Relaxing into Patterns

Cover the past couple years, I've completed many routines, all part of the life of a teenage nordic ski competitor. One of these routines is ski racing. I've done a whole lot of skiing racing. Through high school races, JNQ, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, and just ordinary citizen races, I've gained confidence in my ability to adapt to different courses, different living situations, race starts, snow conditions. I have race warm ups engraved in my head, day-before-race-day-workouts. I'm started to learn all the preparation it takes to get everything ready for race time, from my body and head to my skis. I have mental checklists of what I have to do, and having the confidence that everything is going to the way it's suppose to is a big bonus on race day.
Part of the routine is previewing the course- one of Mt. Telemark's large climbs

The Midwest Junior National team arrived in Cable, Wisconsin Friday night. This is the 3rd Junior Nationals I've competed in, and knowing what's coming is a big advantage for me. Cable is the closest Junior Nationals I've competed in, and I've skied at Mount Telemark multiple times. The Midwest has the home field advantage this year, so we luckily, get to stay right on the trails in beautiful condos. Our front window looks out to one of the sharp downhill corners, and we can literally cheer on our porch.

The Stadium at Mt. Telemark

Saturday was a complete rest day, we did an easy ski and did homework the rest of the morning. In the afternoon, the team bused over to Hayward for some bowling, and on the way back, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks.
Checking out some of the Bikie trails with the rest of the U18 Midwest girls
Today was a little different. I got up a little earlier and went for a shake out jog. The run was rising and it was a beautiful morning. After breakfast, I put in my pump music, grabbed my training skis, and hopped on the trails and skied over to the start line. It was really cool being able to step out my front door and ski. We're really lucky to have a lot of wax techs with us this year, and I got to the start pretty early, so I dropped off my race skis and headed out for an easy ski. I skied the course at a comfortable pace, going a little harder on the downhills to check out all of the corners and get comfortable with them.
Telemark's gorgeous trails early this morning

After my ski I went back to our waxing trailer and grabbed one of each of my pairs of skis, that the wax tech had kicked up for me. I tested them out on the sprint course to see which ones had the better kick-glide combo. After picking a pair of skis, and cleaning up the klister, I went back to the condos for some homework before we went to the opening ceremonies.







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