Europe
Hello everyone!!
Long time no see (or hear). Lots has happened since you last heard from me. Where to start?
I got very sick right after the Candy Cane Cup and ended up laying in bed for about 3 days. This was a massive setback for me and I'm still recovering. It took me about 2+ weeks to get back to training semi-normally and even then it was still tough. Over Christmas, I flew to the Czech Republic to spend the rest of my skiing season here. Of course, my season here started in a different way than I wanted it to. Still recovering and with no speed workouts behind me, just some measly kilometres on skis I prepared for my first race the day before New Year's (I was only participating to nominate myself for the OPA race). Thankfully the weather was so terrible and there was barely any snow that the race was canceled. Next up for me were some international races in Oberwiesenthal. I was very apprehensive about racing in Germany in the condition that I was in and generally had a lot of fears about how it would go. I obviously didn't expect anything of myself, but when I saw my results after each race (sprint, 20k, 5k) I felt more dejected than I did going into the races. It was a hard weekend of racing for me, not only physically but mainly mentally. I struggled a lot with the standards that I held myself up to and the feeling of not reaching them. After the OPA Cup in Germany, we had another race in Poland, this time a Slavic Cup. I put in a lot of training the week before in hopes of improving myself, but of course, you can't expect to fix yourself and your condition with 3 days of intense double workouts. Obviously, the race was another long one, however, this time only 15km (trust me after the 20k you'd think it was easy). The conditions were tough with new snow falling during the race. Not to mention the entirety of Poland completely disregarded any FIS rules on the banning of fluoros and were using them in plain sight of everyone because to quote "we have to use them up somewhere". Even with these setbacks, I felt better than the previous weekend, definitely not at full capacity or bursting with energy, but I'm trying to be positive about the whole experience so that I can move forward. I also think it's especially hard to find yourself or see improvement in your condition after a sickness if all you're racing is long distances, which we only have to do because someone decided that women should also get to experience the 50k at the Olympics (thanks a lot guys).
This coming weekend is another OPA Cup for me, again in Poland. I'm looking forward to the atmosphere, haven't decided if I'm excited for the races yet, but I guess I'll see where life brings me!
Keep in mind that doing a sport is hard and not everything always works out how you want it to, it's important to go with the flow, just remember that you love the sport and that you'll get back on your feet again (me to myself daily these last few weeks).
This was a semi-depressive blog post, but it serves as a reminder that there are lows in this sport and you might think you know the story behind someone's performance, but you don't.
Stay strong and enjoy the snow!!!
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