Today was my second full day back to "real" life after almost six weeks of non-stop travel for skiing. I've been on seven flights during that time, of which precisely one departed on time. This miserable statistic includes my heavily delayed flight to Grande Prairie last night that arrived just before 1am, but I digress...
Yesterday's skate race was very positive for Madeleine and we're excited about the upcoming Whistler world cups. Things are looking very good.
Here are a few thoughts on the race:
- Madeleine chose a pair of 90 mould s-tracks for her classic skis. This was a bit surprising to me, however the skis felt great in the rock-hard Canmore tracks and the longish wax pocket had the most positive grip.
- Our grip combination was out of control recipe of violet klister, Swix extra blue, Start MFW red, old school start red, and more MFW red... Lorris was the mastermind behind this alchemic concoction, so I'll leave it to him to explain it in more detail. The bottom line is that it kicked a ton (not surprising!) and had really excellent glide properties (somewhat more surprising!).
- Madeleine had one of her better classic legs in a Canmore pursuit and entered the exchange box in third place and part of the lead pack. However, in a wicked (read weird) turn of events, the race organizers assigned the highest seeded athletes the furthest exchange boxes, meaning those athletes had to spend the most time on classic skis. It's not clear why this was the case.
- The skate skis Madeleine selected have a grind that seems to be great everywhere. They consistently tested the best all weekend and, despite what we may have predicted, ran well with no hand structure modifications.
- Glide wax was Solda Performance Red (hilarious, I know!) with S30/HP05 on the tails. Solda = the bomb dizzle. You should have it in your box!
- Following the exchange, Milaine and Brittany were able to open a bit of a gap on the field. Madeleine was skiing in the chase pack with Amanda and Shayla and not feeling great. Things started to come around when she and Amanda put a bit of a surge on near the top of the course, at which point Shayla dropped.
- As the final lap was finishing Amanda attacked hard on the last uphill, fully hop skating and making a move. It was a gutsy call and huge props to her for going for it! Madeleine was able to cover Amanda's break and passed her on the downhill into the stadium.
- At this point, the sprint was on with the two of them hammering it out to the finish line. It was a lunge for the finish and Madeleine made it by a toe. It was a wicked race for both girls and it's super good to see Amanda back and throwing down on the course.
- Overall, a very positive result for Madeleine with massive potential leading into the world cup.
In other, and entirely unrelated, news, as a result of my real job I am spending the next three days in very close quarters with some very sick people. NOT cool. I continue to be convinced that my pretend job is way more fun than my real one and that athletes are way more awesome than accountants. However, I'm determined not to get sick by following some very simple rules. They are worth a read and you can find them here, third article down - Fast Trax article
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