THE TRUTH
Mon, Jan 14, 2008 - By Mike Muha
It shows. The lack of fitness, that is.
I've felt slow and awkward climbing hills, but that seems the routine for the first three races of the season. I hate getting passed on uphills. My only saving grace has been that I descend better than most and can make up quite a bit of ground. But not enough.
I ran my race results through the race performance calculator to get to THE TRUTH:
| Race | Technique | % decrease in time to catch the winner |
% decrease in time to catch average of top 3 |
| Holiday Classic 10K | Classic | 11.0% | 10.0% |
| Nubs Nob 12K Freestyle | Freestyle | 13.9% | 12.7% |
| Boyne Highlands 10K Classic | Classic | 13.4% | 11.9% |
| MI Cup team Time Trial | Freestyle | 9.0% | 88.4% |
Last year, I needed to decrease my times by about 9% per race to best the average time of the top three. This season - so far - I'm running another 2-3% slower.
I am not surprised. My training has been off all summer and fall, so I take full responsibility for not organizing my training better. Maybe it's time to sign back up with Torbjorn Karlsen!
Actually, I'm happy the numbers are not worse.
Going forward, I need to increase my fitness by training smarter. Maybe I can ski myself into shape and have some better races later in the season. To that end, I had a good double pole distance session on my rollerski on Monday, will ski or rollerski or run on Tuesday (depending on what the weather does), get an interval session in on Wednesday, and do a speed session on Thursday. Friday? Help clean house and pack for the weekend...