PRESQUE ISLE – Like most of the athletes who plan to take part in the U.S. Sunday’s marathon events of the U.S. cross country ski championships, Kris Freeman plans to spend Saturday resting and loading his body with carbohydrates.

For Freeman, though, that preparation is a lot trickier and, in some ways, a lot more critical.

The 2006 Olympian has Type 1 diabetes, so preparing for long races such as Sunday’s 50-kilometer competition means calculating just how much insulin his body needs with all those carbs.

“I’m always thinking about it when I go into these races and I think because of that I actually have not had any problems this year,” said Freeman, who spent Thursday morning testing skis at the Nordic Heritage Center in preparation for today’s pursuit race. “And I’ve done a lot of longer races this year. I was 12th at the world championships, so I think I have it pretty well dialed in.

“You try to rest as much as you can, try to test your skis, but you do it as quickly as possible so you can get back to resting. You carbo-load a lot, too, try to get as much into your system so you can burn it during the race.”

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugars and starches into energy. Type 1 diabetics must inject insulin and monitor their blood sugar throughout the day. Freeman, a 26-year-old native of Andover, Mass., was diagnosed about 6 1/2 years ago. Over the years he has learned to travel and compete all over the world while managing his diabetes so that by now it has become second nature.

But the desire to prove naysayers wrong – at the time of his diagnosis, Freeman said, he was told he probably wouldn’t be able to ski again – continues to drive him.

“I definitely use that as some motivation sometimes,” he said Thursday afternoon. “But for me it was never a question. I was gonna find a way to ski. I did everything I could. I learned as much about the disease and the treatments that were available.”

Not only does Freeman continue to compete at a high level, but he has also been one of the top U.S. cross country skiers. He’s ranked 57th in the World Cup standings and 55th in the point standings for the FIS, which is the international body that governs skiing. Freeman is coming off a 19th-place finish in a World Cup pursuit at Falun, Sweden.

Freeman takes both fast-acting and long-lasting insulin, the latter of which lasts 24 hours in his body. The day before a race he has to inject himself with enough of both to account for both increased carbs that day and the sports drinks he’ll consume during the race the next day. Freeman estimated he takes in around 10 six-ounce bottles of a sports drink during a 50K race.

“Carbo-loading becomes a lot more difficult because I have to take more insulin than I would on a normal basis to accommodate those carbohydrates I put into my body,” he said. “It’s a lot of trial and error, figuring out how much insulin that is.”

In the heavy racing season, Freeman said he tests his blood sugar and injects himself with insulin up to 10 times a day.

Freeman will be among the favorites in both Friday morning’s 30K men’s pursuit and Sunday’s marathon, which will be his third 50K in the last month. He is the defending U.S. champion in the pursuit and posted that 12th-place marathon finish on March 4 at the world championships in Sapporo, Japan.

He also won two races at the 2007 national sprint cross country championships January in Houghton, Mich.

“I really don’t like sprinting very much,” he said. “I like 15Ks, 30Ks; 50Ks are all right, but they take a very long time to recover from. I’m glad this will be my last one of the year.”

Trenton-Hayward connection

Some of the athletes in Presque Isle for the U.S. championships have a curious connection to Maine they may not know about.

Some skiers are based in Hayward, Wis., which is the home of the prestigious American Birkebeiner cross country ski race. It’s also the site of the annual World Lumberjack Championships and the hometown of “Timber” Tina Scheer, who owns the Great Maine Lumberjack Show in Trenton and was a contestant on the TV show “Survivor” last year.

Diane Tremblay, a 37-year-old Hayward resident who skis for the Atomic team on the marathon circuit, said Scheer is, of course, well-known in Hayward. So is Scheer’s brother, Fred Scheer, who runs a traveling lumberjack show and is also involved with skiing in Hayward.

“Tina’s definitely a celebrity,” Tremblay said with a smile. “Tina and Fred. They’re very well known. Fred’s been very helpful to our program.”

Hayward is also the training site for the Central Cross Country ski team, for which several of the elite skiers compete.

“I went to the [lumberjack] worlds last summer to watch,” said CXC’s Laura Valaas, who won the Northern Skiers Cash Sprints women’s relay race Wednesday night. “It was awesome.”

Tina Scheer has given logrolling lessons in Trenton. It’s a popular activity in Hayward.

“We have a log that the kids roll on during summers at the lake,” Tremblay said. “It’s great training, great for quick feet and balance. To be honest, we haven’t figured it out yet. It’s not easy, but they make it look so simple. When you get on that log, it’s not easy.”

School participation impressive

Diane Tremblay brought her daughter, 12-year-old Chelsea Tremblay, with her to Presque Isle this week. Chelsea spent part of her days doing homework in the Nordic Heritage lodge but jumped into Wednesday evening’s middle school 0.75-kilometer sprint race and finished second. She also plans to do the junior 10K race today.

There were 109 finishers from Caribou, Presque Isle, Union 122 (Stockholm, New Sweden, Woodland), Fort Fairfield, Madawaska, and Ashland in the middle school races, which was an impressive number to Diane Tremblay.

“It’s amazing here,” she said. “We don’t have that many kids at our middle school state meet, probably had a tenth of that. And they told me this isn’t even the whole county! That’s tremendous.”

There were 25 skiers at a recent middle school competition in Hayward, which Tremblay said was one of the bigger groups for a meet there despite the strong cross country tradition in Hayward. The northern Wisconsin town is the location of the finish line for the American Birkebeiner. The Birkebeiner, which was held Feb. 24, typically attracts 6,500 skiers and 15,000 spectators.

Tremblay plans to report back to local organizers in Wisconsin about what she saw in Maine.

“We have a pretty strong tradition and we still don’t have the kids skiing that you do here,” said Tremblay, who finished ninth of the 48 elite women in the Birkie this year. “I’ve been asking a lot of questions here.”