Fall (literally)
Fall is the best time of year to visit Utah. I spent three weeks in Midway training for the Schutzenski rollerski biathlon races that happened at Soldier Hollow on October 13-14. You can watch my Utah recap reel on instagram here.
Three weeks is a pretty long time to prepare for one weekend of racing, but I had a good reason for it, I swear. Although I grew up just a few hours north in Wyoming where I regularly trained at 9,500 feet, I have been living at sea level for the past few years. As a result, I do not acclimate to the altitude well. I learned this lesson when I went to Casper, Wyoming last spring for USBA nationals. In an effort to combat my altitude sickness tendencies, I got out to the race venue early.
Speaking of elevation, Soldier Hollow is a race venue averaging at an elevation of 5,500 feet and is considered a desert climate. As the fall weather turns colder, all of these factors contribute to dehydration. I teamed up with nuun hydration to bring free samples to the racers to help combat this. Also, if you have ever been to this area of Utah, you know the water tastes absolutely terrible, so adding some flavor to the water helped me choke it down.
Picture Break!
I got in a lot of solo training up Snake Creek Road, Emigration Canyon, and on the range. I have been racing at Soldier Hollow since I was 8 years old, and, honestly, I was sick of it. But on this trip, I got to see and experienced a whole new side of Utah; I explored and made new memories. I have been to Utah probably 100 times and this was my first time going to the crater. For those who don’t know, the crater is a 65 feet deep, 95 degree Fahrenheit, hour glass-shapped geothermal hot spring right there in town.
Additionally, fall colors were on full blast with the most beautiful yellows, reds, oranges in the leaves and in the sunsets every night. It was also really lovely seeing familiar faces and catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while since I took majority of the last few seasons off for my foot surgery and job training. I even saw Emily, a Vermonter, out in Utah and we went to the Red Iguana for some stellar Mexican food. I am also so grateful for Joanne and Deedra for giving me a place to stay, feeding me, giving me technique lessons, and taking me to the clinic. Oh right, that part.
I bumped my head pretty dang good falling while rollerskiing. What season is it? FALL! hehe get it? I thought Fall as the season and Fall as in I literally fell would be a funny tag line. Anyway back to the story. I fell a few days before the races and the doc at the clinic confirmed it was a concussion. My first!
To be completely transparent, this was one of the scariest events I have experienced. It was scary not feeling like I had control over my body because I couldn’t stand up or walk in a straight line. It was scary when I was asked questions like “do you know your name?” and I knew the answer, but I couldn’t get the words out. It was scary when I couldn’t stop the tears from falling even though I didn’t feel the need to cry; my body just had to release it.
But the scariest part of all was sitting in the clinic waiting room and not being able to turn my neck straight. The muscles in my left shoulder seized up and pulled my head sideways to the point I could not look forward. Thankfully, nothing was broken and I got a really big shot of liquid muscle relaxers and liquid ibuprofen to release my neck. Afterwards, I got a mint chocolate chip milkshake :) I wore sunglasses inside and could not look at my phone or computer for a few days. I’m very fortunate for my LearnGrantWriting.org coworkers being understanding of my needed pause from work.
The doc said for sure take 2 days off exercising. She also said to not play video games or watch action movies which I already don’t do on the regular so I nailed those instructions. Good thing the races were 2 days after I bonked my noggin ;) It was absolutely not a good idea to race, but I just spent three weeks training hard for these exact races and I could not live with the ‘what if’ factor of not racing. ‘What if’ I did race really well and pulled off a top ten result? But, of course, I got 11th! I was hanging in there, but I fell apart and my body shut down on the final stretch. My vision got blurry, my ears plugged, and my balance was horrible. I don’t know how I didn’t fall again with how wobbly I was. All said and done, I don’t regret making the decision to race (I love an excuse to put on the candy cane suit), but I also have learned a lesson that I will never do this again. Granted, I hope I don’t get a concussion ever again.
Picture break again :)
According to the all-knowing internet, it takes 7-10 days of very easy days to recover from a boop to the head, so I started my recovery timeline after the races. The internet also said healing can be stunted at higher elevations, so I reasonably deduced that I should fly to Anchorage, Alaska, where it is sea level, for optimal recovery. I diligently took a week off with only short walks and light socialising.
As I eased back into training, I enjoyed catching up with APU teammate, Eva, for a classic rollerski around town :) Anchorage and the surrounding area uncharacteristically didn’t have snow, but it was cold enough to freeze the lakes! Got in some epic ice skating in the mountains at Rabbit Lake and even right in town at Campbell Lake.
It is no trip home to Alaska without taking the small plane for a quick flight and seeing the northern lights!
I am back in Vermont for November and now December and am looking forward to a final few weeks of training before racing again, on snow this time, in mid-December! With the first few snowfalls, we classic skied up the Stowe Mountain toll road, which may have been jumping the gun as we had to hike to the snow but well worth the adventure! Had the opportunity to visit extended family in Maine for Thanksgiving (my baby cousins Lidiya and Katya are the coolest teenagers ever). And just this week, I got in my first east coast back country adventure at Bolton Valley! Of course, more pictures below
Ski ya out there! ;)
