From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Pre-Italy Week

Written by

Evan

XCFeeds

We’ve had an excellent week leading up to Italy, balancing a good mix of intensity, strength, agility and volume. We’ve got a new stretch of pavement to dig into: 1 mile straight up Bragg Hill. It doesn’t get much steeper than that! We crushed the 3000 meter test, with some awesome times in questionable conditions: nordic skiers need to know how to adapt to challenging situations, and we made the most of some big puddles and rain on the dirt track at Harwood.

Today was an easy distance skate with some quality time by the river afterwards. Tomorrow: Kelly Brush 100.

We’ll check in from Mals, Italy in a few days. Enjoy the pictures!

You literally can’t do this if you’re not strong enough: Bragg Hill’s rolling smooth these days.

MK’s double pole is getting stronger every day. It doesn’t hurt to be able to dig a full inch into the pavement with your poles.

Coach Beckwith: half the workouts, twice the speed.

It’s hard to believe that training could be more beautiful than it is here. We’re going to Italy to find out.

Post-3k carnage.

Dev or alive?

It’s hard to believe it’s been less than two weeks since Hurricane Irene. We’re still driving around on detours, past sand and mud-filled farm fields, over hastily repaired bridges, and next to debris-strewn river banks. We headed down to the covered bridge today, which was strong enough to withstand a buffeting from the raging Mad River.