This weeks Seven-days

Hey, pick up a copy of this weeks Seven-Days when it comes out tomorrow. Its the annual "sex" issue...and I heard there might be an interested ad running in there. Just check it out...and let me know if you see anything...

A Trip to Canada and the Stowe Derby

First, I will say that there will be a round of pictures coming soon pertaining to the previous posts raving discussion of my new footbeds. I had said that I hoped my results could start backing up some of the things I was saying...and I think they have.

Last weekend Helen and I made the drive up to Ottowa - just about 4 hours from Burlington - for the Keskinada. The "Keski" is Canada's biggest distance race. They make a weekend of it, having 3 different classic distances Saturday and 3 different skate distances Sunday, including the main event 53km skate race that I was there for. All combined there are thousands of skiers and lots of countries represented - its a pretty cool scene.

To top it all off, the best winter festival going - "Winterlude" - is going on with canal skating, food, ice slides, music, snow sculptures, etc etc etc. Helen and I went up on Saturday - which was Valentines Day - which is, more importantly, Helen's Birthday. We went over to race registration and met up with an Alpina teammate David Cahill. David lives over by Alpina and had smuggled a pair of Alpina TCS 45 regular width boots into Canada for me to try out. With all that footbed shenanigans my size 44 narrow width boots were far to tight. The size 45 boots fit well, and I would go as far as to say my gloves now fit like my boots. Helen and I then went out to dinner at a great Thai restaurant and walked around the Winterlude celebrations before crashing to bed.

The race itself went as well as I could have hoped. The course is very wide and it was really well groomed. The start was fast, but I felt relaxed having done so many short-fast races this year. I maintained my position up front and once a couple extended climbs came I made the first couple splits. A group of about 8 skied for about 20 km before I came undone from the group. I got gapped and fought hard for about 5-6 km to get back to the group, but I just couldn't. The group had been skiing fast together though, so I was a ways up the trail from the next group. I eventually settled into my own rythme and made sure to slurp some Gu and drink water. I skied steady to the finish and moved by one other guy who came off the group - so I finished 7th. It turned out to be a screaming fast day - I was 5 minutes behind the winner, a very strong looking skier from Germany - and still skied 2:13, which when I did the math, came out to about 12:35 per 5k.

I rested up the days following that race and then did a hard race on Wednesday at the Sleepy Hollow Wednesday night series. Sam Morse, who is a biathlete with the Army National Guard, has come to a couple Wednesday nights this year (and he was at the Keski as well...getting 4th!). We skied together and had a great dual this past Wednesday night.

Then this weekend was a big couple goals for the winter. The Silver Fox Trot 10k skate race in Hanover on Saturday and the Stowe Derby on Sunday. The race in Hanover was solid. The course was skiing much faster than last year and I placed pretty similarly. It always amazes and encourages me to see how many darn fast skiers there are at the Eastern Cups. Although I was a couple places further behind where I was last year, I feel like I'm increasing in fitness right now unlike last year where I put everything I had into the eastern cup and petered out after that.

Today was the Derby and it was by far my most eventful Derby yet. It involved a restless night's sleep the night before, my first (and it was high speed) crash in the Derby, my second (high speed again) crash in the Derby, and then finally my first ever win in the Derby. I must say this, I am really starting to love the Peltonen Supra racing skate skis I have. They are always fast and today they were at times, too fast for me. The decent was powdery and 2 times I approached corners with way to much speed and caught a edge of my tip and wiped out. The first time I went off the trail and got my skis tied up in the trees and then the second time the quick release from my pole strap and handle released when I crashed and I had to scoot back up the trail to retrieve it and put it back together.

After the second crash I had to clean snow out of my sunglasses, take a deep breath, and get going again. When I did get going again I had two straight downhill stretches without super sharp turns to point the Peltonens straight and let them claw me back into the race. They did, and by the time we reached the Stowe touring center I could see in front of me the two racers from the heat after me who had caught and passed me and Marc Gilberston in the distance who was catching up to the leaders of our heat.

In the Derby its hard to know exactly how you're going to react once the climbing starts and today my body reacted well. Before I knew it I'd caught back up with Marc, and he, Jon Arne, and I skied away from the others. The three of us skied the rest of the way together until with about 1k to go I was able to accelerate and create some space between myself and them. We finished and I started praying that no skier in a later wave would ski faster. I miraculously lucked out, and no skier did, although Reid Greenburg, another Alpina skier, skied really well. Middlebury and Dartmouth also each had a skier who skied fast as well.

The best part of the Derby, by far, is talking with everybody else after its over about what this corner was like for them, or when they passed that guy or gal, or what wax they used, or how they did compared to their buddy. For such a relatively short race (19km) its got a heck of a lot of character...its like the Danny Devito of ski races....and you can quote me on that.

Forefoot Mania

As you may or may not know I've battled with all sorts of injuries...for a long time. And some "new shit" has come to light and it looks like I may, at long last, have my solution. The answer it turns out was, literally, under my nose the entire time. To fully explain...lets go back in time a little.....(insert Wayne's World "didley-oo" noises)

I came into high school and started doing "repetitive motion" sports...things like running and skiing and biking and found that I was pretty good at "repeating motions" compared to the other kids. I rose up through the VT high school ranks quickly and by the end of my sophomore year was 2nd in the state for the mile - and my first year skiing, my junior year, I advanced from falling over just looking at a pair of skis to finishing 8th overall in the state. I trained for a couple weeks that summer on a bike and got 2nd in a junior mt. bike race.

Then, something happened. At the end of the summer between my junior and senior year in high school all of a sudden I was injured. I was at a running camp in Rhode Island and one minute I was in the best shape of my life, up to that point, and doing plyo's and the next minute my calves were...for lack of a better word, ripped. That senior year in high school everything went wrong, I basically had a walking limp...I called it "leg-idous". I went from injury to injury and found that I couldn't run or ski the same way I had before.

I got into college and had to baby myself through a year and a half of running before I realized how little I could train without hurting myself...about 20-25 miles a week...with LOTS of stretching and strength training. I was running faster, finally, but only because I was keeping myself away from serious injuries by hardly running any distance at all. Why was this all I could handle...

I bombed out of school, the track team got cut, and I left to live and travel in Asia for a year.

I came back and decided to make my fame and fortune in cycling...which I had always thought would be my calling. My first couple seasons I had some pretty serious ups and downs. But, over the last couple years I've been able to become a more consistent rider. What changed was that I started using "LeWedges". Also known as cleat shims they cant the shoe at an angle in relation to the cleat. I started using them and things got better...not great, but better.

I've always sat pretty heavily to one side of the bike (basically, not squarely in the center of the seat). When I first visited Green Mountain Rehab, only a couple weeks after getting 3rd in the Burlington Crit, the computrainer revealed my power output was coming out 60% from my left leg and 40% from my right leg. And as I've done more and more miles I've realized my muscle development is not equal between my two legs...again...why? To make pedaling comfortable for me to climb I had to use 6 Lewedges on my left leg and 7 on the right.

I've gotten back into cross country ski racing over the last few winters, and this season have decided to put more into it and started the season with hopeful ambitions for both classic and skate racing. It soon became quite apparent that my classic racing was going nowhere. I simply couldn't use my legs climbing. Doing intervals in the fall with Eli, classic striding was the only thing I could keep up with him doing. Why couldn't I climb on classic skis on snow?...why?

I did a classic time trial, almost a month ago now, with some skiers from UVM and Middlebury. I raced really hard, but I got stomped. Infact, I raced so hard that I couldn't move my right leg the next day. The area around my hip flexor on my right leg had hardly any muscle there and the little muscle that was there was so strained I couldn't walk straight up stairs for a couple days. That really pissed me of. I'd been putting a lot into skiing and things were just getting worse.

Then, later that same week, like dream come true, the answer came and dropped into my hands. A guy I used to ski with in high school came into the Skirack with some new bike shoes that he'd gotten. He was having some trouble with some pressure on his foot, near where the buckle was located on the side of the shoe. I took out the insole of the shoe, to have a look inside the shoe, and a little plastic piece came bouncing out. He told me someone who helped fit him to his bicycle had put it inside of his shoes, and that it was called a "forefoot" wedge.

Over the course of that afternoon the image of that forefoot wedge stayed in my head...until, at about 4 o'clock, like a ray of light, everything clicked...and it all made sense. My forefoot needed support...basically, if my ankle is aligned with my knee then the inside of my forefoot (the ball of the foot) is raised in relation to the outside of my foot. So, when I pressure the ball of my foot - like pedaling, skiing, and running...my ankle comes in and all hell brakes loose for the muscles and joints above. Also, my forefeet needed different amounts of support. This would explain why I sat to one side of the bike, and why my muscle development was unequal. The problem (my forefoot) had been under my nose the entire time (unless I was laying down).

So, I had my problem figured out....and only 10 and a half years later! Now, it was onto the solution...It was time to fight back!

I immediately went up to get Andy from Green Mountain Rehab to get my feet molded for some custom sports orthodics, and we talked at length about what I was looking to achieve through the orthodic. Custom orthodics take time though...2 weeks to be exact...and I wanted get moving in the right direction. After 10.5 years...it was go time. I found out Specialized made forefoot wedges and ordered enough for a small army. It was time to start experimenting.

I, against Helen's best suggestion, loaded a ton of them into my cycling shoes. I pulled a mirror in front of my indoor trainer and watched how I was pedaling. My knees groaned, my tendons hissed, and my muscles lurched into motion. Everything felt so right...and so wrong. The challenge of "repetitive motion" sports is just that...you repeat motions over and over again, right or wrong, and however you do it - your body remembers. Proper motion patterns, if not done, will feel foreign. I knew it was right, but played it cool....20 minutes on the trainer here...a couple minutes there.

Things are progressing steadily now. The custom footbeds had arrived and I've just started using them. I am seeing immediate improvements in skiing and cycling, and I think I will continue to see improvements for some time as my muscles balance back out. The footbeds initially made my ski boots and cycling shoes fit snugger (vertically) and as I’ve continued to use them my feet have “relaxed” and have both lengthened and widened. My hammertoes are gradually lengthening back out…and it looks like I’m going to have to get some bigger shoes to fill. ;-)

Both Andy and Eric at Green Mt. Rehab are fantastic partners in helping me figure this stuff out. I think far to often we are tempted to either try to do something entirely by ourselves or to completely rely on others. Much more can be accomplished in collaboration though. I really enjoy working with them to improve myself and appreciate their help.

I'll keep you posted on how things are going...and hopefully the results will start doing the talking...and not the long blog posts.

The photo catch-up

This first one is of me and my new Empire Cycling teammate Clayton Barrows up at Bolton Valley, sometime around....like January 3rd or 4th or something. We are each holding hot chocolate which was courtesy of the Vermont Cross Country Ski Areas Association. Ahh...those were happy times... Anyway, Clayton and I are going to be making magic happen together in the sprints and breakaways and all over the place this year on our bikes.This is way back around Thanksgiving. Cross country skiers playing cards at a table somewhere in Canada...its been done before and it'll be done again. I was lucky enough to get to tag along with that Burke gang.
And yes, the long awaited Mt. Mansfield picture. This way I can prove we really did it. Paul, Eli and I ventured up the mountain on a half-inch mixture of ice and rocks on the first day of November. We got all the way to the top. Coming down was scary...but fun.

Internet...back in business

Upon hearing that his good friend, Lance Armstrong, lost his testicles to cancer, Chuck Norris donated one of his to Lance. With just one of Chuck's nuts, Lance was able to win the Tour de France seven times. By the way, Chuck still has two testicles; either he was able to produce a new one simply by flexing, or he had three to begin with. No one knows for sure.