Goals

Today I was thinking about my goals for this upcoming cross country ski season. They are pretty obtainable if I can stick to my guns and get out there and ski some season k's this winter. Obviously I hope it's another great snow season like last year, if it isn't than that will seriously affect how often I can get out there. I can always keep running but I'd much rather stay in shape by skiing during the cold months.

First off I skied the Birkie for the first time last year after an 8 year absence. I skied the Birkie two times in college, in 2002 and 2003. 2002 was a shortened course due to lack of snow and my time was 3:29:07 (4:28/km) and in 2003 I skied it in 3:30:14 (4:07/km.) Last winter I skied the race in 3:48:17 (4:33/km) I felt OK about that finish, I think I could have done a lot better but I was underdressed for the negative temperature start, I think when I finished around 1:30 pm it had only warmed to a few degrees above zero. So the whole race I was just trying to stay warm and my race suffered because of that. I was happy that I could still ski like I remembered I could.

So for this year my first goal is to move up a few start waves. Last year I started in wave 7, this year I'm in wave 5. I'd really LOVE to get into wave 1 but I know that's kind of a long shot. But if I can get some seriously great quality skiing in this winter who knows. I'd have to shave a good hour off my time, doable but I'm really just hoping to move up at least to wave 3, or at least improve my time by at least 30 minutes. I obviously will have to re-evaluate once I get closer to the race. But those are the thoughts I'm keeping in my head.

I'm also skiing the 35 km City of Lakes Loppet beginning of Feb. Last year my time was, 2:18:51 (4:13/km.) This year I'd like to break 2 hours.

We'll see how I do. I need to make sure I stay focused and stay motivated to get out and train. And I definitely will need to focus on interval training and get some serious LSD in too.