Remember when I said racing hurt?

(Photo by: Noel Charchuk)

Well after my body realized how much fun suffering is last Saturday and Sunday I got to hang around Canmore for 5 days to train and cheer on my team mates in the last two races Wednesday and Thursday.  After another interval workout in the sunshine I found myself a little bummed I wouldn’t get to race.  I finally felt like I was skiing again!  (As opposed to my limbs wiping about seemingly without any control)

I decided to make the most of not racing.  I woke up early running up to the venue in the dark in time to get on my skis before the boys started their race warm up.  On thursday I even donned a “Team Service” bib so I could skate on course as the boys got ready.  It was fun to rip around their race course, the mystery in the oversized bib.  ”Did you see that?  That is the smallest wax tech I have ever seen?”  um… “They told me to ski the 5′s until they felt fast???”  Yeah right.

A muffin and a change of dry clothing later I was back on course.  Coach Corrine, reporting for duty.

Course official: “So you’re a coach?”

Me:  ”Um… yes?”

I poached a spot on the big sunny hill.  Sunburn?  Hello ridiculous tanlines, it’s been so long.  I spent the morning and afternoon chasing men and women up and down the hill.  Yelling splits.  Gesturing wildly.  I know that often times athletes are so zonked that they have no idea what words are suppose to be forming from you and reaching their ears.  But they know it’s noise, it’s loud, it’s excited.  GO GO GO! It was a hard hill.  And I was darned if they were going to slog up it in front of me. No way. no how.  They would move fast up this sucker even if it was only because that was the only way they could get away from me.  Hey… motivation comes in many forms.

It was really cool to watch these athletes put it all out there.  In a way it was my own mini technique tutorial.  Some skiers better than others…  The mental notes hit max capacity fast!

What else did I learn?

Coaching is really tiring! When I finally got back to our condo after the races on wednesday I was plum tuckered out!  I hadn’t even raced!?  Man respect those guys and gals.

I also learned how to optimize the ‘art of doing nothing’.  But more on that later…