Let's Not Get Ahead Of Ourselves

Last weekend at Hatcher

 Most ambitious cross-country ski racers are eager to get on snow as early as possible in the season, to get a sufficient amount of time and distance on skis before the racing season begins. Most skiers are willing to drive long distances or buy plane tickets and book rooms in hotels for an opportunity to get a good week of quality on-snow ski training in November. West Yellowstone, Montana, for example, is booked solid around Thanksgiving, with skiers traveling there from all around the USA. And it's the same overseas, with ski racers traveling from around Europe to spend a week or two in Norway or Finland for good, reliable early-season skiing in Scandinavia.

October 10, 2021

But we are on the other side of the coin here in Alaska. It's been our experience that too much skiing too early in the season can produce really promising results in December and early January, but it can be really tough to hold that good racing form all the way through "championship season" in February and March. Our problem is that sometimes the snow comes a little too early. I can think of many examples of Alaska teams who switched from dryland training to on-snow training in September or October. Things went great until January, but the results started falling off in January. And by March, after six months on snow, the athletes were toast.

So on this team, we've tended to be very cautious about early season skiing. In the Lower 48, ski racers flock to West Yellowstone during the last week of November. But here in Alaska, we're trying to resist the urge to go skiing in early October. For now, we're hoping our precipitation here in the city comes in the form of rain, not snow, so we'll continue to have good conditions for running, hill bounding and rollerskiing.

Nevertheless, I made a little reconnaissance trip about an hour's drive north of Anchorage to Hatcher Pass last week, to see what the skiing situation was like up there. And when it's as good as it is now, it can be hard to resist making the drive to ski several times per week. On this team, we try to stay calm and not overdo it in October. But the word among the coaches is we'll load up the team van this Saturday and go skiing.