12 Hours of Telemark

The 24 Hours of Telemark is an endurance ski event that has been held at Telemark Wisconsin for the past 8 years. The event features a variety of team relay events spanning 6, 12, and 24 hours. But the main event and most prized titles have always been the solo freak titles in the 12 and 24 hour divisions. In these races, skiers race for 12 and 24 hours completing as many laps of the 5K course as possible. This year I decided to jump into the 12 hour solo title race.
For me, the race was about more than just skiing as far as I could, it was also an experiment for the future. With my long term goals of being a competitive ultra racer, this proved to be a great test run of many nutrition products and racing strategies.


Above: The Race Start

The race started at 10AM in the stadium at Telemark, WI. All the racers from all divisions were together for this mass start, which made identifying my actual competition difficult, but my crew came to my help with that one. At the race to crew for me was my girlfriend and partner in crime Meg, and my Dad and Mom.
The first few hours of the race flew by. I passed the 50K mark with ease and for the first 40K even kept up a strong Birkie pace. In the long run I may have been able to go further had I slowed down in the beginning, but this would be just one of the lessons I learned during the race.

For the first 3 hours I raced on just Gatorade and granola bars. At 3 hours I stopped for a quick lunch of PB and J and a Clif Bar Builder bar. The next three hours I had a little intermittent solid food including a bagel and bananas, but mostly Clif Shot Recovery drink. From hours 6 to 9 I had three bottles of Clif Shot Recovery drink only, and at the end of 9 hours I was tired. Meg brought me some hot soup which brought back my strength and my Mom had some ravioli for me as well, and between these pick-me-ups I felt much stronger for the final 3 hours - even pumping out a 16:00 minute 5k lap!

At the end of 12 hours I skied 165K (104 miles) and won the 12 Hours of Telemark Solo title, with the second place finisher was almost 30 kilometers back from me. It was a fun race, but I learned several important lessons for my future ultra career:

1)Eat solid food as long as you can. This is not a 10K, or even a marathon. Solid food would have helped me feel better much longer and I should have eaten some – any- from hours 6 to 9. I will not always be able to rely on aid stations pick-me-ups.
2)Clif Shot recovery works! The stuff has a good balance of carbohydrates and protein and was almost the only thing I used from hours 3 to 9. In addition it tastes good and dissolves better that Hammer Perpetuem drink.
3)Have a race plan. I had a race strategy and nutrition plan that worked out ok, but could have been better. I was planning on going out from the start with the lead 12 hour solo racers, but at the start I could not tell who they were! It took my crew some time to pass the information on to me – during which I was racing with a pack of people in the 3 hour division. Had I know my competition I may have been able to conserve at the start and go farther in the end.

USSA National Championships

Houghton, MI was the site of this years Nordic skiing national championships. The races were held at the MTU ski trails near Michigan Tec University. The trails were in great shape for the week of racing thanks in large part to the huge dump of snow that the UP got mid week.
I raced in the 10K skate race on Tuesday only, skipping the classic race - in part because the week before I was feeling a little flat and did not want to put myself under so early in the season and in part to rest for the 12 Hours of Telemark just a few days later.
The skate race went well for me. I felt strong and finished ahead of several people I was close to all last season and a few old high school rivals.
In the long term outlook for the season, my coach (Chad) and I decided that because I am racing well and am very fit right now I am going to cut out most of the intensity in my training plan for the rest of the season. We decided that racing two races a week itself should be enough to keep me on the ball. We are approaching the high point of the CCSA racing season now, and figured that we don’t need to do more intensity than absolutely necessary. This should ensure that I don’t burn out early for skiing, and that I still have something left for some good 5K and 10K’s in track.