Kris Freeman

Kris took yesterday off. I always get confused writing updates in the evening because in Japan it’s already tomorrow morning - the day of the women’s 30K. Yesterday here - the day after the 15K - Kris spent the day watching movies and ingesting zinc every way that’s been developed. He’s having a hard time shaking the most minor symptoms he can describe, but the illness is not progressing. His heart rate was elevated about five beats above normal when he skied today (yesterday there), but he still thumping along at about 34 bpm when he’s lying in bed.

Kris was relieved not to be skiing the relay today. He’s pretty sure he’d have put himself over the edge and shot any chance in the 50K if he had raced today, so it was just as well to be watching on TV. He doesn’t like admitting that anybody actually impresses him, but he conceded that Northug’s finish was very impressive.

Kris tested classic skis today with Pat Casey, and within a few strides of starting out one of his best classic skis broke right under the binding. Pat was skiing it at the time, and Kris thought Pat felt pretty bad about it. But it had nothing to do with Pat - the ski was just finished - and it’s a better thing to have happen in testing than in the middle of the 50K. Anyway, Kris is hoping this is the end of the recent run of bad luck that seems to have been following him around. He’s got plenty of good classic skis for the race.

Kris is eager for the 50K, but perhaps not as confident as he has been, simply because he can’t really tell what his health status is. He’ll know where he stands within a pretty short time after the race starts. The plan right now is to approach the race aggressively, but realistically. If he’s got bad skis or a bad body and is struggling to hang onto the pack in the early going he’ll drop out. He doesn’t take a decision like that lightly, and he’s practically incapable of dropping out of a race unless he’s already run through the possibility as a contingency. As long as he’s feeling OK he’s eager to be a factor in the race. He’s got something to prove.

Final note - how come nobody told me that I hadn’t updated the year from 2006 on all these date headers? Is anybody even reading this?