FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.

  • Kootenay Kramp 2012

    Yesterday three Blackjack skiers competed in the local high school running race, the Kootenay Kramp. The course, as described by LVR running coach Graema Marshall was “Gut busting and calf crushing hills, quad pounding paths, and mind testing tenacity!”. The senior course was aprox. 6.5km long with 300m elevation gain. The results can be viewed […]

  • Manuela Di Centa

    A curious report surfaced a while back that included some doping allegations around Juha Mieto and Manuela Di Centa. I can’t say that I’d ever heard any rumors about either skier in the past. As with every other post I’ve done on a skier accused of doping, this look at their results data isn’t meant to be an exercise in searching for evidence. Instead, it’s just an opportunity to go back and look at what they’ve done, so that we at least have a sense of how they actually performed.

    Mieto, of course, mostly predates my complete data. Hopefully some day I’ll finish compiling the rest of the WC results back to the late 70′s (I’ve got around 60% of them at the moment). Even Di Centa’s career is only partially covered by my data. She did a handful of WC’s in her early 20′s, but her racing seemed to really pick up in 1988, and my data doesn’t really start until 1992. Regardless, here’s what we have:

    1994 was the year she seemed to be really have “out of this world” results, relative to the field, and again to a lesser degree in 1996. Following that season, you can see her results tailed up significantly. Sandwiched in there is a seemingly “off” year in 1995. If we change our scales to finishing place, though, we see that that was an unusual season all around:

    She only did five races that season, but three of them were top 5′s at the Thunder Bay World Champs. That was long enough ago that I can’t remember what was up with her that season. But she didn’t even race at the WC’s that December that were in Italy, and I don’t see her popping up in any other FIS races either. Seems like too short a window for her to have had a baby during the off-season (though you never know, women can be pretty amazing sometimes…). Or she could have been dealing with injury or illness.

    And once again, this doesn’t really shed any light on doping accusations. It’s just an excuse to look at some results histories…

    Related posts:

    1. <The Mysteries of Andrus Veerpalu
    2. <Rybinsk: Does Anyone Care?
    3. <Most Un-Improved: Sprint 2011


  • Mountain Bike Mania at Vermont Academy

    Wednesday afternoon 5 of us headed over to V.A. to race a High School League Mountain Bike Race.  It was a really cool event and the Nordies from SMS had a blast.  It was an awesome workout with race times from 20 min(girls) to over an hour (A race).
     There were tons of  riders in the four levels of races.  A, B, C, Girls.
    Vermont Academy had a pretty technical course complete with wet, slick as snot rocks, roots, rock drops, ledge climbs, berms, whoops and jumps.
     Jack the “Mountain Goat” on the line
     The lead A riders on the start hill.  Jack in 4th.
     We know these dudes, Scott trailing Oggie Levins.  Oggie’s older brother and sisters do quite a bit of training with us.  Oggie stays busy with mountain biking and building trails in the now Famous Pine Hill Park in Rutland.
     Koby “Quadzilla” mashed his chain right off the gears in the start and was dead last after 20 seconds.
     A quick spin of the gears and back on course.

     Mr Quadzilla on his way back to the front of the race.
     K.O. tearing it up passing tons of boys during the race.
     Vermont Academy has some super rad trails right on their campus.  This section had some corkscrew berms.
     Scott with Koby in hot pursuit.  Both of them rode at the front of B race for all 3 laps.
     Jack climbing for a top 10 finish in the 4 lap A race.  This was one of the few open non single track sections.
     Scott in 3rd in front of VA rider but by the finish the VA local who was shredding the downhills was up to 2nd place!
     Girls Podium.  Katharine looking really really good in second place.
     Koby blasted the pack from last to first in the B race.  He finished among the top 10 A riders! Oggie Levins held on for third.  Scott was a few seconds back from the podium in 4th.
    Special thanks to Tamra Mooney for the photos! 

  • Video and Food

    Here is some video from the bounding on real skis yesterday:

    And here is video from the max bounding intensity yesterday afternoon:

    I described both sessions and posted my heart rate data in yesterday’s post.

    This morning I did a basic two hour skate roller ski on my own. This afternoon I went on a fun mountain bike ride, also two hours and by myself.

    This evening we had a really fun, delicious German dinner party, cooked by Monique Siegel, of Schnitzel and potatoes.

    I made a raspberry chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

     

  • Second Day on the Stelvio Glacier and Hiking to a Cave

    The group pauses at the edge of the trail looking down over Switzerland.
    The skies were sunny for our second day up above 10,000 feet on the Stelvio Glacier. An inch or two of fresh snow made the skiing slow but we couldn’t have asked for better conditions. As always, the scenery is dramatic, but we focused on skiing solidly for 1:40, stopping roughly every lap for a few minutes to refuel and hydrate.

    Elliot’s in that picture somewhere!

    On the drive down the 48 switchbacks, we spotted a cave in the mountain side and pulled the van over to check it out.

    A short hike later, we scrambled up a final pitch and entered the cave.

    We hung out for a few minutes, checked out a spider hanging from the mouth of the cave, then headed across a river to check out the glacial features left behind as the glacier retreats up its valley.

    We trundled a few rocks into the chasm, looked across at some Chamois that were cruising around on the far moraine, and collected a few pretty sweet rocks. The area is all pretty amazing, especially thinking about how recently the whole valley was filled with ice.

    Justin had driven down to Bormio to get some Ski Trab equipment, and we capped the day with some team photos with the new gear.

    Dev and Toine pose at the 28th switchback: they made it this far on mountain bikes a few years ago before being forced to turn back due to snow and rain. They claim the bike ride down was the coldest experience of their lives.

    Area 51 Tuning Club!

    Time flies up in the alpine! We drove out through Stilfs as the moon rose to the side of the Ortler. Pretty incredible as always.

  • Update From SMS T2 Member, Erika Flowers

    The SMS T2 team is about to hit the road, going to Park City and Canmore. Click here for a nice update from Erika.

  • Max Bounding

    I found a great place to do some grass skiing this morning:

    Two weeks ago in Putney was my first time grass skiing. My technique coach Zach Caldwell of Caldwell Sport wanted me to try it to work on a steep running stride in classic. The first hill I did today was a good grade for long bounding, or skimming, as we call it.

    The upper hill was too steep to run, even on grass. (I was actually slipping.) It was a good chance to practice herringbone technique (used while classic skiing on very steep terrain.)

    I was able to glide coming down.

    In total, the morning session was an hour and twenty minute run followed by ten minutes of bounding technique on skis.

    This afternoon was another “foot” session, 8-10 by a set distance of about 90 seconds uphill max bounding intervals (with shoes, not skis.)

    The session was only an hour total time but the intervals were brutal.

    I only finished 8 intervals before the quality was degrading and I stopped the workout. US Ski Team Coach Jason Cork supported the session. We have video of both the morning and afternoon sessions which I’ll post tomorrow. Here’s the data from the afternoon session. (Keep in mind the highest heart rate I’ve ever seen is 184.)

    Interval # Time Average HR (BPM) Max HR (BPM) End HR (BPM) Lactate (mmol)
    1 1:32 155 166 166
    Recover for 1:52; HR Down to 119
    2 1:29 157 172 172
    Recover for 1:51; HR Down to 123
    3 1:30 159 175 175
    Recover for 1:46; HR Down to 123
    4 1:31 161 176 176
    Recover for 2:06; HR Down to 127
    5 1:29 161 176 176
    Recover for 2:16; HR Down to 124
    6 1:28 160 176 176
    Recover for 2:21; HR Down to 126
    7 1:32 161 175 175
    Recover for 2:42; HR Down to 130
    8 1:32 160 174 174 9.6

  • The Epic Quest for Snickers

    Enjoy this.

  • Heather and Maple Pass with the Twin

     Chad took the week off from work as we gear up for our little sister’s big wedding day. We headed up to the ‘Pass’ for a quick 7.5 mile run this morning around the Heather/Maple Pass Loop.  Although the loop isn’t super long there is plenty of climbing to the top.  We prefer to go up the steep way so that we can run down the more gradual side. 

    Which twin is this?

    Heather2The Salomon Speed Cross 3 shoes have been great for all the trail running this Fall.

    heather1


  • Heather and Maple Pass with the Twin

     Chad took the week off from work as we gear up for our little sister’s big wedding day. We headed up to the ‘Pass’ for a quick 7.5 mile run this morning around the Heather/Maple Pass Loop.  Although the loop isn’t super long there is plenty of climbing to the top.  We prefer to go up the steep way so that we can run down the more gradual side. 

    Which twin is this?

    Heather2The Salomon Speed Cross 3 shoes have been great for all the trail running this Fall.

    heather1


  • Brattleboro XC Race

     This afternoon the J2 girls headed to Brattleboro for a cross country race against some of the local Marble Valley League teams.  We got to catch up with Poppet and Russell (above) and watch Russell’s junior high race before the girls hit the course for a warm up and then their own race.  Russell won the junior high race handily and, for the girls, Katharine came home with the win, Tegan was 4th, Tess & Mackenzie were in the top 15 and Alex and Pip were in the top 25.  More results coming soon!  
    Tess leads the girls around the course on their warm up.  
     Off they go!
     Tegan and Katharine ran together at the beginning of the race.
     Mackenzie, flanked by two runners from Springfield, VT.
     Tess with her game face on. 
     Alex floating along.
     Pippin running in the pack.  
     Tess climbing mid-way through one of the longest hills on the course.  
     Alex flying through the cornfields. 
     Katharine heading for the win.
     Tegan coming to the finish.
     Tess with Mackenzie in the background.
     Mackenzie.
     Alex.
     Pip.
    Mackenzie, her mom & siblings. : )  

  • Instant Video Feedback

    By Brian Gregg

    Fall training in the Methow has been fantastic. After traveling around so much the last few years in the Fall we decided to stay in one spot for as long as possible and focus simply on training.  I have always worked part-time throughout the year and the advantage of being able to come home and take a nap and get off my feet during the middle of the day has been huge.

    For a long time I have had a great deal of respect for Scott Johnston and MOD on their ability to transform and improve technique.  The last few years I have joined MOD for an ‘extra-credit’ type camp in Bend, Oregon during the spring.  This year I have made the commitment to be in the Methow for some big chunks of the Fall and Spring.

    The ‘Gaude Grade’ has become a staple in our training routine this year.  The road is really just a 270 m driveway up to the gravel pit, but it is real steep.  Not to mention it is probably the smoothest asphalt in  the valley.  As we near our racing season our strength is becoming very specific as we force ourselves to stride rather than run up the ol’ Gaude Grade.
    After warming up and a few speeds on our roller skis we head to the gym for some more traditional strength.  Our strength routine consists of Power strength with super sets immediately after.  After weighted pull ups we head outside to the ladder.
    Scott outlining Caitlin on the goal of the workout and spotting her
    Improving efficiency has been a heavy focus for both of us this last year.  Scott and I spoke after the hill climb last year at Super Tour Finals.  I finished second which we felt proved that I was fit, yet my inefficiencies on the flats kept me out of the top 10 in many of the other races.  Scott is with us in nearly every single session to provide support and feedback.  Almost every session we have involves a ‘coaching’ moment where having Scott there has led to an improvement.  Scott donates all of his time and we couldn’t thank him enough.  We review the video on the spot to make changes between intervals.
     

  • 4km Roller Test with Italian Sud Tirol Team

    On the second week of camp we had a test with the Sud Tirol Team.  Skiers from throughout the region get together several times throughout the year and it’s worked out nicely that they have visited Mals while we have been there the past three years.  This year we participated in a test that they have been doing for over 10 years — I’m still waiting on official historical results but we were told that Thomas Moriggl completed the test in about 14:30 several years ago. Our results are near the bottom.

    We had a perfect day for it — with clear skies and cool enough temps that your lungs burned a bit for the cold.  Above was the winner for the day, current Italian Junior Team Member, Malteo Tanel.  He was a very strong skier with very nice hip movement — allowing for the ski to release and glide.  (Sidenote – the matched rollers we used for the test were a carbon fiber ski, the rear wheel was quite fast and the front, ratcheted wheel, was quite a bit slower. The ski had a very nice feel and all agreed tracked better than any they had ever used. GMVS will have a pair of both of these soon if anyone wants to try them).  Malteo was also one of the nicest out there — skiing back down with some of our crew and cheering all on.

    We ran two tests so all could use the same skis and we had enough of either nnn or sns — side note there were more nnn users than sns from both sides.

    Pretty neat to see the spread of ability in the Italian groups too — makes you think we are at least on par if not pushing our kids a bit harder (in the US as a whole) — for sure our resources and opportunities for travel are much greater in many ways than the Italians.  I like this shot because that could be your average J1 anywhere in the US.

    All were a bit nervous before the start and put in solid efforts.  The test was basically 3km up solid uphill, followed by a km of false flat leading up to the finish.  Most of our gang thought the last km was the hardest.  I followed them up the climb and witnessed heavy breathing the whole way.  For our gang this was the first hard effort at altitude — prepping for SoHo in January.

    Elliot Ketchel — aka. “the rabbit” — got a little head start with the goal of, “skiing all the way to the finish without stopping.” He got to see most of the field come through and he worked hard!

    Here he is along side our friend from Switzerland, Ronato Steck.

    Italians cooling down.

    Dev.

    Rebecca Waldner.

    Elliot still smiling after 2.5km.

    Dev bringing it home.

    Coach cheering in the lucky rabbit.

    Yeah arm swing!

    Veit Agerer, Langlauf Director Sportoberschule, collecting the times from the van while the GMVS athletes compare notes.  The first stage of the Tour de Ski is being held in Santa Maria, Switzerland (the home town of Cologna and just a few km from Mals), Veit is the TD for the event and very excited for it!

    Ian Moore getting some support from Malteo as he comes to the finish.

    “I’m looking for road signs to take pictures of for my German class.”

    Results:
    9/21/12 — 4km Roller Test up Schlinig — 7 degrees and sunny
    —–
    Boys:
    1. Tanel, Malteo              16:15
    2. Peer, Lucas                  17:14  — Local Schlinig Boy
    3. Moore, Ian                   17:23  — GMVS
    4. Dethier, Evan              17:25  — GMVS
    5. Zelger, Stefen              17:33
    6. Steck, Ronato              17:46
    7. Peer, Math                   17:50
    8. Stander                         18:01
    9. Cappello, Florian         18:09
    10. St. Clair, Ryan           18:19   — Bend Nordic
    11. Hellweger                   18:20
    12. Cappello, T                18:29
    13. Shea, Devlin               18:34 — GMVS
    14. Kohl                           18:38
    15. Freund, Aaron            18:59
    16. St-Louis, Antoine / Klett tie 20:41 — Quebec Biathlon
    17. Ketchel, Elliot            24:56 — GMVS J3
    —–
    Girls:
    1. Pfeifer, Maddy             21:51 — GMVS
    2. Waldner, Rebecca        22:58
    3. Sulzanbacher, Linda    23:41

    After several years we are making great friends in Sud Tirol — very cool people and proud to share their home place with the Americans!

    Italy, Switzerland, Canada, New Hampshire …

    Words by Beckwith — photo credit Dethier (and a few by Ketchel:)

  • Scoring WC Points Is Far, Far Harder Today Than In 1983

    This post is somewhat of a teaser trailer for the sorts of things we can do once we have a complete record of major international ski results stretching back to the 70′s.

    A natural and possibly controversial question is whether the World Cup field has become more or less competitive over time.  Intuitively, I think it’s clear that it probably has.  That’s just the natural progression of any sport as it attracts more money, sponsors and participants.  The skiing community as a whole simply gets better at producing fast skiers.

    But this process can make it difficult to compare the results of today’s athletes to those of many years ago.

    In a sort of XC skiing data fantasy world, we’d like to make direct comparisons between modern skiers and historical skiers (i.e. is Petter Northug faster than Gunde Svan?).  The only real way to answer that question would involve time travel.  We can, however, make relative comparisons about the entire field.  So we can ask the following: Is the average 30th place finisher on today’s World Cup closer to or further behind the winner than the average 30th place finisher in 1984?

    To do this I grabbed some preliminary data from my big data entry project.  To keep the comparison and fair (and simple) as possible, we’re only going to look at men’s interval start classic races.  (I think it’s pretty obvious that skating comparisons are going to be problematic.)

    I happened to have all the results for World Cup races from the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 seasons, so those races will serve as our “historical” data set.  I’m assuming that all these races were classic races, which isn’t technically correct, if I have my history right.  At least a few of these races had experimental “skating zones” where people were allowed to skate for a few hundred meters at a time.  Personally, I think that’s a small enough deviation from “classic skiing” that for these purposes, we needn’t worry.

    Next, we’ll take a roughly equivalent number of modern men’s interval start classic races.  The result is around twenty historical races and twenty modern ones (from across the last several seasons, since classic interval start races are more spread out in the schedule).

    The following graph shows the average FIS points (calculated using modern rules for all races) for both groups versus finishing place:

    I was expecting the average modern skier to be closer to the winner, but I wasn’t expecting the difference to be this large or to range across the entire field like this.

    Now, World Cup point rules have changed as well.  Back in the day, only the top twenty scored points, and the point scale differed.  Still, we can make some sensible comparisons for the average 10th, 20th, etc. place finishers here.

    For interval start races, FIS points are essentially just percent back times 800.  This means that the average male 30th place finisher in the early 80′s was ~2.5% further behind the winner than today’s average male 30th place finisher.  Two and a half percent!  That’s probably almost a minute in a 15km and just over two minutes in a 30km.

    Obviously, the point here isn’t that the skiers from back in the day were slow.  Remember, we can’t say things like that because that would be a direct comparison.  It’s just that when the sport was younger, there were fewer people able to ski close to the winner.

    The way I like to think about this is to compare the World Cup circuit to a game of musical chairs. This entails reading the above graph “backwards”. Let’s start with a 30 FIS point World Cup result. If we move across horizontally from that spot on the y axis, we see that there were typically around 15 skiers in the early 80′s who were capable of finishing that close to the leader. Continuing across the graph, we can see that that number has increased to around 25 now. So you could think of that as adding 10 people to a game of musical chairs that started with 15 people and 15 chairs.

    Related posts:

    1. <Predicting FIS Points For World Cup Races
    2. <Predicting World Cup FIS Points (con’t)
    3. <Are Women’s WC Fields Really ‘Weaker’?


  • Tennis

    I had a recovery day today with only an hour run in the morning followed by some core strength. It was a gorgeous day!

    This afternoon I played tennis with Ted Ligety (Olympic Gold Medalist in Alpine). This is the second time I’ve played singles against him. Last time we played we split sets then played a tiebreak as the decider. He won it. Today we played two sets and he won both in tiebreaks. Next time maybe I can take it. I got two very bad pictures:

    And another (I apologize for the extremely poor quality.)

     

  • Fall training in Stratton

    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.

    Classic skiing 2x 25 minutes at threshold up the Stratton Mountain Access road.

    Erika and Annie, killing it.

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

    Skate sprint intensity day.

    Throwing down a speed with Andy and SMS junior Hamish.

    Team shot at the end of the workout (Flowers photo).

    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.

    Sophie and Dave Newell at the SMST2 reception.

    Myself, Skyler, and Sophie, at the SMS T2 reception.

    Pretty girls! Erika, Sophie, and Annie.

    The team. Top row, from left: Erika, Sophie, and Annie. Bottom row: Gus, me, Andy, and Skyler. Not pictured: Jessie Diggins, who is home  with family this week.

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

  • SMS T2 Reception

    Yesterday we had a reception, inviting locals to meet our SMST2 team. Our girls got gussied up and the boys took a shower and we had fun talking to ski friends about the program and our plans .
    Pictured above (L to R) are coach Gus Kaeding, Erika Flowers, Eric Packer, Sophie Caldwell, Andy Newell, Annie Hart (Dartmouth skier who is training with us for the fall) and Skyler Davis. Missing is Jessie Diggins who is visiting friends and family at home before meeting back up with the team in Park City at the end of this week.
    The team has been training very well and is about to hit the road for training camps (in Park City and Canmore, Alberta) and competitons (World Cups in Scandinavia or Super Tour races in West Yellowstone).
    Thanks to everyone who attended the reception. We hope that you enjoyed talking with the team!

  • More NH Camp Pictures

    A few more photographs from our trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire!  Koby, Jack, Hamish, and Gino get ready for the second half of the ski at the east end of the Kancamangus Hwy.
     Tess striding with a smile!
     J2 girls train, led by Tegan Thorley.  
     Mollie Hoopes, Hannah Benson (Kennett HS/Mount Washington Nordic), and Kate Kerin.
     Mollie, Hannah, & Kate.
     Pretty spectacular weekend to be in New Hampshire.
     Fall foliage!
     Gino cruising at the end of the ski.
     Jack.
     Calvin.
     Tess, Hamish, and Koby. 
     Tess.
     Katharine & Tegan.
     Scott.
     Alex & Ana.
     The whole crew! 
    Gino, Hamish, Jack, Koby, & Calvin.

  • Pizza and Pasta Party

    We fired up the pizza oven tonight.

    Jason Cork also made some outstanding homemade pasta. Here he is working on it with Jessie Diggins:

    I was the head pizza cook. I only burnt 2 of the 20 pizzas and calzones. I could do better.

    We had some great food.

    Luke Adams, whom I live with, enjoyed it:

    Lindsey Adams, Luke’s sister, and Jessie made some delicious cupcakes.

    We had a fun crew.

    From left to right: Jessie, Monique Siegel, Liz Stephen, Lindsey and Jason.

    We ended up with 13 leftover pizzas and calzones. Awesome!

    For training this morning I did 8 by 4 minute double pole intensity. Jason Cork supported the workout. This afternoon I skate roller skied for two and a half hours. Here’s some video of the morning session:

  • Training Update from the Methow Valley

    Brian and I
    Brian and I were invited to come and train with the MOD Squad earlier this spring. I was waist deep in school and work obligations so I decided that I would let Brian head to the mountains to work with Scott Johnston (the coach of MOD), Sam Naney and Maya Seckinger, while I stayed back home for the summer.. After hearing the incredible stories about training in the Methow and the positive feedback from Brian about working with Scott, I decided to venture out West after my  CXC camp in Telluride, CO to work with the MOD training group.
    Brian, Sam and I about to start training up Falls Creek Road

    I have been here working with Scott on my training and technique for almost 6 weeks. I have seen huge gains in the short time I have been here.  Working daily and so closely with such a great team and a passionate coach.  My workouts have been tailored for me, reflecting a later start to my training season, but the technique workouts have been relentless and exhausting. Scott has an incredible ability to not only identify technique shortcomings, but also communicate them to the athletes he works with, and enable the athletes to fix their inefficiencies quickly. I have always been told that my skate technique was good…Scott didn’t think so!, which is great because I am now faster simply by skiing more efficiently! We work together as a Team on almost a daily basis where each session, no matter what the workout is, emphasizes proper technique. Working so much on technique can be both mentally and physically demanding but the payoffs have been evident in my intervals times and lactates values decreasing.

    Brian working on core strength
    Double Pole Strength

    Life in the Methow is wonderful. The training here is second to none! Prior to this trip I have only been to the Methow in short bursts during the winter, where the 200K of groomed trails welcomed me before the 2010 Olympics and no doubt enabled me to qualify for them.  I returned in the spring to get MARRIED but the mountains were still covered in snow. There are countless miles of running trails on fantastic terrain and with beautiful vistas. The roller-skiing is fantastic and after 13 years in the Midwest I am loving change up of terrain. We can ski up to 3 hours all uphill and gain 5,000ft of elevation in one run.

    Brian running on the Pacific Crest Trail near Granite Pass
    Climbing my first mountain in the Pacific Northwest

    Getting Strong

    Last year Brian and I were so busy with work, clinics, lessons and CXC events that we didn’t have a weekend off from July first until we got to West Yellowstone. This year I am taking a different approach, after a jam packed summer I am taking the fall off from work and enjoying the lifestyle as a full-time elite athlete. I have been sleeping, recovering (more sleeping) and eating better than ever before and I hope to enter the season fresher and healthier because of it.

    Here is a sweet video of the terrain and trails that we train on!  The video will play on the Methow Grist website.