Author: ericpacker

Remember to support US skiing and donate to the NNF Drive for 25.  All donations are quintupled by a 5-1 matching donor.  To donate at my ambassador page: http://grouprev.com/ericpacker.

We’ve had an awesome camp in Canmore with lots of high quality on snow training.  After starting the camp with several days of easy distance, this week we ratcheted up the intensity with a classic 10k TT on Monday, skate speeds on Thursday, and a classic sprint race on Friday.  It was fun to go head-to-head with the top guys from the US and Canada in all-out efforts.  I was able to find some of my strengths and weaknesses on snow, and come up with specific technical goals for the coming month.

The Canmore Nordic Center has done a great job of creating a world-class early season training venue.   With the cool temperatures and the snow guns running around the clock, the skiing got better and better all week.   It’s pretty rare to enjoy midwinter skiing conditions in October.  A big thank you goes out to the Canmore Nordic Center for making it happen!

Here are some training videos from the past week.

10k Classic TT on Monday:

Skate speed workout on Thursday:

Classic Sprint Race on Friday:

We also took some SMST2 photos in our new uniforms.

From here, the team scatters and everyone heads to their respective homes for two weeks.  Andy and Jessie then head off to Europe for the season opening World Cups, while the rest of us head to West Yellowstone and Bozeman to kick things off at the season opening Supertours.

I’m now in the Seattle-Tacoma airport on my way home to Anchorage for the first time in almost a year!  I’m looking forward toward two weeks of training at home with the Alaska Winter Stars before the season kicks off.

Thanks for reading!

We had an easy day here in Canmore, with the morning off from training and a 90 minute skate ski in the afternoon.  Erika, Sophie, Annie, Skyler and I decided to take a morning trip into Banff National Park.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

The SMST2 team arrived in Canmore, Canada to get on snow for the first time this season. The town of Canmore is a 30 minute drive from Banff National Park and is located in a valley between some of the coolest mountains on Earth.

We’ve spent the past few days skiing on the “Frozen Thunder.”  The Frozen Thunder is a 2k loop at the Canmore Nordic Center made from snow saved from last season to provide an early-season training venue.  Several inches of natural snow have fallen on top of the man-made loop, making for great skiing.  There are tons of skiers here from around North America, including most of the top World Cup skiers from the US and Canada.

We’ve been logging the hours to take advantage of the snow.  Here’s a look at the training from the past few and next few days.

Friday:  AM: Classic Distance (2 hr)    PM: run + max strength (2 hr)

Saturday: AM: Skate Distance (2.5 hr)    PM: Classic Double Pole + Run (1.5 hr)

Sunday (Recovery Day) AM: Classic Ski (1.5 hr)    PM: Stretch

Monday: AM: Classic ski w/ 10km Race (2.25 hr)    PM: run + max strength (2 hr)

Tuesday (planned): AM: OD (Over Distance) Ski (3 hr) PM: OFF

On Sunday, I had a recovery day and a short ski.  I had the chance to pull out my camera and take some shots.

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Today we had a 10km Classic TT with the USST and CXC.  I felt like I put in a solid effort.  My fitness is just starting to sharpen, and hopefully will continue to improve through the end of the season.  I don’t have any pictures, but hopefully I’ll be able to post some video from the race soon.  Results here: http://racesplitter.com/results/133D150D-78FB-43C2-AEFB-B3A8514D3904

This past Wednesday I headed down to visit Rossignol’s US headquarters in Park City.  They have an awesome setup with their showrooms, workshops, and offices all under the same roof.  I met with Rossignol’s Nordic Racing Manager Paul Clark and Rossignol’s Nordic Brand Manager Ryan Green to talk about gear for the upcoming season.   Both had just returned from product development meetings in France and were really excited about the innovations behind the new equipment this year.

Some of the biggest improvements this year are in the new boots.  Both the skate and classic boots are redesigned with new soles, and the skate boots incorporate a built in wedge for improved efficiency.  When skiing on the boots, the biggest change I’ve noticed is that the sole is thinner, putting you in closer contact with the ski for improved control and ski feel.

I’ve skied on Rossignol for the past eight years and have been really happy with the product.  I’m looking forward to testing the new skis this year!

The SMST2 team spent the last two weeks training in Park City with skiers from the USST, APU, and the Craftsbury Green Team.

Park City is located up in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains at an elevation of 7000ft.  One of the goals of this camp was to practice training and racing at altitude.  At altitude, there is less oxygen available in the air and your body has to work harder than it does at sea level to perform a given task.   It’s important to adjust your pacing at altitude to make sure you’re not training too hard.  Many of the biggest races this year are at altitude, including both US Nationals and Spring Series.   This camp was a great opportunity to practice acclimating and nail down pacing at altitude without the pressure of a big race series.

Erika’s Aunt and Uncle were very generous and let the team stay at their beautiful house just outside of Park City.  A big thank you goes out to the Baird family for the kind hospitality.

One of the most memorable workouts from the camp was a classic threshold interval session up East Canyon Road.  We started our intervals on the flats with 3x 8 minutes of double poling, and then hit the climb with 3x 6 minutes of classical striding.  I had one of those rare days where I felt invincible, and the scenery along the road was incredible.

Between all of the hard training sessions, we also tried to get out and have some fun.  On our off day, we headed out to a nearby pond and Erika taught us how to fly fish.

All in all, we had a productive camp with lots of high quality altitude training.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

After a few easy recovery days following the Lake Placid Camp, we got back at it with an intensity week here in Stratton.  We started the week out with some long intervals up the Stratton Mountain Access road, which recently got repaved making for AWESOME rollerskiing.  The workout called for 2x 25 minutes at threshold pace.

Later in the week we did skating sprint intensity workout, consisting of 14 repititions of 30″ at close to max speed.

The last few days the weather has turned really rainy.  It’s almost as if someone flicked a switch from summer to fall.  The leaves up at the mountain are at peak color.

Sunday night we hosted a reception for the SMST2 team to meet with supporters and members of the community.

This Friday the team is heading out to Park City for our next camp with the USST.  Check back for a new post then!

Every year the US Ski Team hosts a camp in Lake Placid to kick off fall training and bring together many of the best athletes from around the country.  We recently wrapped up the camp after two weeks of awesome training with the USST, Craftsbury GRP, Team Homegrown, and a strong NENSA crew.  Needless to say, the camp was a great opportunity to train with a huge crew of talented skiers.

The focus of the Lake Placid Camp is high-intensity training.  The second day of camp we kicked things off with some maximal bounding intervals up Whiteface Mountain.    This workout is one of the hardest workouts of the year – the idea is to really push yourself to the limit.  We did six 3′ intervals, starting at just below 10k race pace and making each successive interval faster and faster.  On the last interval, I hit a HR of 206 bpm with a blood lactate of 14.6 mmol/L!  It was a great reminder of what racing feels like.

Continuing the high intensity theme, we did a number of speed sessions designed to help build efficiency at top speed.  We were able to do some of our speedwork at the Olympic Jumping Complex.

While the focus of the camp was intensity, we also did a fair amount of distance training and technique work.  No matter what level you are at, it is always possible to make improvements and refinements in technique that allow you to improve efficiency and ultimately ski faster.

One of the staples of the Lake Placid camp is the climb to the Castle – a 5 mile rollerski race up the Whiteface Mountain auto road.  From the start, the road climbs non-stop, with no flats or downhills and virtually no good places to recover.

I did not have a good race – a combination of low energy, a fast start, and relatively slow rollerskis combined to make it a real struggle.   I think you can learn as much from bad races as you can from good ones, so I’m taking what I can and moving forward with what I learned.

About 30 minutes outside of Lake Placid there is a really cool spot for cliff jumping called the Flume.  We were able to stop by after some of our workouts to jump in.

All around, we had a great camp.  A big thank you goes out to all the coaches and organizers who made this camp possible.

Now that the camp is over, it’s time to recover.  One of the most important things as an athlete is to recognize when you need rest; the hard training is important, but the rest is what allows you to actually get faster.    I came out of the Placid camp feeling tired, so I took several days easy and visited some good friends in Hanover.  We even got out waterskiing at Ace Tarberry’s lakehouse.  Thanks Ace!

On September 2^nd we held our first annual Ski-A-Thon fundraiser for the SMST2 team.  The goal for the day was to ski 100 km and raise money to help pay for travel and racing expenses this upcoming season.  We started the ski about an hour east of Stratton, near Andy Newell’s house in upstate New York.

The roads in New York are incredible for rollerskiing with smooth pavement, light traffic, and awesome views.  We definitely did not pick a bad day to spend outside.

Everyone started out on classic skis in the morning.   At the halfway point (50k), part of the group switched to skating.  Skyler and I opted to classic ski the entire route.

The Ski-A-Thon was a big success.   Thank you to all the individuals and families who contributed to help make the dream a reality!

 

 

 

Welcome to my website!  It’s still under construction, but will be up and running in no time.  I’ll be adding content every day, so check back often.

Eric

Welcome to my website!  It’s still under construction, but will be up and running in no time.  I’ll be adding content every day, so check back often.

Eric