James Southam

All I will say about the first race was a little bit of a bummer but tomorrow is the first of the races that I have been eyeing for a year, the 30k Pursuit. Tested some new skis this morning and did a hard lap around the course feeling good. It's pretty nice to stop by the Atomic trailer every couple days and pick up some new board that are better than the rest of my fleet. 

I just finished watching the ladies go and while mens and womens races tend to play out very differently it was good to see where gaps were formed and time was gained and lost. For all those young racers out there take a lesson from the sprint for 3rd. Get your toe across first and not your head. 

After a rough start weather wise it has been absolutely gorgeous here and the course has firmed up. Looks like it will be pretty warm for tomorrow's race, mid to upper 40's.

Annie, Hazel and my parents got to town last night and I'm pretty psyched to see the family. In environments as big and crazy as the Olympics little bit of home are so refreshing. 

It seems like a lifetime ago we were in Canmore racing and tomorrow we finally get to get down to business. The skiing has been different every day and today was definitely the best. It has been getting barely below freezing if at all so they salted the course today and that turned sloppy skiing into hard fast skiing, pretty amazing. Today was a little ski testing, although Erik is taking care of the majority of that work for me, and one lap of the race course a little under race pace to get the feel of how the course races. Felt the best I have yet and am so ready to race. 

On the village life side of things, the sliders (luge, bobsled, and skeleton) showed up yesterday so the USA contingent has grown considerably, both in size and number. Some pretty cool people to talk to as well. 

We have live TV feeds from all the venues in our rooms which is so awesome and something everyone should have. So after skiing this morning I got to come back and watch Teela have a very solid day finishing 9th in the biathlon sprint and the nordic combiners are set to go before long after a good morning of jumping for most of them. 

It seems like a lifetime ago we were in Canmore racing and tomorrow we finally get to get down to business. The skiing has been different every day and today was definitely the best. It has been getting barely below freezing if at all so they salted the course today and that turned sloppy skiing into hard fast skiing, pretty amazing. Today was a little ski testing, although Erik is taking care of the majority of that work for me, and one lap of the race course a little under race pace to get the feel of how the course races. Felt the best I have yet and am so ready to race. 

On the village life side of things, the sliders (luge, bobsled, and skeleton) showed up yesterday so the USA contingent has grown considerably, both in size and number. Some pretty cool people to talk to as well. 

We have live TV feeds from all the venues in our rooms which is so awesome and something everyone should have. So after skiing this morning I got to come back and watch Teela have a very solid day finishing 9th in the biathlon sprint and the nordic combiners are set to go before long after a good morning of jumping for most of them. 

This is the beginning of day 3 at the Whistler Olympic Village. Life is pretty sweet here. Huge dining hall with some really good food. I had lamb twice yesterday to go along with some sushi and something called bannock, which is like a pancake/english muffin that goes well with every meal. So far the toughest question is which outfit to wear to dinner? We are definitely the best dressed team here thanks to Ralph Lauren and Nike. We got so much sweet stuff I don't know if it will be possible to wear it all. 

Tonight is the opening ceremonies. I skipped them in 2006 because I had a race the next morning and was debating going this time since it is a 8-10 hour trip. With my first race not until the 15th I made the call to go down. It is one of the things that people always talk about as a highlight of their Olympic experience so I need to do it at least once. 

This past weekend were the final races before the Olympics. World Cup 15k skate and classic sprint races in Canmore. Perfect conditions and an amazing setting. I was hoping for a better result than I had (35th) but it was not to be. At Nationals I was way too nervous and started out too fast, fading in the later half of the race. My plan for Friday was to be more relaxed and ski my way into the race. Turned out I was a little to relaxed. After my warm up and once I had made my way through ski marking I had a few minutes to wait before starting. Others were nervously getting their warm ups off and running, jumping and stretching. I sat on the retaining wall and watched them. I started conservatively and never managed to pick up the pace as I had planned. I think the speed was conservative given that I have done my prep work at sea level to be ready for the faster skiing in Whistler, but my body wasn't ready for that speed at altitude and it was just too much... Days that that are frustrating when they happen but they can teach you a lot. Among other things I relearned that I need that nervous tension to perform. I don't think it will be a problem to get that next week at the Olympics. 

The Olympic team is all together now at the Paintbox Lodge in Canmore before we head to Vancouver tomorrow to get "processed" and make our way to the Village on Wednesday. It has been good to get back around the crew and get in a few relaxed days of training before things get crazy. Until then...

For all I have been up to it has been way to long since I posted. 

I got the call and was named one the first round of the selection process which made me breath a lot easier. I was pretty sure I would be named to the Olympic Team but I try to prepare myself for the worst. It was a big relief to get named early so I could start training full speed ahead and not worry about the selection process. I put in a big block of training in Anchorage in perfect conditions before heading down to Canmore to finish up the prep and spend some time at altitude before the World Cup this weekend. 

This place is just awesome. For the first few days it was just the APU Crew of Kikkan, Erik, Holly and myself along with the Russians out on the trails. Pretty mellow out there but the last few days the venue has started to fill up and people are starting to get into race mode. Here are few pics from Canmore and home the last few weeks...

Since the last USSA points list came out I am breathing a little easier. I'm ranked 4th and assuming that 4 guys will be named if not more things are looking promising. Even when you think that things are looking in your favor, if you are anywhere near the bubble, the week between the last races and the naming of the championship team is one of the longest weeks of an athletes life. So what to do with myself... 

I have been trying to recover. Last week took way more out of me than I was expecting. Mentally more than anything last week was stressful. The emotional lows and highs were quite severe. To end it on a high note and know that I did more than I could have hoped for on my final day left me feeling like a content bowl of oatmeal. Mush. I did nothing related to skiing for two days, just relaxed with the family and enjoying the good times. Then it was time to go back to work and start skiing again. It took until Wednesday to start feeling a little more normal and now it is time to start training for real. I am going ahead and preparing like I am going and will be hitting the training hard starting tomorrow. Doing the prep work while I anxiously await Tuesday... 

A few pics from last week...

Monday was a disappointment. Tried to do way too much and ended up doing nothing at all to help my cause for the Olympics. Heading into yesterdays race I knew I had to have a good race and that I was going to go for the win. Realistically I was just hoping to stick with Kris as long as I could hoping to make it to the line relatively close to him so I could pick up some critical USSA points that I missed on Monday. 

Before big races I get nervous but more of an excited nervous. This week I was just nervous, the kind of nervous that if it goes on too long a person might have some heart issues. After Mondays disappointment it went to a whole other level. So I was very very ready to get yesterday underway. Once I got to the starting line my nerves started to settle a bit. I was able to settle in behind Kris after 100 meters and just stayed right behind him for the first lap as he skied tempo. Just skiing smooth and not trying to spend any extra energy. Heading into the second lap I took over the lead and just skied tempo hoping that we could just trade off leads until a couple K to go. At the end of that lap it was just the two of us up front. Once we climbed up the first major climb on the 3rd lap He took the lead for maybe 2k heading back down to the stadium and up the sprint hill giving me the lead as we went through the biathlon stadium. Not too long after I started hearing people cheering for David. "Who the heck is David?" I took a quick peak and saw the FAST suit and though that's pretty sweet that David Norris is having a good one. I also knew that he had just killed himself catching up to us and that heading up the next climb I would make him work a little more. I didn't make a big move just picked up the pace a little bit for the Hairpin climb when I got over the top and looked back there was nobody there... So I had 10k to the finish line and just started skiing. At that point it would have been easy to get way too excited an try and ski out of my head but I just settled in and tried to ski smooth and not look back. I got a feed heading out to the final lap and heard I had a 20 second lead. Once again I just skied steady not trying to do too much. At the top of Elliot's I took a quick peak and could see him not too far behind. Took a breath worked the top of the hill and came out of the bottom trying to ski smooth. I passed Erik heading into the sprint hill and he told me to ski strong and don't give him any reason to think he can catch you. I thought "I am strong!" and just tried to ski within myself an would not let myself look over my shoulder until the final rise into the stadium. Erik met me 150 meters before the finish and told me he is nowhere in sight and just enjoy this. I finally let go a little bit and just soaked those last seconds in. Winning a race like that in my hometown in front of all my people was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Thanks to everyone who was out there yesterday and all those who have helped me get to this point. It takes a village. 

I could not wait for yesterday to happen. The combination of racing at home, 3 weeks between races, and the Olympic qualifying scenario had me more that ready to race. I ended up racing maybe a shade too kamikaze style. Going out too fast and couldn't hold on to the end. According to my coaches splits it was 9k into the race I lost the lead so I lost a minute on the last lap. Ouch. Fortunately I was able to hang on to 3rd place. So not too bad. Congrats to Kris on National Title #13 and Tad Elliot for his 2nd place. It's good to see some young guys stepping it up. Here are a few pics from the day.

Racing at the Sovereign Lake trails hurts. Every race is pretty painful but this place just doesn't let up. Lots of good climbs but they have found a way to take the rest out of the downhills and throw in a fair amount of rolling/flat terrain so you don't get much of a chance to rest out there. Pretty much everyone I talked to after the race said they felt terrible out there. That's just how racing here is. For myself, I felt like a hack. All I could do was try to keep the body moving forward. I skied okay for myself ending up 2nd, about 40 seconds back to Kuzzy who is skating super well right now. At 10k I was only 10 seconds back to him and I had a pretty weak section of skiing from about 10-13k where I lost most of the time to him. 

Today served as a Canadian Olympic qualifier race where the top Canadian gets an automatic trip to the Games. Gord Jewett got the spot. He's another 31 year old not on their National Team so I was psyched to see him get it. It was a bit of a surprise showing for Canada. Quite a few were expecting them to ski really well but they only had 1 guy in the top 6... 

Tomorrow I will jump in the sprint race and then travel back home on Monday to take little break and get ready for Nationals. Looking forward to seeing my girls!

This season so far has felt like watching the first week of the Tour de France. Waiting for the mountains. Today we finally got to go uphill. It has been pretty frustrating over the last ten days of racing on flat courses in a sport of hills and I finally got my chance and won! It was great to reassure myself that I am fit before we head to Silver Star, BC to race on their World Cup courses next weekend against the Canadians in their winner take all Olympic qualifier. 

This week they have been calling for cold (-20 F) weather today. Fortunately it stayed above zero and after the foot of snow yesterday that fell yesterday set up nicely and it was just a day of good hard fast classic skiing. Turned out a good day for the APU crew. We got both wins (Holly Brooks won for the ladies) and most everyone in the top 10 and 15. Pretty quick turnaround today as we are already starting to pack up to head out early tomorrow morning for the two day drive to Canada.

Before we all found out in October that the USA needed its specialists to broaden their horizons in order to earn more Olympic berths I had planned on racing the distance races and continuing to build my training towards the 30k and 50k races at the Olympics. As the US Nordic world now knows, things have changed. Myself being one of those specialists with a decent distance ranking and literally no sprint points. I get to try and score some sprint points this fall. This morning was my second sprint race in two years. The first being last week in West Yellowstone. Last week I felt pretty hackish and was 25th. Today I actually felt reasonably good and was 26th. I was hoping for much better after winning this race three years ago but for someone who is training for the equivalent of the marathon to finish in XC's 800 meter equivalent I'm not too worried. If nothing else it was good to get out and unload a hard two minute effort to get the body ready for tomorrow's 15k. 

Drove to Bozeman yesterday afternoon. So nice to be in a town with the rest of civilization and have fast internet. Some pretty good food in Bozeman as well. In the last 24 hours I've gone out for three meals and each of them has rocked. Not sure if it's the food is that good or I am just not eating the same things for 8 straight days... Either way is was mmm, mmm, good. This mornign was a nice to ski up at Bohart to see the Sunday's course.  It has a couple pretty good hills on the 5k look which is refreshing to see. It does go every which way but up their best climb here but there is no faking fitness on the course and that is good to see. This afternoon we head to tomorrows sprint course at Lindley Park which is right outside our hotel. The sight of my only sprint victory!