Let's go kick some European #?*!

To explain the title.... I don't swear, but my coach Vlad does.  He sent me this email earlier in the season while qualifying for World Juniors was only a goal and a dream.  I thought it was really funny and a fitting title for my first international racing experience: Youth and Junior World Championships in Minsk, Belarus!!!

My mom, dad, and sister all came along to cheer, and I can definitely hear my sister cheer from a long ways away! 

 

I'm so glad this goon got to come along!

Photo: Jessi Kautzer

 My skis and rifle made it all the way from Minneapolis through 3 airports to Belarus... 

I heard the Swiss girls weren't so lucky.

 

Again, my sister in the Frankfurt Airport.

Photo: Jessi Kautzer

 

When we finally arrived in Belarus there were posters everywhere announcing the event.

 There's a ton of construction going on everywhere, and the sunrise/sets over 

the city from up high in the hotel are gorgeous.

 

Laugh if you want but I was pumped to get the USA gear.  

 Most of the other athletes have competed for Team USA before, but I haven't, so i went a little overboard with USA ribbons, nail polish, and glitter. 

 

Finally, the Venue in Raubichi.  It's amazing! A 10 lane indoor range, a 38(ish) point outdoor range, and a 12(ish) point secondary outdoor range.  And the hills are massive! So painful going up, but oh so fun on the way down! 

Photo: Hannah Streinz

 

We got our official training bibs and credentials which give athletes access to the range, wax cabins, and most importantly the food room! Also, the picture on my credentials is the same as the one on the IBU website, and will stay the same for the foreseeable future of my biathlon career.

 

Between training and meals we go for a lot of walks to stay active.  You can't see it well but there was a lot of cool graffiti in this tunnel we went through. 

We had the opening ceremonies last night.  The president and a bunch of other officials were there.  It was by far the coolest opening ceremony I have ever been to! We processed in second to last in front of Belarus.  There was a performance by the national dance team complete with two dancing squirrel mascots.  My main highlight was getting interviewed for Belorussian television.  I probably sounded really unintelligent but the interviewer caught me off guard and I had a little bit of a hard time understanding her Russian accent.  Nonetheless, I'll never forget that!

 

Flag procession. According to the other non-Minnesotan athletes I say flag really funny.

Photo: Jessi Kautzer

It's still early in the week but I've already made friends! The first question when I talk to someone is: Do you speak English? And if yes the conversation goes a lot better. 

A picture of Siena, the squirrel mascot, and my new Canadian friend post race today.

Speaking of races, I think that's why I'm here! Today I got 54th in the individual 10K.  The individual is set up prone standing prone standing with 45 seconds added to your final time instead of penalties.  In the first prone I missed 4 because I didn't notice a wind shift.  After corrections I only missed 1 standing, 1 prone, and 2 standing in the last stage. (4,1,1,2 total 8 misses)  Overall I'm excited with my race.  Despite the killer uphill, I felt good for the race and after the first stage shot well.  In addition I had a ton of fun and smiled a little more than I should have, but I was pumped to be racing in my first international competition!

State and some fun...

Before the race, my coach made a deal that if I won the section race I could dye his hair, and if the BSM girls team qualified for state we could shave racing stripes in his hair.  We didn't qualify, but I won so here's the red:

 

Photo: Rachel Conley

This is my third year at the state meet (65th in 2013 and 14th in 2014).   I was a lot less stressed this year, and having my teammate Matt racing too made it a lot of fun. In fact that was my goal for the races: have as much fun as possible over the course of a 5K race, and I think I exceeded that goal.  The snow was slow but with a positive mental attitude it was still a great time.

 

The skate course is a lot of up and not much down so there wasn't much recovery. 

Photo: Mindy Benton

My friend and training buddy Sarah Bezdicek won!!! 

Photo: Star Tribune

 

Early in the skate race. 

Photo: Mindy Benton

  

I got really warm in the classic race so threw my glasses, mask, and buff to one of my friends, but in the process got frost bite on my ears!

Photo: Mindy Benton

 

I raced from a 17th place finish in the skate to a 12th place overall.  That sets a new record for the best finish of a BSM skier at state since my coach's son set it at 13th my first year skiing.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

Half of my awesome cheering squad!!! 

They all missed 2 days of school to come stand in the cold for Matt and me, posters and all.

I don't have a picture but one said, "The faster you ski the less owly you'll be!"

 

My parents post race.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

 The sign at BSM wishing Matt and I good luck at State. 

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

Matt and I after the races... much less owly than before. 

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

What's skiing without a little sass?

Photo: Julie Kautzer

I'm writing this post from the Newark, New Jersey airport on the way to Belarus for World Juniors.  I can't wait to learn and compete with the best in the world!  I'm missing about 2 weeks of school between State and Belarus so wish me luck in catching up!

 

Belarus Bound!!!!

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

Maplelag, Mesabi, and JNQs 2015

January, 2015 Update: Maplelag, Mesabi, and JNQs

Since Trials over Christmas break I have been amazed by the incredible support and enthusiasm my classmates, teachers, family, and friends have had for me.  The congratulations were helpful in breaking up the craziness of preparing for finals.  Thank you for all the congratulations and well wishes this week!  In addition to my Mom's, Dad's, and Sister's Facebook post(s), BSM also posted an short article about Trials on the school website.  You can see the article here.

I'm including the pictures below:

 Photo: Brad Kautzer

 

 Photo: Brad Kautzer

In addition, I came home to this magazine!!! I and my teammates Nicole Schnieder, Sarah Bezdicek, and Hannah Rudd (left to right) all live in Plymouth, ski for LNR, but all go to different schools.  The article and pictures inside followed us and how we train year round for the sport we love.  We did the photo shoot last spring after nationals.  I'm glad they didn't use any of the serious pictures!!! We can do sassy poses, but can't keep a straight face no matter how hard we try.  

 

Photo: Julie Kautzer

Some BSM skiers went up to the location of the state meet to participate in the largest high school Nordic meet in Minnesota: the Mesabi Invitational.  We brought up 4 boys and 5 girls, including myself.  I raced classic and placed 2nd behind Rocci Wohlk.  My teammates also did really well on a tough course most hadn't raced on before.  

Here's the group of rockstar girls!
Photo: Julie Kautzer

We had our first classic race for BSM on January 8th.  It was powder snow but the kick and glide were great.  Most of the Varsity athletes took it slow in preparation for Mesabi this weekend, but we still had a good standing at 3rd as a team.  I won and my teammate Rachel Conley took 2nd, with the team placing 3rd overall.

The team after the classic race.

Photo: Mary Selke

Our second classic race on January 15 was a massive success.  The boys placed 3rd overall, and the girls won scoring 3 athletes! However, the Conference meet at the end of the year scores the top 6 from each school, so it doesn't count.

 

Actually smiling post race.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

High school skate race at Theodore Wirth.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 We actually won our first race on January 21st.  Although we had just come off a weekend training camp, and are typically stronger in classic, the girls crushed the skate race!!!  This is the first race the BSM girls team has won in the history of the ski team, or at least during the time Mr. Wander has been coaching, which has been a long time. (I know I said we won our first race, but that doesn't count because it was a 2 team scrimmage)

Speaking of our training camp.... we went to Maplelag Resort up north for the long weekend.  Here's some highlight: 

 Getting some major air during agility.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 My teammate, Clyde, and I doing chariot races.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 One of the best parts was the food, and the bottomless cookie jar 

available 24/7.  

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 This was at the end of the week after a long ski. We were

definitely tired.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 One of the best parts is the alumni and parents that also come to

Maplelag with us.  This is my teammate Elizabeth who graduated a few years ago.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 The ski room got a little messy....

Photo: Carl Shaffer

 Some other highlights were our "initiation" tradition, which is a totally optional jump in the (frozen) lake.  In addition to Minnesota's largest hot tub, Maplelag also has a sauna by the lake.  We all went to the sauna after our last night ski of the day and warmed up, then ran to the hole in the ice and jumped in, made a snow angel, and sprinted back inside to the warmth.

In addition to all the fun stuff, we also did a boat load of training.  I haven't added up the total hours, but on Sunday we skied over 7.5 hours... that's about as much as I slept that night.  We did about 70k that day, and over 150 that weekend in all.   On Sunday I skied 6 times: pre-breakfast ski, OD before lunch, ski soccer for an hour, skate ski strength with Clyde, a night ski, and a post night ski.

Ski soccer was actually really intense.  I have a bunch of bruises, but it was definitely the most fun I've had on skis in a long time.  We mixed our team with Mound Westonka and had a blast.

 Everyone was tired, coach included. 

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 The BSM game, plus Joe from Mound, before a night ski.

Photo: Mike Brown

The night skis were one of my favorite parts.  You feel like you are going a lot faster in the dark, and there is the small element of fear of hitting trees you don't see coming.  

This last weekend I raced the Junior National Qualifiers at Theodore Wirth, my home course.  It was a 10k classic mass start (on a 3x3k loop... go figure), and a 5K skate individual.  Both races were fun because I got to mix it up with the college skiers and the best racers in the Midwest, and see some friends I haven't seen for weeks or months since the last time we raced against each other.  I placed 3rd in the classic, and 4th in the skate.  The wax was really tricky for the classic, but it made the race interesting.  I crashed pretty hard on an technical corner in the skate race and lost a few seconds finding my pole again.  That being said I have done that corner many times and shouldn't have crashed.  

 

It was awesome getting to pace these awesome college skiers.

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

 Recovery!!!

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

 I had an awesome cheering squad, and I got to join them to cheer

for my other BSM teammates that raced.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

It was super warm on Saturday.  

Photo: Jakob Ellingson

 

Mixing it up with the NMU girls.

Photo: Jackie Schnieder  

Just a quick note, I had my high school winter formal on Saturday night.  The late night definitely hurt me on Sunday, but it was worth it.  

 Photo: Sisay Shannon-Tamarat

The "Matts" and I. The three of us are all on the Nordic team. 

Photo: Rachel Conley

Let the Race(s) begin!

Conference meet, Elm Creek

This week was the start of the end of the season with the Conference race on Wednesday, January 28th, and the Section race on Monday, February 2nd.  Let's just say it was an exciting week.

Our Conference meet got moved to Elm Creek Park due to bad snow conditions.  Elm is a pretty flat course that tends to consist of a lot (I mean a lot) of double poling.  Most of the boys used skate poles and some even skate skis.  I opted for the longer skate poles, but kept my kick on classic skis for the race.  That made kick double poling and striding interesting to say the least.

 

Striding with skate poles.

Photo: Julie Kautzer 

 

Also notice the biathlon straps.  They weren't ideal but I used them for both races because right before my first race the basket fell off of my Start skate poles.  It was my fault because I didn't use enough glue when putting the new baskets on.

We classic-ed first in hopes of having a track.  I felt pretty good during the race and ended up winning the morning by a little over 2 minutes.  My goal going in was to win each race by at least 2 minutes, as my season best was winning by 1 minute 30 seconds. That put me in a good position for my afternoon pursuit*, in which I extended my lead to 4 minutes and 20 seconds. However, my teammate Charlie Brown had the second best skate time and was only 1:55 back.  I felt really good in the race and had a ton of fun watching and helping my teammates after their finish.  They really pushed themselves to the max!!!

 

 Flying snow while hop-skating the wall.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

The All-Conference group including 4 BSM skiers: 

Charlie Brown, Rachel Conley, myself, and Mae Fullerton.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

My friend, waterski coach, and mentor Debbie came out to watch my race.

It really meant a lot to me and I'm glad she faced the cold.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

BSM girls post race.

Photo: Julie Kautzer

 

BSM All-Conference: Charlie, Rachel, me, Mae.

Photo: Corrina Conley

 

Notice Tracy behind the guy in the blue (my coach Carl).

We won the meet, but not the Conference Championship due to the way the races points are structured to weigh the entire season. 

Photo: Julie Kautzer 

In addition to 4 All-Conference girls, we had other good results for the BSM squad: 

Boys All Conference: Clyde Selke and Matt Paal

Boys Honorable Mention: Keelan Gorman and Matt Lynch

Girls Honorable Mention skiers: Claudia and Sophie! 

So proud of all of them!

Section meet, Theodore Wirth

Sections is a party.  It may not feel like it when your heart rate is pounding a million beat a minute and the lactic acid is pooling in your legs as you drag yourself past the 4K mark, but it is truly a celebration of all the training you have put in all season.  My coach had us go into the race with this mindset, rather than a results goal, and I think it was hugely successful.  We had goals in mind, but having fun on our skis was more important.

Similarly, last year I had a bad strategy for my first race.  My plan was to see how hard I could push my body.  On the start line Carl told me to go have some fun, so I instantly changed my plan and had a much better race.  Again in the afternoon, he decided my race strategy: play PacMan with the other skiers, and it worked.  How could envisioning "om nom nom nom" the whole race not help?

Anyways, back to the present... I started out my classic morning race 30 seconds ahead of my teammate Hannah who won the Section meet last year.  I knew she would be chasing me, so I tried to utilize a strategy I learned at the U16 camp this summer: pretend (and believe-that's the key) that there is a lion/tiger/bear/other-scary-creature chasing you, and ski faster than that animal.  Apparently some Norwegian skiers use that strategy so it must work.  Anyways, I ended up 4 seconds behind Hannah, who won. 

In the afternoon we had the Skate pursuit*.  I caught up to Hannah and just stuck with her as best I could, waiting till close to the finish to make my move.  From time trials this summer I know Hannah knows my race strategies too well to try a mid-race burst to snatch the lead.

 

 Photo: Skinnyski

 I stayed with Hannah for the most part, but in this picture close to the beginning of the second lap I had lost a little mental focus and almost let her go.  I don't know where I found the will to catch back up. 

Photo: Skinnyski

This is a picture of when I made my move to take the lead.  My coach and I planned for this move to be one hill closer to the finish, but I saw an opportunity and felt good so took it. 

 

Photo: Skinnyski

Yes my eyes are closed.  This is my favorite downhill on the course and I always sprint it in practice to practice speed and because I like going downhills (I should have done Alpine), so was comfortable hitting it at a full on sprint.

 

Photo: Skinnyski

Another fun hill.  From the times up the waterfall at Mount Itasca 

(... and the Hyland Wall... and the Wirth wall...) 

I learned how to hop skate well this season, pictured here.  

Note my BSM teammate Claudia in the foreground. 

 

Photo: Skinnyski

This picture I love for 2 reasons.  

1: my parents are both taking pictures in the background. 

2: more importantly, my coach was happy that I won, despite the fact that he made the bet that if I win or the team qualifies for state he would let us die his hair red.  I think he didn't actually expect me to win, but his hair will be red starting next week for the State meet!!! 

  

 Photo: Mindy Benton

Here's a finish line picture of most of the first finisher and therefore state qualifiers, many of which are my friends.

A note: I apologize to anyone I yelled at during the race.  Usually I try to yell a nice, "On your left," but this race I knew both Hannah and I would be coming through really close, and I didn't want to get tripped or trip anyone, so yelled, "MOVE!!!!!!!"  I'm sorry!

 

 Photo: Skinnyski

My teammate and friend Hannah.  She's one of my favorite people to hang out with, train with, and race against.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was cheering for the boys race.  Before the race our coach gave a speech to the girls about being the "dark horse" and potentially taking 2nd and making it to state.  That didn't quite happen, but the real dark horses were Matt Paal and Clyde Selke!!! They surprised everyone with what I like to call a bubble race! I've been there multiple times qualifying for state, nationals, and worlds, and needless to say it's a stressful but exciting place to be.  Bubble skiing means that you are teetering on the edge between qualifying or not.  Both boys were on that bubble, and Matt was able to pop the bubble and qualify for state!!! I believe he is the 2nd junior boy from BSM to ever qualify for state, coming from what I'm told is one of the hardest sections in the state.  Clyde was super close, but not quite.  He has 3 more years though! 

* Definition of Pursuit for non-skiers: It is a 2 part race.  The times from the first race determine the start order and timing of the second race, so the order across the finish line is the overall rank of skiers.  For example: if I ski 45 seconds slower than the winner of the first race, I would start the second 45 seconds after the winner starts.  If I pass her and finish first, I would be the winner because I would have overcome the amount of time behind her I was.