Tom Keefe Ski Life Diary

It's 11pm and I'm up packing my suitcase for the flight home from Utah. I've just spent the last week racing at soldier hollow trying to pop some good races at Nationals. At the moment I am slightly frustrated with my performance. I've got this cold that I just can't seem to kick, I've been living at 9000ft, and I've been traveling since late October.

I've basically been training since April in hopes of racing fast at nationals. Everything was going perfectly until I arrived in Utah on December 20th. I arrived in Utah early so that I could adjust to the altitude, soldier hollow sits just below 6000ft. Everything was going just how I had planned and I was feeling really good about the upcomming races. I really felt that I was going to pop at least two top 15s this year...I was ready to race. A few days before the races were about to get under way I came down with a cold. Worst timing ever! That same day I realized that the cabin we were going to stay in was up around 9000ft. 9000ft doesn't mix well with racing and trying to get over a cold at the same time. Actually, I found out that it only makes you feel worse. However, I trained hard for these races and I wasn't going to skip them...cold or no cold. So, I started the 30k, but didn't finish, didn't race the sprint, but managed to finish 37th in the 10k skate by weeks end. I was in the low twenties for Americans and only a minute from top 10 overall. I was pleased with that given the fact that I still felt like crap. nationals didn't go as planned, but there is still plenty of season left. Time to recover and get healthy again.

I'm still looking for time to recover and the week ahead doesn't look very promising. I head back to wmass tomorrow only to get off the plane and drive to sugarloaf Maine for a NENSA race on saturday. After the race I will drive back down to western mass for a day before getting back onto a plane heading to Minnesota. I will be racing in Minnesota and Wisconsin for the following three weeks before heading home on Feb. 7th. I'm hoping to find some time to rest on that road trip, but more importantly I'm looking to race well and get healthy.

Tom

Tom Keefe is a member of the Maine Winter Sports Center team currently racing on the national circuit with goals of being ranked among the top 20 skiers in the US for 2005-2006 and to be chosen for the 2010 US Olympic Team. Follow Tom's ski racing adventures this season on SkiReg.com to get an inside look at his progress to be a top ranked US skier!