Lalalalalalalala glide glide glide
Lalalalalalalala glide glide glide
Lalalalalalalala glide glide glide
Lalalalalalalala glide glide glide

My technique, my technique
Room to grow
But then my racing, my racing
Is aglow
And then my effort, I skied hard
Almost died
And my finish, I'm full
Full of pride

Time trial today.  10km classic mass start on the SuperTour course at Bohart.  Leif, Bernard, me, and the juniors.  I took it out fairly hard to test Leif and Bernard and encourage the pace to be hard.  It worked.  We dropped Bernard and just when I was about to let Leif do some leading, he took off.  He pulled as far as about 5 seconds ahead of me before I pulled him back on the switchbacks and the downhill afterward.  I was on some skis that kick really easily, so I was on slightly colder kick than everybody else.  Fast in a tuck.

Anyways, it turns out Bernard took a wrong turn, and he joined back up with us at about 5km.  Then, going up the side slope at the start of the course, Leif pulled up.  I'm not sure exactly what happened.  Leif said he was stiff.  Hopefully he's okay.  He's had a rough couple days, and he may not be completely recovered from our little auto incident on Wednesday.  I kept charging, trying to drop Bernard.  It wasn't happening.  We came into the stadium together, which is usually not a good thing for me.  I took the track that would be on the inside of the corner before the finish as Bernard moved ahead of me.  He tried to take my track but I defended my position, took the extreme inside of the corner, then boxed him out and finished in the outside track.  Part of that finishing strategy was that one track was for finishing and the other for lapping.  Didn't quite realize that this was for the first lap, when J2's were finishing.  But I managed to out-kick Bernard, which is good.  And I had a really good race effort.

And I thought my technique was good.  Apparently it's not where it needs to be though.  I need to glide more and stop hinging at the waist.  So I guess the bad news is I don't quite have my classical technique dialed in yet. The good news is I'm starting to race classic pretty well in spite of this, and technique should only make me race faster.  And that I have the same things to work on in classic and skating.

I really put it out there during the race, so I wasn't sure I was going to have energy for strength.  I did.  And it was good.  And stretching was good.  Didn't really feel like anything was too stiff, which is always a good thing.

And for those of you who are confused, on yesterday's post, by leaving for Canada on Wednesday I meant leaving Monday.  As a wise man once said, "Hear what I mean, not what I say."