Camille Cheskey: December 2009

Well, it is that time of the year, where the first races are under my belt, and all I had hoped for coming from those races was to do well and learn from them. The first races are always a HUGE learning curve which is so needed. After a whole summer and fall of training and not racing, I entered my first races in Sovereign Lakes Nordic thinking I remembered what it felt like. The first event was the 15km Skate. As I know this is not my forte, especially as the first race of the year, I had planned to use it as a primer for the Sprint the next day. I think I executed my race plan, which was to go out relaxed and speed up as the race went on, pretty well. BUT, the altitude hit me a LOT harder than I had thought. Skiing at 1600m of elevation caught up within the first kms of the race. I was skiing relaxed, but going Dog SLOW! I crested the first hill and thought, "Oh damn, I am tired already!" well yes I was, but as the race went on, I found that I was able to push harder. In that sense, my race plan went well... too well actually. I managed to Negative Split my laps. Something that should never happen. I did feel that I tired myself out, and that was the Goal for the next day. Jump start my body into feeling PAIN!

Race #2, 1.1km Skate Sprint. Today was the day. My goal: To come out of the starting gate, and ski with POWER! well I did that perfectly, I gave it my all, finished, and felt

good about how I skied. When the results came up, I looked and looked everywhe

re for my name, I couldn't understand. Had they missed me? Am I just totally blind? No; was the answer to both those questions.

I was there, in 96th overall, 66th Senior man. Ouch. I guess its 'Welcome to the Big Leagues Son!' I couldn't understand, I felt good, people were telling me I looked very strong. Whatever happened, I was not one of the 30 athletes to move on. This was hard to stomach, but hey, I can only control what I do, not what the results do. I will just try even harder next time.

I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head, and decided to start focussing on the next races in Canmore, 2 Classic Sprints. Than, I realized what happened las Sunday. People were telling me I looked good, because I was trying to ski powerfully, rather than fast. Something that is very effective if you have power. Something I do not have. I can hold my own, but I can't ski a full course FAST just using power. As I am a small and light sprinter, the one thing I have against the big guys is pure speed and turnover. All of a sudden it clicked!

I am now in Canmore, waiting eagerly for this weekend. I have been working on skiing fast with speed, rather than powerfully.

So first races under my belt = learning!

I vow to do better than 66th this coming Saturday, as these are the qualifiers for the World Cup in early February!

Happy Holidays