How to sprint

CSU put on an awesome event with the Weston sprints. Impossibly great snow, great crowd, and everyone having a thoroughly good time. Since ALL of my athletes were otherwise engaged this weekend, I was flying solo. So I have decided to use my experience to create a little primer for sprint events that I hope will be helpful to people. Pay close attention, because I will be pouring in all of my wisdom and experience.

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Step One: Dress the part
Always wear sunglasses during a sprint. Always. Even if its at night and you all have headlamps on. It looks intimidating, and you can imagine yourself as Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Also, pushing up the sleeves is a fancy touch; nordic-casual is in this season. But don't push up the legs of your suit unless you are a girl, and even then it looks a little weird.



Step Two: Make the heats
Having done this exactly once in my life, I now consider myself fully qualified in giving advice on this. First, choose the course thats right for you. If, like me, you out-weigh the rest of the field by a good 20 pounds, try to avoid courses that make you go uphill alot. Weston's ski track is very good to me. Beyond that, ski like heck and pray to the divinity of your choice



Step Three: Play to your strengths
Or maybe I should say, play away from your weaknesses. Here you see me dropping a lung to get to the turns first. Since the high school kids are all in shape and stuff, I figured it was only fair to hog the inside lane on every turn. All's fair in love and racing.



Step Four: Stick to your gameplan
Here you see my first crucial error: I forgot to put my sunglasses down for the finals. When you deviate from your strategy, anything can happen.



Step Five: Know where the camera guy is
Anyone who was at the event knows that I was smoked on the hills and cruised in to an anti-climactic last in this heat (foiled by climbing!). However, in this, the last shot of the day, I still look in contention. Therefore, saving energy for a strong finish would have been wasted. Instead, I preserved the illusion of prowess to everyone who doesn't bother to read the results list. A partial victory, but I'll take it.




(seriously now) congrats to Chris, Nick, and Topher for well fought races, and mega thanks to CSU and Weston Ski Track for a wonderful event. Next weekend CVA is back in official training, and I promise a real post instead of more evidence that I need a life instead of a laptop.

Adam