US Nationals Simulation Week: Day 2

Once the rain cleared it turned into a beautiful fall day here in Waitsfield. We took to the streets for our second day of US Nationals simulation, a sprint workout on skate roller skis. 

As it turned out, not everyone was skating today. Heidi was on classic skis and Hans gave his sore back a rest, doing the workout on foot. Nonetheless, we had some serious head-to-head competition: intensity was high!

We worked on some starts before the real deal to practice getting out of the gate. Hans bursts out of the blocks in preparation for a fast workout.

Hans and Ryley take a moment to pose for the camera before going head to head in a practice start.

After they threw down some fast times in qualification, the skiers were reverse seeded: if everyone skied the same pace they did in the prologue we would have a five-way tie for first place. This sets up some pretty cool head-to-head racing.

Hans ran a slightly shorter course and managed to win every heat: his final heat was 30 seconds faster than his first, with consistent improvement each time.

Fitzy guts it out on the penultimate climb. The course starts on a gradual uphill, does some technical winding through the Sugarbush parking lot, then pitches up to the finish.

It was an unconventional A-Final, with three skaters, a classic skier, and a runner. Hans was too fast to even make it into this picture.

A celebratory selfie.

The team recovers after a hotly contested final heat. Coach Beckwith walks around with a cone on his head.

Today is strength, tomorrow is our final test of the week, a classic TT in East Warren. 

We’re having an awesome week so far, with hard efforts and fast times all over the place. Time to get some rest and then get after it again.