A CROSS COUNTRY SKIER | From Training to Triumph: Inside Red Bull Nordenskiöldsloppet
[Music] foreign [Music] probably the one I'm most determined to finish also that I've ever been in my life ever something doesn't necessarily means Sports it just means everything [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign please my name is Christopher yatstrom I'm born and raised in Hearts North Sweden and right now I'm living in Buda it's uh like 50 kilometers from where I was born and raised here so it's close to home but I got my own hair but I always liked cross-country skiing since I grew up but I kind of slipped out of it when I was in like sixth seventh grade in School and then I I've been doing a lot of endurance training and strength training but never cross-country the last 10 years of my life or so foreign I don't know [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] [Music] last winter I bought my first pair of double double pulling skis and now I think I found my passion in that thank you my big goal is not but I signed up for the race in June so and I think in March February March last year I decided that I was gonna sign up so it's been almost a year of training I think it was really prepared physically but mentally I didn't really know what to expect since I I haven't done any real races I've done one in 2017 but I wasn't I wasn't nearly as preparedness now and yeah well I think I I didn't put So High Hopes in myself that I should have So I placed myself a little further back in the starting field at the beginning which made me I had to get past a lot of skiers to get to where I was supposed to be because you kind of find that really fast food is a pace and who's not so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] with uh nice race a lot of snow tough conditions and I I think I I managed to do that race as well as I could [Music] most definitely it was the starting position don't Place yourself in in the back because then you have to ski you have to put a lot of effort to go ahead to the front or maybe not the front but further from where you were at the beginning I could see after one hour my heart rate started dropping from like 185 I could top at 185 and then after two two laps one hour around one hour uh it started dropping so I couldn't even get to that beats per minute so that was uh obviously because I didn't eat as much energy as I should so I just the second race I just uh I ate energy all the time and I didn't let myself think about it really because when you start the things like do I need it do I not need it when you feel you need it it's too late it's uh 220 kilometers and this was only 40. I am it's the eat a lot of energy that's what I'm taking with me and uh focus on what you're doing yourself don't look at the others and yeah yeah focus on your own race and try to do as best as possible yeah [Music] I think anyone who wants to become a good cross-country skier can become one but you have to want you have to really put in the hours [Music] I haven't nearly put in the hours that I could I could definitely put in more to get better [Music] but I think anyone can really especially double polling since it's just double polling foreign just wax your skis and go out and you don't have to think about yeah you have to think about technique but it's uh it's just easy you can just go out and there's go hard every time if you want to that's what I like [Music] thank you [Music] it's not fair yeah I try to mix my training up a little bit in the summer since I have a dog I run a lot maybe it's not the best for skiing but I love running in the summer a lot of strength training a lot of the double polling and a lot of running and just three types of sports I train I love to put myself in positions that I'm not comfortable in and yeah that I have to work really hard and this one is look at this one I have to work really hard for but I think 15 hours and top 50 percent that's what I'm hoping for I don't want to put the bar too high either since uh it will it could ruin the feeling of the race I just want to push myself see how far I can push to just see how far I can push myself yeah I think it's something that I've never experienced I've tried running for a long time but I think this will be different maybe maybe the experience in when I finish the race will be the same but I think it will feel different along the way I can't explain how but I think just think so [Music] um [Music] it's important to to race against yourself I'm not as good as the one winning so I can't really compare myself to the to the one who's winning but I can compare myself to to myself last year which is a good motivator [Music] everything I've been building this up in my mind for the last years but it's never like you expected it to be even if you picture yourself crossing the finish line and doing everything as you think or as you thought you would do it it's a [Music] yeah it's hard to just tell exactly why it's different it's a oh yeah I don't I don't really know it's uh it's hard to tell it's just something that you have to do to experience the race was supposed to be 200 120 kilometers but due to last two three weeks of warm weather I think that they had to to change the course the original course was supposed to be on a lot of water and now due to the warm weather it was not possible [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] so that is foreign [Music] [Music] everybody felt like it was so many people in the beginning and it was just only one track uh it was special because usually it's a lot of tracks especially in the beginning but Harry was one long line of skiers [Music] [Music] it was pretty slow in the beginning I just had to remember that I think it's just supposed to go slow it's so many hours ahead so so many kilometers that yeah just take it easy I had to like pinch myself sometimes just take it easy and look at the look at the clock and see my heart rate and just go go with the heart rate rather than how I felt because I just wanted to keep keep my heart rate low and I think I stuck to the game plan and we got to the first checkpoint everything felt great I had there was a lot of skiers around me we were one big group and we got to do a lot of Open Fields and some Lakes the snow was great and the Sun was shining it was like perfect conditions and it was supposed to be windy I thought but in the forest it was not that window so I kept away from the wind it was which was great [Music] then when we left then the weather got a little bit worse it came some snow and just before the turning point at Seoul Gildan it was a big climb maybe 150 meters then we had to go down like 150 meters or something I knew this is supposed to be a climb in like 10 to 15 minutes which it was hard I think it was mentally there it's so important with the energy to just keep on fueling the body all the time and especially when you don't think you need it you need it when it's this far you need to really listen to what science says not what the body says when you're doing it just uh keep on eating keep on fueling so my body was starting to feel pretty tired and I remember going around 180 degrees turn and I just went up the hill again and up the hill it was both mental and physical of course but the best thing is that when you're up at the top you get to go down again and then it was the worst climb of the race was done [Music] the wind was something I never experienced with the cross-country skiing at least and it was really tough going in the snow feels like skiing on glue when the snow is windy it was hard both mentally and physically and but I kept on thinking like this is hard for everyone everyone is suffering [Applause] thank you it was really tough like said to my girlfriend that I I need to eat I need to eat because I'm not going to make this otherwise so I just add some candy I had some chocolate milk I had gel I had Red Bull I had the sport drink I had everything I had some bars and then like 10 minutes after I left turkey out it was like it was the feeling was like the same as in the beginning almost like I just bumped back and felt great and the tracks were great it was icy and they were fast and I felt great so it was never really that hard the last bit foreign Finish Line my girlfriend got there to meet me in the tracks and it felt nice because now then I knew that it can't be that far and she said like it it's five kilometers left you just have to keep on going and I thought it can't be five kilometers yet and then I saw you had to go around the lake so when you see the Finish Line it's still like three kilometers to go that was mentally tough yeah but I felt strong and I felt like now it's not that far what was waiting for you at the Finish Line I think it's uh uh relief I hope it's relief that I'm that I was able to do it and that I was able to put myself through the training that it had to that had to be done and uh I think there's a lot of uh I hope it's a lot of people that I want to see there will be there at the finish line and greet me when I'm that's what I'm looking forward to most yeah people that I that I know that I love [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
2023-05-30 02:31
