"Great job Kent........hard training and a good luck charm from a dear friend.....what a great combination!"
A good friend from my bicycle club sent me the aforementioned e-mail message following my completion of SISU, the 13 mile cross-country ski race held in Ironwood Michigan. There are a multitude of good reasons for exercise; you feel better, you look better, you can eat better and still manage your weight, you may live longer and it can be fun, especially with the variety of activities available at the YMCA. For me however there is one overriding reason; I want to cross-country ski faster so that I can compete with the big dogs up north. Now I am 'old dog' obviously and have no pretenses of winning or actually even placing in my age group in a ski race, but I want to belong. SISU, which is a Scandinavian term for toughness without complaining, is where the best cross-country skiers in the midwest compete. Other than a tiny smattering of competitors from out of state, I was the skier from the farthest south. Unlike all those skiers from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, snow for me to train on is a precious - and this year unavailable - commodity. Except for one day at a downhill ski area when I went up and down one hill about two dozen times, all my training had to be at the YMCA.
My finishing position for the race was 153 out of 193 competitors and my time was 2 hours and 33 minutes. Given the lack of snow to train on here in Illinois I was very pleased and all my training paid off since my time was 11 minutes faster than the previous year, which actually is almost a minute a mile faster. My training for the race had encompassed a plethora of activities but swimming a third of a mile almost daily and lots of weight room lifting were key. Karen, through personal training helped me with specific exercises to strengthen the specific muscles needed for my sport, and Kay's yoga classes helped me with breathing. Zumba and other activities helped as well.
What I learned from this race was that I was strong enough, but sadly not fit enough. We skate ski (Olympic style) and the energy requirement go off the charts, especially when we are climbing hills and there were lots of hills. Using my heart monitor, my heart rate was at 98 percent after about a minute. We began with a hill, and my heart rate never really dropped below that level unless I stopped at a rest station. After about half the race of running my heart at redline, it became exceeding difficult to skate ski up hills or even maintain a smooth rhythm on the flats because of the exhaustion. I had the muscle, but not the wind. Still it was incredibly exciting and demanding, even the downhill parts as I once hit 26 mph on one of the steepest areas. I have a GPS that measures these things.
About the good luck charm; Dr. John Harbeck, who was tragically killed this fall in a bicycle accident, had skied a similar race in Wisconsin. John was a very dear friend and his wife Shirley kindly gave me his ski sweater and his medals for finishing his race. I wore the sweater several times in Michigan and next to my heart during my race was the medal from another guy who wouldn't quit and never complained. And that is what SISU stands for.
Next: Kicking it up a notch.
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