striding, which ended up only taking a couple sessions to get comfortable with. Since that it’s been smooth sailing.

Some sessions I’ve done on it:

Bounding: 8x3min L4, 6x8min L3

Classic: 8x4min L3-L4, 5x8min specific strength, lactate test

These are all really useful sessions, and mostly I can compare them time after time, but with some of them I haven’t recorded the exact speeds and inclines, because that makes it more stimulating. The most comparable test I’ve done is the lactate test, which I do at 14kph and increase incline by 2% on each 5min stage. I test HR and lactate levels, and go until my lactate gets above 4.0 mmoL. This makes it easy to know empirically if I’m working harder or not at a given speed.

It’s also super helpful for other things, like bad weather and technique work. I’ve especially had a good time doing technique with Jan (my AWS coach) there, because we can make such quick adjustments in real time, in a quiet environment. It’s made it a lot easier for me to change what I’m doing.

That’s about all I’ve got for now, so here’s a quick video showing it off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpaYingCK8&t=302s

Gus Schumacher

May 28, 2021

Bend Camp!!

Gus Schumacher

May 28, 2021

Our first camp back as a team since October 2019 was a massive success. You wouldn’t believe the excitement everyone had coming into it, fully vaccinated, with an energy to work together more than I’ve seen before at a camp or race. This camp is conducive to this great camaraderie because of so little stress around racing, and amazing weather and training conditions here in Oregon.

Day 1

Briefing in the lodge. We watched a 3min clip of some World Cup skier before almost every ski to get technique ideas flowing.

The focus of the camp was on-snow volume, with an emphasis on technique. Beyond that, it’s a great opportunity for us to take advantage of a big staff to make sure we’re ready for a long summer of hard training. This means physicals, mental health support, informational meetings, and training plan conversations. We’re all very thankful to our coaches for setting all this up for us in a very convenient manner, and not letting it consume the camp. We just had a few key meetings after dinner, and got tons of time to enjoy time with our teammates and talk about other stuff we felt was important. This involved natural conversations about stuff from technique to movies. Sometimes we just needed to chill; those big days really take a lot of energy!!

We did a ton of skiing together. This facilitated learning from one another by watching and talking about how we ski.

You’re gonna see a lot of sunny pics, because that’s when I had my phone out more, but it wasn’t always perfect!

Rain :( The skiing was still amazing though!!

…with a surprise sighting of Mogul, Bernie, and Dakota!

Easy to smile big when it looks like this

More time spent chilling when the sun comes out

3x5km classic intervals (pacing project) (photo: Matt Whitcomb)

Casual debrief, athlete-athlete (Matt photo)

This was my favorite workout of the camp ^ (3x5km L3). This format started last year as a way to practice individual start 15km pacing, and I think it’s a really good way to experiment with different styles of skiing and efforts, with the goal to produce good times on a set 5km lap. This makes it really similar to many 15k races we do in the winter. The day we did it was sunny, so the snow slowed down appreciably as the workout progressed, but I still really enjoyed trying to start controlled and finish a little faster like a race. Most of us skied alone to work on our own tactics, but it was still productive to talk afterwards about our individual approaches. There’s a lot to learn from your teammates, and we figured that out in a big way at this camp. There was always such a positive flow of information between us, even without pushing from coaches. I think that’s really a testament to our current team culture: how we feel comfortable enough with everyone to get really in depth about our thoughts on any given day. I really enjoyed everything about working with the team these last two weeks; the level of commitment, professionalism, and fun was extraordinary.

Last day OD skate. Skied with a bunch of different people, finished it with Zanden.

Something about having each other’s backs?

I want to give a huge thank you to all the staff that made this camp a massive success! Thanks T for strength, Jen for PT, Alex for sports psych, Jess for nutrition, Dr. Heather for medical consultation, Megan for amazing cooking, and of course our incredibly hard working coaches Matt, Chris, Kate, and Jason! Without them, this camp wouldn’t be nearly as smooth or productive. Also a big thank you to Sue Foster, Rion, and Mt. Bachelor nordic for the above-and-beyond hospitality and grooming! The training on snow there is as good as it gets. if you ever have a chance to visit, take it, you won’t regret it.

Now I’m going back home for some rest and extra time to catch up on school. Summer classes started on the second day of camp…gotta get on that work.

Still hoping to get a World Cup review blog up at some point, maybe when I have a little easier school/training week.

Gus Schumacher

April 8, 2021

200km? In a row?

Gus Schumacher

April 8, 2021

Alright sports fans here’s my play-by-play of skiing 200k (126mi) on Wednesday, April 7th.

But first…In hindsight, it feels like this was a big enough event that we could’ve raised money for something, but we were too spontaneous about it. Instead, I’m just going to mention Citizens Climate Lobby (citizensclimatelobby.org). They are a group I’ve been involved with recently, mostly in helping to lobby our Alaskan congress members to cosponsor their Carbon Fee and Dividend act (information at their website and if you just look it up). There’s lots of ways to get involved with them, most as easy as sending a note to your representative. Thanks!

To preface this, these long skis started (for our group in Anchorage) last year when Covid locked stuff down. We saw some posts of people doing 100 and 200k in Norway, where I’m sure they’ve been doing it forever, and thought it would be fun on the interconnected trails around town. So last year we had a big weekend where seemingly everyone was skiing wayyyyy too long. The snow and weather was perfect so it was just the time to go. My achievement last year was 3 days in a row of 60k, then 100k, then 130k, which is not the same as 200k, but still big. Another friend did 250k but that’s another story. This spring on the World Cup, JC and I were planning all the fun things we were going to do when we got home, like parties, snowmachining….and skiing super long. So we’d been loosely planning it for a while, and did 100k last week on a nice day. The motivation I guess is just to accomplish something with low pressure, and maybe feel a sense of cameraderie in commiseration. So it was really on the radar, we we’re just looking for the right snow and weather window. It got really warm and then froze hard Sunday, and we knew it wasn’t going to snow Tuesday or Wednesday, and our races coming up are on the weekend, so we pulled the trigger on Wednesday. There ya go, the backstory.

Packed a bunch of snacks the night before. This was probably the most fun part, making little tortilla PB&Js and tossing a handful of halloween candy…then another one…and maybe another into the bag. Grabbed a bunch of fruit too which ended up being one of my favorite snacks. Leftover fried rice for lunch. Thermos ready for coffee, to be consumed in a darker hour. Truly was so excited the night before that I didn’t sleep that well, woke up at 6am to be there at 7am. Got there a few minutes before the gate got opened, and JC showed up without his boots.

0km: JC forgets boots, we start. About 15ºF and freshly groomed, with the sun just starting to rise.

7:16am. Starting crew: Finn, Espen, Brandon

0.5km: We get to the first junction to see Elliot’s not groomed…Mize it is.

1.5km: Second junction, Sisson not groomed?! Oh boy. Session is the flat, fast loop that we were planning on using mostly. We finished up Mize to check back to see if JC was there yet, then went out on Lekisch 2.9, then skied a few more laps around the stadium until JC arrived.

10km: JC now in the group at 0km, we head down to check on Sisson and decided it was worth a go, even though it was hard and icy.

24km: First water break, JC kept skiing around the stadium to “catch up”

55km: We just did 4 laps of Sisson (each lap about 6km, doesn’t include skiing there or back). Ready to change it up and check out some other, hillier, trails.

10:17am. Snacking it out after a bit of a Sisson grind. Time to head to Jodhpur.

75km: 3.75hr in, decided to ski 10 laps of a 0.4km loop by Jodhpur parking lot to break it up a bit. Skied hard there. Definitely starting to lose energy for hills after only 2 lighted loops (stadium to Jodhpur and back).

100km: 5hr in, absolutely grinding Sisson laps. It was so icy, it hurt my feet, shins, and all other balance muscles, and I hated it. But it was fast and mindless. Ate about a Kiwi a lap. Getting close to lunch though, really looked forward to that

112km: 5:35 in, lunchtime!! Espen and Brandon were done now, making us feel very envious. I was definitely ready for a big break. Switched my shirt and jacket and undid my boots for a little. And ate my leftover fried rice and a brownie and a capri sun (pacific cooler flavor). And Ari, who had just joined us, had some chips. Would’ve stayed here longer if it was warmer, but my hands got soooo cold. Had to switch to mittens for the restart. So hard to restart after a good meal and getting cold.

1:26pm. Lunchtime! Bro on the left is already done :(

130km: 6.5hrs in, did 2 Jodhpur laps after lunch, which I was loving because it was so much easier on my feet in the well-groomed snow. Now eating a snack (PB&J, see below) and heading down into the abyss of Sisson. Getting much harder now. The crew now is JC, Finn, and Ari.

150km: 7.5hr in, still at 3:00/km pace. Did some more Sisson grinding, really honestly not feeling good at all now!! End in sight kinda though, just a normal long distance session ahead. 3/4 of the way. Doing too many watch checks and percentage done breakdowns.

3:26pm, somewhere on Sisson around 150km. Sigurd joined us a little before this, coming from the coastal trail after starting at UAA.

It’s a little bit of a blur to 200k, but we left Sisson at 160km, had a little too long of a snack break, then skied a Jodhpur lap together. JC had clawed back like 3k by skiing around during our snacks, but was still about 6k behind. After the first Jodhpur lap, the boys wanted to go BACK to Sisson, and I didn’t want to, so I stayed and did 2 more Jodhpur laps. The hills were killing me on the second one (3rd in a row!) but my ankles were a lot better, so I took a little downhill cruise into Sisson to meet up with the boys.

188km: 9.5hr in, found the boys on Sisson. Hopped silently into the train. Grind time. Just dying. Ready to be done but 12km felt like soooo much longer.

7:11pm. Big moment. Still buried in the folds of Sisson because I was guilted into finishing with JC, so I had to ski MORE than 200k.

203.4km, 10 hours, 17 minutes, and 41 seconds of skiing later. (more like 12 hours even when you include breaks). Done. Moose’s Tooth Pizza in the parking lot. Emma is an angel for bringing it. Not sure what we would’ve done without that. Best Thai Chicken I’ve ever had.

Dude that’s a vibe. Legs just throbbing.

Went home, thought I was going to have to take a test but it was messed up so I didn’t, thank god. Hot tubbed, ate way too much more food and slept like crazy. Woke up and my legs just felt swollen and so stiff. Got my covid shot this afternoon, feeling a little better now. We’ll see how long that lasts!

Definitely a once-a-year thing, maybe less than that. Although I’m sure by next year I’ll only remember the good parts and forget how hard it was. When I think that maybe I come back here and read what I said. Who knows, done for now, thanks for tuning in. Thought this was good content that wasn’t race related.

Gus Schumacher

March 25, 2021

Home! Slowing down :)

Gus Schumacher

March 25, 2021

It’s been an amazing first 10 days at home. I’ve slowed down in the sense that I’m not racing every week or two, but I’ve been busier than I was almost all winter! The most relaxing thing about being back, and away from the World Cup, is that I don’t have a big racing coming up in the next week or two. I’ve realized it gets really hard to always be thinking about a race that I care about. Once I got home and realized I DIDN’T have a race coming up, I noticed how drained I was from always focusing and refocusing on a new venue, event, and team. That said, I had a great winter, which I’m sure I’ll write about more in the next few weeks, but for now, I’m just soaking in some amazing time at home with family and friends.

First night home…they left the christmas tree up for me!

Pretty great to come back to perfect snow and skiing!!

Did a 30k with the UAA boys…chill though because it was friendly and late planned. It’s still super fun to race, especially in low-cost events.

It’s been a lot of fun to see so many friends I haven’t seen in months! Really enjoy it.

I’ll probably do a year-recap blog at some point here, but expect less frequent blogs now. Not as much cool stuff going on now. :) Thanks for reading!

Gus Schumacher

March 16, 2021

Engadin Valley World Cup Finals!

Gus Schumacher

March 16, 2021

In a season of schedule changes and curveballs, it was nice to have confirmation of one final World Cup weekend after World Champs, and especially nice that it also meant the opportunity to visit the famed Engadin Valley in Switzerland (St. Moritz area). This place feels like the blueprint for every ski town in the American West, and I can see why places like Aspen would want to copy it! When we drove in, it was perfectly snowy and sunny, with so many trails along the valley.

Driving over the Julier pass to St. Moritz

Unfortunately, the night we arrived, our Covid test results from that morning came back with a positive for Sophie Caldwell. This sent the team into a scramble to figure out close contacts, which were luckily kept to a minimum by our team protocols. That next day, a bunch of us quarantined in our rooms until another covid test. We also learned that Sophie’s viral load was barely enough to trigger a positive result; and, in the next round of PCR tests, everyone on the team—including Sophie and Simi—tested negative. This was incredibly good news, but we soon learned that Sophie and Simi would still have to quarantine due to Swiss laws, and would spend their last weekend on the World Cup alone in separate hotel rooms. Our whole team, along with a ton of other friends on the World Cup, are so sad for them, as they were ready to enjoy some amazing final celebratory races in a beautiful location with so many teammates and friends. We did what we could to bring some light to them, from check-in texts to zoom team meeting performances (Ben and I showed a Family Guy clip, you’re welcome Caldwell-Hamiltons).

Simi and Sophie have been such amazing mentors this year, I’m so grateful they stuck around for one more season. I can’t speak too much for other people (although I know everyone enjoyed their company and atmosphere), but having them around was so important for me. I didn’t know this at the beginning of the year, but having Simi on the World Cup for my first year was going to just about double my road happiness and learning. For me, a huge theme of this year has been learning by absorbing, and being around Simi taught me so much I’m only realizing now. He also did an amazing job in explicitly teaching me things about racing and living away from home, which speaks a lot to his understanding as his place as a leader on this team. Obviously, all the stuff that happened at World Champs (see last blog) was a huge teaching moment for me, but looking back, I used Simi as a mentor and wealth of knowledge countless times throughout the season. Obviously there was a lot of talking about training and racing every weekend, but so much of what I learned from him was just being around him and observing his approach to life. I really respect his casual focus on race day, along with his level-headed approach to all the ups and downs of racing 30+ times in a winter. I hope in my career and life I can emulate all of his strengths, share them with the people around me, and pass them along when it’s my turn to be more of a teacher like him. Thanks Simi and Sophie! (If you ever get the chance, spend time with these two, you’ll only pick up good things.)

Gonna miss this, thanks for everything this year Simi <3

Alright enough of the actual thoughtful stuff, now to be boring and describe what I ate for breakfast every day. ;)

Crazy buildings along the course (Pontresina)

Also super cool streets to the hotel in Samedan

Still appreciating these amazing places, even if I’d rather be home

Testing classic skis at the 15km venue in Silvaplana

This guy has been so solid, hardworking, and effective all season. Thanks for helping me with fast skis Karel

And THIS guy is faking it. Lazy and not solid all season. Booooooo Kevin. Kidding…to be clear — And THIS guy is faking it. Lazy and not solid all season. Booooooo Kevin.
Kidding…to be clear

At the top of the last hill on the point-to-point. Notice how much nicer the snow is here than it was in the race, if you watched.

Part of the trail is down below on the lake

The races here were a 15k classic mass start and a 50k skate pursuit (based on the mass start) on the historic Engadin Marathon Trail. The Engadin is a massive race (10,000-12,000 people on a normal year), that starts in Maloja and ends in Schanf, following the valley down, mostly along lakes and fields to accommodate so many racers. They added a couple loops for us, because apparently the annual 38k course wasn’t enough…

All week it was super sunny and fast, and the day of the 50, we woke up to snow and a little wind. We watched the first half of the women’s race before we left, and it looked like pretty good conditions, definitely a little windy. As we drove up the valley to the start, the wind picked up more, and we passed some massive snow-nadoes kicking up on the lakes as we went by. It was going to be a different feel than the rest of our stay. I started 1:46 back in the pursuit, right around Hunter, Ben, and Scott, and right away we grouped up and started working together to catch the packs ahead of us. We did this by switching leads every 30-60 seconds, bike race style, so we could keep a fast pace into the headwind. It took us about 8k to catch the leaders, who had coagulated into one big pack of 40 because of no one wanting to lead. This was the most fun part of the race, as we could ski so easily in the draft but then hammer when it was our turn to lead. In hindsight, we definitely didn’t need to work that hard because the leaders were chilling, but there was no way for us to know that’s what was going on. From 8k to about 28k we skied in a pack of about 60, shoulder to shoulder going pretty slow, which I was FINE with. It was so nice to get some recovery from the first push, enjoy a little of the final race, and focus on technique and energy conservation (it wasn’t going to be easy the whole way…) Around 28k, a Russian made a little break, and that spread the pack out right as we hit the long straight airport section. For me, this section was the most important skiing in the race, as I was a little ways back in the pack during the break, and needed to bridge a few big, windy gaps to get back into the lead group. One jump I made alone, and it got me from the chase pack to the top 20 with about 10k to go. When I reattached I was so proud of myself and my skiing. I consciously thought that even if I totally bonked, that single effort made me happy with my performance. The chase group I had been in caught back up, but the pace picked up again, and I was able to hang on better because of more rest in the previous few minutes. I ended up at the back of the front pack for the last big hill, fighting as hard as I could in slow blowing snow. I had just enough energy to hang on, but couldn’t move up in that group. Crossing that finish line after 2 hours and 10 minutes of racing, along with finishing my World Cups season was such a good feeling, and it was made even better by having the 6th-fastest time of the day!

Letting it sink in…or maybe more just a fully empty body and head

I’ve had a bit of a tough last month of racing, and it was a big boost to prove to myself that I can still ski well, even if I’ve had some trouble putting the pieces for a good race together. There was a ton of other positive stuff at the end, with Jessie winning the Overall and Distance World Cups!!! Also Rosie had an amazing fight at the end, and finished in 4th in the Distance World Cup! Plus it was fun to have one more weekend with my teammates and friends. :)

Overall I’m super proud of my first season on the World Cup! It’s been amazing, and only made possible by an amazing team of skiers, coaches, wax techs, medical/PT staff, FIS organizers, and supporters from home!! We couldn’t do it without all of you guys, especially on a year like this. I’m incredibly grateful for the thousands of hours of work that went into making this season happen at all, the opportunities we got were not taken for granted.

I don’t have many pics of all the staff, but thankful to all of them for making the whole team click.

Now to go home finally (4 months!!!!) and hug my parents, siblings, friends, and dogs, eat my favorite food, and sleep in my own bed. Update on how that goes will come later. :)

Gus Schumacher

March 10, 2021

World Champs racing

Gus Schumacher

March 10, 2021

My first race at world champs was the team sprint with Simi, and it was the most nervous and excited I’ve been for a race in years. I was a kid that got super nervous before races, to the point of not being able to eat. I overcame that gradually as I got older and experienced more failure, and learned that failure is never the end of the world. The past couple of years I’ve actually needed to force myself to get a little nervous for racing so I’m not too complacent, which is just the opposite problem! Most of this year I’ve been able to really nail my excitement level before races, using visualization and my natural competitiveness to fuel good nervous energy.

For the team sprint I wasn’t able to totally nail my energy. I felt a lot of pressure (from myself) to perform for Simi and for our whole team, as I was incredibly proud and honored with the opportunity to race this 2-person event at worlds. During the days leading up to the race, we did a lot of team practice to work on speed and tags (which get more important in a team sprint when you have to do it 5 times). I definitely had some uncertainty, both in my ability to execute the tags, and in my sprint speed, which is huge when going against some of the best sprinters on the world cup on a fast, powerful course. These doubts in the week before the race lead to a lot of internal stress, even if I fought it as hard as I could with positive statements, old race viewing, and talking to coaches. When I got to the start line I was super hyped and excited, but to the point of not being able to relax. The energy I had fueled a few laps of really good pack skiing, but was also a big part of me starting too soon in the tag zone, which lead to a quick brake and subsequent crash. :(

After I got up from the crash and tagged Simi, I went as hard as I could around the lap. I ended up skiing about as fast as the leaders, but closed no time, and knew I tagged him too far out to go through as a lucky loser. (I will point out that the front group could’ve all crashed, giving us a way through to the final, so I’m glad we both skied stupid hard last laps.) I was disappointed in myself for being too jumpy, and ruining our chances of a really good day with a stupid mistake. I felt like I let down Simi and my other teammates that could’ve raced. After so long looking forward to and focusing on this race, it was so hard to see our chances in the final hit the snow like that. HOWEVER, we have an amazing team, and the understanding support I received after the race was vital in my ability to continue with the championships. As much as Simi was disappointed in his last big team sprint, he was adamant that this stuff happens in races and that the result that day was not the make or break to his day, season, or career that I felt like it could be. It shows how much he cares about the team around him, and that leading means teaching and understanding, even when it’s time to execute, not necessarily learn. I still obviously made a mistake, and I’m glad everyone acknowledged that, and didn’t sugarcoat the actual event; but, I’m also glad they didn’t want me to beat myself up over it. Here’s to hoping I never make that mistake again!!! And here’s to an incredibly supportive group of dudes on this team. <3

Rohrmoos Team Sprint race prep…yes we practiced tags

Skiing well in a fast-moving pack before the blunder

Couldn’t Simi look sad in one pic? Where’s the drama???

Afterwards, I knew there wasn’t anything I could do, and I needed to just focus on the 15k in a few days. It helped a lot for me to talk to Simi, Jan, Matt, my parents, and sports psych just to talk through things and think about the best way to move forward. I tried to immediately get a 15k course map printed out to look at and think about, but it was hard to not think about the team sprint going differently! I ended up just going about things normally, and it kinda worked out. In hindsight, I didn’t eat nearly enough after the team sprint, and paid for it big time in the 15k. I think the stress from before and after that first race made it hard to eat well and absorb what I did eat, so I went into the 15k feeling bloated and drained of energy.

Still having a better day than this cow? (toenail clipping)

I was a lot less nervous for the 15k because I had confidence in my ability to execute my race plan. I do a lot of 15k racing, and the interval start nature makes it pretty easy to control. On the day I was chilled in the morning and my stomach didn’t feel good, but I just blocked those feeling out because I didn’t want it to mentally impact my racing. I got to the start line fully ready to have another race like Falun, but within the first few minutes I could tell my energy and power just weren’t there. Someone told me I looked “tank empty”, and I felt like that described my race perfectly. I pushed as hard as I could through it, but ended wayyyy off where I know I can be in that event. It’s hard to stay confident after races like that, but finding a reason for it (eating), can make a big difference. This is different than making excuses because on that day I had a true physical barrier, and although it was my fault, there wasn’t anything I could do about it on race day.

The positive I took from this race was that I skied with good technique I thought.

Talking to Jan in a pretty bad mood! The guy is good at being both positive and realistic which is helpful.

The low-energy feeling is one that I’ve felt a little bit in training, but not on such an extreme scale as in that race. In the race I was just like “what’s happening to me?!” and after I finished I was basically like “ohhhh…yea, maybe I wasn’t fueled”. It’s a pretty distinct feeling, and not one you want to have in a race! The takeaways for me were that I need to notice when I’m getting super nervous, and address it; and, when I get nervous, excited, or bummed, I need to make sure I still have some attention on nutrition.

The relay 2 days after the 15k went a lot better! I was a little reserved about being on that team, with how bad I felt in the 15k, but I thought if I was able to absorb some food I’d be much better off. The good news is that I was much better! That morning I didn’t have any stomach pain, wasn't chilled at all, and had solid energy in my warm up (although it was slow as sand in the new snow). I started the anchor leg with Germany, Canada, and Czech, skied the first lap controlled behind them, then pushed the second lap and dropped Canada and Czech. On the last lap I lead and tried to hold the German back until the last couple KMs, but a little too much leading and his strong climbing gave him an advantage. I didn’t really care that much about that gap though, because it was amazing to actually feel like I had strength and control again in a race. Full 180 from the last race, and I skied the 4th-fastest anchor leg, under 1 minute behind Bolshunov in a 30-ish minute 10k!

My last race at world champs was my very first 50k. 8 laps of a 6.25k loop, including some massive climbs. I actually was the least nervous for this race of my 4 starts, even though a world champs 50k seems like a pretty daunting task. I was so focused on my feeding and ski exchange that I didn’t get very caught up in the actual result. I got the good race feeling at the end, just because I finished it with reasonable levels of attack. I was super tired, but was able to race the whole thing, and not just survive. The first 3 laps were really good for me, I was doing a good job staying forward in the pack to avoid big accordions, and wasn’t using too much energy being frantic. One tight climb on the 4th lap I lost a pole basket, unfortunately, and dropped through the pack trying to get a new pole. I wasn’t too stressed about it because I knew it was a long race, but right when I got a replacement pole and was slightly off the back of the pack, Niskanen pushed up the big climb, and I wasn’t able to reattach to the pack. It was basically just super bad timing, and the energy I would’ve expended trying to move back up probably would’ve costed me more in the end, so I was a stuck in no man’s land. Either way, I’m happy with my race, and I know I have a few more years to perfect my 50k skiing. Big shoutout to Scott and David though, for 10th and 16th place!

Shoulda just followed him! (note the matching pole tips back there :)

As a full week, I’m absolutely disappointed with my racing at world champs. I know it’s my first one, and I only made a couple big mistakes, but I’m still bummed because I know if I had executed perfectly, in a way that I’ve executed before, I could’ve done much better. BUT that’s racing, and life, and I learned a few big things that I can remember for the future. Outside of racing, I had a great week. We had a good team bubble, occupying an entire small hotel, and I got to spend a lot of quality time with friends and teammates. I also took a math test the night after the 15k, and it went really well. I studied for it, and it worked! We enjoyed some good weather and some bad weather, and played a lot of Catan. Now we’re in the Engadin Valley for the last races of the season, a classic 15k mass start and a skate 50k pursuit on the iconic Engadin Marathon course.

Crazy drive over Switzerland to Engadin!

Pretty crazy that we get to see places like this

Testing some classics with Karel. This guy, and all of our wax staff worked so hard last week (they always do) and did a great job in some incredibly difficult conditions. I am very thankful that they are so committed and competent. Thanks guys!

One more weekend!! I’m so excited to go home. Maybe a whole blog post for everything I missed?

Gus Schumacher

February 25, 2021

World Champs run-up

Gus Schumacher

February 25, 2021

(Posted also on SkiPost, but more pictures here)

Honestly not too much to report from the last couple weeks, which is good! We (the U.S. World Champs team) spent last week in Davos, Switzerland doing some training and chilling, with goals to reset from the World Cup grind and refocus on the upcoming championships. It was beautiful, with tons of sun and snow, which was a welcome change from freezing Finland (location of U23s the week before).

2 weeks in Finland did a number on my mittens…good thing NoSo Patches sent me some goods in Davos!

We arrived in Oberstdorf on Sunday, with the first race coming up today! (classic sprint) Rolled up to hot sun and very little snow, which was worrying after seeing snowy pictures of the venue earlier in the winter. Getting to the venue cured some of the worries, because there’s a good amount of snow in the shade, but it’s still feeling the heat! Since it’s been uneventful recently, I think shining some light on how a strong U.S. team prepares for a big championship event would be kind of cool.

There are 17 athletes here, (8 women, 9 men) and with 4 athletes starting in each event, this means we have some people targeting one event, alongside people targeting more like 4-5 (of 6 total) events. There are lots of moving parts, and people all in slightly different modes of preparation for their big events. An important aspect of this for an individual is to not lose sight of one’s own event. Continuing preparation exactly as YOU need it, no matter what’s going on around you is important, and the coaches and staff are working so hard to make this possible. This means lots of vans shutting to and from the venue and COVID testing, as well as additional “special team” staff, including a nutritionist, PT, massage therapist, and doctor to tend to all the tiny needs, with the goal to allow coaches to focus fully on the races and logistics. This is awesome for us, because it means access to really good, healthy food and body care whenever we need it. There’s lots of hype at these events, even compared to big World Cups, so it’s really nice to have all the small things dialed, so we can do our best to block out distractions. The team is running like a machine, and we’re all ready to take on some hot racing!

For myself, individual preparation means chilling when I can, and just enjoying the experience these first few days, while honing in training every day with my coaches Matt Whitcomb and Jan Buron. I’ve been trying really hard to sync up intensity sessions with the other guys, but since we’re all focusing on different races, it’s a little hard to find ourselves doing similar things on the same day. I’ve been able to do a couple sessions recently with Simi, which have been super valuable. One big step forward for me this year has been spending so much time around our nation’s best skiers, and it feels good when I really take advantage of having them around. I’ve learned a lot just by being around them all year, and not necessarily things I could list. A lot of it is just being absorbed when I watch them ski and prepare. My other side of preparation is mental, and right now, 4 days out from racing, that means still doing homework and playing games with the boys, but also starting to allow nervous energy to creep in, and thinking about how I want these races to play out. Now is when I start to go through the courses in my head, visualizing how I want to feel in certain places, and what moves can be made around each course. It’s all fun stuff, and it’s fun to remember this is exactly what I train for, and now is the time to sharpen all of that into a point. Time to come into these biggest races of my life so far with some energy and hype! Let’s go!!!!!

P.S. all the events will be streamed on Peacock, so get on that! (I’m racing first in the team sprint, then the 15k, and not sure about after that)